Monday Meandering - 07.21.2014

It is always nice to have a neighbor who looks out for you. One who might, say, call you late at night and say, "I was out walking the dog and noticed that your garage door was still up." Or who might call and say, "I don't think you are aware that a large limb broke off from your tree out front - and it's blocking the street!"

No. As a matter of fact, I didn't see the limb. And it was blocking the street big time. Actually, I had heard a noise like fire crackers earlier and got up to look out the window, but I looked the wrong direction and didn't notice the ginormous limb the other direction.

Barb and I got out with our teeny chainsaw and got the branches out of the street, but I called a tree company for the heavy lifting - the big branch visible in the middle left of the picture. No wind, just heavy with pecans.

Something new at the Learning Ally studio this week. Instead of taking a printed book into the recording booth, they gave me a tablet with a PDF version of a book on it. Somewhat like reading from a Kindle, but without the ability to touch a word to look up the pronunciation and definition. A number of publishers are adopting this technology, rather than sending out a pair of expensive print books.

Enjoyed a brief interval of Springtime in mid-July. So far, only one triple digit day this summer, but August is coming. We are not deceived.

Saw a sign on a lawn service truck this week that advertised the name of the company as "Kickin' Grass." And in smaller type it stated, "We do earthy things."

Alaska - Skagway, gateway to gold - Stories from the cruise

During the night, the Golden Princess slipped back down the Lynn Canal and headed north, navigating some 93 nautical miles up the Taiya Inlet to Skagway (just above the "12" marker on the map). We came here, among other reasons, to ride a train.

Skagway has a long history of visitors just passing through. For centuries a sleepy Tlingit Indian fishing village, the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory in 1896 changed everything. On July 29, 1897, the steamer Queen docked with the first boat load of prospectors and soon other ships brought tens of thousands of hopeful miners into the new town to prepare for the 500-mile journey to the gold fields in Canada.

Not everyone headed to the gold fields however; many realized how difficult the trek ahead would be and chose to stay behind to supply goods and services to miners - known as "mining the miners." Within weeks, stores, saloons, and offices lined the muddy streets. By June 1898, with a "permanent" population nearing 10,000, approximately 1,000 prospective miners a week passed through town. Skagway became the largest city in Alaska at the time.

The most heavily-traveled routes by "stampeders" to the gold fields in Dawson City were two treacherous passages from the port of Skagway and nearby village of Dyea across the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains to the Canadian border; one by way of the Chilkoot Pass and the other over the White Pass.

At the border, the Canadian North West Mounted Police would not allow prospectors to enter unless they had one ton of supplies. And not just any supplies - there was a very lengthy and very specific list that included, for instance, how much rope, how many blankets, how many picks and shovels and even how much soap to bring into the promised land! This usually required several trips across the passes. 

With an obvious need for better transportation than pack horses used over the White Pass or human portage over the Chilkoot Pass, the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railway - the WP&YR - was constructed as a means of reaching the gold fields. It was a prodigious engineering feat, costing $10 million 1890 dollars. At one point, 35,000 men were employed in its construction. It was completed in 1900, just as the gold fever was ending.

 Hauling freight and ore kept the line in business, in one form or another, until 1982, when it finally shut down. And then the cruise ships showed up in the Taiya Inlet. Today, the WP&YR is thriving as a "Heritage" rail line, carrying over 390,000 passengers during the 2012 May to September tourism season.

As you can see, that old wooden trestle is still in use, a fact that did not please a certain tourist on this excursion.

Today, diesel locomotives pull vintage parlor cars on the line ( a steam engine is available for charter). The most popular route is a 20-mile excursion up the Skagway River Valley to the White Pass, rising some 3,000 feet in the process. At times the grade is nearly 4%, and the hair-pin curves hug the twisting, turning route blasted out of solid rock, or cross the canon on narrow trestles..

 The gold and the miners are long gone, and the current population of Skagway is 920 hardy souls. The visitors, however, are still coming. More than 900,000 people visit Skagway each summer, coming, as we did, on the cruise ships that dock daily. Today's economy is based solely on "mining the tourists."

Next destination: Glacier Bay National Park.

Monday Meanderings - 7.14.2012

The Pres was in town this past week. For some reason, he really loves to come to Austin. I'm not sure that all Austinites return the love. Not only does everything come to a screeching halt while he's here - the airport, the city streets, the downtown sector around his hotel - it cost upwards of a quarter of a million dollars of Austin taxpayer dollars to manage everything. And no, the Feds don't reimburse.

He did have his priorities straight; after his speaking event he stopped at Franklin's for some barbecue. For those of you who don't keep up with the art of burning meat, Franklin's is considered the barbecue Holy Grail; the wait in line is usually 3 or 4 hours.

The Pres, however, jumped to the front of the line. Aaron Franklin wasn't happy about that. He's been known to evict people who try to cut in line. But it's a little hard to tell the Pres no, what with all the armed dudes surrounding him. Obama did pay for the meals of some of the folks he jumped ahead of, and dropped another $300 for "enough barbecue to feed a small village," according to Franklin. Which  meant that there were a bunch of folks at the end of the line who went without.

I planted a flowering shrub out back on Thursday. I was able to walk again by Sunday. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

I mentioned the VBS theme at Skyview Baptist was "Weird Animals."  Last week I saw another church advertising the same theme. Much to my surprise, "Weird Animals" is a published curriculum, not some misguided committee's brainstorm. Who knew?

Well, the World Cup is over. Sixty-four games, ranging from ridiculous to sublime. Most thought Brazil and Spain would be in the finals. Multiple-times World Champion Spain didn't even get to the knock-out round. Heavily favored Brazil lost back-to-back games by a margin of 10 goals to 1. Brazil had not lost 2 games in a row since 1937!

Watched Brazil and Netherlands in the consolation game Saturday and remembered that we saw these same two sides live in Dallas 20 years ago. Brazil won that game, and the Cup. But that was then.

And the final was an excellent game; the Germans were probably the best team in the tournament and got a pretty win. Now we have to wait for the Women's World Cup next summer. However, only 47 days to UT Football kickoff. You know, the other football, where they use their hands.

Reached 100 degrees yesterday, the first triple digit reading of the summer. Actually, we have done quiet well, temperature-wise, but can't help but think about how nice it was in Alaska!

Alaska; first stop Juneau - Stories from the cruise

When you look at a map of Alaska, you see an enormous land mass top center that accounts for most of the 586,412 square miles in the state. There's a long line of some 300 islands, the Aleutians, that extend 1,200 miles to the west, and a narrow band of coastline and coastal islands that descend southeastward, interposed between the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean and the northern edge of British Columbia, Canada. This last area is known as the Inner Passage, and that's the Alaska we visited, as have many thousands of others.

Alaska was surprisingly warm for early June; here's the temperature from the daily shipboard update. Pretty humid, too.

In fact, the weather was wonderful for the most part. We did need jackets from time-to-time, especially when we were on the exposed areas of the deck in the wind, but often, we enjoyed shirt-sleeve temperatures and low humidity.

Our first port of call was Juneau, the state capital, and the only U.S. capital city with no automotive access.

 Every brick, every automobile, every tour bus, every manufactured item, every drop of gasoline comes to Juneau by way of airplane or boat (surprisingly, gasoline was only $4.15 a gallon). By area, it is the 2nd largest city in the US, almost as large as Rhode Island and Delaware combined, but with a population of fewer than 33,000 citizens. The eastern city limit is the Canadian border!

Our excursion from the cruise ship in Juneau was a combined visit to the Mendenhall Glacier and later whale watching. The glacier is a scant 12 miles from downtown, and certain versions of the tour allow you to set foot on the glacier. Our tour was limited to a view from the visitor center, and the exhibits of the center itself.

Unfortunately, our first excursion was almost our last. The ship was two hours late docking in Juneau, due to rough seas (I mentioned that in an earlier post), and the excursion schedules were a mess. Word from the bridge was that we would be informed about the new schedule, but after docking, no word came. We finally set out to find out for ourselves and learned that we should go ashore and find our tour. Let's just say that this was not Princess Cruise Lines finest moment (the revised schedules were waiting for us when we returned). We did finally find our tour and set off by bus to the glacier.

By this time, it was raining steadily, one of only two occasions the entire trip. Our bus driver dropped us off at the visitor center and told us she would pick us up at that same spot in an hour. This was significantly shorter than the time set out in the tour description, but when we realized that about 10 times the number of people you could comfortably fit in the visitor's center were in fact, already in the center, time became unimportant.

So, in the rain, after viewing the glacier, and a brief visit to the center, we trudged back to our drop-off point to re-board the bus, only to run afoul of bureaucracy at its best. A park ranger vehemently denied us access to the pick-up point, pointing instead at the front of the queue of 20 or so tour buses, insisting - nay, demanding - that we should not pass. From our distant viewpoint, we could not see our bus number, but time was passing. Finally, our driver came and found us and we boarded the bus in shame, as the other 48 passengers had had obviously been un-cowed by the park ranger traffic-Nazi, and had been waiting patiently for us.

On to whale watching. The company that fulfills the whale-watching excursion prominently touts that they will hand you $100 cash when you disembark if no whales are seen during the 3-hour trip. They have never paid off. During the summers, thousands of Humpbacks and Orcas return to the waters of Alaska to feed and fatten up for their long migration to warmer climates like Hawaii.and Mexico for breeding. Biologists count a consistent population of about 65 whales in Auke Bay, where we were.

We encountered our first Humpback within minutes, and saw probably half-a-dozen during the cruise. They were "lunge feeding." leaping partially out of the water to scoop up the krill and sea-life that they feed on. Unfortunately, seeing and photographing are two different things. The rain had stopped by this time and we were back in shirtsleeves, checking out Humpbacks, Steller Sea Lions, and an extended observation of a pair of bald eagles feeding. And we had no problems with the bus ride back to the ship.

Next port: Skagway.

Monday Meandering - 7.7.2014

Technology is encroaching into our everyday lives. Yesterday we stopped at a Chili's for lunch, and on every table was a little battery operated interactive terminal. Sort of like your cell phone, it was there to entertain you with games and news, and the daily specials, of course.

But do you see the little bulge on the right-hand side? That's the credit card reader. When we got ready to leave, we tapped the screen appropriately and our check came up in detail, with instructions to swipe a card. I did, and a screen appeared to facilitate the tipping process (it will even split the check, if you need to do so). Once the tip is figured in, you have multiple receipt choices, including a printed slip that feeds out below the screen.

Though it may soon, the Chili's device does not take your order, unlike the kiosks being installed at Panera's.

Order, pay, and take the pager to your table. The table is already wired to tell the staff where you are sitting, and the folks who previously took orders now deliver your food. So far, our Panera's only has "smart tables" and no kiosks, but they are coming.

Technology-assisted menus are not so very new, though. Nearly fifty years ago, the Towne Crier Steakhouse opened on Highway 80 in Abilene, featuring an electrical menu board. There was a limited selection of steaks offered, and at the beginning of the the buffet-style line, you picked your meal by pushing buttons beside your choice of steak, indicating to the cooks with lighted buttons what you ordered and how it was to be cooked. The restaurant is still there. I am told the menu board, however, is no longer operational.

On the subject of dining, while we were in California we went to one of those Japanese-style restaurants where the chef slices and dices and cooks your meal at your table.

It's a pretty stylized eating experience; first the chef astounds us with his ability to twirl sharp knives, tongs and spatulas, then he proceeds to cook the meal, one course at a time, on the hot cooking surface that we are seated around. Somewhere along the way, each table gets to enjoy, and I use that term loosely, the flaming onion volcano.

Our chef was pretty conservative with his pyrotechnics; the dude at the adjacent table decided to test the fire-suppression system.

I heard the next morning that there was a wildfire in our area. I'm pretty sure it was caused sparks from a flaming onion volcano. Order that on your kiosk!