Summer Fun

I took this two Saturdays ago. We had just come back from a camping trip. While I unpacked, cleaned, and put away all the gear the boys ran inside for their swimming shorts. They ran back outside and started playing with the garden hose. I hauled our wading pool out and they splashed around. Since it was such a sunny, hot day they didn't get cold for a while.

I like this picture because it catches both Ben and the water in action. The only question I have is how did he get the water to flow up.

Bridge to Brevig Mission

I took this picture on a trip to Brevig Mission. This is the bridge used to walk from the beach into town. The bridge is an old rail track, which we believed was for launching life boats. A group of kids were on the bridge to greet us.

Brevig Mission is a located on the western end of the Seward Peninsula, about 65 miles north west of Nome. Brevig Mission is a Inupiak Eskimo village of about 325. It was started by a Lutheran missionary from Sweden named Brevig.

Brevig Mission made international news in the late 1990's when scientists exhumed a body from a grave site. They were looking for the 1918 Spanish Influenza virus. This virus is considered by some to be the most deadly virus of modern history. It killed an estimated 50-100 million people in 18 months. With recent fears of bird flu and other possible pandemics, scientists were trying to get a live sample of the virus to study. They found it in Brevig Mission among the graves of influenza victims. The virus was kept alive because the graves were located in permafrost or frozen ground.

p.s. I am updating my flickr site for the first time in almost a month. I have already added 20 pictures and should have another 50 or so up today.

Nome Gold Dredge

I took this picture in June when I traveled to Teller from Nome. This gold dredge was abandoned in one of the many streams along the road to Teller. It was a perfect day for taking pictures.

Nugget Inn Mile Post

I took this picture last month when I was up in Nome. This was the first time I had a chance to walk around Nome and do the tourist thing. The Nugget Inn is one of the few truly historic buildings still left in town. I believe it is famous mainly for its owner bringing his daughter, the first girl, to Nome. I liked it because of the mile post sign. When I saw Taipei 4312 miles written in Chinese I knew I would have to take a picture. It wasn’t until after I took the shot that I noticed is also had Taiwan written in English.

You can learn a couple of interesting things from this sign. Dallas and Miami are farther away from Nome than Taipei, Taiwan. Moscow is closer than all three. New York is closer than Miami or Dallas which can seem counterintuitive until you remember the world is a sphere.

Me Money!

I have been away playing this week, so I have not posted lately. We had several relatives in town this last week. I got to play tour guide and show off the state. Since they didn't go fishing this trip we took them down to 10th & M Seafood to get some fish. The kids were thrilled by the gaint lobster mounted on the wall. They also went straight for the novelty oven mitts. Tim walked around with the store pretending to be Mr. Crabby from Sponge Bob. The kids also got to watch one of the butchers fillet out a big king salmon. They thought that was pretty cool. In the end we walked out with a box of frozen fish all packed up and ready for the airplane.

Caswell Creek, Alaska

Two Fridays ago I was at my parents' cabin and William, Ben, and I jumped on a four wheeler and drove up the highway to Caswell Creek. Caswell Creek is a sleepy little clear water creek located near mile 85 on the Parks Highway. I say sleepy because 99% of the time I head down there I never see anyone else, but one-percent of the time when the salmon are in thick, its banks are covered with people. I have to confess. I headed down there to see if the king salmon had come in early. There wasn't a fish to be seen, but I got lucky. It was a perfect day for taking pictures and I certainly took home my limit in photos.

I chose this photo because you can see where the clear water of Caswell Creek meets the silty Susitna River. The dividing line between the two waters is amazing. And for a bonus the clouds reflected off the water nicely. We calls those clouds "Simpsons Clouds" because they look like the clouds in the opening credits of the TV show.

P.S. I finally updated my Flickr site with the recent pictures. I added around 30 new photos.

A Humpy at Hope

This picture cracks me up. Several years ago, I took William on a Father & Son campout with our church. We all camped in the hay flats around Hope, Alaska. We did some fishing that night for pink salmon or humpies. It is pretty easy to see how they got that name. In most cases they turn ugly as soon as they reach freshwater. We were still in the tidal area of Resurrection Creek when this one was caught. It was William’s first close encounter with a humpy and he was none too interested. The next day we decided to go hiking instead.

Chinese Landscape in Alaska

Last March, I found myself with in Valdez with a van full of architects and engineers and six hours to kill. It was also one of those rare sunny days in Valdez. So we drove around site seeing and taking pictures.

We headed up Keystone Canyon and I took this picture of a frozen waterfall at Bridal Veil Falls. I liked the shot but it wasn't until afterwards that I noticed the ice climbers. Can you spot them? Then I really liked the shot because it reminded me of Chinese landscape paintings, especially those of the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty (960-1279) Chinese landscape paintings often represented people in ant-like fashion against wild, exotic landscapes. This suited both the Taoist and the Buddhist philosophies of the time. Toaist with their focus on the natural instead of the man-made or Wu Wei. Buddhists with their focus on the realization of emptiness or Shunyata. I think Song painters would have liked this photo too.

P.S. I have added about 25 photos to my Flickr site (see right)

Too Much Anime: Astro Boy and Stinkoman

You know your kids are watching too much Anime when they do this.

On Saturday morning Tim walks up to me and says, “I’m a robot.” He then proceeded to fly around the room with him new robotic arms. I was kind of curious how that worked. He does kind of look like Astro Boy wearing nothing but a diaper.

Of course, since we were laughing at his silliness the other kids wanted in on the action. Gwenna here is doing a great impression of Stinkoman’s “Are you asking for a CHALLENGE!?!” for those of you who know Strong Bad.

Hickel's Highway

I took this picture yesterday in Bettles, Alaska. In the summer, Bettles is only accessible by air. In the winter, it is accessible for a limited time (sometimes for only two weeks in March) by truck over an ice road. The ice road is part of the famous Hickel’s Highway. The Hickel’s Highway is one of those interesting tales of Alaskan independence from the state’s history. The story goes that when oil was discovered on the North Slope there was an argument between the federal government and Alaska about access to the fields. The only land route to the state-owned North Slope fields is through hundreds of miles of federal land. Alaska’s governor Wally Hickel got so frustrated with the federal government that he ordered a dozer train to bulldoze a road several hundred miles to the North Slope. Mind you, they didn’t survey or engineer anything, they simply cleared a trail three dozers wide all the way to the North Slope. The road was a complete engineering failure. Within one year, maybe a little longer, it turned into a mud bog and was impassible. But the road was a complete political success. It reasserted the right of states and individuals whose land is blocked or surrounded by federal land. There is little left of the original Hickel Highway with the exception of the ice trail into Bettles.

Gwenna and Goliath

I took this picture as Gwenna stood watching this sea lion swim around. She just stood there quietly for a while in awe of the giant. This is from a trip to Seward several years ago where we visited the Alaska SeaLife Center.

Wordless Wednesday: 1950's 7UP Baby

Two weeks ago Sweet Junipers! posted a forward-thinking 1959 ad. When I saw it I knew I would have to post its exact opposite. This ad is so wrong on several levels, and yet it makes you want to laugh at its absurdity. Someone actually thought this ad would sell more 7UP and others bought 7UP because of this ad.

The credit for finding this 1950’s 7UP ad goes to David Kellett of the webcomic Sheldon. He was doing a little research on 1950’s advertisement for the cover of his next book.

Wordless Wednesday: New Meets Old

I took this picture in Nikolski, Alaska. Nikolski is the first Aleut village on the Aleutian Chain and is located on Umnak Island. Literally the village borders the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is 900 miles west of Anchorage or about four hours flight time. There are 25-30 people living in Nikolski, almost all of them of Aleut descent.

Nikolski is considered to be the most archeologically important site in Alaska and is the oldest continually inhabited site in North America. There is evidence that Aleuts have been living in the exact village site for over 4,000 years and in the bay for 9,000 years. There are middens, graves mounds, bones, and artifacts everywhere. Most of the houses are built atop of older dwellings. As I walked around the village I would accidentally kick up old fish and seal bones.

The houses are mostly modern, but traditional Aleut sunken houses with sod and driftwood roofs are still standing. You can also see the traditional sweat houses. Everyone lives a subsistence life style which includes caribou, salmon, halibut, seals, sea otters, clams, and wild plants.

Yet with all this history and tradition the first day I walked into the tribal offices everyone was logged on and playing World of Warcraft. In one corner there was a Night Elf priestess. In the other a female dwarf warrior. While one person was trying to find out if her friend from South America was logged on yet. They had a pillaging appointment. It was surreal. Nikolski is truly a place where the new meets the old.

In the picture you can see where the wind had blown out sections of a derelict house, exposing the old spring bed and other house furnishings from the early 1900’s. You can also see the Chaluka Hotel in the background. It was the comfortable double wide where I have spent many a windy night.

Wordless Wednesday: Dillingham Cemetery

Last summer I had a day to kill in Dillingham. I had flown out to do an inspection at the Kanakanak hospital, but that took less than an hour and my flight didn’t leave for six more hours. So I headed to Dillingham to have a look around.

I find old cemeteries in small towns fascinating. Anchorage doesn’t have much history. Dillingham does having been around almost 200 years. This cemetery was very old and peaceful.

Most of the names were Norwegian or Swedish. All of them seemed to have drowned, accepted for the infant sized crosses. Though most graves had neat white crosses, each had something unique about it. There was no gird or pattern. Graves were placed every which way with a path meandering through the tall wide grass.

As I took this picture I couldn’t help but wonder who Viktor Bertel was and what happened in 1903. When I got back I tried searching several genealogical websites with no luck.

Wordless Wednesday: Alaskan Jungle Gym

This is a picture of William climbing around a piece of driftwood at Kenai Lake. It was taken on a camping trip in May 2004 and is one of my favorites. We had a blast beach combing and exploring. I don't think we saw another sole the whole time we were there.