Musings about my Alaska trip, but with a sci-fi tilt...

I was gone on this away mission from June 9 - 21 and then I took 
some additional time off this past week after the July 4th holiday to
visit a friend who is moving from Deep Space 5 to Deep Space 8... 
actually my friend is moving from Ithaca, NY to Taiwan for a 2-year 
job assignment.

Anyway, when we landed in Fairbanks at 8 PM on June 9th it was 87 
degrees Fahrenheit... which quickly dispelled any notions we had 
that Alaska was cold. We enjoyed 21 hours plus of sunlight... which 
meant you could go hiking in the woods at 11 PM and see just fine. 
The sun kinda set around 1:30 AM and rose around 4 AM. It never 
really got dark, just kind of dusk.

For most Alaskans, the state bird is the mosquito. I agree. They, 
the mosquitos, don't both to wait to come out at night, since there 
isn't much light. They'll attack you anytime.

I didn't see Bigfoot in Alaska. Wasn't looking for the fellow. I did 
see some wildlife (e.g., a couple moose, some american bald eagles, 
and mountian sheep but nooooo grizzly bears) as we spent half a day
in Denali National Park. Denali is the term Alaska natives use. 
Mount McKinley is the term Europeans use for the same mountain. To 
me, Denali sounds just fine.

In Glacier Bay, I did see one whale's rear flipper but I can't tell 
you whether it was a humpback whale or not. Unfortunately, Glacier
Bay (a favorite spot to see humpback and killer whales) is not 
nearly as far north as the Bearing Straits where Kirk's stolen 
Klingon Bird of Prey retrieved 2 humpback whales in ST4.

I did see Harvard Glacier upclose in College Fjord. I highly
recommend the visit. It is truly impressive what mother nature can 
do. You've never seen so much snow and ice. I learned what "calving" 
is and what "shooters" are.

I am not the fishing type, so don't ask me how many salmon I caught. 
Other people in my cruise group went fishing, to varying degrees of 
success. Some caught Bass. Some caught Rockfish. None of us sat
around a camp fire as Kirk, Spock, and Bones did in ST5 and 
sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

I did meet several Hawaiians who were vacationing in Alaska to go 
fishing. Yes, the fishing is way better in Alaska. Honest. I am not 
making this up.

I did manage to walk on the Taku Glacier for about a half an hour. 
It reminded me somewhat of that frozen planet Rura Penta to which 
Kirk and Bones were banished to by the Klingons in ST6. With the 
boots and overshoes I had on, I did feel like Bones and Kirk 
trudging through the snow on Rura Pente. However, it was sunny while 
we walked around Taku Glacier, unlike the raging snowstorm on Rura 
Pente.

No, I did not meet any shapeshifters.

For the cruise ship travel from Whittier, Alaska to Vancouver, 
Canada our cruise ship was far more comfortable than Kirk's stolen 
Bird of Prey, although we could only manage 18 knots compared to 
Warp 9 or so. Ah, but our food was so much better: lobster, salmon, 
and steaks compared to Klingon gargh/worms.

And, the onboard nightclubs featured jazz, R&B, dance, and top 40 
music. No Klingon Opera, although some of the folks in the onboard 
karaoke bar sounded like klingons singing klingon opera.

In Juneau, I boarded a modern-day shuttlecraft -- okay, it was a  6-
person helicopter -- for a tour of the Juneau ice field, which 
included a flyover of about a half dozen glaciers, including the 
Taku Glacier I mentioned earlier. Flying over many of those mountain 
peaks reminded me a lot of the snow-covered mountain peaks Jean Luc 
and his staff climbed in "ST: Insurrection." Only, I didn't have to 
dodge phaser fire.

All in all, I would have stayed longer, but I ran out of gold-
pressed latinum... er, I maxed out my Visa and MasterCharge cards.

If you want to browse the photos:
http://www.ircruise.com/2005/photo431.html

If you want to read the detailed captain's log:
http://www.ircruise.com/reviews_2005_02.html

Live long and prosper,

George
Captain
The USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston)
http://home.earthlink.net/~ekistics10/mcnair/





 
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