Daily Life

Day 184: We Interupt This Ketchikan Travelogue…

Friday, July 3, 2009

…To Bring You This Special Announcement!

Grandson “LugNut” Nick has declared himself the Blue Plate Special!

(Despite having a white plate…)

He did not inform the kitchen staff at Chez Barrow prior to this evening’s meal, or he would have been provided WITH a blue plate.

In addition to being the New Blue Plate Special, Young Lugnut is also an avant garde artist, currently specializing in Food as media.

Young Lugnut is sorry to report that there is SOMEONE vandalizing his great works with a washcloth…

…a reward is being considered.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Ketchikan Travelogue…only slightly out of order…

(Don’t forget: click to enlarge, BACK to return!)

~GrandPop in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Family, Food, Humor, Life at Home, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (0)

Day 179: boats and floats, Part 2

Friday, July 3, 2009

Two cute little salvage boats.

And an even cuter ferry: it is almost as wide as long!

A stern wheeler and airplane.

This is my favorite little boat of the cruise: he is tied up there on the end of the barge…

…and is much taller than wide or long! I think seaworthiness might be in question if not tied to something bigger than it is!

Watch fast! Don’t blink! Did ‘ja miss it?

Not a cruise ship, but one of the Alaska Maritime Highway Ferries.

People aboard.

There she goes.

I almost started looking for TC and Thomas.

A sweet looking yacht, from the old school.

A fast sport fishing boat.

An Otter, an upgrade Beaver, landing.

~Curtis in /\/\onTana!! {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (0)

Day 179: boats and floats, Part 1

Friday, July 3, 2009

This place is just full of things that float and fly…I have a collection of them here and in the next part of this post. I will dispense with the photo info on them. If anyone needs to know the exif data it is either findable on the image, or write to me. Don’t forget: Click to enlarge, BACK to return!

When we first got up we saw this little vessel, complete with heliport and helicopter!

Then this sport fishing boat cruised by.

In this part of Alaska, almost everything goes by boat. The Island Tug, below, provides that service. The Tugs haul barges to and from the lower 48 States.

People and businesses order up what they need from the lower 48, then when their shipping container is full, it gets put on a barge like this and up it comes! Behind the barge is Ketchikan’s airport. This is where the Bridge To Nowhere was to be. Any bridge here has to be high enough to let the ships under it, and these cruise ships are very tall. The Bridge was up to about $435,000,000 when it became a liability in Congress. There are actually on 56 people living on that island, and some figured out that you could by EACH of them their very own Gulf Stream II jet for less than the cost of the Bridge. It is a five minute ferry ride…

Businesses and homes have docks for the float planes.

Another cruise ship, but much, much smaller than ours!

A nice looking craft tied up along side Safeway.

A bigger cruise ship!

A Fast Cat catamaran ferry boat. They come with airplane seats and nowhere outside to stand…the run at 40mph+ and it is too windy for open decks. I took one from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland back in 2000 on a motorcycle trip. It took about two hours to get there, and eight hours to return on a regular ferry.

A Beaver, THE airplane for the bush and elsewhere in Alaska!

Another Beaver.

Ketchikan Shipyard No. 1.

An Otter, the updated Beaver, arriving in Ketchikan.

Stand by for Part 2!

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (0)

Day 178: Early Morning Ketchikan…

Friday, July 3, 2009

It turns out we weren’t the only ones arriving early in Ketchikan, just the first!

(Nikon Coolpix L11 on Automatic)

Here is a closer view of the Zaandam:

(1/1600, f8, 30mm, ISO 400)

Of course, being a smaller ship, it has palm trees, island grass and a mountain with waterfall…

(1/1600, f8, 135mm, ISO 400)

(1/1000, f8, 28mm, ISO 400)

Easing into the dock….

(1/400, f8, 40mm, ISO 100)

I think the only reason all these cruise ships can operate up in Alaskan waters is the side thrusters. They make docking easy, and tugboat-less! Note the town behind the Zaandam; it is the original Ketchikan downtown and is now where all the tourist shops are. We got to stroll through it a bit later.

(1/1000, f8, 110mm, ISO 400)

~Curtis {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (0)

Day 177: Early in the morning…

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

I woke early on our day to reach Ketchikan. Not from excitement. From the light coming in our balcony door. It was just past the full moon, and at 3:37am Alaska Time I couldn’t sleep…

These were taken in the channel leading north to Ketchikan over a period of about an hour, from 3:37am to 4:39am. There has been some post-processing, but not too much. All are sized at 1440×960 for wallpaper!

(1/50, f4.6, 25mm, ISO 1250, Canon 17-40mm L)

The one above and the one below are very similar, yet subtley different. They were taken sequentially.

(1/50, f4.6, 23mm, ISO 1250, Canon 17-40mm L)

As we moved north the Moon eventually slid over the mountain.

(1/125, f4.6, 40mm, ISO 1250, Canon 17-40mm L)

(1/160, f8, 28mm, ISO 400, Canon 17-40mm L)

And of course, one of my favorite subjects, the Moon itself. I think this turned out very good, and I only used my 28-135mm IS lens. This is a 100% full sized Moon. I just cropped the rest of the black out.

(1/125, f8, 135mm, ISO 400, Canon 28-135mm IS)

And a Moon/Sunrise photo a bit different than the rest.

(1/640, f8, 28mm, ISO 400)

Now, on to Ketchikan!

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, Astronomy, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (1)

Day 176: Back to Ketchikan

Monday, June 29, 2009

I gave Ketchikan a bit of a miss in these posts, so I am returning there for a few moments. This is very early on the morning of the 10th of June, 2009, steaming towards Ketchikan. I was on deck with my trusty little Nikon Coolpix L11. It was cold, clear and deserted. Just the time to push the limits of this little camera. These exposures are all automatic, but generally are 1/4 to 1 second in exposure, and about 800 ISO. They are all handheld, but I did prop the camera on the railing for a couple. The only processing I have done is to reduce the photos to 25% in size, and to sharpen them. This is looking towards the bow.

Looking back along the deck overlooking the pool deck. That red dot on the left above the ship’s rail is the Moon rising.

Looking to the starboard side of the vessel we see the lights of Prince Rupert, BC, Canada.

Or not. But it is out that way somewhere…

Some of the many radars above the top level deck.

Looking back over the pool deck at the superstructure and exhaust funnel.

Aft along the starboard rail, towards the Moon.

One last handheld, unbraced look at the Moon going down in flames…

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (1)

Day 175: Back in Juneau, Part 2

Monday, June 29, 2009

We entered this slightly upscale souvenir shop with a jewelry counter (they all seemed to have them…apparently jewelry makes a great souvenir, and I am not talking about moose shaped charm bracelets either! Although I am sure they could be found too…I am waiting for our credit card bill to arrive…). The guy behind the counter saw my camera and started in with “Are you a photographer? Can you take my picture?” So I did. As we wandered on I heard him saying to another clerk “He DID take my picture!!!”. Now he is spread all over the Internet! Or at least the little bit protruding from Barrowroad…

This is a lifeboat on another cruise ship that was docked in Juneau. All the ships seem to have about the same lifeboats. I think if a guy could get one of these hulls and tops moderately cheap, he’d have the makings of a really nice house boat!

There is one highway to the ships from downtown, and it was full.

Outside of one of the many, many Tee Shirt shops. Not our only bear sighting, however!

Leslee spotted this crane under a dock.

And of course we had a short delay while the flowers were documented.

Once back on board we felt much like this, after the time on the boat Whale Watching, lunch at the Red Dog Saloon, the crowd downtown, and the walk back.

A good view of Juneau, the ship docked behind us and the one anchored in the harbour. You can see the lifeboat doing ferry duty. Just behind the left hand ship is a bridge over the canal Juneau sits on. From here you have to backtrack a couple miles to the main channel before heading north again.

(1/800, f8, 28mm, ISO 200, two images stitched together in MS ICE)

Here is the whole Juneau Harbour.

(1/400, f8, 28mm, ISO 200, nine images stitched together in MS ICE)

And so ends our “Whale” of a day in the capital of Alsaka!

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography, Wildlife | Comments (1)

Day 174: Back in Juneau, Part 1

Monday, June 29, 2009

A quick selection of snapshots from Juneau after we returned from our Whaling Expedition!

The World Famous (or Infamous):

And of course, the required swinging doors:

Inside it was a good fast lunch operation. This is in the loft.

(Nikon Coolpix L11, three shots stitched together in MS ICE)

Lots of people here…this is looking up at the loft. It was just about sitting room only when we arrived.

A look down from the loft. There were only three cruise ships in town; what would it be like if all eight that could fit were there at once? The piano player was very good, with all the old Alaska/frontier songs. When I first heard the selections, I was sure it was a recording. It wasn’t!

Wayatt Earp came through and checked his gun with the US Marshall as required; he couldn’t get it back when he left because the office wasn’t open yet. Bureaucrats.

What do you want to bet this wasn’t the only one he had with him? {!-{>

Once out in the sunlight again, what did I see (how could anyone miss it???) but the brightest yellow hot rod!

And a really nice 1800 Gold Wing Trike…

And even a couple of nice HarleyDavidsonTheBests as my GrandDad LA once told me my dear Pop called them.

Of course, then I turned around, looking down the main commercial street in Juneau, and what do I see but the Yellow Hot Rod again! Well, there are only about 23 miles of highway in Juneau or such: you get here by air or sea only! So “cruisin’ the drag” becomes “cruisin’ the whole highway system” by default. Our cruise ship, the Island Princess, is at the end of the street.

Looking the other way we see:

The Governor’s Mansion and State Capital are up the street. We saw them briefly from the bus ride to the Whale Watching, but I didn’t get to photograph them. Sarah P. wasn’t there anyway.

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Alaskan Cruise 2009!, Motorcycles, On the Road, PAD 2009, Photography | Comments (0)

Day 173, Back to the Whales!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Another scenic panorama on the way to another Whale spotting. I play with most of these photos in Paint shop Pro, so they look more like what you see; the eye and a camera see differently.

(1/6400, f5, 17mm, ISO 250, four photos stitched together in MS ICE)

One of the many glacier surrounding Juneau.

(1/8000, f5, 90mm, ISO 320)

There’s a Whale!

(1/4000, f5, 190mm, ISO 400)

Turns out there is a Mama whale and a calf, but I wasn’t able to get photos of them together.

(1/6400, f5, 135mm, ISO 400)

They also didn’t blow much; here is the little bit I caught.

(1/6400, f5, 120mm, ISO 400)

They got closer (at least the calf did; I think this is the calf…) than the others did.

(1/5000, f5, 135mm, ISO 400)

They finally dove on us and we headed back to port. There were many glaciers and mountains on the way.

(1/6400, f5, 100mm, ISO 320)

(1/8000, f5, 70mm, ISO 250)

(1/6400, f5, 133mm, ISO 200)

The two ATV looking tracks down the middle of this glacier are the boundaries of different rivers of ice that combined further up in the mountains to form this single ice mass. Wallpaper sized! 1440×960!