Alaska

Alaska, 2007

Aug 1-8 Berkeley, CA; Seattle, WA; Bainbridge Island, WA; Ketchikan, AK
Aug 9-11 Ketchikan, Misty Fjords, Metalatka, Petersburg, Le Conte Bay, Tracy Arms
Aug 12-13 Tracy Arms, Sawyer Glacier, Sitka, Neva and Olga Straits, Sturgis Narrows, Peril Straits
Aug 14-15 Glacier Bay, Skagway, Whitehorse Pass (Canada), Chilkat, Haines
Aug 16-17 Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier

Aug 18-19 Yakutat, Cordova, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Coldfoot, Barrow
Aug 20-21 Fairbanks, Anchorage
Aug 22-23 Anchorage, Denali, Backcountry Lodge
Aug 24-25 Denali, Anchorage
Aug 26-27 Anchorage, Turnagain Arm, Hope
Aug 28-29 Turnagain Arm, Seward, Kenai Peninsula boat ride
Aug 30-31 Seward, Anchorage, Seattle, WA, Berkeley, CA

Thursday, Day 16, 8/16/2007

We got up at 6:15. We got off the cruise, had a "show the place." tour and went to our Hotel, the Gold belt. We went on a tour to a hatchery. The salmon were jumping the stair way up stream. Next we, the tour, went to a Glaier. I walked on a beach, dipping my feet in 34-degree water. The Glaicier was awesome. Then we went back to the Hotel, had dinner, and went to bed.

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Juneau, AK:

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Juneau, AK:

Sone of our fellow passengers went on a dogsled run in the mountains near Juneau.

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dog-sled run near Juneau, AK: flying there by helicopter

3-163A-876

3-163A-888
dog-sled run near Juneau, AK

3-163A-884
dog-sled run near Juneau, AK:

3-163A-886
:

3-163A-890

3-163A-892

Others went kayaking

3-163A-940
Juneau, AK: kayaks

3-163A-942

Thursday, 8/16/2007

We arrived in Juneau this morning! We were driven in a short tour through Juneau, and then left at our hotel, the Gold Belt. We can't check in until after 2:30pm and it is just 9am. I was exhausted, and just laid down on the floor of the hospitality room and fell asleep. Arthur let me sleep for an hour.

3-163AP1120081Merge
Juneau, AK:

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Juneau, AK: Natan Luehrmann

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Juneau, AK: Natan & Arthur Luehrmann

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Juneau, AK:

Then we went off to ride the funicular up to the top of the mountain to the Tlingit Visitors' Center. We had great views up and down the fjord, but I must say, the biting flies were incredibly brazen and numerous, and desperately hungry for a blood meal. Ouch. I ended up slapping by back with a bag from side to side like a religious flagellant, so, instead of walking down as we had planned, we rode the funicular back down.

3-169A-980
Juneau, AK: finicular to the Tlingit visitors' center

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Juneau, AK: Chilkiat headman with totem

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Chilkiat women

3-164P1120088.JPG

Three brothers, old Head-Men of the Kat Von Tons of the Chilkiat Tribe: The "Monkey Man", Skan Doo, Notorious Old Medicine Man, Ind-a-Yanek (Swatka), Famous Indian Guide

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Juneau, AK: bald eagle at the Tlingit visitors' center

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Natan Luehrmann

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Natan Luehrmann steps off the edge of the world

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Juneau, AK: views from the top of the mountain

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black bear and Natan Luehrmann

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Juneau, AK: flowers

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We had lunch at a fish and burger place at the base of the funicular. We then took a tour of the Juneau fish hatchery and a trip to the nearby Mendenhall Glacier. The fish hatchery was interesting in its fish ladders funneling the salmon to the hatchery, and in its holding tanks that were chock full. It also had a few fish tanks with fascinating sea-life.

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Juneau, AK: spawning salmon caught at the fish hatchery

3-169AP1120129.JPG

3-169AP1120137.JPG
some of the fish try to leap out of the tank

3-169AP1120147.JPG

the fish hatchery also had an aquarium

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Juneau, AK: fish hatchery

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Juneau, AK: fish hatchery

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Juneau, AK: fish hatchery

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anemone and starfish

3-169AP1120159.JPG
crab

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anemone

3-169AP1120163.JPG
Juneau, AK fish hatchery: sea urchin

Gold was discovered in Juneau at Gold Creek. The Juneau ice field has ice up to 4,500 feet thick, and gets 100 feet of snow per year. It takes 100 feet of snow to compact to 1 foot of ice in the ice field. Mendenhall Glacier is one of 37 major glaciers coming out of the Juneau ice field (37 majors and countless minor glaciers!)

One half of Juneau's 32,000 residents live in the Mendenhall Glacier valley, which has lots of flatish land and better weather than other areas.

The ice in the Mendenhall Glacier is receding at about 152 feet per year, even though the glacier is advancing at the rate of _. Until 2 years ago, it had been receding at only 60 feet per year.

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier

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Natan Luehrmann at the Mendenhall Glacier

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier: Natan Luehrmann

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3-173P1120189Merge
Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier

3-175AP1120194.JPG

3-175AP1120195.JPG
glacial striations

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Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier: Arthur Luehrmann

Fireweed is tall with red-pink flowers. It's called fireweed because it is the first plant to come back after a forest fire.

3-176AP1120197.JPG
seaplane coming in

Friday, Day 17, 8/17/2007

I woke up and had a very quick breakfast. We walked to do our laundry. In the middle of that, we went to the Federal museum. The power was off, so we only saw a few things. We got our laundry and lunch and fled to a diffent museum, the State musaem. It was fantastic. There was a wolf accrying its babies. In a different section, there were Natives, and it showed how they lived and what they did. After that, we went across the street to a building called the State Office building. We went up and down it. Once we did that, we went to the juneau City musaem. Mount Juneau has lots of mining tunels under it. Then we back to the Hotel, had dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed.

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Natan Luehrmann climbing as usual

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a seagull waits to catch a spawning salmon for breakfast

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Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museum

3-180P1120210.JPG

Friday, 8/17/2007

Arthur and Natan went out to breakfast while I stayed home. After breakfast, we collected all our dirty clothes (lots!) and took them to a laundromat. While they were washing, we walked over to the Juneau Federal Building and checked out their display of Alaskan art and artifacts. There had been a power failure last night, probably due to high winds that rip through Juneu most of the year, so we had to see the exhibits pretty much in the dark.

Back to the laundry to put the clothes in the dryer, and then we went to a grocery store to buy fixin's for lunch. Back to the laundry, but the clothes weren't dry, so Natan and I stayed at the laundromat with the clothes, while Arthur went to a short organ concert at the State Office Building. We met back at the hotel, and ate our lunch goodies.

After lunch we went back near the State Office Building to the Alaska State Museum. It had a wonderful eagle tree exhibit and a marvelous collection of native artifacts. The ones that most impressed me were a collection of rain smocks made by sewing walrus or seal gut skins with spruce roots. Also, there were models of boats and fish traps entirely made of carved whale baleen. There was also great carvings of walrus tusks, and a couple of fabulous boats: one solid cedar dugout, one with stretched walrus gut, one of birchbark sewn together with strips of Sitka Spruce roots, and one with walrus skins.

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Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museum

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3-181AP1120213.JPG

3-181AP1120219.JPG
eagles

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Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museum: wolves

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flower

After the Alaska State Museum we went over to the State Office Building where Arthur had heard the concert and rode the elevator to the 8 th floor. It had a big patio which gave some great views of Juneau.

Then we went across the street to the Juneau City Museum, which was lovely, but we didn't have much time there. Notable was a mining exhibit which included a 3-D light box showing all the criss-crossed mining tunnels in the Perseverance Mine of Juneau.

We went to lunch at a pizza parlor, and home to pack, eat a dinner of leftovers, and sleep.

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Juneau, AK:

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Natan Luehrmann

First Day

Martha's Home Page

Aug 1-8 Berkeley, CA; Seattle, WA; Bainbridge Island, WA; Ketchikan, AK Aug 9-11 Ketchikan, Misty Fjords, Metalatka, Petersburg, Le Conte Bay, Tracy Arms Aug 12-13 Tracy Arms, Sawyer Glacier, Sitka, Neva and Olga Straits, Sturgis Narrows, Peril Straits Aug 14-15 Glacier Bay, Skagway, Whitehorse Pass (Canada), Chilkat, Haines Aug 16-17 Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier		Aug 18-19 Yakutat, Cordova, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Coldfoot, Barrow Aug 20-21 Fairbanks, Anchorage Aug 22-23 Anchorage, Denali, Backcountry Lodge Aug 24-25 Denali, Anchorage Aug 26-27 Anchorage, Turnagain Arm, Hope Aug 28-29 Turnagain Arm, Seward, Kenai Peninsula boat ride Aug 30-31 Seward, Anchorage, Seattle, WA, Berkeley, CA
Thursday, Day 16, 8/16/2007 We got up at 6:15. We got off the cruise, had a "show the place." tour and went to our Hotel, the Gold belt. We went on a tour to a hatchery. The salmon were jumping the stair way up stream. Next we, the tour, went to a Glaier. I walked on a beach, dipping my feet in 34-degree water. The Glaicier was awesome. Then we went back to the Hotel, had dinner, and went to bed.		3-163P1120077.JPG Juneau, AK:	3-163AP1120080.JPG Juneau, AK:
Sone of our fellow passengers went on a dogsled run in the mountains near Juneau.	3-163A-880 dog-sled run near Juneau, AK: flying there by helicopter	: 3-163A-876	3-163A-888 dog-sled run near Juneau, AK
3-163A-884 dog-sled run near Juneau, AK:	3-163A-886 :	3-163A-890	3-163A-892
Others went kayaking 3-163A-940 Juneau, AK: kayaks	3-163A-942	Thursday, 8/16/2007 We arrived in Juneau this morning! We were driven in a short tour through Juneau, and then left at our hotel, the Gold Belt. We can't check in until after 2:30pm and it is just 9am. I was exhausted, and just laid down on the floor of the hospitality room and fell asleep. Arthur let me sleep for an hour.
3-163AP1120081Merge Juneau, AK:	3-163AP1120084.JPG Juneau, AK: Natan Luehrmann	3-162P1120085.JPG Juneau, AK: Natan & Arthur Luehrmann	3-163AP1120086.JPG Juneau, AK:
Then we went off to ride the funicular up to the top of the mountain to the Tlingit Visitors' Center. We had great views up and down the fjord, but I must say, the biting flies were incredibly brazen and numerous, and desperately hungry for a blood meal. Ouch. I ended up slapping by back with a bag from side to side like a religious flagellant, so, instead of walking down as we had planned, we rode the funicular back down.	3-169A-980 Juneau, AK: finicular to the Tlingit visitors' center	3-164AP1120096.JPG	3-164AP1120093.JPG
3-164AP1120089.JPG Juneau, AK: Chilkiat headman with totem	3-165P1120090.JPG Chilkiat women	3-164P1120088.JPG Three brothers, old Head-Men of the Kat Von Tons of the Chilkiat Tribe: The "Monkey Man", Skan Doo, Notorious Old Medicine Man, Ind-a-Yanek (Swatka), Famous Indian Guide	3-163AP1120087.JPG
3-166AP1120110.JPG Juneau, AK: bald eagle at the Tlingit visitors' center	3-166P1120112.JPG	3-166AP1120115.JPG Natan Luehrmann	3-166AP1120116.JPG Natan Luehrmann steps off the edge of the world
3-166AP1120117.JPG Juneau, AK: views from the top of the mountain	3-166AP1120118.JPG	3-166AP1120122.JPG	3-167P1120124.JPG black bear and Natan Luehrmann
3-167AP1120125.JPG Juneau, AK: flowers	3-167AP1120126.JPG	We had lunch at a fish and burger place at the base of the funicular. We then took a tour of the Juneau fish hatchery and a trip to the nearby Mendenhall Glacier. The fish hatchery was interesting in its fish ladders funneling the salmon to the hatchery, and in its holding tanks that were chock full. It also had a few fish tanks with fascinating sea-life.
3-169P1120127.JPG Juneau, AK: spawning salmon caught at the fish hatchery	3-169AP1120129.JPG	3-169AP1120137.JPG some of the fish try to leap out of the tank	3-169AP1120147.JPG
the fish hatchery also had an aquarium	3-169AP1120149.JPG Juneau, AK: fish hatchery	3-169AP1120152.JPG	3-169AP1120153.JPG Juneau, AK: fish hatchery
3-171P1120156.JPG Juneau, AK: fish hatchery	3-168P1120157.JPG anemone and starfish	3-169AP1120159.JPG crab	3-169AP1120161.JPG anemone
3-169AP1120163.JPG Juneau, AK fish hatchery: sea urchin	Gold was discovered in Juneau at Gold Creek. The Juneau ice field has ice up to 4,500 feet thick, and gets 100 feet of snow per year. It takes 100 feet of snow to compact to 1 foot of ice in the ice field. Mendenhall Glacier is one of 37 major glaciers coming out of the Juneau ice field (37 majors and countless minor glaciers!) One half of Juneau's 32,000 residents live in the Mendenhall Glacier valley, which has lots of flatish land and better weather than other areas. The ice in the Mendenhall Glacier is receding at about 152 feet per year, even though the glacier is advancing at the rate of _. Until 2 years ago, it had been receding at only 60 feet per year.		3-169AP1120167.JPG Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier
3-142A-984 Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier	3-176P1120170.JPG	3-177P1120171.JPG	3-170P1120172.JPG Natan Luehrmann at the Mendenhall Glacier
3-172P1120173.JPG Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier	3-175P1120174.JPG	3-175AP1120176.JPG
3-175AP1120177.JPG Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier		3-175AP1120181.JPG
3-174P1120185.JPG Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier: Natan Luehrmann	3-175AP1120186.JPG	3-173P1120189Merge Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier
3-175AP1120191.JPG Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier	3-175AP1120194.JPG		3-175AP1120195.JPG glacial striations
3-175AP1120196.JPG Juneau, AK: Mendenhall Glacier: Arthur Luehrmann	Fireweed is tall with red-pink flowers. It's called fireweed because it is the first plant to come back after a forest fire.	3-176AP1120197.JPG seaplane coming in
Friday, Day 17, 8/17/2007 I woke up and had a very quick breakfast. We walked to do our laundry. In the middle of that, we went to the Federal museum. The power was off, so we only saw a few things. We got our laundry and lunch and fled to a diffent museum, the State musaem. It was fantastic. There was a wolf accrying its babies. In a different section, there were Natives, and it showed how they lived and what they did. After that, we went across the street to a building called the State Office building. We went up and down it. Once we did that, we went to the juneau City musaem. Mount Juneau has lots of mining tunels under it. Then we back to the Hotel, had dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed.		3-178P1120203.JPG Natan Luehrmann climbing as usual	3-178AP1120204.JPG a seagull waits to catch a spawning salmon for breakfast
3-179P1120208.JPG Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museum	3-180P1120210.JPG	Friday, 8/17/2007 Arthur and Natan went out to breakfast while I stayed home. After breakfast, we collected all our dirty clothes (lots!) and took them to a laundromat. While they were washing, we walked over to the Juneau Federal Building and checked out their display of Alaskan art and artifacts. There had been a power failure last night, probably due to high winds that rip through Juneu most of the year, so we had to see the exhibits pretty much in the dark. Back to the laundry to put the clothes in the dryer, and then we went to a grocery store to buy fixin's for lunch. Back to the laundry, but the clothes weren't dry, so Natan and I stayed at the laundromat with the clothes, while Arthur went to a short organ concert at the State Office Building. We met back at the hotel, and ate our lunch goodies.
After lunch we went back near the State Office Building to the Alaska State Museum. It had a wonderful eagle tree exhibit and a marvelous collection of native artifacts. The ones that most impressed me were a collection of rain smocks made by sewing walrus or seal gut skins with spruce roots. Also, there were models of boats and fish traps entirely made of carved whale baleen. There was also great carvings of walrus tusks, and a couple of fabulous boats: one solid cedar dugout, one with stretched walrus gut, one of birchbark sewn together with strips of Sitka Spruce roots, and one with walrus skins.		3-180AP1120211.JPG Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museum	3-181P1120212.JPG
3-181AP1120213.JPG	3-181AP1120219.JPG eagles	3-182P1120221.JPG Juneau, AK: Alaska State Museum: wolves	3-184AP1120228.JPG flower
After the Alaska State Museum we went over to the State Office Building where Arthur had heard the concert and rode the elevator to the 8 th floor. It had a big patio which gave some great views of Juneau. Then we went across the street to the Juneau City Museum, which was lovely, but we didn't have much time there. Notable was a mining exhibit which included a 3-D light box showing all the criss-crossed mining tunnels in the Perseverance Mine of Juneau. We went to lunch at a pizza parlor, and home to pack, eat a dinner of leftovers, and sleep.		3-183P1120226.JPG Juneau, AK:	3-184P1120227.JPG Natan Luehrmann
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