"I can't believe I ate the WHOLE thing!"

Friday, August 27, 2010

We now have "THE BEAR"

August 24, 2010
Awe and wonderment have returned to Skagway. . . . .

Not just for us, but for all the jaded seasonal workers who are READY for the season to end. Median day was six weeks ago. We have had termination dust (the first snow). The salmon run is over. The fireweed is turning to cotton. The topic of conversation is about plans for leaving, plans for the off season, plans for next year.

But now we have. . .THE BEAR.

THE BEAR EATING THE GOAT BY THE SNOWPLOW SHEDS

Tuesday morning he was spotted in the depression across the highway from the snowplow sheds. I first saw him that afternoon as I returned from Carcross. A medium sized cinnamon bear (that's a black species, that is brown in color) busily chomping on a full grown goat 30-40 feet off the road in some boulders. Since I was driving, I asked a 9 year old passenger to snap some pictures with my camera. Later, she asked me to email them to her so she could use them in a 4H vacation project. She should win a prize of some kind.

After work I loaded GaT into the jeep (it was Peggie's sick day) to go look. Other gawkers were there. By Wed morning "Have you seen the bear eating the goat?" was on everyone's lips. By now, it is simply, THE BEAR. "Have you seen the bear?" "Is the bear still there?"

Nobody can remember ever even hearing of such an event before. For four days, so far, this is a sure-fire excitement builder on a tour. Earlier we had the photos of the bear snatching the baby goat, but that event was actually seen by just one tour and the photos excited the drivers, but we didn't show them to people.

This will be a good story for years to come.

Greg joined my club

Peggie put GaT on the ferry this morning. They will spend the day in Juneau, then catch a flight tomorrow. We loved having them here. Ariana is changing so fast now. The only down side was that Peggie and I both spent several (different) days sick in bed. We are both still coughing a bit.
On his last day, Greg decided to go horseback riding. And, he fell off. So now he is an official member of the "He who falls from horses" club.

Look Grandma, I have a flower!

We took the ferry to Haines yesterday. On one of our stops, Ariana picked some flowers and Grandma experimented with her camera.

You gotta (get to?) live with your choices.

I spend a lot of time in the office this year helping Dave with a variety of stuff. That means I know more about what is going on and what is coming up. When choices have to be made about who will do what tour, I usually get my choice. That's why most days I take the Carcross tour. But when Dave overrules me (RHIP) and he takes the Carcross tour, I still choose which group I want to take.
Today I chose a family group of 21 over a varied group of 24. Good choice. As they got on the bus, I pinched my thumb in the door opener handle. As I was doing my intro speech, one woman, a mom of course, handed me a kleenix for the bleeding, which I hadn't noticed yet. At the same time, a second woman, another mom of course, held up her neosporine and squeezed some on my thumb. It was, still is, a cloudy rainy day so when we got to the summit and couldn't see beyond the billions of water droplets, I suggested we drive a few extra miles for some scenery, and they agreed. Good choice, because we saw a bear.
Not only that, but I saw the other bus at one of the stops. He had had a screaming four year old that he had to return to town before continuing his tour. Yuck!
Many years ago, we chose to have children. So now we are babysitting our granddaughter.
So I made the right choices.

Happy Birthday, Bill!

Yes, today is the day Bill has a very special birthday. I know he's going to have cheesecake and presents. Let's see, something else is happening too. What is it?

Oh yeah, his wonderful granddaughter is bringing her parents and staying for a visit!!! We all get to enjoy this present.

He doesn't seem much older than the 20-year-old I met but since he now has a granddaughter he must be older. Oh my, how the time does fly!

Take That Road to the Top of the World!

With such spectacular weather we were happy to have the day off. Saturday was the day to take the jeep and go on "That Road". You know, the one Bill, Don and I went on last year when it was wet and foggy and we said we'd like to see it when you could really see. Well, let me tell you, we could really see and it was as beautiful as we hoped. We opened the windows and removed the top and the first thing I noticed was the smell of pine trees, the smell of pine you get when it's hot and dry outside. We just kept climbing and climbing. No bears or caribou but we did see a Dall sheep--she was below us so that tells you how high we were. Bill had heard that if you follow "That Road" you can see Bennett Lake so we did and we did. Distances are so deceiving. What looks like a short hike to the edge is really farther than it seems. The same is true when looking down at the lake. It all looks so close until you realize that those little specks down there are full-sized pine trees and a whole bunch of them at that. Coming back, yes, we did have to return on the same road (unusual for us), we saw five more Dall sheep and three pheasants. And a bunch of arctic squirrels.

Check out the photo album on the side.

Next, granddaughter Ariana is bringing her parents to Skagway for a visit. They're enjoying great weather in Juneau today and take the ferry up here tomorrow.