Summer Progress 2017

Da girls and I started driving up on July 20 after my jury duty requirement. We spent the first night with the Perkinsons in Greenbelt MD where we enjoyed being with Mary Marshall and Richard for dinner at Mary Lew's. After placing flowers on Moody and Mary Lew's markers at St.  A's we headed home and got up early to drive all the way to Lake Sunapee NH. It took all day but we got there. Da girls were so happy to play with Maddy. The next day I drove back to VT to attend the VLOG concert at Mt Snow. I spent the night talking with Ned and Royal. Sunday evening most folks had left and a few of us went for Chinese food before the restaurant closes for good. Monday I returned to Lake Sunapee.

Jeff came up for a week and had great fun chopping down trees that interfered with his panorama. After he left some of Patti's friends came up for a week. There was lots of shopping as we gave them the highlights tour of Hannover, VT, and Lebanon. It ended with the craft fair at the mountain. After Clara and her sister left, my friend and former neighbor, Mary, spent one night with us so we could go to the fair and out to dinner.  The next day we made greeting cards before she had to return to VT.

Later that week my brother, John, and his wife, Carol, drove up from NJ on their way to folk dance week in Maine. Sim flew up the next day and the four of us drove to Brookfield VT for one last meal at Ariel's. Sim's daughter, Lee, and her husband are selling the restaurant and moving to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in the Fall to start a BnB business. Sim and I stayed a few more days to see all his children and grandchildren. We returned to NH to take Zoe  and Zelda to the Vets. Each has her own problems but neither is much better after 5 days. Now they keep throwing up their food!

Jeff and Charlie come tomorrow night for a nice visit. We are hosting a cocktail party Wednesday evening before we leave the next day to drive home. We stop one night in PA to visit Sue and Steve and then one night in VA Beach were we will visit the Bileks. We hope to drive home Saturday night. 

I have enjoyed many theatrical productions while on my progress including 2 operas (Madame Butterfly and La Belle Helene), 2 musicals (West Side Story and All Shook Up), and a Broadway tunes concert, and a film (Dunkirk). We went out to eat lots including the Flying Goose, Suna, 74 Maine, Lou's, Ariel's, etc. Ned and Royal are coming by this week before we leave for lunch.

I read several engaging books including "The Red Tent" and the "King's Curse". The final monograph read was written about shtetl life written by Sim's father, who emigrated from the Ukraine in 1924. It's like watching Fiddler on the Roof without the music.

Most days I read while Patti sews and then she takes the dogs to the lake. I rock on the screen porch. We watched some Poldark, some tennis, and some baseball. I got to see Matt and Molly as well as Vi and Marty. Molly and Matt are in Nantucket for my time share week this week, I'm so glad they got to enjoy it.

Gingerbread cupcakes with lemon curd filling - Yum!

Hiking down to the lake

Zoe retrieving the rubber fish

Maddy and Zoe waiting for the rubber fish to be thrown

Pizza dinner with Dubermans in Brookfield, VT

Noah made the pizzas, Yum!

Sunset Lake in backyard of Lee and Richard's house

Patti and Jeff with some of the furry friends

July fun

Lisa and Drew visited on their way to Drew's camp. We enjoyed kayaking on Jordon Lake.  My chorus gave their summer concert which was quite wonderful. Sim and I joined Sue, Scott, Steve, and Gail for brunch at a new restaurant (Flair) in Governor's Village. Below is a pic of ML with family at beach in CA. Bottom 3 pics are from June.

Grit cakes with shrimp, gravlax, pulled pork, potato salad, and goat cheese & caramelized pintxos

Drew and Lisa

homemade ice cream sandwich with chocolate pizelle cookies

Oef's a la neige at Provence, yum

Summer chorus - can you find me?

Sue warming us up

So sweet!!!

Ferguson Clan

cheese and pate plate at Kitchen, yum

My lavender harvest

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