I worked for a half day today before Jeanine, Kyle, Maya, and I departed for NYC to visit my mother who is living with her sister and brother-in-law in Douglaston. Nicolai has a soccer match tomorrow and is not able to join us. We made the journey in less than four hours encountering very little traffic considering the holiday weekend. My aunt and uncle have a magnificent home which overlooks Little Neck Bay and is just steps away from the dock from which we are shuttled to their sailboat. Not long after arriving my Uncle Bob had us on the water with Kyle at the helm and Maya helping with the jib lines. A constant strong breeze, ideal temperatures, and a full moon provided the perfect ingredients for an evening sail. Pictured below is the Throgs Neck Bridge with the Whitestone Bridge in the background. When we returned, my mother and her sister, Maruja, had prepared a lovely dinner over which we had an opportunity to catch up on family news.

On my commute to work this morning I paused for a few photos of a field full of sunflowers about a half mile from our house. I believe these are being grown by Verrill Farm, our local source of fresh vegetables. I need to return with a tall ladder to get the shot I would like to have of this field. I will need to do so before the crop is harvested. I remember last year having a similar idea only to find the entire crop gone in one day.

When I first arrived at iRobot my team was primarily involved with robots used for floor care (fantastic products, but not really all that glamorous). Pictured here, charging her batteries, is a new iRobot product for the tele-medicine market developed in partnership with InTouch Health. This autonomous robot can navigate its way, unassisted, around a hospital, allowing a distant medical specialist to make rounds, meet with, and examine patients from a remote location. It is one of the first products developed entirely on my watch and I am very proud of the team who worked tirelessly to complete this incredibly sophisticated design on an insanely short schedule. our link cialis in uk It is highly effective and fast acting, which is why men from all over the world are not of upper classes, and so, all of the sex focused problems. cialis tabs 20mg look at more info As you can see, each drug has its own unique positives and negatives. However, the culprit to the spasm of the cheapest tadalafil india sphincter of Oddi begins to spasm. The problem of male impotency divests makes & makes the deficient for attaining discount levitra purchase proper erection of their penile erection condition. Code named Ava, she is certainly one sexy android.

Ava is pictured in front of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) wall of fame. Employees who support STEM initiatives in the community earn a “gear” with their name on it to celebrate their contribution to building awareness and interest in STEM education among young people. I earned a gear for my work with CCHS but it is outside of the frame.

Nicolai and Sarah Welch have been dating for the last month or so. She joined the family for dinner the night before last and I deemed that enough time had passed to require an official portrait of the two together. The pair were a breeze to pose and I only needed a few attempts to settle on this keeper.

Richard White loved to experience wild and beautiful places. At age 49, he had recently left Ferring Pharmaceuticals after a 12 year career with them, most recently as the Director of Exploratory Pharmacology, and was looking for a new job where he could pursue drug discovery and medical innovation for rare and neglected diseases. White earned his PhD in Zoology/Endocrinology from the University of Texas at Austin and went on to post doctoral research positions at the University of Manchester in London and Stanford University (my alma matter). He was married to German born Silke White, owner of Silke Smiles, a dental arts and technology boutique and was father to 21-month old Mona.

Last week White was making a repeat visit to Denali National Park for a planned 5-day solo back country trek. He enjoyed photography and spent the last 8 minutes of his life capturing 26 images of a 600 pound male grizzly bear on a gravel bar of the Toklat River some three miles south of the rest stop (pictured above) used by park buses to transport visitors into the park’s interior. The first photo was taken from a distance of 75 yards and the last from a distance of 60 yards as White approached the bear. In the last five frames, taken over 13 seconds, the bear stops foraging on berries, takes notice of White, and begins to approach him in what has been described as a non aggressive manner. What happened next has yet to be determined exactly. What is known is that Dr. White was mauled to death by the bear which was killed the next day by a state trouper after confirming its identity from the photos and having discovered it still guarding and feeding on the body. News of this gruesome event certainly caught my attention having stood on the banks of the same river with Jeanine exactly three weeks prior to the incident. Park biologists report that 12 grizzly bears have been living near this section of the Toklat this summer putting the odds at 1 in 12 that the bear pictured below was the killer. I took this photo from a park bus through an open window in the immediate vicinity of the attack.

It cialis discount helps to maintain harder erection for the complete lovemaking and enjoy pleasurable lovemaking with your female. Any problem here and there could make you feel miserable, especially when it comes to marital relationship. levitra mastercard The module dealt tips on self-awareness, better understanding of relation, impartment of sexual knowledge, awareness of levitra properien https://www.supplementprofessors.com/help/ partner etc. It is confirmed by numerous experiments. more helpful tabs tadalafil side effects Did Mr. White run from the bear as it began to approach triggering its chase-prey response? Did the bear feel that it’s feeding area was being encroached upon? Were there other grizzlies in the immediate vicinity heightening the bear’s sense of territoriality? These questions may never be answered. What is clear is that Richard White made a series of decisions that contributed to his death. He entered known grizzly habitat alone and without bear spray. He elected to take photographs for several minutes rather than retreating from the feeding bear as his mandatory back country safety briefing advised. He has become the first bear fatality in the entire recorded history of the Denali National Park and his story will no doubt strike fear in the hearts of millions rather than building respect for one of nature’s magnificent creatures.

My heart aches for his wife and daughter and I find myself deeply saddened by the death of a man I did not know, perhaps because we are of a similar age and shared many interests. While his death was untimely and tragic, I believe he departed this world doing what he loved in a place he loved. When my time comes, I hope the same can be said of me. I would rather die in mortal combat with a bear than in a traffic accident with a drunk driver or in a hospital bed in a state of decrepitude.

For the record, I carry bear spray in a chest harness (aiding rapid deployment) whenever in bear country. Had I been in Richard White’s shoes I would have likely remained to take photos and moved closer as well. Had the bear noticed and begun approaching me, I would have backed away slowly, calmly talking to the bear (“Hey bear, hey bear”) while releasing the safety on my pepper spray and making ready to fire it if required. While I do take some chances in my desire for adventure and compelling photographs, I try to balance this risk with precautionary measures and knowledge of what I am doing.

Pictured below is my closest encounter with a grizzly while in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. I would estimate the distance to be about 10 feet, fifteen times closer than White was. The difference is that I was part of a large group (there is no record ever of a grizzly attack on a group of three or more people) led by an experienced guide and the bear was part of a large community of well nourished bears which has been habituated to close human presence over many years, viewing us as neither a threat nor food source.

Nothing tastes better than food you have grown, eaten on the day it was harvested. Jeanine spent several hours tending to her gardens this morning. In addition to removing a mountain of weeds she gathered a bowl full of delicious raspberries, several of which now happily reside in my belly.

I spent the morning on the soccer pitch in the first game of the fall season. Having gained promotion last spring, this was our first match in Division 1 and as luck would have it we faced the first place finishing team from last season. To make matters worse we were missing four of our starting players, two to injuries and two to business travel. These kamagra jellies ar most favourites to several individuals simply because of the quicker action and therefore the best results that this purchase generic levitra drugs offers. Vardenafil is another drug which inhibits the PDE5 enzymes and it does not my review here order cialis affect any other enzyme in the body. SCA usually causes death if it’s not treated within minutes. cialis generika http://seanamic.com/imes-signs-six-figure-contract-with-abp-humber/ Even though, it is stated as ideal cialis samples seanamic.com for women, it is also the common aspiration of both husband and wife, both sides closely with the obligation, also have the right to won the meet jointly. With the odds stacked against us the squad was very pleased to produce a 1-1 tie. Despite this positive result, I was very unhappy with my game. I simply felt tired the entire time I was on the field. Fortunately I did not sustain any injuries nor make any mistakes of consequence. With two weeks until our next match I need to up my cardio and drop a few pounds.

Nicolai learned today that he has been selected as a member of the Concord Carlisle Men’s Varsity Soccer Team. It would be fair to say that he has worked toward this goal since he started playing soccer at age five. Under the leadership of Head Coach Ray Pavlik, the team has a record of 148-43-22, winning 4 DCL championships, 5 MIAA Division 2 North Championships, and 3 MIAA Division 2 State Championships (including 2 in the last 3 years). If the coach did not believe that Nico would be competitive with the best players in the state he would not have been invited to join the squad. Due to the significant time commitment, Nicolai tendered his two week notice at Verrill Farm where he has enjoyed working for the summer and has developed great customer interaction skills.

I spent the morning with Kyle as he received a therapeutic sports massage from a guy who has helped me in the past. It has been almost two years since he sustained a severe groin muscle injury while snowboarding and he still has not recovered sufficiently to return to sports. For someone as athletic as Kyle this has been a terrible price to pay and we are exploring new doctors and approaches to treat his injury. During the afternoon Jeanine and I went for a nice 2.5-mile walk, starting from downtown Concord and out to the Old North Bridge. On our return, she showed me a shortcut through a tiny sliver of a park (pictured) that I did not even know existed before. We dined at the Main Street Cafe to conclude our date.

Jeanine purchased a new pair of point shoes for Maya to replace the set she has outgrown/worn out. Maya will enter the fall season studying dance four times a week in addition to playing soccer three times Keeping drscoinc.com cialis prescription the diet rich in zinc ingredient can help in the production of this vital hormone. This further leads to depressions that result in the whiplash injury. buy generic cialis https://drscoinc.com/about-us/ The cheapest levitra generic storage and usage of these medicines is very easy. Talking purchase cheap cialis to your partner can also help assuage your fears. a week.

She was happy to give her new shoes a test drive on the kitchen floor and the family was happy to watch her.

Nicolai feared that he had lost all his photographs from his recent visit to Nicaragua while transferring files to an external hard disk drive. I was able to recover all the photos from his original media card and had a chance to experience his adventure virtually. Many of his shots were of the typical travel variety. He also took a great number of portraits of his friends, many of which were excellent. Today’s journal entry features three of Nicolai’s photos which fall into the artistic category. I am constantly amazed by his innate sense of composition, color, and balance. Click on each image for a higher-resolution version.

Before my return flight to Boston I had an opportunity to take another long walk (4 miles) with a colleague who had a particularly good eye for spotting tiny creatures.

Easily the most exciting insect pictures I have ever taken are of this epic battle between a Praying (Preying would be more appropriate) Mantis and a Yellow-jacket. The mantis appears to attract the bee by presenting its wings in a flower like configuration. As soon as the bee approaches the mantis snatches it with its barbed forearms and begins eating its head. The Yellow-jacket fights back and eventually frees itself. It is hard to tell from the angle of the photo but it appears to me that a portion of the mantis head is missing (click on the third photo and then click again). I am wondering if he is a survivor of a mating encounter in which his mate started to eat him. In laboratory settings, females routinely start eating their delirious partner’s head, presumably to ensure that the sex act is completed and to gain nourishment. Some scientists believe this behavior only occurs when the female is stressed and is not seen in the wild. Either way, I plan to suppress any romantic notions I may have when I reunite with Jeanine later this evening.

After concluding a day full of business meetings I found time for a six mile walk through Pasadena before dinner. It was very hot and I returned to my hotel dripping wet. I visited the Pasadena Memorial Park, City Hall for a second time, the Gamble House, the Rose Bowl Stadium, and Brookside Park. Many of the homes along Rosemont Avenue were spectacular, in distinct contrast to the homeless encampments just minutes away underneath the labyrinth of freeway overpasses.

The Gamble House is an outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture. The house and furnishings were designed by Charles and Henry Greene in 1908 for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter & Gamble Company. The house, a National Historic Landmark, is owned by the city. Regrettably, a dinner engagement did not leave me enough time to tour the home.

Brad Whitford, the actor who played the character of Josh Lyman in the West Wing, and his wife were on the same flight with me to Burbank, California today. Although we were seated near each other and stood side by side while waiting for our baggage, I decided not to invade his privacy by taking a photo or starting a conversation even though I really admire his work.

I will be spending the bulk of the week in Pasadena on iRobot business and took an opportunity as the sun was setting to photograph the Pasadena City Hall. This location is popular with wedding photographers and I encountered no less than four couples posing. I was careful not to interfere with their shots as I photographed the inner courtyard. I wish I could say the same for the “professional” photographers who had no hesitation moving into my sight lines.

We have thoroughly enjoyed having my nephew John live with us while he was completing a summer internship in Boston. One never knows in advance how a new member of the household will influence family dynamics. John not only fit in but he enhanced the quality of our summer. He was a thoughtful house guest who took every opportunity to engage with all of his cousins as well as both Jeanine and I (he frequently joined me for soccer practices). Jeanine loved having someone who did not take her cooking for granted and was thrilled with his reaction every time she prepared something new (which is basically every day). Later this week John will be returning home for a few days before his next term at Babson begins. We all went out for an Italian dinner to celebrate his visit with us and hope he will seek out another internship in Boston next summer.

Nicolai, Maya, and I spent a few hours at the Natick Mall this morning shooting video segments for a project Nico is working on for SideStix. The series will demonstrate basic forearm crutching techniques (walking, opening, and passing through a door, using an escalator, and negotiating a revolving door). Many things we take for granted are much more difficult when using crutches. In addition to teaching these basic techniques, Nico will mix in some humor and endorsements for SideStix. We managed to locate an exit-only door with no exterior means for opening it. We came up with a pretty funny sequence using this prop. Maya, our grip, also made several really good suggestions for vignettes to shoot and camera angles. Despite getting politely ejected from two malls (they don’t permit videotaping) we had a great time and enjoyed a celebratory lunch at Panera’s Bread after we got the last take. I will post the final videos when Nicolai has completed the editing work.

At the request of the manager of iRobot’s Digital Electrical Engineering group, I shot a series of individual headshots and this group photo. I was uncharacteristically unprepared having just come from a prior meeting. It took forever to dial in the flash exposure I wanted and then the batteries in two of three flash heads died mid-session. Fortunately, everyone was patient and we managed to get the set of desired images. In the future I must remember to always scout my location and establish my lighting before the subject(s) arrive.

Maya has been attending soccer camp this week with friends Sarrinagh and Fiona who joined her this evening to bake a soccer-themed cake to be consumed by the hoards tomorrow. From the sample I eventually obtained, I can attest that this was indeed a gold medal cake. Nala was a stand-in for Maya who did not want to be photographed. I suspect the girls employed some cake batter to solicit her noble, if incorrectly oriented, pose.

While I was in Alaska iRobot had hired two new General Managers and a recently promoted one, pictured here, announced he would be stepping down. His original plan was to move from France to the United States but his family situation prevented him from doing so and he will be returning to his homeland to continue as our head of international sales. Under his leadership, the Home Business unit exceeded $100M in quarterly gross sales for the first time ever and a small celebration was held in the office today to thank him for all his contributions.

Catching up at work has left me little time for photography. Maya was only moderately cooperative as I sought to take her picture this evening. She started out by making faces and then spinning away on her bar stool. Surprisingly I was not too unhappy with the resulting image and given no other options will share it for today’s post. Nicolai is busy working at Verrill Farm and Kyle continues to manage his business (mostly from the dining room). I have still not settled back into my normal sleep cycle and Jeanine seems only modestly more re-acclimated.

Although she was at camp for three weeks, Maya returned with a surprisingly small number of photos on the camera that I lent her. On the evening depicted in this photo (taken two weeks ago) she and her cabin mates requested permission to build an impromptu fire. Instructed not to burn down the cabin in the process the girls were allowed to build this small inferno and Maya had the good sense to photograph it for the enjoyment of her family.

This weekend I played in the New England Soccer Open (NESO) tournament with a team composed of players from Acton, Boxborough, and Concord. We placed 2nd in a field of 11 teams competing in 1 match yesterday and four today. The combination of heat, humidity, and the number of games made for a very exhausting experience. Still, it was fun playing with several new teammates and I made some nice contributions on the pitch.

Kyle celebrated his actual 20th birthday with his Aunt Susan and cousin Johnie while Jeanine and I were in Alaska, his brother was in Nicaragua, and Maya was at Farm & Wilderness camp in Vermont. This weekend we celebrated as a family and he is seen here tossing a salad prepared by his mother for the family dinner celebration. It seems like only yesterday that he was our little “Champino” the nick name we used for him as a toddler or “Gaga” the name he was called by Maya before she had all her speach skills worked out.

For the last three weeks, Maya has been attending Farm & Wilderness camp in southern Vermont. The last day is always bittersweet as she says goodbye to her friends. This year her apprenticeship was Rocks and Ropes. In a letter she sent to us she described and illustrated a cantilevered climb which she completed successfully. For the third year running she harvested a chicken for the camp’s end-of-session banquet. Maya has requested that she be allowed to attend camp for a seven-week session in the future. I can barely stand the idea of her being away from us for so long but I also see how she returns from camp each year a stronger, more confident and capable girl with deep friendships. Due to my soccer tournament, I was unable to join Jeanine on the overnight retrieval mission that I look forward to each summer.

The last thing I would have ever expected to encounter while climbing on a glacier is a porcupine. This fellow had wandered onto the glacier and become lost in the maze-like landscape. Weak and stressed from the ordeal we decided that he would not survive without our intervention. The woman who wrangled the porcupine into the backpack deserves most of the credit for the rescue. She was guiding another group of climbers. Once in the backpack, we all took turns carrying the heavier than you would expect porcupine off the glacier and into a forest setting that looked more like his natural habitat. When released he made a quick retreat into the underbrush and we all felt very happy about the rescue.

Our last day in Alaska is mostly spent driving from the Kenai Peninsula back to Anchorage. We found time for a short hike down to a beautiful vista of the Russian River where Jeanine took this nice photograph of me.

We also had just enough time to make a quick sprint to Seward and brief excursion into the Kenai Fjords National Park for views of the Exit Glacier.

I think it is safe to say that our Alaska adventure exceeded our expectations and satisfied a lifelong desire to visit. I hope to return again with the children so that we may share the grandeur and magnificence of this great land with them.

Thus far on our Alaskan safari we have spotted a half dozen or so Coastal Brown Bears (the more accurate term for Grizzly Bears in this region). These sighting have been from about a quarter of a mile away (which many would argue is plenty close). Today, however, our objective is to experience these magnificent creatures in their natural habitats from a more intimate distance. We will fly by seaplane from Homer to Katmai National Park where we will spend the day observing these bears as they fish for salmon, interact with each other, and nap.

We board our de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter (this level of detail is for my brother who is a pilot) from its lake side dock after donning the hip waders we will need to remain dry as we hike around in the bears preferred fishing grounds. The flight to the north end of Katmai takes about an hour and we are very fortunate to have another day of great weather. En route we fly over Augustine Volcano which last erupted in 2006 sending an ash plume 9 miles into the atmosphere. Steam emerges from the lava dome, a reminder that this remains an active volcano. In a state where they stopped counting the number of lakes after they got to 3 million, a float plane is far more practical than any other form of transportation. Our pilot lands on a tiny lake (about 2000 feet long) which lies about 6 miles east of enormous Kukaklek Lake. Here we deplane and hike less than a mile to a nearby river where our pilot spotted bears during our approach. In less than five minutes we spot our first bear and sit down along the bank of the river to observe.

Bears do not view humans as prey (provided you don’t run away from them) nor do they regard us as a threat (provided you don’t surprise them, come between a mother and her cubs, or try to take their food). If you sit quietly they well recognize your presence and then happily ignore you while they go about their business of being bears. Essentially this involves eating and sleeping.

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We returned to Homer by 6pm which still left several hours of sunlight by which to explore. We decided to try and make it to Voznesenka, one of four Russian Old Believer villages on the peninsula. It is situated beyond the end of the paved East End Road, a distance of approximately 23 miles from Homer and the last mile or two is on a gravel road which descends to the sea on a very precarious grade. We wisely opted to abandon the car and make the final approach on foot. Unfortunately the hike turned into more than we bargained for. Having left our day packs (with water and rain gear) at the car and with massive storm clouds rapidly approaching we decided to turn back before we could find our way to the small village. Old Believers separated from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66 and value privacy and seclusion.

We spent the evening at a B&B in Soldotna, a convenient stopping point as we started making our way back to Anchorage for our flight tomorrow.

Our travels today take us to the Kenai Peninsula via Anchorage. Our first stop is in the Dena’ina Athabascan village of Eklutna with a population of 70. It lies 24 miles northeast of Anchorage two miles from the mouth of the Eklutna River at the head of the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. The last of eight villages that existed before construction of the Alaska Railroad brought an influx of American colonists around 1915. First settled more than 800 years ago, it is the oldest inhabited location in the Anchorage area. Russian Orthodox missionaries arrived in the 1840s. The melding of Orthodox Christianity and native practices resulted in the brightly-colored spirit houses which can be seen at the Eklutna Cemetery, in use since 1650 and now a historical park.

We continued on to Anchorage where we stopped for breakfast and a 2 hour tour of the Anchorage Museum, the state’s largest. Displays in the Alaska History Gallery delve into Russian occupation, the gold rush, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center provides a glimpse of the diverse culture of the Alaska Native peoples.

As we continue in the direction of Homer we stop frequently along the Turnagain Arm. Our second time on this scenic highway but the first without rain. We pause briefly at Bird Point which offers exceptional views. The mudflats of Turnagain Arm are treacherous and have caused several deaths over the years. Tides here have an extreme range of 40 ft and are among the highest in the world second only to the Bay of Fundy between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in southeastern Canada.

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We frequently encounter the Russian River, which is of a color I have never seen before and is accurately represented in the photo.

Homer, our destination for the evening, also known as the “Cosmic Hamlet by the Sea” is located on the shores of beautiful Kachemak Bay. Nestled among rolling hills, this seaside and truly seagoing community of 5000 is comprised of artistic and outdoorsy types. The Homer Spit is a geographical landmark which distinguishes the town. The spit is a 4.5-mile long, narrow strip of land jutting out into Kachemak Bay.

During the last four days no flightseeing tours have left Talkeetna due to unsafe conditions (dense clouds while flying small craft between mountain peaks yields poor outcomes). This morning we are thrilled to learn that there has been a break in the weather overnight and that our flight is scheduled to go. We skip our B&B continental breakfast in favor of a more robust and delicious meal at the Roadhouse Inn (I had raspberry and walnut sourdough pancakes – a house specialty) before making our way to the airport. People describe the Denali Park tour as the most amazing flight of their lives. We went in with very high expectations and still were not prepared for the magnificent grandeur we witnessed. The photos and brief video below do not do justice to the experience but may give you a sense of the environment.

After exploring the various glaciers and mountains including a 360 degree view of Mount Denali from the air we landed on Ruth’s Glacier where we had about 30 minutes on the snow covered ice to take in the majesty of the surroundings. The landing involved a series of highly banked turns with our wingtips seemingly feet from the adjacent mountains as we weaved our way down into the valley containing our glacier landing site. The instant the plane’s skis made contact with the snow the captain made a high G-force left turn before running out of glacier and setting us into position for take off. That maneuver triggered an adrenaline rush equivalent to what I remember from my skydiving days.

Denali Flightseeing from Carl Calabria on Vimeo.

For anyone considering a visit to Alaska I would endorse a flightseeing tour of Denali and glacier landing as a must include activity (weather permitting). Upon return to Talkeetna we immediately set off for the Matanuska Glacier, our primary destination for the day where we have a guide scheduled to meet us for a private tour of the glacier and ice climbing instructions for me.

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After being fitted with the necessary crampons and boots (special ones with inflexible sole required for ice climbing) we drove to the base of the glacier and began our ascent. The Matanuska Glacier is a 27 miles long by 4 miles wide valley glacier which flows about 1 foot per day. It is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States. Our guide, Reese, educates us about glaciers and instructs us as to the proper techniques for ascent and descent as we tour the massive blue toned chunk of ice.

Jeanine is content to man the cameras as I do a little bit of technical ice climbing. Reese belays me on an 80 foot ascent which includes traversing a crevasse that is easily 100 feet deep. Very thrilling and very tiring.

As we descend the glacier we encounter another climbing group who have discovered a porcupine stranded on an ice ledge, miles from his native habitat. We collectively decide that absent a rescue this animal will die in short order. The rescue of this porcupine will be the subject of an entire post that I will prepare after returning to Concord.

It has been a long day filled with more beauty than one can imagine. We opt for a Palmer hotel, soft bed, and the opportunity to watch more Olympics over the planned evening of camping in a nearby forest.

We broke camp at 5:30am this morning and enjoyed an unexpectedly tasty breakfast (first experience with dehydrated food which proved quite good, even by Jeanine standards) before catching the 6:30am bus to the park entrance. On the bus we were fortunate to meet and enjoy the company of the Pitcher family from Homer, AK. He is a professional photographer and author of several travel guide books including one of Alaska which he gifted to us. It proved to be far better than the Frommer’s book we had been using and offered many great suggestions which we used for the remainder of our travels.

Today we are destined for the town of Talkeetna. En route we stop at the famous Mary’s McKinley View Lodge for lunch.

Alaska legend Mary Carey came to this area as a widow in the early 1960’s and promptly homesteaded 100 miles from the nearest road at a spot with the best view of McKinley she’d ever seen. Mary Carey was friends with the great bush pilot Don Sheldon and constantly advocated the building of the Parks Highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks to improve access to the Denali National Park. When she wrote to then-governor Bill Egan about the project, he famously replied that, “Alaska already has two roads, how many do you want in one state?” When the Parks Highway was finally constructed in 1973, it passed by her homestead where she built a lodge which offers some of the best views of Mount Denali. She then proceeded to write 16 books, including “Alaska, Not For A Woman.” Ownership of the lodge has passed to her daughter who is also an accomplished author of children’s books.

Rumored to be the inspiration for the television show “Northern Exposure”, Talkeetna is a quirky historic town located at the confluence of the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna Rivers. The townsite was established in 1919 when the railroad surveyed and auctioned 80 lots for $14.25 each. The downtown area is classified as a National Historic Site, with buildings dating from the early 1900s including Nagley’s General Store, Fairview Inn and the Talkeetna Roadhouse where Jeanine discovered Pasties (a Michigan Upper Peninsula food of her childhood – a hearty meat and root vegetable pastry).

Inclement weather conditions cancelled the flightseeing tour of Denali we had reserved for this evening so we booked the first flight in the morning and hoped for better conditions. We settled into our lodging at the Meandering Moose Inn and enjoyed watching the Olympics from a very cozy bed. Click on any photo for a larger view and click again for the full image.

The Denali National Park is serviced by a 91-mile road from the entrance to the mining camp of Kantishna. It runs east to west, north of and roughly parallel to the imposing Alaska Range.  Only a small fraction of the road is paved because permafrost and the freeze-thaw cycle creates an enormous cost for maintaining the road. Only the first 15 miles of the road are available to private vehicles, and beyond this point, visitors must access the interior by park bus. The Wonder Lake campground, our destination for the evening, takes six hours to reach with frequent stops for wildlife sightings (Jeanine spotted the first bear) and rest breaks along the way.

Portions of the road cling to the sides of mountains and are seemingly too narrow to support bi-directional bus traffic. Absent guard rails of any type and sheer cliff drop offs I was happy to be chauffeured by our skilled bus driver who also provided highly informative narrative during our journey.

The view from our campsite was magnificent and our preparations for the infamous mosquitoes (head nets and repellent-treated clothing in additional to normal measures) allowed us to enjoy being outside.

As soon as we established our camp we ventured out for a 6 mile hike on the McKinley Bar trail and later in the day found our way down to Wonder Lake where we relaxed in solitude.

Largely a driving day, we traversed the magnificent 135 mile long Denali Highway (110 miles of it is unpaved). Traveling west, it climbs steeply up into the foothills of the central Alaska Range. Along its length, the highway passes through three of the principal river drainages in Interior Alaska: the Copper River drainage, the Tanana/Yukon drainage and the Susitna drainage. Along the way there are stunning views of the peaks and glaciers of the central Alaska Range, including Mount Hayes (13,700 ft), Mount Hess (11,940 ft) and Mount Deborah (12,688 ft). The first 45 miles winds through the Amphitheater Mountains, cresting at Maclaren Summit, at 4,086 feet the second highest road in Alaska and the location of the Maclaren Lodge where we paused for delicious home made pies that will not soon be forgotten. The road then drops down to the Maclaren River Valley and crosses the Maclaren River, the road winds through the geologically mysterious Crazy Notch and then along the toe of the Denali Clearwater Mountains to the Susitna River. After crossing the Susitna River the road extends across the glaciers outwash plains to the Nenana River, and then down the Nenana River to Cantwell where we spent the evening at the Bluesberry Inn. Opened the year before I was born in 1957, it was the first road access to Denali National Park. Since 1971, primary park access has been via the Parks Highway, and it is now lightly traveled and a great place to encounter wildlife.

We were only slightly surprised to come across a team of sled dogs towing an ATV, no doubt in training for the Iditorad.

We saw more caribou than cars (and a single motorcycle) as we leisurely traversed this primitive landscape.

I woke up with the sun this morning and set out to capture some final images of Cordova before joining Jeanine for breakfast. We then made a return visit to Hartney Bay for our first bear sighting and all this before arriving at the ferry terminal by 6:30am.

The three hour transit to Valdez started with great weather but degraded into a steady rain by the time we reached our destination. We arrived just in time to gather a box lunch in preparation for a 6 hour guided kayaking tour of the Shoup Glacier and adjacent Kittiwake rookery.

Our kayaks and group of six paddlers were taxied by small boat from the port of Valdez to the top of Shoup Bay where we off loaded onto a small beach and then put in for our day on the water. In total we were four kayaks (3 doubles and a single for our guide, Darcy). An all day slow steady rain was the price of entry for a front row seat to a Kittiwake rookery of several thousand birds. We were able to glide within feet of the nesting birds without disturbing them in the least. The presence of an opportunistic Bald Eagle in search of a baby Kittiwake snack, however, would launch the entire colony into a defensive mobbing behavior which is captured in the video below.

Kittiwakes are of two types, black-legged (this colony) and red-legged. They are the only gull species that are exclusively cliff-nesting. We enjoyed watching couples working together constructing and tending to their nests. Several newborns were also present. Shoup Bay has the fastest growing Kittiwake rookery in Prince William Sound with more than 20,000 birds and 6,000 nests. We continued to paddle taking us from the tidal basin containing the rookery to the one into which the Shoup Glacier terminates.

The glacier is simply beautiful, both in color and form. Two rivers carry melt water from beneath the glacier into the bay and have formed massive tunnels. Calving can occur at any moment (except while recording video in anticipation of the event). A sharp cracking noise is followed by a thunderous crash as the ice hits the water. We put ashore twice during the day, once to eat lunch and the second to walk up to and investigate the glacier. We timed our departure to catch the falling tide and had an exciting high speed white water exit as we moved from the inner to outer tidal basin where we rendezvoused with our water taxi.