It’s been a while since I logged onto the blog. I have been posting on Facebook but have been busy enough that I haven’t done much writing. The last week we have had a succession of storms battering our coast. … Continue reading Boardwalk Patterns
OK by Alaska standards Sitka isn’t a small town, but it can feel like it. As one friend wrote in a song, no one uses turn signals because everyone already knows where you are going. Skagway, Alaska is really a … Continue reading Small Town 4th
On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee moved a resolution, before the second Continental Congress, declaring independence for the 13 American colonies. John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: The Second Day of July, 1776 will be the most memorable … Continue reading July 2, 2025, Almost Independence Day, 249 Years Later.
Every June my hometown, Sitka, becomes alive with the arts. Both the Sitka Music Festival and Sitka Fine Arts camp bring people from all over the Country to our little town. We have performances and parties all month. This year … Continue reading 2025 Sitka (Summer) Music Festival Photo Gallery
Walking through Sitka National Park today with Brian, we saw an eagle on a gravel bar in Kassada Heen (Indian River). As I zoomed in with my camera the eagle jumped into the river and started splashing and preening. It … Continue reading Bathing Eagle
On the longest day of the year we joined the Annual Raven Radio Summer Solstice Cruise on one of the Allen Marine Tours boats. Allen Marine supports non-profits in Sitka by donating their boats for fundraising cruises. According to Rob … Continue reading Raven Radio Summer Solstice Cruise, 2025
At age 70 9PM becomes the new midnight. By that standard I have seen in the New Year every year since I reached the Biblical lifespan. The ball drops in New York, I sing “Happy Days are Here Again”, stay … Continue reading 2025!
Today we celebrated the 42nd Sitka counseling Christmas Bazaar. It was a clear and cold day. I don’t think I have ever had as much problem finding a parking place as I have today. That means having to walk about … Continue reading 2024 Sitka Counseling Christmas Bazaar
If I lived anywhere else, I wonder if I would attend a science symposium. I’m interested in scientific issues, but I don’t think it would occur to me to sit through 9 science presentations. But I live in Sitka, and … Continue reading Sitha Whalefest 2024
I seldom sleep well on days before I fly. It’s the combination of fear and excitement. I have a fear of flying dating back to a day in 1978 when I was sitting in an exit row, landing gear on … Continue reading Home
Friday the 13th does not exist for me. It’s the day we cross the dateline, we move directly from the 12th to the 14th. To compensate we will have two October 12ths on the way back. A lost day at … Continue reading Cruise Conundrum
When I first started cruising, I suffered from FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. There was so much to do, I didn’t know where to start, but I wanted to get my money’s worth. Now I’ve relaxed a bit, I’m choosier … Continue reading FOMO and ROMO
I started this blog to share photographs. When working in international media development I wrote weekly letters to family and friends. I asked then not to share them because I made observations that may, if publicized, compromise my work. But … Continue reading Unalaska Photo Gallery
A Coast Guard Cutter pulled rank and Westerdam had stand offshore and tender passengers into Dutch Harbor, the port for Unalaska. We disembarked at the Carl E. Moses small boat harbor. “Small” is a relative term in Alaska. The harbor … Continue reading Fresh Blueberries
In 1986 the Hubbard Glacier was a circus and Raven Radio covered it. In May pressure from the Valorie Glacier, that feeds the Hubbard Glacier, Alaska’s biggest tidewater glacier, pushed the glacier forward. The glacier pushed the glacial till of … Continue reading Covering the Hubbard Glacier.
The glacier is singing, at least if you like modern music. Alaska composer John Luther Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Music with his symphonic composition “Become Ocean” about glaciers becoming part of the sea. It has been performed by … Continue reading The Hubbard Glacier Speaks for Itself. (Become Ocean.)
September 6, 2024, Sailing the Lynn Canal Haines is near the top of the Lyn Canal, a deep fjord created along a fault line. Deep both in depth below sea level and because it cuts deeply into the continent. Haines … Continue reading An Alaskan Ferry Tale
September 6, 2024 Some of our cruise mates balked at the $25 admission to the American Bald Eagle Foundation Natural History Museum and Raptor Center in Haines. The Sitka Raptor Center, which is larger and has more birds, is only … Continue reading Eagle Intake
September 5, 2024. We know most people in Sitka, in the winter. But in the summer a whole new crop of newbies arrive in town. I don’t know as many of them. As we walk from Westerdam to the Sitka … Continue reading Our Hailing Port
On Thursday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Rotarian Timothy Massawe from the Moshi Rotary Club in Tanzania. Our club is working with his to support a group of girls attending school. We do regular zooms with … Continue reading Sitka Shows Off.
For the last several decades it has been a little over 14 miles from one end of Sitka’s road system to the other. Over the July 4th weekend that became a little under 16 miles as the first section of … Continue reading Now it’s 16 Miles!
(July 2, 2024, 248 years later.) On an unseasonably cool July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee moved a resolution, before the second Continental Congress, declaring independence for the 13 American colonies. To get unanimous agreement Congress made changes during the … Continue reading 248 Years Ago
As Sitka waited for the dark, (as dark as it ever gets in May) we watched our glorious blue skies fade to dusk and clouds began to form. The forecast was for cloudy skies after sunset. Sunset is just after … Continue reading A Global Moment of Wonder
It used to be a regular event around Eastertide. But Sitka hasn’t seen it since 2019, the annual eagle release at the Alaska Raptor Center. The Center takes in injured raptors, nurses to health those it can, and releases them … Continue reading Fly Free!