We got up early on Sunday, May 15th, as we were coming into Ketchikan. We got a table next to the window in the cafeteria and watched the scenery go by as we ate breakfast.
We then went up on one of the upper outside decks and watched as we pulled into dock.
We were the fifth and sixth people off the ship in Ketchikan. We wanted to make sure we would be able to make it to Saxman Totem Park (see also here) before the crowds did. We debated walking the three miles or taking a cab. We started to walk thinking we would take a cab back then seeing a cab waiting at the curb we decided to take the cab to the park then walk back.
We were the first people to arrive at the park. The person taking the money told us that the next day, when four cruise ships would be there they expected to have 10,000 people visit. According to the 2010 census the town of Saxman has a population of 411.
As we were leaving another couple showed up. We couldn’t have timed it better.
I recharge the ridiculous and it just all comes out.
Barb L. May 15, 2016 [We were in Ketchikan, Alaska waiting for the bus to take us to the float plane for a trip into Misty Fjords National Monument when Barb, as is typical when she is happy, spontaneously erupted with funny stuff.—Joe]
Friday the 13th we departed Seattle on the Celebrity Solstice for a seven day cruise to South East Alaska. We were told this was going to be the largest cruise ship in Alaska. It is quite large and even though we had one of the cheapest cabins it was, at least to us, luxurious. The glass elevators, the live tree suspended in the “courtyard”, the fountains, the lawn on the top deck, the hot tubs, the swimming pools, the food, the views, it was all amazing.
From the ship the view of Seattle and a surreal Mount Rainier in the distance made the departure almost make believe.
We lounged on one of the upper decks and watched Seattle disappear as we sailed out into the Puget Sound among the San Juan Islands.
I’ve been trained for bear encounters. So if we see a bear, what you need to do is, gather around in a circle with me in the very center.
Chelsea Karthauser May 17, 2016 Guide for Gastineu Guiding in Juneau, Alaska. [We went on a hike to see a glacier with Chelsea (her nickname is Whalebait, interesting story on how that came about).
If you ever get the chance ask her about the time she fell off the trail in the snow, lost almost everything, including her shoes, was saved by Devil’s Club, made her way around the mountain to the tram, where people took pictures of her but wouldn’t help her.
We enjoyed our hike but most of the time we could have easily mistaken the scenery for that which we could have found with ten miles from home. We could have seen the glacier with a ten minute hike instead of a three hour hike. Now, the people from Texas, Arizona, and Florida saw some things quite different from their home area.
With both kids away at college and unable to do something in person for Mother’s Day I decided to help by taking Barb to dinner. I told her to pick anything she wanted within an hours drive. She suggested Red Robin and I frowned. I told her I was thinking of something more like the Space Needle or a nice steak house.
After considerable thought and my repeated insistence that she should not be concerned about the price she came up with I Love Sushi on Lake Bellevue.
It was very nice. The food was good and we had a nice view of the lake.
Barb and I went on a walk to Poo Poo Point via Chirico Trail yesterday.It was a little more elevation gain than we wanted (1760 ft.). But it was supposed to have a nice view at the top. The weather was nice so we decided to go for it. We figured we should leave the house before 9:00 AM to be able to get parking easily.
We arrived at the parking lot about 8:15 to find the lot full and the sides of the road filled with cars. “What’s going on?” [Grumble, grumble] We found a place a couple hundred yards away that let us park for $5.00. [Grumble, grumble]
We were at the trail head at 8:27 and saw people with radios who explained this was the landing zone for paragliders and to not dilly-dally around as we cross the zone. [Grumble, grumble]
The hike was more than I was really prepared for. I got winded easily and sweat profusely even though the temperature was in the low 60s. There were a lot of people on the trail. [Grumble, grumble.] It was a nice trail though:
We stopped to rest many times and it took us an hour and 45 minutes to make it to the top.
It was a nice view. It was a very nice view:
But there were all these people:
Oh. They were launching paragliders from here! Cool! No more grumbling.
This was an unexpected bonus. More pictures below the fold:
Saturday Barb, Max, and I went to a steel match at the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club on Whidbey Island. Just Max and I were shooting this time. This was the first time Max had ever shot in a match. I suspect Barb will try it sometime, but not yet.
The weather was better than last time but still not exactly warm. The ferry ride was pleasant with a nice view:
The weather was good enough that our friends Elizabeth, William, and Finn also came out to watch. William and Elizabeth have been telling me for months they were going to watch sometime and they finally made it. They live on the island only about a 10 or 15 minute drive from the gun club. It was Barb attending that made the difference. After the end of the match William shot Steve’s rifle on one stage just to see what an open class rifle is like. Then Elizabeth, William, and Finn checked out the rest of the range. The next day Elizabeth texted me:
We had fun yesterday! Actually considering a membership! Lol. Who knew?!?
Thanks again!
Ahhh yes… More people firmly on our side of the gun issue.
Here are Barb and Elizabeth (the quality sucks because it is a frame grab from my video glasses):
I have been having problems with the front sight on my STI DVC again (first time details). The plastic shim lasted several hundred rounds so then I got some “Liquid Metal” built up the base of the sight, sanded it down to where it was a tight fit, then used high strength, high temperature LockTite to hold it in place. That lasted for many months and many thousands of rounds. Then it fell off again last week. I tried just the LockTite. That lasted less than a hundred rounds. I then tried just the liquid metal, building up a layer on either side of the sight. That survived a couple hundred rounds at the practice range on Friday and survived the entirety of the Saturday match. Barb and I met some friends at the indoor range Saturday afternoon and the front sight slid way to the left on the first shot. At least it didn’t fail me while at the match.
Sunday I folded up aluminum foil, put it under the sight, such that it made for a tight fit and put LockTite between all the layers, on the base of the sight and on the sight groove. I haven’t taken it to the range for testing yet but will do that sometime this week. I want this problem permanently solved.
Two of the stages were very challenging and I lost a lot of time with my centerfire pistol on them. I did okay with rimfire despite having three failures to feed during the match.
The following stage is evil. You have to hit the white plate four times then hit the yellow plate once. If you miss the white plate and hit the yellow plate your shots stop counting for hits but they do count for time. Suppose your first shot is a miss on the white plate, hits the yellow plate then you continue to shoot the white plate four times, then the yellow plate for a total time of five seconds. You are scored for four misses with a penalty of three seconds per miss which gives you a time for that string of 5 + 12 => 17 seconds.
I had at least two strings with the centerfire gun and one rimfire gun string with penalties.
The stage below is not exactly easy either. The yellow swingers are for rimfire and the white swingers are for centerfire. The large yellow plate in the center is the stop plate. The two swingers must change side to count as a hit, and must be hit twice. The swingers are small and a centerfire swinger would sometimes change sides from the impact of the other plate changing sides. I lost a lot of time on the centerfire portion of this.
Of course the stages were different but I’m pretty sure my rimfire shooting is getting much better and I think the centerfire is better as long as I take enough time to get hits instead of something approximating “spray and pray”.
After visiting Mesa Verde we spent the night in Cortez. The next morning we drove back to Arches and spent the day there. We probably hiked a total seven miles and saw stunning scenery almost everywhere we went.
Mesa Verde National Park is the location of abandoned Native American cliff dwellings.
Although people had lived in the area for thousands of years the cliff buildings were used for less than 100 years. People left the area by 1285 due to a long lasting and severe drought.
In the upper left corner of the picture below you see a dwelling across the canyon from where Barb and I toured “Balcony House” as seen with the naked eye.
Below is with a 300 mm lens (~6X).
Below is a close up of the dwelling in the picture above.
