ALASKA CRUISE 2012
May 23, 2012
In our Memorial Day vacation thru many cities, towns and villages in Alaska, we have to use Princess to transport us, since Alaska do not have road or highway access; the only modes of access involve travel by air, river, or the sea.The Sea Princess, provided our means of transport between the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island.in our Alaskan vacation. We went thru British Columbia in Canada through the Inside Passage to Skagway. In recent years, cruise lines have created a summertime tourism market, mainly connecting the Pacific Northwest to Southeast Alaska and, to a lesser degree, towns along Alaska's gulf coast. The first city we explored was Ketchikan, there were 4 ships in the wharf with over 10,000 people on board as up to four large cruise ships at a time can dock, debarking thousands of passengers. Jewelries abound, MY WIFE enjoyed shopping.The owner of the Carnival Cruise Line owns a diamond mine in Canada, so all the jewel stores in the Caribbean and Alaska are owned by this consortium.
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The upper, twisty fjord is Tracy Arm that we were scheduled to cruise. The ice was too thick in the fjord,
so we went down Endicott instead, the lower, straighter Arm.
One of the most fascinating things is the scoring and resurfacing and grinding that the ice has done to the rock. Everywhere you look, there is the pattern of the ice-carried rocks (and the ice itself) marking the hard rock! Rounded rock was buried under the ice and ground rounded; the pointy mountain tops stuck up above the ice, and so were not ground down.
An amazing rock formation and waterfall
These are the most fantastic rock shapes left from the glaciation. (And notice the waterfall at the right edge.)
The enlargement below gives you a sense of how HUGE these rock cuts are.)
Remember, the rounded mountain tops were UNDER the ice; the pointy guy up behind
stuck up above the ice. So it was REALLY tall ice!
Notice the huge (huge!) rock sitting on the right-side of the waterfall?
Here’s a closer look.
Ha! And they say Texas is a big state!Other Waterfalls
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Like two cathedral towers these stately pines Uplift their fretted summits tipped with cones; The arch beneath them is not built with stones, Not Art but Nature traced these lovely lines, And carved this graceful arabesque of vines; No organ but the wind here sighs and moans, No sepulchre conceals a martyr's bones. No marble bishop on his tomb reclines. Enter! the pavement, carpeted with leaves, Gives back a softened echo to thy tread! Listen! the choir is singing; all the birds, In leafy galleries beneath the eaves, Are singing! listen, ere the sound be fled, And learn there may be worship with out words
 Written all over this great world of ours; Making evident our own creation, In these stars of earth, these tender flowers. And the Poet, faithful and far-seeing, Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part Of the self-same, universal being, Which is throbbing in his brain and heart. Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining, Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day, Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining, Buds that open only to decay |  |
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A time to be reaping a time to be sawing
The green leaves of summer are calling me home
It was good to be young then in the season of plenty
When the catfish are jumping as high as the sky
A time just for plantin' a time just for ploughin'
A time to be courtin' a girl of your own
'Twas so good to be young then to be close to the earth
And to stand by your wife at the moment of birth
A time to be reapin' a time to be sawin'
The green leaves of summer are calling me home
'Twas so good to be young then with the sweet smell of apples
And the owl in the pine tree akinking his eye.
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