A Poem to be Read Upon Scattering My Ashes.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

Mary Frye (1932)

James: I have long ago decided to have my body cremated when I die so that my ashes can be scattered into the soil, the air, the water and into a fire as a final act of giving before being reborn anew. I have always found cemeteries to be odd places--not scary necessarily but just strange in that we section off parts of towns where we collect dead bodies dressed in sumptuous clothing lying in a fancy box.

Even in death we try to cling the body and status by demanding the most ornate coffin, headstone, mausoleum and even dressed in our finest suit or dress as if we are off to a ritzy party. It is somewhat humorous that we try and keep the body preserved in coffins to keep the elements from decomposing it when those elements already exist in those very bodies and have since our birth!!! They are apart of who we are--we can not escape that. We wouldn't exist without those elements.

~Peace to all beings~

Arequipa

Arequipa lies at the foot of the Colca canyon, which is officially the deepest canyon in the world dropping down 3191m (twice as deep as the grand canyon) and surrounded by several high volcanoes Ampato 6310m and Coropuna 6613m. As Peru's second largest city it has little in common with Lima. The architechture of the city is built with a white rock called sillar which gives it an antique sort of feeling.


We ended up arriving after midnight and had no place to stay. We took a cab with another traveller on our bus and found a hostel with vacancy (pictured below). Arequipa is at an alitutde of 2350m but we didn't seem too affected by the air so we walked around the main plaza of the city, enjoyed an alpaca steak, and explored a few extra neighbourhoods. We visited the museum of Juanita the Ice Princess where a real mummy is kept. She was a young girl that the Inca brought to the summit of Ampato and sacrificed to the gods. They call her the ice princess because she was found frozen but when they returned to excavate the tomb they found that due to recent nearby eruptions the ice had melted and they found her rolled down the mountain. They believe that she had been chosen at birth to be sacrificed because as well being buried with several artifacts and jewelry they found her umbilical cord in her tomb. Although our Inca trail guide disputes the fact that she was sacrificed (instead simply buried) it was still a fairly interesting exhibit. The main plaza is flanked by La Catedral which is one of less than 100 basilicas in the world that is allowed to display the vatican flag. About 17 km from the plaza lies the active volcano El Misti which most recently erupted in 2000.



The next day we decided to do a tour of the Colca Canyon. The night before I had some pretty intense fever dreams. I could not stop repeating the word 'hospedaje' (hostel or lodging in spanish), so I barely slept and the bus was supposed to pick us up at 230, which showed up at around 400. Then we drove 3 hours to Chivay in a tiny bus with negative space for your legs driving back and forth up switchbacks to Chivay which is 3630m high. After lunch the bus trip got even worse, driving about an hour on an unpaved gravel road to an altitude of 3795m. This is where we got to see some wild Andean condors. They were actually quite magnificent and we watched them fly right over our heads for about 10 minutes, and there certainly was no lack of other tourists there either. After the condors disappeared we started to feel the altitude. It really is a strange feeling to be at altitude. You feel tired pretty much all of the time and walking up a flight of stairs makes you completely out of breath. Also the sun is extremely hot and you can get suburned easily yet the air is still very cold. Well altitude sickness combined with a fever does not mix very well. It was about 900 and I was done for the day. All I did was sleep in the bus as our guide rambled on about Alpacas, Llamas, terraces, mountainside tombs.



I did manage to get some information in my stupor however. There are quite a few villages in the canyon where people survive mostly off farming. There are over 25,000 terraces (pictured below) that were mostly built by the Incas. Though only about 5,000 are used now it is quite an impressive sight. There are also several places where the Inca built tombs on the sides of mountains to bury their dead. This wasn't done as a sacrifice but instead they saw the mountains as protectors and in the afterlife they would be safe.

Black Friday Earns Its Name.

(PHOTO: Crowds push through doorway on Black Friday to buy products on sale)

As man of you know yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in America, which is a day when friends and family come together to celebrate all the things that they are thankful for during the past year. It has also become an orgy of eating as much food as can possibly eaten. I myself find it odd to be thankful for having food to eat and then engorge yourself on more food than necessary when a good portion of that food could have been donated to homeless shelters.

Well given America's great lust for buying and owning "things" the day after Thanksgiving (today) has turned into what people call "Black Friday." Black is the term used to describe when a company/business makes a profit, (red being losing money) and Friday being the day after Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping day of the year. There are often great deals on this day with retailers offering many products at much lower prices. This often creates long lines of people who are looking to buy up these discounted products and people often wait over-night for the stores to open. It's considered the official start of the Christmas/Chanukkah shopping season.

Black is also a traditional color of mourning the death of friends and family.

This year there was one store where the crowd was so large and built up pressing on the doors that the store clerk was trampled and killed by the stampeding crowd racing to snatch up the discounted items!! AND a pregnant woman was injured so bad that she miscarried her child!!

(UPDATE: Two people were killed by gunshots at a Toys R Us toy store in California. Two teen-age girls were seen fighting over something in the electronics area of the store when a third person who accompanied one of the girls fired a gun).

There is no better example of the kind of suffering that is created through greed then these tragic story. So much of the stuff we buy ends up tossed in the trash bin after a few months of enjoyment of these products before moving on to the next gadget. We have literally become a throw away society, which now apparently includes life. We are willing to put the lives of others in danger for just the possibility of "happiness" through money and gadgets.

But it's not about denying myself of all gadgets and "things" but rather finding that glorious middle-way, which allows enjoying some of what the world has to offer yet with moderation. I, nor anyone else I know needs something so bad that I will line up at 3a.m. with a rowdy, pushy, selfish crowd of people willing to jostle, shove and apparently trample others to buy up the store. It is extremely sad that the Christmas gift giving tradition once being a way to remember and learn to give to others as those who gave gifts to Jesus upon his supposed birth did has turned into this animalistic tradition of mayhem and greed.

I try my best to be happy with what I have and to be responsible in what I buy and how I buy it. I find it sickeningly ironic to push someone out of the way and fight over products and position in line to bring some happiness to your child, friend or brother. It's making someone else suffer so that you can bring just the possibility of a little happiness to someone else. Is it really worth it? Not to me. I prefer people wanting to buy me something to donate to a charity in my name.

~Peace to all beings~

Nazca

Nazca is only about two hours from Ica so we arrived in Nazca in the afternoon and was it ever hot in the desert. We got a hostel and then explored the town a little in an attempt to find somewhere to do a sobrevuelo (overflight) of the Nazca lines. Hostels are often in cahoots with particular tour companies and I'm fairly sure these arrangements are entirely informal and probably drive up the price due to the convenience factor. We ended up paying extra for a smaller three passenger Cessna that can fly at about 1700 ft. This meant that we got to circle each geoglyph twice at a fairly good distance. After going through an extremely paltry security check in the airport we were on the tarmac and ready to go. We spoke earlier with some Australian folks who had gone taken a flight earlier and they said to not eat before hand since the flight is quite turbulent, unfortunately they told us this over lunch just before we left for the airport. Well the pilot flew us to each geoglyph and banked sharply to give us a straight down look at each symbol. All the banking from left to right and back again can definitely make the stomach turn a little but luckily none of us lost our lunch. Although even myself, who never experiences nausea associate with vehicles felt a little wobbly after getting out of the plane. The entire fight was only about 25 minutes but was definitely all we could take with those maneuvers. (click photos for better view)

Alcatraz

Let me explain these geoglyph a little. They were constructed about 500 years ago by the Nazca people who lived in this area and built these massive symbol in the sand. This was done by removing the top layer of oxidized (rusted) sand and rock to reveal the lighter coloured earth underneath. Some of the symbols are over 270m in length while others are as small as 40m. The Nazca desert has very stable weather and virtually no wind so the symbols are still visible today. There are more symbols than I was able to photograph, there are several hundred that are mostly simple lines or geometric shapes and a few dozen that resemble animals, plants or people. No one knows for sure what the purpose of all these designs for though it seems that they had some sort of religious significance. Though that surely hasn't stopped people from attributing hundreds of paranormal theories to the lines (especially the human figure they call 'The Astronaut' or 'The Extraterrestrial').

Monkey

You will notice that some of the figures have lines going straight through them. Some of these lines were also built by the Nazca and represent solstice lines. Others are erosion from human activity. Like many of the sights in Peru the lines have their own preservation difficulties. They are impossible to notice from the ground so people have unknowingly built in and around them. Also the Pan-American was built straight through the tail of the lizard (not pictured). There is however quite a bit of concern that the lines could disappear if weather conditions change and more rainfall occurs since the lines are only 10-30 cm deep.

Condor
Calibri (Hummingbird)
The Astronaut
Whale
Tree
Trapezoid
Rectangle
Perrito (Dog)
Parrot
Hands
Spider

And to continue the bird theme a museum we visited had a peacock family living in their courtyard.

Josef Fritzl, Buddhism and Angulimal.

Incest monster Josef Fritzl says he's turned to Buddhism - and wants doctors to help cure him so he can be reunited with his wife Rosemarie. Fritzl spends much of his 23 hours a day in his cell studying the peaceful Far Eastern philosophy and is considering formally changing his religion in prison.

Speaking through his lawyer Rudolf Mayer, Fritzl said that he has found a lot of comfort in reading Buddhist literature and finds the religion "fascinating". Fritzl first discovered Buddhism on a family holiday in Thailand but has only started studying the religion in depth while behind bars.

Fritzl's facing the rest of his life in jail after imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave in a home-made cell under the family home in Amstetten, Austria. She was locked up for 24 years where she gave birth to seven of his children. An eighth child was miscarried.

James: Clearly Mr. Fritzl is extremely mentally disturbed and needs to be imprisoned to protect innocent people from his horrific impulses. However, as a Buddhist who stands against killing human beings I stand against the death penalty for even this deranged man. It's hard to find any good in a human being such as this Fritzl but he is afterall a fellow sentient being and as I am a believer in karma I feel that his punishment has already but laid out by his actions, which will extend probably into several lifetimes.

I've never done anything nearly as horrible and disgusting as this man but I do know something about how Buddhism can heal and bring about personal change and growth. I use to be a very bitter, angry nihilist who wasn't taking medication for my severe mental illness and at my lowest wanted to blow up the entire world with nuclear weapons. Living in a psychoticly deluded state of mind I thought such a destruction would be doing everyone a service because of all the suffering. This was of course before I discovered Buddhism and now I'm as peaceful as I have ever been in my life and I literally don't hurt a fly.

I hope that Mr. Fritzl will benefit from the greatness that Buddha and the Dharma have to offer. I hope that none of my readers assume that this man has no more value to this world because of his horrific crimes. If so consider the example of the seriel killer Angulimal and Buddha:

Angulimal means a man who wears a garland of human fingers. He had taken a vow that he would kill one thousand people; from each single person he would take one finger so that he could remember how many he had killed and he will make a garland of all those fingers. In his garland of fingers he had nine hundred and ninety-nine fingers--only one was missing. And that one was missing because his road was closed; nobody was coming that way. But Gautama Buddha entered that closed road.

The guards said to Buddha, "Don't unnecessarily take the risk." And do you know what Buddha said to them? Buddha said, "If I don't go then who will go? Only two things are possible: either I will change him, and I cannot miss this challenge; or I will provide him with one finger so that his desire is fulfilled. A very beautiful man of such immense charisma was coming towards him [Angulimal]. Who could this man be? He had never heard of Gautama Buddha, but even this hard heart of Angulimal started feeling a certain softness towards the man. He was looking so beautiful, coming towards him. It was early morning... a cool breeze, and the sun was rising... and the birds were singing and the flowers had opened; and Buddha was coming closer and closer.

Finally Angulimal, with his naked sword in his hand, shouted, "Stop!" Gautama Buddha was just a few feet away, and Angulimal said, "Don't take another step because then the responsibility will not be mine. Perhaps you don't know who I am!" Buddha said, "Do you know who you are?" Angulimal said, "This is not the point. Neither is it the place nor the time to discuss such things. Your life is in danger!" Buddha said, "I think otherwise--your life is in danger." That man said, "I used to think I was mad--you are really mad! And you go on moving closer. Then don't say that I killed an innocent man. You look so innocent and so beautiful that I want you to go back. I will find somebody else. I can wait; there is no hurry. If I can manage nine hundred and ninety-nine... it is only a question of one more, but don't force me to kill you."

Buddha came very close, and Angulimal's hands were trembling. The man was so beautiful, so innocent, so childlike. He had already fallen in love. He had killed so many people... He had never felt this weakness; he had never known what love is. For the first time he was full of love. So there was a contradiction: the hand was holding the sword to kill the person, and his heart was saying, "Put the sword back in the sheath." Buddha said, "I am ready, but why is your hand shaking?--you are such a great warrior, even kings are afraid of you, and I am just a poor beggar. Except the begging bowl, I don't have anything. You can kill me, and I will feel immensely satisfied that at least my death fulfills somebody's desire; my life has been useful, my death has also been useful.

But before you cut my head I have a small desire, and I think you will grant me a small desire before killing me." Before death, even the hardest enemy is willing to fulfill any desire. Angulimal said, "What do you want?" Buddha said, "I want you just to cut from the tree a branch which is full of flowers. I will never see these flowers again; I want to see those flowers closely, feel their fragrance and their beauty in this morning sun, their glory." So Angulimal cut with his sword a whole branch full of flowers. And before he could give it to Buddha, Buddha said, "This was only half the desire; the other half is, please put the branch back on the tree." Angulimal said, "I was thinking from the very beginning that you are crazy. Now this is the craziest desire. How can I put this branch back?"

Buddha said, "If you cannot create, you have no right to destroy. If you cannot give life, you don't have the right to give death to any living thing." A moment of silence and a moment of transformation... the sword fell down from his hands. Angulimal fell down at the feet of Gautam Buddha, and he said, "I don't know who you are, but whoever you are, take me to the same space in which you are; initiate me." By that time the followers of Gautam Buddha had come closer and closer. They were all around and when he fell at Buddha's feet they immediately came close. Somebody raised the question, "Don't initiate this man, he is a murderer!"

Buddha said again, "If I don't initiate him, who will initiate him? And I love the man, I love his courage. And I can see tremendous possibility in him: a single man fighting against the whole world. I want this kind of people, who can stand against the whole world. Up to now he was standing against the world with a sword; now he will stand against the world with a consciousness, which is far sharper than any sword. I told you that murder was going to happen, but it was not certain who was going to be murdered--either I was going to be murdered, or Angulimal. Now you can see Angulimal is murdered. And who I am to judge?"

James: I don't want nor have the right to deny someone looking for help the Dharma and I truly hope that this man will find relief and clarity from Buddhism and begin to make ammends for his horrific crimes.

~Peace to all beings~

Huacachina

The day after Miraflores we took a 5 hour bus ride down the Pan-American highway to Ica and then to a small suburb of Huacachina. I doubt it even qualifies as a suburb, it is more of a lagoon surrounded by some hostels (ours had a chicken I guess) and restaurants. It is nestled in the middle of a desert with dunes towering over all sides of the town. After another delicious meal we explored around the lagoon and then went on a dune buggy ride to do some sand boarding. If you are curious sand boarding is a sure fire way to cram sand into every cranny of your body. You have two choices to get down the dunes: 1) Careen down head first with the board on your stomach 2) Strap yourself in and board down on your feet. While the latter takes more skill the former gets you much more speed since sand boarding usually brings a lot of sand up over your board and slows you down. I chose to board down and after a couple of runs you can get the hang of it though turning is next to impossible. I am proud to say I did not wipe out at all but somehow still managed to be completely covered in sand.

Strangely enough the previous peruvian driving rules did not apply to the dune buggy, though I guess the sand dunes don't have any rules either so it is tough to break them. Our driver did manage to get stuck on the top of a dune with his wheels hanging off the edge. So all the guys had to push him out and somehow I managed to get stuck being the one to push from behind the buddy right next to the engine. As he hit the gas all I could do was shut my eyes and mouth as tight as possible and push, I'm sure a picture would have been hillarious. After our last sand board our guide took us to a nice desert oasis that had some goats (I think) and then we were off to watch the sunset over the dunes.



Upon returning to the hostel we went for a swim in their pool to get rid of (most) of the sand and then head off for dinner. Huacachina is an awesome little town and definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip.


I also got a chance to see some interesting birds in Peru and for Tori I really tried to photograph as many as possible. In Huacachina I got two pretty good photos. Above you can see a Guanay Cormorant sitting on a rowboat with a large dune and sand boarders behind the lagoon. Next we have a Vermilion Flycatcher. This little guy is an attractively coloured male.

Lima

We landed in Lima in the late evening and our first peruvian experience was with the zealous taxi drivers (really drivers in general). We learned several things: 1) There will almost certainly be a missing piece to your seatbelt, either the buckle or belt. 2) Peruvians enjoy some strange music. 3) There is always one more lane than there are lines for. 4) Using your horn is mandatory in all situations (even when there are no other cars around).


After arriving at our hostel safe and sound we met some friendly Vancouverites and chatted for a bit before heading to bed. The next day we visited the Monasterio de San Francisco in downtown Lima. This is a church dating back to before 1687 and has survived several earthquakes. As with most churches the architecture was incredible. There was a domed ceiling made from wood that was held up using only the force from each piece put together, i.e. there are no nails or glue. Also underneath it there was an estimated 70,000 burials in the catacombs which were very well built but not very well preserved.


The next day we attempted to do some surfing at a beach in the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores. We got a reference from Pepe and found a man named Robert who we rented a few boards from. After Mike and I received some quick instructions we learned that we are experts at surfing benches on concrete. The water was actually quite nice if you had a wetsuit on. Surfing on the other hand was not so nice. It is extremely tiring trying to paddle over the waves that are coming in. I severely underestimated their size and paddled out much further than I should have. After trying to get up a few times I was pretty exhausted but stayed out. Eventually I made my way over close to a pier that jutted out from a rock wall (pictured below). That's when I got pummeled by a huge wave. I swam back to my board only to be destroyed again by an equally sized wave. Repeated two more times and I had no energy left to paddle away from the pier's legs which were about 40 feet away. I gave up and simply let the waves carry me, which they did all the way back to the shore. I laid on the rocks for about 20 minutes before even attempting to carry the board back down the beach to meet Mike. Needless to say I doubt I will be attempting to surf again for a while. The rest of the day we explored Miraflores and had a delicious lunch. You can actually parasail off the cliffs though we didn't see anyone actually jump we did see one gentleman playing with a chute.


Overall Lima was much nicer than I thought it would be for a city with 7 million people. A pleasant surprise.

Peru

Mike, Ryan, and myself recently returned from a trip to Peru so I am going to attempt to convey our journey across the country. It is a spectacular country to visit and I highly recommend the trip to anyone who has considered traveling there. I dragged my D200 around for 18 days (with a more or less constant worry about it) so I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World from Hottest Tots and Celebrity Couples

Forbes' Hottest Hollywood Tots is such a crock of publicity horse cocky, I want to steam myself under a hot shower for the next fifteen minutes just to loosen the dibbles.

Joel McHale said exactly what was on my mind - why in the world is Forbes magazine venturing into the world of celebrity fluffaby? Did editors throw the financial sector overboard now that America is knee deep in meltdown economics?

"Oh, we can't break even publishing financial pontifications. Let's add a celebrity toddlers hot or not contest. That'll bring in people clicking like mad."

You'd better believe I'm mad, uptight and mad's more like it. Mad that I had to click through five crappy millileters each time I wanted more information about the listed tots. Boy, Forbes' stuff must really be in the toilet to milk so much out of celebrity gossip.

So I'm ending the shennanigans right now by printing their ridiculous exercise in self-preservation, saving you, dear reader, the torture of suffering through another gazilllion of pages from hell.

10. Samantha Sheen (Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen)
9. Sean and Preston Federline (Britney and Fed-Ex)
8. David Banda (Madonna)
7. Matilda Rose Ledger (Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger)
6. Cruz Beckham (Posh and Becks)
5. Sam Alexis Woods (Tiger and Elin Woods)
4-2. Pax, Zahara, and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt (in that order)(Brangelina)
1. Suri Cruise (TomKat)

And as long as we're on the subject, I have only this to ask ... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

How could anyone in their right mind include tug-of-war toy David Banda but omit Kingston Rossdale? Or Johan Samuel? Or Harlow Winter Kate Madden, for that matter?

And what about the inferiority complexes foisted upon helpless and defenseless celebritots who through no fault of their own are subjected to arbitrary and capricious rejection every time they hear the name "Forbes?" It's not like these children ask to be paraded around like a traveling museum. The least we can do is feign a little respect for their privacy.

Not so when it comes to 2008's Best and Worst Celebrity Couples list. You'll also slog through a ton of advertising, but at the end of the day, won't feel any worse for the wear.

Unlike hot to trot celebritots, there's the trade-off component of choosing a profession that unfolds in the public eye. Celebrities expect and anticipate a certain amount of ogle. It's the American way, for goodness sake!

For those reasons and the fact that only one couple per family posted in the best and worst section, no spoilers about 2008's Best and Worse. Go ahead, get your hands dirty.

I won't tell if you won't.

Nothing Lasts Forever.

Body impermanent like spring mist;

mind insubstantial like empty sky;

thoughts unestablished like breezes in space.

Think about these three points over and over.

-Adept Godrakpa, "Hermit of Go Cliffs"

James: I've been meditating over these verses for awhile now and the essence that I feel from these lines is one of liberation from the chains that keep me anchored in the deep bedrock of the ego-self. Reminding myself of the impermanance of the body emphasizes that the disease schizoffective disorder, which clouds my brain at times is merely a guest in the present moment of this birth/life.

A spring mist can dangerouslly cloud ones path and confuse a hiker climbing a mountain, which could cause him/her to fall off a cliff. However, if the hiker patiently sits still and is mindful of his/her surroudings then soon pockets of sky will appear again and the route becomes clearer. It's the same when dealing with a mental disorder.

Because forcing my way through cloudy "misty" states of mind that come with schizoaffective disorder makes things worse and leads to decisions that are inherent with danger. Living with a mental disorder gives a person plenty of chances to accept that the mind isn't the ally that we often believe it to be. The power of the mind to control my life is stripped in accepting that the thoughts the mind produces are usually nothing more than projections on a movie screen.

The mind can only be trusted to protect itself.

PHOTO CREDIT: Water Rock Knob, near the North Carolina/Tennessee border of the Blue Ridge Parkway. By Mr.icon on Flickr.

~Peace to all beings~

Sarah Palin and the Slaughtered Turkey.

Alaska Governor Sara Palin sitting with a dead bear carcass. Killing an animal to use the dead body for decoration is disrespecting life in you want my opinion.

On Thursday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving. This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event. But what came next was positively surreal. After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!! Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes. Watch the video below to see for yourself. Be warned, it's kind of gruesome.James: Yes it's gruesome but it should be gruesome because we're talking about slaughtering another living being. People should be able to stand watching the animal that they are about to eat on Thanksgiving be killed. If you want to eat meat then I think you should be prepared to kill the animal yourself because someone has to do that for you for every scrap of meat that you eat. If you don't think that you can do it like I didn't then you might want to become a vegetarian.

This ironically occurred while yesterday a hidden video caught workers at a turkey farm throwing the animals against the floor, kicking them and abusing them in other ways. I hardly even remember what Palin said during this video with the brutality occuring in the background.

A reporter asked Palin if she was okay with the backdrop. The Alaskan Governor answered, "no worries." As the bird's head was removed, the man looked over his shoulder at the governor and reporters and flashed a toothy grin.

I understand people having to eat meat because their survival depends upon it but now many of us can survive and live well without meat. In closing, I leave you with the words of the great Mahatma Gandhi: The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

---End of Transmission---

Fourth of July, 2008

Maree's parents are in the Auxiliary Coast Guard. They have a boat called Arctic LunaSea, and they regularly patrol the western portion of Prince William Sound during the summer months. They always invite us out on the boat, which has plenty of room at 38 feet of length. Unfortunately for me, because i work weekends i can almost never go. This year though, Fourth of July was on a Friday,  so i took advantage of a rare weekend off to spend a few nights on the boat. 

We got to the docks at Whittier on Thursday evening, and were treated to a rare kind of fireworks display at midnight. Considering only 200 people live in Whittier year round, they had a very long show. Due to the the fact that Whittier is situated in a steep fjord with several high mountain valleys joining in on the sides, the fireworks created some insane sounds. The explosions would echo up a valley, then 8 seconds later make their way back across to the walls on the other side, at a lower pitch, and so on, until the sound was completely garbled. When the show was in full force it sounded like slow moving avalanches falling down the mountains all around. The sound was more entertaining to me than the fireworks.

I put this one up here big so you could see the birds flying along the shore. The Billings Glacier is the first you see as you leave Whittier.

The next day, we awoke to a dreary, almost foggy day. Pretty typical for Whittier, and in this case, typical of our ENTIRE SUMMER. It was the cloudiest summer ever, literally, as far as i know, and i did virtually nothing because of it.  Alaska still looked pretty cool that morning in the harbor.

It had been years since i'd been out in Prince William Sound, and i was looking forward to going someplace new. I'd heard some disheartening rumors about conditions in the area, and was about to verify that they were true. At the end of April we had this insane blizzard that TRIPLED the record for the whole month. That was in Anchorage, and was the first sign that our summer was going to suck.  Anchorage though, was just on the very edge of that monster, and it was Prince William Sound that bore the brunt of the storm. Now it was July, and as we made our way through the archipelago, i was stunned to see snow all the way down to sea level in some areas. Again, it was JULY. I've never seen anything like that. There was no way all the snow was going to melt before winter returned.

There was way too much snow around for July. Did i mention that although New Zealand is really cool, Alaska blows it away when it comes to mountains, glaciers and scale? New Zealand has an infinitely better trail system.

We headed east, then south, through Cullrose Passage, across Port Nellie Juan, and into Blue Fjord, where we pulled into a small sheltered bay for the evening. It's funny how things work out in the sound. Although it seems like you are in remote Alaskan wilderness, everyone in the area darts into a bay at a certain time of day. We had been anchored for less than half an hour before two other boats showed up just because they saw us there. 

The Arctic LunaSea anchors in for the day. Not a bad spot to spend the night.

One of the boats was a fishing boat from Cordova, quite some distance away. The other was a sailboat with three people in it who had been stuck in that thing for over 3 months. They had sailed up from Hawaii and were making their way to Seattle. Each one of them, taking turns, went over to the shore to walk around and be alone for a short time, then returning, gave one of the others their turn at momentary seclusion. I think i'd go nuts in that situation.

ROW WOMAN! ROW! Maree likes to row,  for reasons i don't understand. I rowed on the way back.


A nifty low-tide-only waterfall.

Maree and I went to shore to explore. I thought we were on an island, but we actually were on the mainland in an area that is cut off from the rest of Alaska by the Sargent Icefields. I'd wanted to see the Sargent Icefields for years and even though it was cloudy with intermittent rain i was able to catch a few glimpses of it's edge late in the day. The Sargent Icefield is huge, around 500 square miles, and virtually no information about it is available online.

It was the lowest tide of the month, and it revealed all kinds of neat stuff.

Thick braids of algae thrived where fresh water streams flowed into the sea.

We'd been on exactly the same kind of terrain a few years ago on Cullrose Island. The shoreline was heavily vegetated, but just past that it opened up into weird spongy fairyland type of meadows, or maybe a very soggy golf course. There were shallow little pools all over the place, sometimes the ground squished, and on steep slopes you had to look out for the ground giving out under your shoes and sliding away.

The snow had literally just melted on the low parts of the land. New plants and grass were sprouting up out of the soggy soil.

Maree took some pictures of the flora.

A neighboring bay.

Me rummaging through my pack. 

The next day was much rainier. We went to an place called Greystone. It's a granite half dome in a bay with a white sand beach. I'd been able to see it from a distance the previous night but today it was hidden in clouds. The whole place was very nice looking, and apparently there are some outfitters who will drop you off to kayak and camp for a day or two and then come pick you up and drop you off somewhere else.  We headed back to Whittier, making one stop at a shipwreck, and the weather gradually improved.

Maree took this picture of a white sand beach. This granite mountain rose up into a Yosemite style half dome, unfortunately obscured by clouds, but visible the previous evening. 

The Sierra Nevada like slopes on the back of the half dome.

There were a million of these.