Icewind's Ramblings

The southern senators who objected to Alaska 's statehood in 1959 may have had a point. People here aren't all that bound to the rest of the country. Alaskans speak of the Lower 48 as "The States" or “Outside” and it sounds just as far away to them as it does to Americans I'd met who were working in another country. People here feel themselves to be a breed apart with a distinct culture and distinct capabilities. One where the harshness of the Arctic climate with the extremes of cold & darkness make one ready to handle about anything not found elsewhere. I wouldn't call us unpatriotic, but I get the impression sometimes that if the ‘Lower 48’ was to sink into the ocean tomorrow, it would make the front page of the Anchorage Daily News for a day and then life would go back to normal. After all . . . we have the oil and the natural resources . . . one day when gasoline hits six bucks a gallon people ‘Outside’ will demand that we open ...

BOO ! ! ! Happy Halloween Ice

General Observation # 1 about Alaskans. We tend to divide the year into light and dark almost as much as we do with warm and cold. Daylight here is a precious commodity and people are very conscious about losing it. Every weather report on television or newspaper contains the length of the day and, right now, how many minutes shorter it is than yesterday. Almost six minutes a day may not seem like much to you if you live “Outside” (anyplace other than Alaska ), but several times lately I’ve heard Alaskans lament their imminent loss of the sun. For some strange reason we embrace the darkness and the cold so we can revel in the light of summer and the warmth that the sun brings. It may not be the ‘hot’ warmth I used to experience in the south but one that is welcomed in the spring . . . Ice

Sorry it has taken me so long to finish this up but as always . . . life has been way too busy and many outside things are happening to keep me from writing regularly. We have had family in town, car repairs, sick kids, and weather changes as we progress into winter. Snow has fallen . . . the birds are heading south . . . the moose are coming down off the higher elevations back into the city . . . and the light of day is quickly fading over 5 and a half minutes a day now. It’s almost into November by the time I finish these stories so I’ll slow down on the pictures as it takes a long time to load the pages. Cruise Day 7 – September 22, 2007 It was another warm night as I tried to sleep with balcony door open. I could see the flashes of lightning off in the distance, and hear the waves slapping against the ship’s hull as I laid there hoping to quickly drift off for a night of uninterrupted sleep. It did not take too long and I like everyone else on board but the wo...

Cruise Day 6 – September 21, 2007 I think this great cruise is finally catching up with everyone on board. I head out for my early morning breakfast and it seemed like a ghost ship as most every one it seems has slept in this morning including my wife. We are arriving in Cozumel and what is the normal rush for a quick breakfast before leaving the ship is absent today. There are a few people here getting fed and making their way to the pier but the pace today is much slower than the last few days. I am not sure if everyone is finally on “island” time and speed or if everyone is exhausted from the great times we’ve had the last few days. Scott and his crew headed off the Freedom and rented a jeep for the day. They planned to hit the dolphin encounter with the kids and also make their way downtown for some shopping before heading to the last Margaritaville of the trip. This would close out the trip with all three being visited on this cruise. My wife orde...

Cruise Day 5 – Georgetown , Grand Cayman – September 20, 2007 It was nice arriving into port this morning with two other cruise line ships arriving within minutes of each other. All three ships anchored in the harbor and would use tender boats to ferry passengers to shore. The Carnival Cruise ship Conquest was moored to our right while the Caribbean Princess was stationed to our left. We took our time getting everyone moving this morning as we did not have any scheduled activities booked through the ship. We ate a leisurely breakfast before heading to shore missing the mad rush by those ‘early wanderers’ on the first tender boats. We wanted to hit the public beach for some snorkeling and found a nice lady taxi driver to take us there. We requested that she return to pick us up later so everyone could enjoy the afternoon at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Cayman Islands, and make our last stop at the Tortuga Rum store for the requested presents by friends and co-work...

Part 2 September 19, 2007 We arrived back aboard ship approximately 45 minutes prior to sailing to our next port, Georgetown on Grand Cayman . We were both exhausted as the time spent ashore was hot, humid, and with very little breeze except while we were on top of the mountain getting rigged up to make our way down the zip lines. The first order of business when we returned was to order room service since we had not eaten anything except a light breakfast and drink the bottle of water both of us had taken. We did not think we could hold out any longer or even make our normal dinner tonight so we ordered plenty of food before taking our showers. Lucky for us today was laundry day so everything was gathered up and ready for Matthew. He had left us a bag for laundry with special pricing so we crammed as much as we could into the plastic bag and had it ready for his evening pick up. Deb crashed as soon as she finished eating and I felt like a nap too but I’m now si...

*Note – As I am working putting this together (uploading pictures and finishing writing this) it is snowing slightly this morning. The weather this weekend has been cool and wet with the temperatures in the mid 30’s and falling into the upper 20’s overnight. I raked leaves yesterday morning trying to prepare for winter. Today it tried to snow so it will not be much longer before the snow level drops lower than the mountaintops. I may have complained on vacation about it being hot but it was nice for a short period of time. The darkness of winter approaches as we continually lose about 5 minutes of daylight a day now but it has been nice looking at the pictures and writing about the trip. I hope you enjoy it too. Ocho Rios , Jamaica - September 19, 2007 (Wednesday) I awoke early and enjoyed the quiet of the ship in the predawn hours before the time when the bowels of the ship seems to come to life as people get out of bed and start their day with a walk to t...

We sailed through the night with the soothing sounds of the wake waves gently crashing off the bow of the ship below our stateroom. With the sliding door open during the night the occasional distant sounds of thunder could be heard if you happened to be rolling over or retuning to bed after a restroom jaunt. Being the light sleeper I awoke several times to just go outside and stand by the railing looking up at the stars. The waning crescent moon was making its way towards the distant horizon and I watched it slowly drop ‘into’ the ocean from my vantage point. It still amazes me that wherever you travel that the moon I see tonight is the same moon you may see in another part of the world. We see the same thing but from a different vantage point in the sky. Living in Alaska the position of stars is very different than what I remember from all my years living in Atlanta . The constellations might still be there just in the sky in a place that seems somewhat strange to ...