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Glaciers to Go

by Brian on December 6, 2013 in Alaska, Travel, United States

You know you’re in the company of hardy folk when you hear them describe this portion of Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park as a “drive up glacier.” It’s true that Exit Glacier is the only area of the park accessible by road, but to describe it as “drive up” gives a whole new meaning to the expression.

We’ve seen a lot of drive-up stuff during our tour of the lower 48. It’s really amazing the ingenuity we use to serve people who never want to leave their car. There’s drive-up coffee, of course, but also laundry, banking, groceries, and – our all time favorite – drive-up liquor. Because, you know, nothing goes with a fifth of whiskey quite like the soft purr of an idling engine ready to hit the road.

Float Plane, Alaska

by Brian on December 4, 2013 in Photo of the Day, Travel

Quite Possibly the Most Beautiful Drive in the U.S.

by Brian on December 2, 2013 in Alaska, Travel, United States

It probably implies too much to say that leaving Anchorage, Alaska, is the best part of Anchorage, Alaska. But if you take that as a slam on Anchorage, it might be that you’ve never driven the Seward Highway out of town.

A World Without Work: Star Trek Edition

by Brian on November 28, 2013 in How To, Lifestyle, Travel

“The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century… The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity.” Jean Luc Picard

A world without money and paid work is, of course, pure science fiction, socialist-seeming, nonsense. Except that future is already here, at least partially. We know because we’re already living a variation of that future along with a growing rank of others.

The Bald Eagle: A Majestic and Ironic National Symbol

by Brian on November 27, 2013 in Alaska, Travel, United States

Every afternoon like clockwork we’d watch this female bald eagle emerge from her nest outside Seward, Alaska, to wait for her errant partner to return with food for the family. We rarely saw the male or the two eaglets whose heads would only sometimes pop above the rim of the nest, but we could always count on mama to take this same afternoon perch.

We’re told that bald eagles mate for life and return to the same nest year after year. Each breeding season the couple adds to their home and builds the largest tree nests of any animal. The nests grow so large, up to a metric ton in weight, that they’ve been known to take down the tree in which they’re built. Fitting, wouldn’t you say?