Alaska . . . Up’s and Down’s in the Arctic Frontier

Tonight’s post is just a mixture of thing’s happening around our state this week.

It reminds me of the Clint Eastwood movie . . . “The Good . . . The Bad . . . and The Ugly”.

The Good . . . Something Fishy From Alaska . . .

The first glimpse of the coming summer as the Copper River King Salmon fishery opened yesterday . . . Seafood lovers in the Northwest and around the world have been waiting with, yes, baited breath for this year’s Copper River Salmon season to begin.

No more waiting: today an Alaska Airlines plane left Cordova, Alaska for Seattle, Washington with the season’s first shipment of this tasty and often wildly-priced wild salmon.

The first fish off the plane got celebrity treatment:















First Officer Mark Aown walks down the red carpet with first Copper River Salmon. (Photo courtesy Alaska Airlines)

Alaska Airlines expects to transport about 20,000 pounds of the coveted fish by day's end. The arrival of Copper River salmon is anticipated every year by seafood lovers in a growing number of U.S. cities and points worldwide. Alaska Airlines plays a significant role in supporting the Alaska seafood industry, which is recognized worldwide for its sustainable fishing practices. Last year, the carrier flew more than 30 million pounds of fresh Alaska seafood to the Lower 48 states and beyond, including up to 1 million pounds of Copper River salmon.

Only a few more weeks until the rivers start filling with these tasty treats that we so fondly go crazy each season for that “fish on” feeling.

The Bad . . . Typical Alaska oddities found in the North Country.

Coin-Op Beautiful: Alaska Laundry Takes Top Honor in the 2008 Coin-Op Beautiful competition. Four other laundries were named special honor winners in the annual competition. The Girdwood Laundromall in Girdwood, Alaska, has been named the grand prize winner and features several services while you are waiting to clean and fold your clothes. This is the one and only Girdwood Laundromall: Danny Pfister's contribution to Girdwood culture, comfort and amenities. In the front, you'll find Mamasita's Mexican Restaurant. In the center, it's the Laundry and Shower facility, with internet kiosks, great local art, and murals. In the back, there's Malia's Hair Salon, and Juniper's Misty Mountain Massage Therapy. I've heard visitors say every summer that this is the best Laundromall in the World! And now it has been voted and named the grand prize winner in the 2008 Coin-Op Beautiful competition. Girdwood is thirty miles from Anchorage where the Alyeska Ski Resort is located.

The Ugly . . . Lucky Alaska First to Hit $4 Gas

It's here. Alaska has the painful distinction of becoming the first state where gas is selling for an average of $4 a gallon, Reuter’s reports. The average for the rest of the US is hovering at $3.76, but Connecticut, California, New York, and Illinois could all join Alaska in the $4-a-gallon club after Memorial Day weekend.

Two ten cent jumps in less than a week have brought our state to a new low . . . we have the highest oil and gas resources in the country but now have the highest prices, go figure. Sometime in the hopefully near future our citizen’s demand that ANWAR be opened up to help wean our dependency from foreign suppliers. Resources may be obtained using low impact techniques to the environment or wildlife and could help ease our situation . . . the only problem is . . . it takes time to make these things happen so there is no real relief in sight.

Ice

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morrison Springs - Ponce de Leon, Florida

Image
Morrison Springs Ponce de Leon, Florida County road 181 Morrison Springs was one of our favorite dive spots on many of our Florida trips but it also had the most danger to it.  One of Northwest Florida’s best-kept secrets was known to more Georgia and Alabama folks than Floridians.  And they weren’t talking.  It had to do with the jewel of a Panhandle spring, a turquoise pool surrounded by stately cypress trees whose aerial roots stand taller than a man. Below the surface, clear, 68-degree water wells up from a spring cave source over 90 feet deep. Morrison Springs is just far enough off the beaten path in this sunny pine and cypress country to be special for any diver lucky enough to find and dive the site. The shallow pool reflects the overhead blue sky and if the water is clear and the bottom clean of silt, it resembles a giant sapphire.  Unlike some springs with a deep, black hole source, this one takes visitors gradually into its shallows from a gol...
Read more

Are Showing Your Nipples Appropriate Work Attire?

Image
Let me first say that personally, I have no problem with it at all. This has been kind of a weird week here in the north land with the first of many winter snowfalls’s to come and the landscape once again beautifully covered in the white stuff. It looks like the kids will have to put their Halloween costume on over a snowsuit again this year as the cold snowy stuff is here again. That is not what I wanted to write about tonight but was necessary to set up what I did want to write about. “Frosty nipples” are quite common here during most of the year and when things cool down on the cusp of winter probably more so. Work attire with tight shirts or low cut blouses that ‘make a statement’ during colder weather could be taken several ways by co-workers or visitors to your place of business. While you may not always be taken seriously by others in the office and some may have trouble looking you in the face, I say it's a freedom of rights issue. If you want to show o...
Read more

Biscuits and Whores

Image
Some of the best things about life I learned from Lonesome Dove. Great movie, excellent characters, and tells a story about how to live life. Augustus McCrae “It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.   I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” I'm just tryin' to keep everything in balance, Woodrow. You do more work than you got to, so it's my obligation to do less. “Yesterday’s gone and we can’t get it back.” “I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning.   If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier.” Hat Creek Cattle Company Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is . . . he's hard to stop. Biscuits “I never knew you to get excited about anything except biscuits maybe . . . and whores!”    Captain Woodrow Call to Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. Whores L...
Read more