Downtown Denver – Xmas 2012 and a bit of 2013

We drove to Denver, hung out with nephew Jeremy, saw friends, rattled around downtown.  Toured Denver University, officially Madeline’s first college tour. Went to Boulder, hung with E’s brother Tony.  Played some paddle tennis in Boulder.  New Year’s Eve back in Denver.  Drove home in one long, marathon day.

(Click thumbnail for some downtown photos)

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College Tours St. Olaf and U of Minn

We drove to St. Olaf on a Thursday, in a driving rain.  Cold (40F), windy.  Arrived for a visit, was greeted by our very own guide, had a great one on one tour of the entire campus.  After the tour, Madeline met with an admission officer one on one, and eventually we the parents joined.  We were very favorably impressed with all we saw.  The campus is a visual gem.

 

Click the thumbnail for more pictures.

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We drove to MPLS at the end of the day, St. Louis Park to be specific.  Checked into our AirBnB quarters, owned by Rachael, or gracious host.

The next day we entered into an official U of Minnesota dog and pony show, with tour.  This time we shared our tour guide with a dozen other folks, most of them from Wisconsin.

Click the thumbnail below for pictures of the tour.  The weather was cold and blustery, the tour was long.  At least it was dry.  We were in and out of too many buildings to count.  It was hard to know how to dress.

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Mancation 5.0

Mancation 5.0

No drinking, no fighting, no hangovers.  Man, all we did was read. I got through two New Yorkers.

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What is wrong with us?  Where did we lose our way?

Maybe it was the weather.  It rained Saturday and Sunday, we got a slow start. But we did eventually get out in it.  And after a long day on the lake, we did manage to survive, barely, what with three bedrooms, two baths, living room (with tv and cable, and our kick-butt traveling stereo), family room ( tv/cable) with a good pool table, pinball.  We did just get by.  (The two tv’s came in handy on Sunday with the St. Louis Cards  in the same time slot as Green Bay.  Five Packer fans, and Jeremy.  It would have been ugly.)

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But let’s back up. The Friday trip up was smooth, warm, and sunny.  Stopped for a pedal at the Wausau Nordic Club area, called Nine Mile.  Huge place, lots of single track, much of it rocky.  One crash (it goes without saying who . . .).

Made it up to our cabin on Pickerel Lake, 8 miles due east of Minocqua on County J, before dark. Here’s the scene around the cabin:

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Drove to Sister’s Saloon in St. Germaine for Fish Fry. Long wait, but worth it.  Pan fried Lake Perch – awesome. Some guy shouted at Jeremy at the bar for an hour straight while we waited.  All we could hear was his voice, and Jeremy laughing.

Paddled Pickerel on Saturday.  A river of sorts came out of it on the opposite side, which lead to some nice close-in paddling. Here’s a few shots of that paddle.

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we paddled a northern section of the Wisconsin

 

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And that was  it. Monday dawned bright and warm, and we had to pack up and go.  Thank you, Mother Nature!  Guy, Mike, and Doug, rode Raven again.  Tim and Jeremy cleaned the place and hauled everyone’s crap out, like two bitches.  Few pictures of this memorable day exist.

Alaskan Cruise – The Inside Passage

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Welcome to Alaska and the Inside Passage.  This monumental trip (Sep 7-17, 2012) came courtesy of my father David and Road Scholar (aka Elderhostel).  My parents, Dave and Nancy, have been dedicated Elderhostel travelers since practically its inception, and with this being his 23rd trip, Dave was the senior statesman of all present on our voyage.  He also turned 87 years old on the boat.  I was the lucky recipient of passage because my mother couldn’t see her way to scampering up and down those steep boat stairs (more like ladders really).

The first leg was MPLS to Seattle, then Seattle to Sitka.  The lower 48 was sunny and warm, and the flight up the Pacific Coast of Canada was brilliant. Tremendous scenery.  But when we dropped into Sitka, the cloud cover was 500 feet off the deck and raining, temps about 48F.  And this was a sign of the week to come.

We walked Sitka in the rain that first day, had dinner in our hotel.

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IMG_9058Sitka Day 2:  We loaded into two cute Tribal Tour buses for the brief, 14 mile circle that is Sitka. After that, the Russian Bishop’s House, then the Russian Orthodox Church, in a steady rain.  Onto a large pontoon boat for a tour of Sitka Harbor.  Some portions of this leg were too socked in to see much. (click.)

IMG_9059The excitement came when we transferred from the pontoon boat to our home for the next week, the Admiralty Dream, out in the middle of big water. Here’s some pictures of our digs for the week: (Click below)

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The entire crew was lined up when we came aboard.  The boat captain and various first mates, crewmen, and mechanics.  The four waitresses / room service gals, 4-5 kitchen folks, the bartender, the ship’s cultural liason, Lee.  These folks proved themselves to be skilled, professional, and relentlessly cheerful and service oriented. Every retail operation in the world could learn a thing or two here.

Now is a good time to express proper appreciation to our Road Scholar group leaders, Marilyn and Janet.  These two were calm, organized, friendly and approachable, with a clear love of these waters, knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

I must add that we, the paying customers, were also a hardy band of skilled and cheerful folk, easy going and low maintenance, and above all appreciative.

We ate three meals a day on this boat and the food was varied and excellent.

A shot of an Alaskan Ferry.  These are big boats that ply the waters between the various AK towns cut off from the Canadian highway system.

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After sailing all night, we found ourselves near Juneau, in Auk bay. Buses transported us to the visitor center at the Mendenhall Glacier. This was our first look at a glacier.  We were also thrilled by a brief patch of sunshine.  (Click below)
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We bused into Juneau (pop 30,000+), a much larger city than Sitka (< 9,000), and strolled about town in the ubiquitous downpour.  It was here I got my first closeup view of some truly gargantuan cruise ships. (click below)

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Day four of the trip, Monday Sep 10, we sail to Glacier Bay. On the way, we drifted slowly by a small, remote island covered with sea lions. These creatures put out a steady drone of sound that’s hard to describe, sort of like hundreds of didgeridoos.  Click below

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We also made a sighting of a mountain goat.  My fellow photographers with beefy wildlife lenses did a lot better with this than me. (click below)

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The approach in Glacier Bay, into Tarr Inlet.  The glaciers we came up to were the Grand Pacific glacier, straight ahead, and Margerie Glacier to the left.   As the boat would get closer and closer to a glacier, the water would usually become a jade green, and floating ice would go from small and occasional to large and plentiful.

Some of these photos are forward, towards our destination, and some rearward, catching the breathtaking scenery of the steep cliffs of this fiord. (click below)

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Once we got close (but not too close), the boat idled and everyone shamelessly snapped away with whatever they had. Apologies in advance.  I tried to toss a goodly number of these pictures, I really did.   But these remain, probably too many. Every different way of looking that these ice structures fascinates.   Margerie even dropped a few big chunks in the water for our pleasure. (click)

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Hanging out in the lounge. (Click below)

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On to Skagway, a small town with a deep harbor and many cruise ships.  We tour the town in buses, ride the narrow gauge to Whitehorse Pass, then do a walk-about around town.  The narrow gauge was fun.  White Pass is a long, deep valley with our train on one side and an actual highway (something we hadn’t seen the entire trip) to Whitehorse on the other. I perched outside, between cars, for the most part to snag some good shots.  Not easy – things flew by with little warning. The big thrill was bridge crossing.  One moment you’re looking at the ground beside the track, then in a blink you’re suspended hundreds of feet in the air. (click below)

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A day in Tracy Arm, with the Twin Sawyer glacier.  A gorgeous place, full of waterfalls, esp in this wettest of years. (click below)

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For the only time in the trip, we stay in the same place for a day and a night: Hobart Bay.  A small dock, middle of nowhere, stocked with golf carts, kayaks, and motorized single person boats called Zego Runabouts.  I opted for the first two.  It poured all day.  I lucked out with the kayaks and scored my own 14′ Necky, with only Andrew the Bartender as my able companion. Kayaking in the rain has never been a problem for me.  We came to a small rocky point with 10-15 eagles hanging out.  Most of them left in disgust at our arrival.  Later in the afternoon I awoke from an all too common nap to a brilliant blue sky, on the most unlikely of days.

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Last day, the run back to Sitka.  Some sun, and our only sighting of whales.

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And that was all she wrote.  Once back in Sitka, it was straight to the airport, straight to Seattle,  straight back into the sun . . . and everyone went their separate ways.

Hartman Creek Campground

Hartman Creek is located about 10 miles SW of Waupaca, WI, has about 88 campsites, some electric.  It’s salient features are:  Very tall pine trees.  Parts of the campground feature these, parts are densely wooded with deciduous trees.  It’s a very quiet campground, heavily monitored by the local rangers.

It has it’s own lake and beach, but we quickly sniffed out Marl Lake, part of the Chain ‘O Lakes belonging to Waupaca.  Marl was a short drive away, and is named after a general description of a lake that sports a green hue because of a suffusion of a certain type of mineral.  (Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and silt.)

Marl Lake is perhaps the best swimming hole we’ve ever experienced.  The water is completely unspoiled, the color is fantastic. There are a few cabins around, but they are tasteful and mostly out of sight.  No motorboats from the rest of the Chain can gain access.  Access is gained by a quarter mile walk, then down some steep stone cut stairs.  There’s one dock.

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