Alaskan Trip Journal Part 2
5/27/10
I got up on my own at about 7:15 and did nothing much but watch tv for a few hours. It took Mike a while to get up so I had lots of time to kill. Once Mike got up we had breakfast, then out mother took us to the hospital where she works to meet all of the people she works with. She is, at least for the time being, the supervisor in the lab at the hospital. The people we met seemed cool.
Kind of a tangent here, but when I was writing my journal I was thinking about my writing style. I really tend to be a boring writer using the same words and sentence structures repeatedly. I really wish I was more creative and comedic in my writing. I don’t know if it gives my true self justice, but alas it is how I write. I have a dream of writing jokes, articles or maybe in a different world scripts. There is of course plenty of time to work on my writing and maybe someday I can achieve that dream.
Now we must get back to the adventure at hand. Following the stop at the hospital we went to a local beach known as both Bugge Beach and Rotary Beach. There was a small pool type area for people to go swimming in, beyond that there was an area of rocks with some trees on top of a little hill. When we were there the tide was pretty low so mike and I were able to go out on the rocks and look around. We got out pretty far. During this time there was a seal near the shore and it popped its head out of the water for a minute or so then went back under and disappeared. Mike found some tiny little hermit crabs on the rocks as well as many starfish.
After Bugge Beach we went to as far south on the island as the paved road would allow us to go, a place called Herring Cove. This cove was known for seals making appearances there. We saw plenty of seal heads poke out of the water, but they were not really playing around, so it got old pretty quick. And we went back to the apartment for our lunch of random leftovers.
In the afternoon we went to Ward Lake for a hike. We really didn’t see too much wild life. There was a really cool family of fuzzy headed ducks that I had never seen before on a log, but that was really all. We hiked a full circle around the lake which was good. We got some good exercise hiking around as well. After the hike we went to the grocery store and picked up some things.
Back at the apartment we listened to the Twins game on Mike’s computer. It was pretty great Kubel had 2 HRs. We had dinner during the game. After dinner we went to the new turf soccer field and kicked the ball around. It was good to get some more exercise in while on vacation. We also threw the Frisbee around some.
We went back to the apartment and started to gather up a little bit of firewood that we could use in the fire pit out back. We got a small fire going for a while and had some smores, but before too long I started getting eaten alive by bugs. I went inside to relax for the rest of the night.
5/28/10
I didn’t really do all that much today. My feet were a little tired from all of the exercising I had done the previous day. I watched some TV, we listened to the Twins game, and I read my book. That is more or less all I did. It was a very relaxing day which always enjoyable to have on vacation. I also took my mom’s dog for a walk. She didn’t used to like me, but she really seems to like me whenever I see her now.
5/29/10
Slept in today, didn’t wake up until 9:50 Alaska time, which is 12:50 central time. I thought it was crazy that I was able to sleep in that late. I had gone to bed before midnight the night before, which made sleeping in that late all the more interesting. When I got up my mother and I went to the local history museum which is located inside of the public library. Ketchikan has a lot of history to it. There is some stuff on the history of the different native tribes with all sorts of artifacts. The first Caucasians to come into the area arrived from Seattle. The town is the salmon capital of Alaska. It used to also have lots of lumber mills; there was a short lived gold rush in the area. The museum had all sorts of cool artifacts and pictures from the city’s past.
We met mike down at Godfather’s Pizza for lunch. The bar right next to Godfather’s, its called The Office, is owned by the same guy. The bar has 6 or 7 flat screen HD tvs all along the same wall, so you can watch a bunch of different games at once. They also allow people to order directly from Godfather’s and have it delivered right to the bar. We wanted to watch the Twins game, but because it was available on local Fox stations only we were unable to watch it.
After we finished lunch we went to the grocery store because we were right next to it. Mike and I stayed in the car. We saw a bunch of bald eagles gathering on the rocks next to the store. It was weird to see them flying in from a few directions. Mike and I went over for a closer look at there were between 10 and 20 bald eagles just sitting on the rocks all at once. It was really cool to see, but it didn’t last that long. A truck went by and spooked many of them away.
We got back to the apartment and listened to the remainder of the Twins game on the internet. The Twins ended up winning which is always a good thing. We relaxed most of the evening, until the Stanley Cup Finals first game was on.
5/31/10
I skipped a day in my journal, the entry had nothing to do with the trip, but it may or may not become a blog post, I haven’t decided if I want to share it or not. We will have to wait and see.
I have to start off by saying that Memorial Day was a great day. I woke up on my own without an alarm early and felt very well rested, which is always a plus in my book.
Mike and I had breakfast together and then started our descent down the hill; we were going on a boat tour of the Misty Fjords. Mike’s girlfriend Kendall works for the company that gives these tours and she was given some free passes that she could give out to whomever she chose.
We had the fortune to be on a tour that she was working as well, which made it all the more enjoyable. The trip would have been less fun if we had not been able to talk to her throughout the trip. As we were heading away from Ketchikan, the ship slowed down a little so that people could get some pictures of a bald eagle in a tree. Mike and I had already seen so many of them so we were not all that interested in seeing one more. I really think that they might be the most populous bird in that area, if they aren’t they are close; ravens are the other bird with a major population in the area. Pigeons must have found their own way into the area following people.
Following the stop to see the eagle we got up to our cruising speed and the scenery started to change for us. It went from forested islands to ice capped mountains. Our first stop was at a rock, that was discovered by I think John Vancouver. The rock seemed very phallic to me, but that’s just my opinion.
As we moved along, we were next to the sides of some mountains that had little waterfalls trickling down their sides. I have pictures of lots of different things from this trip. We got to see lots of porpoises just peeking out of the water. I never really got a good look at one, but they are supposedly like small dolphins. You could see the ripples of the water where they were coming up for air.
There were many cool rock formations along the way, some looked like faces. I have an album of pictures on facebook. I will post a link to them at the bottom of this post, let me know if it does not work. I don’t really take many pictures, so some of the pictures might leave something to be desired, but there are some really cool shots if I do say so myself.
On the way back toward Ketchikan, we may have passed an otter swimming on its back, but I did not get a good look at it. We saw a lot more porpoises on the way back. We also passed a rock that had a bald eagle sitting on it, with some seals sunning themselves on it. There were also some seals around the sides of the rock with their heads just out of the water. When we were getting our little cup of soup we saw a pod of orcas. I was able to get a few good pictures of dorsal fins. It was cool to be on the first trip that had seen them this year. We didn’t get to see and humpbacks but we did get to see orcas to I feel that we were on a special trip.
Mike and I wandered around the tourist area of town while we waited for Kendall to finish with work. I looked through several stores trying to find some cool stuff that I could buy as souvenirs. I ended up getting some teriyaki salmon jerky, which I have yet to sample, and some cool posters that were created by a local artist for a local coffee company. I don’t even like coffee, but these posters definitely caught my eye. The store I bought the posters in was actually owned by the artist, and he happened to be working the checkout at the time, so I got them autographed for free.
When Kendall was done with work we all went to a local burger place called Burger Queen for lunch, although it was already like 3 in the afternoon by then. The back of the workers’ shirts said, “Burger Bitch just didn’t sound right,” which I thought was hilarious. I can’t remember what exactly I had on my burger, but I do remember that it was delicious. They had at least 30 kinds of milkshakes available, I picked the white chocolate shake which we all shared, and agreed that it was amazing. I also got some onion rings which very interestingly they sprinkle parmesan cheese on, instead of salt. After we finished eating we walked back up the hill to the apartment to relax for the rest of the day. We played some Yahtzee, and were able to watch the Twins game on TV because they get the mariners games up in Ketchikan.
6/1/10
The final day of my trip might have been the worst, just because a few things didn’t go well. The trip all in all was great, just not so much the last day. During my first flight from Ketchikan to Seattle I began suffering from airplane ear. It is a weird condition which I researched when I got back to Eau Claire. It is a blockage in your middle ear, usually in the Eustachian tubes that is caused by the combination of changes in pressure and a small blockage. It was not all that painful, but it was annoying because my hearing was greatly reduced in my right ear.
I had a few hours in Seattle and needed to find myself some lunch. I bought a California roll and a tuna salad flatbread sandwich, both of which were good. The tuna salad sandwich was a lot bigger than I thought it was, so I was definitely full for the rest of the day. The flight from Seattle to MSP went smoothly except for the continued discomfort of the airplane ear. I was able to watch Invictus on the plane. I can’t even remember the last time that I saw a movie on a plane before that. Invictus was ok, nothing really that great in my opinion.
We were early to arrive at MSP, but we were forced to wait a while before we were able to exit the plane. The gate we were assigned was set up for a different type of plane. Originally we were told that we would have to move to a different gate, but in the end they adjusted the jetway to work for our plane.
As I got off the plane, I tried calling my father as I walked toward the baggage claim, but I got no answer. After I got my bag, I tried to call him again and I still got no answer. I was getting worried that something was up. I didn’t really have any other way to get to his house where my car was. As it turns out Memorial Day had mixed up his days and he had thought it was Monday. In the end it really only slowed my trip to Eau Claire by about half an hour, nothing too bad. When I got back to the apartment the cats both rushed out to say hi. They had clearly missed me.
The vacation definitely allowed me to relax a lot in a worry free environment. I am very glad I was able to take this trip, everything in my life seems refreshed since I have returned home.
Link to my pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=2235746&id=59500822
I got up on my own at about 7:15 and did nothing much but watch tv for a few hours. It took Mike a while to get up so I had lots of time to kill. Once Mike got up we had breakfast, then out mother took us to the hospital where she works to meet all of the people she works with. She is, at least for the time being, the supervisor in the lab at the hospital. The people we met seemed cool.
Kind of a tangent here, but when I was writing my journal I was thinking about my writing style. I really tend to be a boring writer using the same words and sentence structures repeatedly. I really wish I was more creative and comedic in my writing. I don’t know if it gives my true self justice, but alas it is how I write. I have a dream of writing jokes, articles or maybe in a different world scripts. There is of course plenty of time to work on my writing and maybe someday I can achieve that dream.
Now we must get back to the adventure at hand. Following the stop at the hospital we went to a local beach known as both Bugge Beach and Rotary Beach. There was a small pool type area for people to go swimming in, beyond that there was an area of rocks with some trees on top of a little hill. When we were there the tide was pretty low so mike and I were able to go out on the rocks and look around. We got out pretty far. During this time there was a seal near the shore and it popped its head out of the water for a minute or so then went back under and disappeared. Mike found some tiny little hermit crabs on the rocks as well as many starfish.
After Bugge Beach we went to as far south on the island as the paved road would allow us to go, a place called Herring Cove. This cove was known for seals making appearances there. We saw plenty of seal heads poke out of the water, but they were not really playing around, so it got old pretty quick. And we went back to the apartment for our lunch of random leftovers.
In the afternoon we went to Ward Lake for a hike. We really didn’t see too much wild life. There was a really cool family of fuzzy headed ducks that I had never seen before on a log, but that was really all. We hiked a full circle around the lake which was good. We got some good exercise hiking around as well. After the hike we went to the grocery store and picked up some things.
Back at the apartment we listened to the Twins game on Mike’s computer. It was pretty great Kubel had 2 HRs. We had dinner during the game. After dinner we went to the new turf soccer field and kicked the ball around. It was good to get some more exercise in while on vacation. We also threw the Frisbee around some.
We went back to the apartment and started to gather up a little bit of firewood that we could use in the fire pit out back. We got a small fire going for a while and had some smores, but before too long I started getting eaten alive by bugs. I went inside to relax for the rest of the night.
5/28/10
I didn’t really do all that much today. My feet were a little tired from all of the exercising I had done the previous day. I watched some TV, we listened to the Twins game, and I read my book. That is more or less all I did. It was a very relaxing day which always enjoyable to have on vacation. I also took my mom’s dog for a walk. She didn’t used to like me, but she really seems to like me whenever I see her now.
5/29/10
Slept in today, didn’t wake up until 9:50 Alaska time, which is 12:50 central time. I thought it was crazy that I was able to sleep in that late. I had gone to bed before midnight the night before, which made sleeping in that late all the more interesting. When I got up my mother and I went to the local history museum which is located inside of the public library. Ketchikan has a lot of history to it. There is some stuff on the history of the different native tribes with all sorts of artifacts. The first Caucasians to come into the area arrived from Seattle. The town is the salmon capital of Alaska. It used to also have lots of lumber mills; there was a short lived gold rush in the area. The museum had all sorts of cool artifacts and pictures from the city’s past.
We met mike down at Godfather’s Pizza for lunch. The bar right next to Godfather’s, its called The Office, is owned by the same guy. The bar has 6 or 7 flat screen HD tvs all along the same wall, so you can watch a bunch of different games at once. They also allow people to order directly from Godfather’s and have it delivered right to the bar. We wanted to watch the Twins game, but because it was available on local Fox stations only we were unable to watch it.
After we finished lunch we went to the grocery store because we were right next to it. Mike and I stayed in the car. We saw a bunch of bald eagles gathering on the rocks next to the store. It was weird to see them flying in from a few directions. Mike and I went over for a closer look at there were between 10 and 20 bald eagles just sitting on the rocks all at once. It was really cool to see, but it didn’t last that long. A truck went by and spooked many of them away.
We got back to the apartment and listened to the remainder of the Twins game on the internet. The Twins ended up winning which is always a good thing. We relaxed most of the evening, until the Stanley Cup Finals first game was on.
5/31/10
I skipped a day in my journal, the entry had nothing to do with the trip, but it may or may not become a blog post, I haven’t decided if I want to share it or not. We will have to wait and see.
I have to start off by saying that Memorial Day was a great day. I woke up on my own without an alarm early and felt very well rested, which is always a plus in my book.
Mike and I had breakfast together and then started our descent down the hill; we were going on a boat tour of the Misty Fjords. Mike’s girlfriend Kendall works for the company that gives these tours and she was given some free passes that she could give out to whomever she chose.
We had the fortune to be on a tour that she was working as well, which made it all the more enjoyable. The trip would have been less fun if we had not been able to talk to her throughout the trip. As we were heading away from Ketchikan, the ship slowed down a little so that people could get some pictures of a bald eagle in a tree. Mike and I had already seen so many of them so we were not all that interested in seeing one more. I really think that they might be the most populous bird in that area, if they aren’t they are close; ravens are the other bird with a major population in the area. Pigeons must have found their own way into the area following people.
Following the stop to see the eagle we got up to our cruising speed and the scenery started to change for us. It went from forested islands to ice capped mountains. Our first stop was at a rock, that was discovered by I think John Vancouver. The rock seemed very phallic to me, but that’s just my opinion.
As we moved along, we were next to the sides of some mountains that had little waterfalls trickling down their sides. I have pictures of lots of different things from this trip. We got to see lots of porpoises just peeking out of the water. I never really got a good look at one, but they are supposedly like small dolphins. You could see the ripples of the water where they were coming up for air.
There were many cool rock formations along the way, some looked like faces. I have an album of pictures on facebook. I will post a link to them at the bottom of this post, let me know if it does not work. I don’t really take many pictures, so some of the pictures might leave something to be desired, but there are some really cool shots if I do say so myself.
On the way back toward Ketchikan, we may have passed an otter swimming on its back, but I did not get a good look at it. We saw a lot more porpoises on the way back. We also passed a rock that had a bald eagle sitting on it, with some seals sunning themselves on it. There were also some seals around the sides of the rock with their heads just out of the water. When we were getting our little cup of soup we saw a pod of orcas. I was able to get a few good pictures of dorsal fins. It was cool to be on the first trip that had seen them this year. We didn’t get to see and humpbacks but we did get to see orcas to I feel that we were on a special trip.
Mike and I wandered around the tourist area of town while we waited for Kendall to finish with work. I looked through several stores trying to find some cool stuff that I could buy as souvenirs. I ended up getting some teriyaki salmon jerky, which I have yet to sample, and some cool posters that were created by a local artist for a local coffee company. I don’t even like coffee, but these posters definitely caught my eye. The store I bought the posters in was actually owned by the artist, and he happened to be working the checkout at the time, so I got them autographed for free.
When Kendall was done with work we all went to a local burger place called Burger Queen for lunch, although it was already like 3 in the afternoon by then. The back of the workers’ shirts said, “Burger Bitch just didn’t sound right,” which I thought was hilarious. I can’t remember what exactly I had on my burger, but I do remember that it was delicious. They had at least 30 kinds of milkshakes available, I picked the white chocolate shake which we all shared, and agreed that it was amazing. I also got some onion rings which very interestingly they sprinkle parmesan cheese on, instead of salt. After we finished eating we walked back up the hill to the apartment to relax for the rest of the day. We played some Yahtzee, and were able to watch the Twins game on TV because they get the mariners games up in Ketchikan.
6/1/10
The final day of my trip might have been the worst, just because a few things didn’t go well. The trip all in all was great, just not so much the last day. During my first flight from Ketchikan to Seattle I began suffering from airplane ear. It is a weird condition which I researched when I got back to Eau Claire. It is a blockage in your middle ear, usually in the Eustachian tubes that is caused by the combination of changes in pressure and a small blockage. It was not all that painful, but it was annoying because my hearing was greatly reduced in my right ear.
I had a few hours in Seattle and needed to find myself some lunch. I bought a California roll and a tuna salad flatbread sandwich, both of which were good. The tuna salad sandwich was a lot bigger than I thought it was, so I was definitely full for the rest of the day. The flight from Seattle to MSP went smoothly except for the continued discomfort of the airplane ear. I was able to watch Invictus on the plane. I can’t even remember the last time that I saw a movie on a plane before that. Invictus was ok, nothing really that great in my opinion.
We were early to arrive at MSP, but we were forced to wait a while before we were able to exit the plane. The gate we were assigned was set up for a different type of plane. Originally we were told that we would have to move to a different gate, but in the end they adjusted the jetway to work for our plane.
As I got off the plane, I tried calling my father as I walked toward the baggage claim, but I got no answer. After I got my bag, I tried to call him again and I still got no answer. I was getting worried that something was up. I didn’t really have any other way to get to his house where my car was. As it turns out Memorial Day had mixed up his days and he had thought it was Monday. In the end it really only slowed my trip to Eau Claire by about half an hour, nothing too bad. When I got back to the apartment the cats both rushed out to say hi. They had clearly missed me.
The vacation definitely allowed me to relax a lot in a worry free environment. I am very glad I was able to take this trip, everything in my life seems refreshed since I have returned home.
Link to my pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=2235746&id=59500822
posted by weckpd | 6:14 PM
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