Icewind's Ramblings

It’s funny what a great nights sleep will do for the mind, body, and soul. It was nice to get the needed sleep we lacked and I looked forward to the vacation which had been on the books for months. It may be a little bit of a working vacation but not one to disrupt the fun and relaxing days ahead. Embassy Suites always has their wake up breakfast in the atrium every morning. The sounds of the birds and the waterfall give the feeling of being outdoors with the smell of bacon cooking close by. The place is crowded with people heading to the football game in town. We have met several people from Dallas and Memphis who are here for the game. There is a party atmosphere as everyone wants to eat and head to the stadium. I just wanted to head to the ship to relax. We arranged for our transportation to the dock but needed to return Scott’s rental before we left. He found out the car rental place was only about three quarters of a mile away from the hotel. We laughe...

Oh no . . . Beer alert! I had to post this tonight since I haven't finished my next Cruise installment of the vacation. My wife's friend Amy sent this to me as a warning for all men the consequences of drinking to much beer. Enjoy! WHEN YOU GET TO THE END, CLICK ON THE LINK FOR THE DEMO! Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer." The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for "no strings attached" sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several beers, men will often succumb to...

Day One - September 14, 2007 – Departure from Anchorage to Seattle & Miami The day finally arrives! Over the last several weeks there has been much preparation in getting ready for vacation. There days leading up to our departure from Anchorage were filled with many long hours working to get everything done before I was to leave. My work had about 6-8 projects to bid, each taking time to prepare and gather all of the information from the many vendors. I wanted to put the bids together so that they could be sent out on the appropriate bid day. I had the usual problems trying to get the various vendors to send me their number early fearing their number might be leaked to other contractors. Many dragged their feet but finally provided most of the information in time for me to use but several wanted to send their number closer to the actual bid day. I used all of my tricks to get everything completed including working almost straight the last 72 hours only ...

What is it about cruising that has made this one of the most popular vacations for the last several years? The growth rate of this industry and the addition of new ships being added to the fleet each year show the value of this getaway. It seems more destinations are added, the cruise lines do a great job of changing or adding to their list of itineraries. It may be an Alaskan cruise or one to the several Caribbean locations that are the most popular. For those with plenty of time the longer crossings are available across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans . There are Mediterranean voyages that have ports of call to many wonderful places full of rich history and cultural experiences. We booked our cruise this year with our friends Scott and Kim. We started planning almost a year ago which was a departure from the normal time of year we would normally vacation. Our normal time is during our winter months of either February or March. During those long dark winter nights ...

Before I get into the details of the cruise and share some pictures I wanted to post this . . . it is a look at going on a cruise and the trials and tribulations that come with it. I saw this after my last cruise and I think it was on the cruise critic website. Enjoy. Heavenly Father, look down on us your humble, obedient cruising servants . . . who are doomed to cruise this earth . . . taking photographs, mailing postcards . . . buying those silly souvenirs only to eat ourselves silly while walking around muggy Caribbean islands in drip-dry underwear. We beseech you, our Lord, to give us non-stop flights, to see that our planes are not hijacked . . . our luggage is not lost . . . our overweight baggage goes unnoticed, and that there are no hurricanes anywhere on the planet during our chosen cruise week. Protect us from zealous Immigrations Officers who swear our "certified copies of our birth certificates" are forged . . . from suspicious Customs Inspectors who in...

Home sweet home . . . I’ve been away a bit for a well needed vacation which I will post some of the events and pictures in the next few days but I wanted to give a quick hello and let everyone know we are back. I left and it was still green here but we had a couple of days with termination dust (early snow) on the mountains, but upon our return the trees below the plane on landing was a sea of yellow. I guess summer is gone . . . our brief fall looks to be almost over as with the autumn winds blowing this wonderful color everywhere will again be quickly gone replaced by the white of winter. When traveling away from Alaska I’m reminded of why I headed north from the heat and humidity of the southland so many years ago. Vacation time is usually a quest for warmer weather and the tropical breezes of the Caribbean . I always look forward to getting away for short breaks from my Alaskan home but it seems I am reminded fairly quickly of why I enjoy living in a place that w...

Shook Me All Night Long . . . Actually it was only for about 16 seconds, but it was traumatic all the same. It woke me up around 2:30 in the morning because the bathroom door next to my bed was rattling. I instantly assumed that a mentally challenged individual or possibly my son coming home late and a little ‘tipsy’ was attempting a home invasion, and was perplexed by our sliding glass door. Then I quickly realized that the bedroom door was also shaking, as was the sliding closet door, and my bed. It was an earthquake! Not my first or severest as we were here during the 7.9 several years ago but it rattled me into being awake and wondering how long it might last or how close the epicenter was from my house. I woke up wife who merely muttered "hhhhumph, what is it?" and rolled over never gaining consciousness to realize what was happening. My “Wonder Dog” Levi slept through the whole thing. Big help he would have been but getting older leaves Levi more...

Blood of Heroes Ice

It’s almost that time again when the chill is back in the air and you know the first snowfall is just around the corner. You know it’s true because the fireweed has come and gone with the six week countdown till winter has begun. We’ve been in Alaska a few years now and I have said several times I will not go another winter without a remote car starter. For those of you not from Alaska or similar cold-weather state, something that has become a popular car accessory over the last couple of years is a remote starter. It’s similar to a key fob that what you’d use to unlock the doors, except that it also starts your car. It’s nice for -30F days so that you can hit the button and, 10 minutes later when you leave from work, your car or rig is toasty with most of the ice/snow on the windshield melted. We use a block heater installed in the vehicles to combat the Frigid Alaskan extreme cold weather. This is a must have of all Alaskans who park overnight outside. The mantr...

"You can be spiritual and still enjoy life in all its delicious detail." Ice

The word listen . . . contains the same letters as the word silent. Ice

I am beginning to see the promos for the new television season and there are a few that might be interesting this year. I look forward to the new season of “Heroes” to see what direction it will go this year. I really enjoyed the writing and characters last year but was somewhat disappointed in the last episode of the season. It was a somewhat unexpected ending that left open possibilities . . . but I thought it could have been so much more with the different characters gathered there and with their various abilities to offer many possible directions to go . . . but we shall see what the next season will bring. With Heroes unexpected success it is natural that what comes next is the next generation of ‘knock off’ programs. TV seems to always be based all around trends, and basically the idea of what it is working from season to season. When the TV game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” had a great deal of success we saw a plethora of game shows come to prime time telev...

Fishing tales are always a great thing and everyone has stories to tell. I got an email from a friend of mine whose family are commercial fishermen down toward Dutch Harbor on the Aleutian island chain. His grandfather was a superintendent who commercial fished in the summers as augmentation to his wallet to feed his family of 7. Most of my friend’s aunts and uncles went on to different things, but one never lost the desire to fish commercially. He still fishes for king crab in the winter months and continues to spend his summers on the water as well running their family’s boat. My friend gets random email messages from this particular uncle from time to time, telling a great story of a good fishing day, or tales of ‘the one that got away’. I received one the other day forwarded from my friend that I just had to put up for y’all. Check out his (unedited) email before scrolling down to look at the photo. “Well . . . while out fishing the other day we saw a coupl...

. . . August is history and September is here! And it was a beautiful first day of September. Sunny almost all day with a few clouds and temperatures in the mid-60s, with a slight breeze that tickled my wind chimes all day on my front and back decks. After work it gave me a chance to be outside grilling some steaks, listening and watching the birds that come for food left for them on the deck railings. It is nice to see ‘my’ squirrel gathering his peanuts and food I put out so he can stash them for the coming winter. This red tailed squirrel has fared well the last two years as he looked like death warmed over when we first started putting out food and last winter he stashed probably about 16 pounds of peanuts and corn in his various caches around the property. It will not be long before winter sets in as the days are getting noticeably shorter again but it was nice being outside . . . feeling . . . enjoying the time before I take down my screen room and store a...

Alaskans are always looking for that next thrill . . . there are the ‘bore tide’ surfers here in Anchorage who seek out this natural phenomena that occurs daily but the bigger waves happen every few weeks during the new and full moon cycles. It is best seen during the high tide of Turnagain Arm in Cook Inlet just south of Anchorage Alaska . There is a new breed of Alaskan surfer who has found another interesting way to catch a wave. Granted this was not the biggest wave ever caught . . . but you gotta give the guy some credit the water temp was around 40 F. These waves you just can't get at your local wave pool . Lol There is an element of danger and awe waiting waves caused by calving glaciers. That's right, watch Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala tow-in surfing little tsunami waves (up to 25 ft. in height) caused by ice falling off Child's Glacier in South-Central Alaska. Enjoy! Now is that crazy or what? Ice

“Into the Wild” I am looking forward to seeing this movie shortly upon my return from vacation. The movie is to be released on Sept. 21 nationwide after its debut in Fairbanks , Alaska in appreciation to the many local Alaskans who helped in the production of the movie. The book was well written and had an impact at the time for me as McCandless was going to Emory University in Atlanta where I was living. I remembered the news stories and how bizarre it sounded at the time and shortly left the city on my way north to Alaska . Sean Penn directs this movie based on the incredible book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer in 1996. The book developed from a lengthy article Krakauer wrote in 1993 for “Outside” magazine about the life of Christopher McCandless, who grew up in a wealthy suburb of Washington , D. C., and died in the Alaskan wilderness at age 24. In April the prior year, a trucker had dropped McCandless - who had cut off all communicatio...

How can it be that one careless match can start a forest fire . . . but it takes a whole box of them to start a campfire? It is great that this year in Alaska there was less fire activity than most years. We do have the occasional campfire built by people that is the cause of our timber to be burning, but the major cause is usually lightning strikes the sometimes burns from hundreds of thousands to millions of acres being devastated. Our rains came at the right times this year that we had only a few fires and our ‘hot shot’ fire crews and resources were sent south to the lower 48 to help extinguish burning lands down there. Kudos goes to the fire fighters all over who battle the elements and protect our natural resources. Ice

Last weekend turned the tide on one of our last hurrahs of the summer with a trip to the Alaska State Fair. It was a perfect day for the outdoor gathering of 20 to 30 thousand people looking for a great time and sharing that time in the sun . . . soaking up the rays and warmth while having fun with the family or friends. In the shadow of Pioneer Peak . . . State fairs in America have always been a fascinating glimpse into a rural part of life for me and that so few of us ever actually see anymore. They do not have that same feel that they did when I was 11 or 12 years old but I do enjoy that time if for no other reason than to ‘people watch’. Each state fair is unique in its own special way but one that stands out from all the others that I have seen is the Alaska State Fair and its fantastic giant vegetable contest. Sure, every state fair has similar contests where local farmers wheel in giant pumpkins and other items they've either grown or rais...