A Blue Pelican Adventures Continue

It's been quite awhile since I've done anything with this blog. I have plenty of time on my hands now and decided to update my adventures.

If you like what you see and read, please share it with others.

Zoo Day

ZOO DAY

Went to the Alaska Zoo. A nice place that is well manicured with nice wooden fences, gravel walkways, planters, and none of the trash you find laying arond or walking around you find at Brookfield or Lincoln Park Zoos. It was a quaint little zoo with about 10 animals. Maybe more, but didn't see them. The Bald Eagles, Fred and Nancy, are both handicapped. Prince William the Moose, suffers from Torticollis. "Caw Caw" the Raven is missing half his feathers and looks like a dog that is shaven. There were some big things that looked like miniature buffalo. Not a Yak, not a buffalo...I think it was a Yakaffalo. There weren't any giraffes or alligators. Oh..there were a couple of Polar Bears. One of them is suffering from Schizophrenia. Not sure which one. The Otter, seemed to have a excema or other skin problem...he was constantly scratching his back against the post. The popcorn was very good and the bottled water was better than most. Overall, a good trip to the local zoo.

William suffering from Torticollis

Ollie O' Otter w/skin condition

Polar Bear w/Schizophrenia

PEPPERMINT PATTY: Is it true?

Second dilemma was the question I had when Kelly wanted to share a Peppermint Patty. It is supposed to be so good you feel like your on a mountain when biting into one. But what happens when you only eat half of one? Do you just wind up at the base of the mountain looking up? Or hanging off a cliff? Or maybe wind up sitting at a Cubs game bored to death?

Rain Rain Go Away

It's been raining the last couple of days so outdoor activities were limited to walking the horse/dog.

We saw Madagascar 3 last night and scarfed down a big bucket of popcorn. Yummy.

Chuckles the Dancing Moose takes a break between photo ops.

Nice shot of a locomotive.

Conservation and Whittier

We went to a wildlife conservation site and drove thru the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. This is the longest tunnel in North America.  http://www.dot.state.ak.us/creg/whittiertunnel/history.shtml

Took lots of pictures. I'm not bringing back the typical teeshirt, mug, or shot glass gifts. I hope you enjoy a piece of what I see as a photographer.

Here are some sample teaser pictures.

Catching Up Time

Kelly is off to the doctor, so I have some time to kill.

The nightly news is a bit more interesting than back in Chicago. The big news of the night was a man that was out hiking and came across a bear and her cub. The cub took off and the mother bear punched the guy around a bit. He scrabbled 30 feet up a tree, covered with huge puncture wounds to escape the bear and waited for help. How does a guy scrabble up 30 feet? Can you picture 30 feet? Are there steps on the tree? But, I guess if you had a bear on you, you'd do some scrabbling.


 HULA HANDS DINER

Here we are having a tasty lunch at a local Hawiian style diner. Very affordable and very good.

SOME SCENERY

We went for a ride to an area that had homes way up in the mountains. The weather hasn't been very cooperative for clear days, but that is supposed to change over the next couple of days. The highlight here was Jesikah jumping back and saying she saw a moose or a bear in the woods eating. Kelly and I looked, but didn't see anything. A group of people walking by...one a lady (a homer simpson look-a-like) holding a brown bag lunch with food in her mouth...says..."yeah...it was a moose" as the food was falling out of her mouth to the ground. But...the best Kelly and I thought it was...Sasquatch.



View from high up residential area overlooking bay, highway, and town below.

Overcast day blocks mountian range in background. Hopefully next few days will produce nicer shots.



I Survived an Earthquake in Alaska

Yes, back in 1964 many people survived one of the worst earthquakes in American history. It killed over 100,000 people and I survived it. Whew. Good thing I was living in Chicago at the time. But Kelly did inform me there averages 100 earthquakes a day in AK.

http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/quakes/Alaska_1964_earthquake.html

A.M. DOG TIME

Let's see...what did we do? I took the wild beast out for a walk. I'm kind of getting attached to him. Partly because he has his nose in my butt for extended lengths of time to sniff. He loves to play fetch. I throw the ball...he runs around like an epileptic moose, then...drops the ball far enough away that I am supposed to go get it. This game doesn't last very long.

KELLY'S OFFICE TRIP

Kelly took me and Jesikah to his office area. I was not allowed to take any pictures because it is a guarded facility and the "control center" for emergency planning. It looked like a basement at the YMCA until we got into the actual command center. The technology and amount of people that are in there is pretty impressive. I can't say too much of what is in there. Kelly is a planner. He looks at the event and calculates, then reports that to his higher authority.

TO MARKET TO MARKET:

The kids took me to a local market the other day...(I feel like I've been here a week already, because it never gets dark. You go to bed at 11 p.m and it's still light out. The sun never really sets. When it is down, it is on it's way back up again. So, there really isn't a night experience.) and that was fun.

There were wares from artists, cooks, and locals which they call natives. Photographs of nature, teas, spices, knick knacks (many from the Providence of China), and furs. Lots of furs. More tails than...well, I can't say what I'm thinking on that one. But lots of tails, hats, scarves, and more made of fur. Even fur underwear. Makes me think also of all the animals that are slaughtered for useless purposes.

There was even a ride that brought back memories. I really wanted to get on, but was over the height limit.

We then took a walk to the downtown area. There are three parts of town. The downtown (touristy), mid town (normal), and I'm not sure what they call the last part. It didn't get a name.

Here we sighted two bears. Of course I was fortunate enough to get pictures with them.

From left to right: David, Bear, Kelly

From left to right: Bear, Kelly, Jesikah, people walking

We went to the Alaska tourism building which was very nice. They had a very interesting exhibit showing the wildlife from that area. I made my first purchase.

Since I was a bit tired still from my trip, and not being used to the continual sunlight, we headed back home. There I took my old man nap while Jesikah made a nice dinner. Well, a golden dinner. I didn't realize food was so expensive here. A pineapple goes for $8 regularly and on sale for $5. Lemons are .89 a piece. Chicken...forget it....it was almost double what we pay back home. The food looked better than I have seen in a restaurant. She is a very good culinary chef. (Part of her training)

Chicken breast, avocado, mango, tomato's on a bed of spinach. All covered in a light, tangy - fruity tasty juice. This is real food!

Alaska Day One

Got off plane after horrendous flight. Felt ill the whole way. Seats uncomfortable. Landed and couldn't wait to go lay down. One really bright spot was seeing Kelly for the first time in a year. We hugged and then drove to his home. It was really nice to see Jesikah too. She is a sweetheart. She has been planning on my arrival and making a list of all the things we are going to do. I was pretty wiped out. I got to meet Chase the dog. A wild animal and that is being polite. He is a one year old lab/pit puppy weighing in at 65 pounds and 120 at full speed leaping on you with his mouth wide open ready to swallow you. His tail swinging at a force hard enough to break your knees. It made me think of a whale out of water with jaws open to swallow a ship. Laid down and slept most of the evening till the a.m.

Wild and Wacky Trip to Alaska

Why do I call it that? Well, so far it has been that. Wild and wacky. Not wild like pandamonium, but just a series of events that are out of the normal.

Lime Green Guy:
As I stood in line at the airport, I see a guy wearing a lime green jumpsuit. He had on lime green shoes with orange stripes. His backpack was somthing that looked like Grover. Along the straps of his backpack were bracelets that look like the babytype or candy type.

Extra Leg Room:
There are monitors at the luggage checkin that offers people the chance to buy extra leg room. What does that exactly mean? Extra leg room. Maybe someone is returning from a cannibalistic event and have a bag of legs to carry on. This makes me think of those the stubby legs. Why don't they offer a discount for stubby leg people. How about a upcharge for extra waist room. Those seats don't expand and airlines don't ask waist measurements...so why not offer an isle seat so their waists can hang over at least to one side? That would make it rough for the cart person to get through.

Upcharges:
So, they charge extra for baggage, extra for weight over 50 pounds, extra leg room, first class or no class...etc.
So what about the toliet? They provide a toliet...but it's $10 more for toliet paper. An extra $25 you can hire someone to wipe your butt for you. The job market is tough. Airlines are doing their best to put people to work. "What do you do for a living?" "I wipe people's butts. I used to be a corporate brown nose, but my nasal passages would get blocked up...so I found wiping butts was more what I was into." You can tell the buttwipers in the airport. Just watch for the stained brown hands...or on some people look for the flies swirling around them.

Oversold Flight:
How can they over sell a flight? They sell the tickets and then, on the day of the flight when your sitting there waiting to go, they make an announcement that they are oversold and offer another inconvenient flight and a bonus credit. Okay...in an age of computers, we have this problem? Why not offer wing seats or grappling hooks to hang onto?