Post tour to Denali

After the ship docked at Seward AK, we were met by our guide, Betsi, and driver, Debi. About 40 of us were driven to Anchorage then up to Talkeetna Lodge which was beautiful and had a glorious view of Denali. Only about 5% of visitors get to see the whole Alaskan Range, including the highest point Denali. It's usually cloudy and/or rainy. We had a beautiful view of the whole range for 3 days! Saturday we drove the rest of the way up to Denali Nature Park and Preserve. We had a guided tour of the park and saw lots of animals including a grizzly bear, caribou, and moose. We stayed at Denali Village which was rustic but very nice. Sunday morning, Sim and I took an excursion to Jeff King's Husky Homestead. Jeff is a 4-time champion of the Iditarod race. He competes annually in March and almost always finishes in the top 10. It takes about 8 days to race the dogs from Anchorage to Nome. We got to hold puppies and heard a lively presentation about how to breed and raise the Alaskan Huskies to race. In the afternoon we drove back to Talkeetna and boarded the Wilderness Express train bound for Anchorage. It was a very nice train and we had our car to ourselves with observation seating above and dining below. John and Carol flew back Monday morning and we flew back Monday night. While in Anchorage, I met with Moody's first cousin once removed, Betsy Hallam, who lives in Anchorage. The weather for the entire tour was absolutely beautiful! I gather we were very lucky.

We had a young Alaskan native give us a talk in Denali about her culture but this was her first attempt and not informative.  So here's something from the Internet. "Alaska's indigenous people, who are jointly called Alaska Natives, can be divided into five major groupings: Aleuts, Northern Eskimos (Inupiat), Southern Eskimos (Yuit), Interior Indians (Athabascans) and Southeast Coastal Indians (Tlingit and Haida)."  We saw many totems from the Tlingit tribe which had several clans. A member of one clan may not marry from his own clan, but any girl from another clan. We saw dancing and singing from some Tlingit members at Icy Strait Point. That is also where we saw many whales in the waters surrounding the ship. I was very intrigued by their art. Alaskan native DNA indicates that they came across from Russia with much in common with Asian DNA.

Native art rendition of a frog

Reindeer at an animal rescue place near Anchorage

Denali

Cathy and Sim in front of spectacular view of Denali from Talkeetna Lodge

Another view of Denali from the park

Glacier streams in Denali Park

Cheesecake in a mason jar at Denali Village

Alaskan Husky pup with Cathy and Sim

Alaskan Wilderness train for our return to Anchorage

Alaskan Wilderness train

Our observation car on the Alaskan Wilderness Express

John, Sim, and Carol on the train

My roast beef dinner on the train

Betsy Hallam Colson (ML's second cousin - they have a common great grandfather -A. Moody Burt, MD and great grandmother- Frances Wade Brown)

"Dangerous Roll" in Anchorage (Looks a bit like the "Tingler"!)

Alaskan Cruise

Sim and I with John and Carol cruised up the inner passage from Vancouver, BC to Seward, AK. It was a 7-night cruise with stops in Ketchikan, Icey Strait Point, Juneau, and Skagway. We saw 2 glaciers, whales, bald eagles, and native Alaskans. I met my very first Eskimo! We ate a lot of good food on board the Celebreity Millenium. We went canoeing on a lake near Ketchikan; hiking on a trail to the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau; took a narrow gauge train in Skagway to British Columbia, and visited the Hubbard Glacier. On the ship we sat in the hot tub, played trivia, saw shows, and did some dancing. I also had a very nice massage on the first sea day. The views from the ship of the sunsets/sunrise were glorious. They lasted for hours! The sun set very late and rose very early, but it never got dark, just a few hours of twilight. I would look out the window multiple times during the night to admire the beautiful twilight/dawn scene.  We were on the right side of the ship so it often faced north.  The sun rose in the northeast and set in the northwest.

Much of the inside passage in Alaska is a rain forest. The Pacific temperate rain forests eco-region which occurs on west-facing coastal mountains along the NW Pacific coast is the largest temperate rain forest on the planet. Rain coming from the Pacific falls before it gets over the mountains keeping the ground very wet.  The tree canopy obscures most of the sunlight.  Because the soil is so close to bedrock, trees grow on nursery stumps with shallow roots.  When the stump eventually decays, it leaves an open space under the new tree's roots for hibernation.  So bears like it there.  There are plants that also grow there to help the bear's digestive system when he hibernates, and gets it going again when he wakes up.  It's very handy. We had a lovely hike through the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. We also learned that the Alaska state flower is the Forget-me-knot, the state bird is the bald eagle, and the state tree is the Sitka Spruce.

As far as ship food went--I preferred eating the sushi for lunch on our sea days rather than eating in the dining room, but it did cost for each roll I ordered ($10).  The main dining room was very careful about fixing meals to suit John's taste.  The main chef or his sous chef came every night to our table to discuss the next day's meals.  The buffet on the 10th floor was not good. It was always open but I never wanted to eat there. It did bug me that you had to purchase bottles of water.  They wanted a fortune for WiFi service so we didn't have any on the ship. Our TV never worked properly. They never gave us any info about ports of call other than what excursions you could purchase (which were all $$$). So I would not choose to go on Celebrity again.  I guess I have been spoiled by Viking and Cunard.

Sunset at sea

Salmon roll  with avocado at the Sushi on Five restaurant

Tlingit Thunderbird Totem: The thunderbird makes thunder by flapping his wings and lightening by flashing his eyes!

Gathering house for the Alaskan Native clan

Totem Poles were carved from Sitka Spruce which is very hard.  They were often columns supporting a roof.

Totem in Ketchikan

Our canoe ride on the lake in Ketchican

A plate of appetizers was left in our cabin every day at 3:30pm

Salmon Carpaccio on the main dining room

Sun on the silver sea

Our ship at Icey Strait Point with Sim, Carol, and John

Huge Dandelions

Mendenhall Glacier - getting smaller every year

Rain forest hike in Tongass National Forest

A study in teal at sunset

View from narrow gauge railroad back to Skagway

View from train in Canada

Train turning around to return to Skagway

Skagway

Dinner in the main dining room

Prosciutto and melon appetizer in main dining room

Sunset from our veranda

3 fish (tuna, salmon, and yellowtail) with roe at Sushi on Five

Hubbard Glacier

Vancouver

We had a day and a half in Vancouver before starting our cruise through Alaska. We visited Dr. Sun Yet-Sen garden which is like the garden house we saw in China. They were redoing all the ponds so it wasn't as pretty as it should be. Thursday John, Carol, Sim and I walked about 10 miles along the water to and thru Stanley Park and then back to the hotel. We saw totem poles, gardens, scenes of snow-capped mountains and lots of folks walking and biking.  We ate at a wonderful Japanese restaurant for lunch (Kingyo), a great breakfast place (Medina Cafe) and terrific Indian restaurant for dinner (Salam Bombay). There are lots of ethnic restaurants in this town! We went into the Anglican cathedral and viewed a fiber arts exhibit. After dinner we went down to Canada Place to see the lights. We embark our Celebrity cruise there tomorrow.  Our weather in Vancouver may have been especially nice but it was very lovely.  I would like to return there some day.

Chinatown Gate

Terrace surface at Dr. Sun Yet-Sen House

Year of the Rooster

Breakfast at Medina Cafe (I had waffles the next day)

Selfie at Canada Place

Totem Pole in Stanley Park

Totem Pole at Stanley Park

Lunch at Kingyo -SASHIMI BOWL(KAISEN-DON) 
5 KINDS OF SASHIMI & SALMON CAVIAR, TOBIKO ON THE BOWL OF RICE. SERVED WITH DAIKON & KAIWARE RADISH, GINGER, SEEWEED & SOY BASED GINGER SAUCE.

Dessert at Kingyo - Black Sesame Seed flan

Fiber art show

Cocktail time at Salam Bombay

3 kinds of chocolate mousse at Salam Bombay

Canada Place (international port)

Easter in Fairfax

Spent 4 days with ML, R and the boys. Enjoyed being with my family! Pics below. ML and I had dim sum followed by facials. We dyed Easter eggs, went to the kiddie Easter egg hunt in Fairfax, visited a prospective preschool, and had some amazing meals cooked by R. Arlo and I had a lot of play time. I got to feed Lyle a lot of meals. He is an excellent eater. I'm going to miss everyone!

Bible Study on Revelation

On Monday mornings in March, I attended a 4-lecture series of the last book of the New Testament (Book of “Revelation”) given by Professor Mickey Efird who is an Emeritus Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Duke Divinity School.  I have attended several of his lectures in the Fall and Spring here at Fearrington Village and found them very informational.  I was very interested to hear him talk about “Revelation” as he has written several popular books about the subject.  Prof. Efird is a Presbyterian minister who believes that God is all powerful.  My notes from the lectures can be found at this link.

I frequently hear references to verses from "Revelation" but I never really understood them. It just seemed like a bunch of mystical symbolism and obscure references. The lectures began with an explanation of apocalyptic thought and literature popular from 200 BC - 100 AD in both Hebrew and Christian writings.  Prof. Efird explained the symbols of various numbers, colors, and animals used in the imagery contained in the visions to John of Patmos. He put the writings in historical context for the messages the author wants to communicate. Prof. Efird then read through various chapters and verses and explained the imagery and what it probably means.  He also explained how other people interpret the visions and what it may mean for us today.

The target audience for "Revelation" is first century Christians in the Roman province of Asia.  Having visited Ephesus last year, it was very interesting to hear about the Christians' struggle there under the persecution of the Roman Emperor Domitian.  "Revelation" tries to bring hope to those struggling Christians who suffer economic persecution for not bending the knee to Roman gods. The use of imagery provides dramatic effects for the belief that Good will eventually conquer Evil.  I do wonder what the prophet John was smoking or snorting on the Isle of Patmos.  It would be very difficult to make up all this content.

In addition to learning how to interpret the Book of Revelation, I learned many new words such as.. Parousia, Dispensationalism, Eschatology, and Darbyism.  I learned where Christian Fundamentalism was born. I learned that the New Testament is not presented in the chronological order in which the various books were written.  Unfortunately, my notes cannot show the humor with which the lectures were given.  I only wrote down what I had not known before. Please check out the link above to see my notes if you are interested.

Prof. JM Efird

Trip to NYC

Pfizer asked me to come to NYC for some quality control on their analysis using the datasets I used to create when I worked at NCHS.  I flew up on March 16 and returned home March 17. They were so nice and sent limos to take me to and from airports.  Both my hotel room and return airplane seat were upgraded to a suite and first-class, respectively.  So I had an extra bedroom and a kitchen in my hotel and ginger ale in a real glass on the airplane!

I enjoyed visiting with Sim's friends Bobbi and Mickey at a trés lush French bistro across from Lincoln Center.  I had duck paté, saffron risotto, and chocolate souffle with pistachio creme.  It was so tasty and so much fun to catch up with my new friends.

Before I returned to LGA, my client and I went to lunch at Sakagura Japanese Restaurant located in a basement on E 43rd Street.  It was so yummy!!!!  I had a bowl (donburi) of sushi rice topped with tuna and salmon sashimi and salmon roe (there's a picture on that link of sake ikura don).  The rice had little strips of crispy nori mixed with it.  So it was like sushi but not formed into cute little rolls.  It came with a miso soup that was the best tasting miso I have ever had.  For dessert, we shared a Black Sesame ice cream.  This was just vanilla ice cream with swirls of a paste made of black sesame seeds.  It was served with a little round flat brittle made of sugar and sesame seeds.  I highly recommend this to anyone going to NYC, but must warn you it gets crowded so reservations are a good idea.  You also have to walk down 2 flights of stairs to get from the street to the basement.  I don't recall an elevator but they must have one.  I expect if Pfizer asks me to return, I will agree, if only to have a chance to eat here again.

Around the yard today