Views from Medina Road

The cruise *was* wonderful, despite the erratic Internet access. The weather was unusually good -- a few days of overcast with bits of drizzle, but also several days of blue skies and sunshine; even the locals in Ketchikan mentioned how lucky we were to have such good weather.

We took a helicopter ride to stand on the Mendenhall Glacier, north of Juneau; took a train ride from Skagway to Grant Pass (part way to the Klondike gold rush fields of 1897 or so); saw the glaciers sliding into Glacier Bay National Park; and saw the Totem Pole park outside of Ketchikan.

Juneau has to be the most unprepossessing city I've ever seen that happens to be a state capital. Current political implications unavoidable...

Still several hundred e-mails behind; will be catching up with the website over the next week or so.

To follow up on previous post, I'm currently on a cruise ship heading up the coast from Seattle to Juneau (in Hobart Bay, at the moment), and will be away from home until Sunday the 14th. There *is* internet accessibility here (obviously), but it is slow, and $55/hour -- so aside from checking urgent e-mail, and posting a couple pages set up before I left, posting on the site this week will be reduced. Full service will return after I return.

Update, later -- have been unsuccessful attaining an FTP connection today, to upload updates to the website. This is the explanation for anyone happening to check my blog... Will try again later. It worked the first night... rather late at night. Will try tonight.

Update, Wednesday: The Internet cafe staff person shrugged: "Well, we say 'high-speed' but it is not like your high-speed at home." Nevertheless, I did achieve FTP connect just a few minutes ago, Wednesday afternoon, and so at least got one new page, and a link to this post, onto the site. May have another update before the trip is over, but can't guarantee anything...

I am leaving tomorrow on a week's vacation, an Alaska cruise, and so posts on the website, and responses to emails, will be limited for the next week. I do expect to check in to the ship's Internet Lounge at least daily, and I even have a couple posts pre-prepared for quick posting while I'm aboard, but depending on actual access capabilities and my own schedule during the trip, I'm not guaranteeing anything. Regular service will resume the week of the 15th...