Alaska SeaLife Center

Before leaving Seward, after boarding our tour bus and meeting up with the guide and passengers for our land tour, we took a short drive to the Alaska SeaLife Center, where we saw the birds, water mammals, and fish of Alaska. 

Seward is roughly 100 miles by sea from Bligh Reef—the site where the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil in March 1989.  The oil traveled more than 470 miles from Bligh Reef, reaching the waters around Seward roughly eight days after the spill, as illustrated on this map.

Exxon Valdez Spill Map

According to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the Exxon Valdez spill has dropped out of the top 50 largest oil spills in the world, but is still considered the greatest in terms of environmental impact because of the “spectacular location, the thousands of miles of rugged and wild shoreline, and the abundance of wildlife in the region.”  Check out the Council Web site for information about the impact and degree of recovery, and lack thereof, over the last 20 years. 

The Alaska SeaLife Center was built between 1995 and 1998, receiving $26 million from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Settlement Fund to help build the $56 million facility.  Signage inside made a big point of the fact that the money did not pass directly from Exxon to the Center—presumably for the purpose of suggesting that Exxon did not control the content of the Center’s small exhibit about the spill. In addition to their exhibits, they have a research, rehabilitation, and educational mission. 

I was glad we visited the Center.  Although it’s possible that I’ve seen many of the same species at the Shedd Aquarium or the Vancouver Aquarium in the past, it’s an entirely different thing to see marine life found in Alaska exclusively during an Alaskan voyage.  The tight focus helped. 

Here’s some of what I saw there.

Live Salmon

Squid

Crab

Puffins

I’d previously heard of puffins but didn’t know anything about them.  At the Center, I learned that they “fly” underwater (flapping their wings to move).  I didn’t see any puffins out of captivity during the trip, but I did see other birds surfacing after underwater “flight’ when I went kayaking in the Prince William Sound that very night.  (More on that in a future posting.)

Our cruise ended at Seward.  The official docking time was 3 a.m., but, mercifully, I wasn’t required to be awake to witness it.  Passengers were assigned a disembarkation time based on where they were headed, and we were lucky enough to be in the last group to leave the ship, at 9:20 a.m. 

Seward was surprisingly beautiful.  Mom and I both expected that it would be an unattractive port town.  Instead, we enjoyed views like this from various coastal parking lots.

I guess it’s hard to find unattractive coastal terrain this far north in Alaska.  And the fact that this was the sunniest day of the trip to that point didn’t hurt.

Mom and I had signed up for a four day land tour following the cruise.  There were several configurations to choose from, and we had settled on the one that would give us the most time in Denali National Park—two full days.

But Denali was still to come.  First, we had to take a trip on an actual Alaskan highway (there aren’t many of them) and see some animals in captivity.

From a press release from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

Communities to Receive Safe Routes to School Grants

(JUNEAU, Alaska) –- More Alaska communities will soon receive grants under the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program.

The program provides federal funding to local communities to plan improvements to the routes children take on their way to school. It also provides funds for planning and design of pedestrian and bicycling improvements in the vicinity of elementary and middle schools.

Sitka, Naknek, Fairbanks, Cordova, Seward and Palmer are the communities which submitted projects for SRTS grants. Those projects were approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

Two Seward schools and a charter school in Palmer will also begin a SRTS program.

At the Bristol Bay School in Naknek, students initiated their own SRTS program, and now their efforts will be rewarded with funding for a local pathway project.

“Sitka and Cordova will develop education and encouragement activities to teach pedestrian and bike safety and begin planning for infrastructure improvements,” said Steve Soenksen, the SRTS Coordinator for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

According to Soenksen, all of the projects encourage children to walk or bike to school where it is safe, as well as making their routes safer. Applications for next year’s grants are being accepted through Dec. 15, 2009. Application information can be found at http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/saferoutes/grants.shtml or by calling (907) 465-4069.

With this latest round of approved grants, the DOT&PF, managing the program at the state level, has disbursed more than $1 million federal dollars for improvements, programs and activities in communities under the federal SRTS program.

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Not completely up on my Seward backstory, but had a couple of BGsO (Blinding Glimpses of the Obvious) this morning.

“Journals for go, recordings for show.” Like all of the characters, we only know of Seward what we read in his personal papers.  While the Harker and Murray journals are personal papers, meant for each other and possibly their descendants, Seward’s notes get laid over to Gramophone with an eye (ear?) toward permanence.  As a “physician,” Seward would have been educated to keep scrupulous notes.  Van Helsing even comments on the fact that Seward’s case-books were always the best of all his students.  I can’t help but get the sense that Seward records knowing that these reels will be used as source material for some future generations’ research.  Contrast his reels with the journals kept by the others and Seward’s tone is decidedly more professional, which would be expected.  That said, he also comes off as much more of a self-promoter and the reels end up sounding, in many ways, like what Seward meant to function as medical cases-work ended up working much more as a Book of Grievances.

Locker room talk sucks regardless of age or century.  Seward proposes to Lucy (assuming, I get the feeling, as close to a sure thing as Victorians would be capable of) and gets a tearful rejection because Lucy’s heart already belongs to another.  Later, he hears that his wasn’t the only proposal on the table.  I make that assumption based on the sausagefest Quincey sets up at the end of Chapter V as Holmwood promises to bring messages which will “make both your ears tingle.” One can only imagine much later that night as Morris drunkenly pulls Jackie aside and drunkenly whispers, “Dude, I totally tapped that” as they all three drank healths to Lucy.  Sure it was a kiss.  But even if we take Lucy to be a reliable source, “just a kiss” would have been the sociological equivalent of a party hook-up.

“‘Let’s be friends’” cuts deep. So having his proposal rebuffed by the Hot One, and the Hot One’s BFF also removed from the pool by reason of her previously engagedness to that prig Harker, Seward can’t even throw himself into the work of guiding poor fly-eating Renfield down the corridors of madness before he’s summoned by his rich friend Holmwood to check up on the Hot One, now in waning health. (Chapter 9).  So Seward gets to check up on a weakened Former Love Object, including, we assume, some amount of diagnostic palpating and such.  Considering the times, wouldn’t have this been the equivalent of asking Seward to play eunuch and take good care of the harem?  I think yes.

But wait there’s more.  Seward is just about to give blood for the first of Lucy’s transfusions when Holmwood bursts into the room.  ”Come,” Van Helsing commands, all but pushing Seward aside.  ”You (Holmwood) are a man and it is a man we want.  You are better than me, better than my friend John.”  Call for Dr. Inadequacy, call for Doctor John Seward Inadequacy.  Please report to the Emasculation Suite, stat!

THEN, when Seward’s blood is finally called for, only a half-measure is taken, the blood of “her lover, her fiance,” being better suited to the purpose.

Thrice shunned from Lucy.  Twice required to become at least medically intimate with Lucy.

Is it any wonder some amount of rumor/speculation exists that links Jack Seward and Jack the Ripper to each other.  You KNOW that if this was a comic book universe that we would have had an entire series devoted to Seward the Ripper.

I for one, am maybe interested a bit more now in the Seward/Holmwood/Lucy dynamic than I was before.  Let’s keep an eye on that one.

Alaska: God’s Country – Sarah Palin (HD Quality)

After spending two weeks in Alaska and filming nearly six hours of HD footage, here is a video on the beauty of Alaska—a state which Governor Palin appropriately calls “God’s country.” And being born and raised for eight years in Anchorage, Alaska I can personally confirm that sentiment.

During the 2008 Election I was surprised at the misconceptions and false ideas many people have of Alaska. While it does hold true to its reputation for having snow, tundra and glaciers, Alaska is also a land filled with lush, raw and stunning beauty.

With narration by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, I hope that this video will give you a glimpse into “God’s Country.”

All Alaskan footage in this video was filmed by me on location using a Canon Vixia HD HV30.

I often wonder, if born in a different time and place, what sort of man I would have been.  It’s easy to look at the Nazis and condemn them – sixty years after the fact.  But I wonder, if I’d lived in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, would I have followed the crowd?  Would I have demonized people based on race and religion?  Would I have objected?  I wonder if I’d lived in the United States when slavery was still legal and common, if I would have taken a stand against it.  As much as I’d like to think that I would have risked and even given my life to fight against something like slavery, I know the terrible potential for evil that lies within me.  And it makes me wonder, given different circumstances, is there any evil I would always fight against?

I’ve been reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.  It’s a biography of Lincoln and his political opponents whom he appointed to his cabinet after being elected.  Reading this gives me a sort of hope that if I’d lived at a different time, maybe I would have done the right thing to oppose oppression, even at threat of life and freedom.

One of Lincoln’s opponents was a man named William H. Seward.  The following is an excerpt from a speech Seward gave in the early 1850s – several years before the civil war – as presented in Team of Rivals.

“Seward stood before his Cleveland audience and called for the abolition of the black codes that prevented blacks from voting, sitting on juries, or holding office in Ohio.  ‘We in New York are guilty of slavery still, by withholding the right of suffrage from the race we have emancipated.  You in Ohio are guilty in the same way, by a system of black-laws still more aristocratic and odious.’  Seward’s support that day for the black vote, black presence on juries, ad black officeholding was startlingly radical for a mainstream politician.”

Keep in mind that this was something like ten years before the Emancipation Proclamation and at this time, many white men, perhaps even a majority of the white men in the country, referred to slaves not as people, but property.  Yet here was a man saying that African Americans deserve total and complete equality.  If even one person could come to that conclusion at a time like that, then maybe I’m not as doomed by circumstance as it may seem.

The thing about Seward in those years that really gets to me is just how passionate he is about ending slavery.   There was a price on his head and even that didn’t shut him up. It makes me wonder what there is in the world I live in that I can be as passionate about.  Then again, there’s such an abundance of dehumanizing systems and groups that it’s actually hard to choose.  But I have to choose.  That’s got to be why I’m here.  Right?

So, to start off, it has been a little longer than I thought since I last posted.  Sorry about that.  We have stayed in a few places that claimed to have internet but didn’t really, a few that didn’t claim it and a few that were so far away from anything we were happy that they even had electricity.  You know how it goes!

Day 15:  We traveled from Seward to Valdez via the Marine Highway stop in Whittier.  Getting to Whittier is an experience in itself as you drive through a single lane, 3 mile, modified train tunnel to get to it.  Of course I was driving when we hit this gem of a driving experience!  Seriously, you are driving on the train tracks the entire time you are in the tunnel.  I swear that my ass didn’t unclench for at least 5 hours!

We took the ferry from Whittier to Valdez and I have to say that that has been one of my favorite experiences so far.  If I were doing this alone, I think that I would somehow ditch the car for a week or so and just take the ferries up and down the coast and visit the costal communities.  The ferry was clean and well run and I was able to knit LACE for more or less 6 hours straight.  It was awesome to get to see some of Alaska without having to keep an eye on the road.

The good ship Aurora

The other end of the Alaskan pipeline.

We got to Valdez and went out to eat.  There, in the restaurant, was the Barrow Whalers football team.  Yes.  That Barrow.  I think that the Whalers are stalking me!  Is this a sign that I should move there?

Anyway, that night in Valdez we had what has been really our first really bad hotel experience.  The place that we were staying was where a bunch of construction guys were at as well and it was dirty (like easily visible Doritos crumbs under and around the bed) and the walls were so thin that I literally could hear the guy in the next room fart in his sleep.  A couple of guys got thrown out for fighting and someone kept trying to get into our room throughout the night.  We were originally going to stay 2 nights there but we cut our stay at that particular hotel short.  However, we still went on the tour of Prince William Sound the next morning and we were really glad that we did!

A "raft" of sea otters doing what they do best, floating on their backs!

I so want one as a pet now....

My favorite Bald Eagle picture so far. Notice the no fishing sign below it.

A sea lion posing for pictures.

It's hard being this beautiful!

Part of the surreal landscape.

Waterfalls everywhere.

Water is, of course, important in this Northernmost temperate rainforest.

This is a group of juveniles and what are called "unsuccessful males". AKA, these guys weren't good enough to get a date to the prom so to speak...

Otters or Sea Lions on an iceberg.

Icebergs calved by the Columbia Glacier

One of the best views was from right behind the captain of the boat.

The Captain, who was cute in a sort-of young Kevin Costner sort of way. (Think: Dances With Wolves)

Water. Ice. Mountains.

Some of the pieces of ice were out of the water as much as 3 stories!

I did nothing to the colors of these photos. I can only imagine the blue colors on a sunny day!

The dark black and grey stripes are actually pieces of ground up mountain.

"Man...Why do I always get the hard pillow?!?!?"

Afternoon Siesta

However, that night we didn’t have a hotel room booked so we decided to try to get as far as we could on down the road.  We made it about 100 miles past Glenallen quite late that night.  It was a really long drive and the last several hours of it were in the dark with signs warning of moose and caribou all over the place.  That night we stayed in a lovely lodge that was as quiet as a tomb as we were the only guests staying there!  The next morning we got up and headed back towards Tok (rhymes with joke) where we got gas and girded ourselves for the area of road near the border with Canada.  On the way up to Tok, we saw this guy on the side of the road rather nervous about crossing in front of us:

We crossed over into Canada and made it down to Haines Junction which is at the base of some amazingly pretty mountains.  This was our view out the windows of our nice (despite the lack of internet signal) hotel.

We then drove a little more down the Alaskan Highway before turning South on 37 in British Columbia.  This was a new road for us and it is, admittedly, even a little more exciting that most of the Alaskan Highway.  It was only finished in the 1970’s so it doesn’t have nearly as much “development” on it.  We stayed the night in a cabin at a great RV park called The Red Goat Lodge that is just South of Iskut.  It’s right on a lake and has lamas running around!!  The guy that runs the place is super friendly and the setting is just amazing!  Definitely check it out if you are headed up (or down) 37.

We left from there and kept on Southward.  The big highlight of the day was seeing some authentic totem poles in one of the villages that we went through.

Last night we stayed in a town called Prince George and then pushed on for the US.  We passed through some pretty serious rain shadow country caused by the Coast Mountains.  It was amazing, one minute we are in more or less a temperate rain forest and the next there is sage brush.  It was honestly one of the more disconcerting travel experiences that I have had as the landscape didn’t change, just what was growing in it.  Anyway, we made it down to the US Border and now we are in Bellingham, WA.  Tomorrow we plan on seeing Seattle and then after that, well, I’m not really sure at this point.  I think that we are all getting sort of tired of traveling and staying in hotel rooms and such.  I’ll let you know when I find out (assuming that I have internet of course!).

This is a picture of the big-assed mountain that we saw as we were coming into the country and could still see right up to Bellingham.  Anyone know the name of it?

And a totally random picture that was just cool…

8/20-9/2/2005

Saturday, 8/20

The flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta was brief and uneventful, but it seemed all hell had broken loose in the Atlanta airport.  The immediately noticeable thing was that the air conditioning was off and there seemed to be no other fresh air circulating.  It was 91 degrees outside and blazing sun.  Those trapped inside were red-faced and fanning themselves while gulping iced drinks.  On my boarding pass, it said that my flight from Philadelphia would land at gate A20 and that my connecting flight to Anchorage would leave from A25:  a piece of cake in the 50 minutes between flights.  But the flight attendant announced A27.  Neither proved to be correct, so I checked the monitors – E34.  These two gates are as far from each other as it’s possible to be.  So, dripping, I made my way to E34 by shuttle and foot.  In the intervening time, the gate had again been changed, to E11.  At least it was in the same terminal.  I rolled my pant legs up above my knees, drank lots of water, and sat very still while awaiting the boarding announcement.

I was surprised to see that about 25% of the passengers in the Atlanta airport were soldiers wearing their camouflage uniforms.  It’s been decades since I’ve seen a U.S. soldier in uniform, and then to see all of these young people reminded me that we are indeed at war.   I guess Delta took pity on us, and although they were not nearly ready to depart, allowed us onto the air-conditioned plane to await take-off.  As we boarded, I saw something I’ve never experienced before:  misters.  Clouds of humidity were being pumped into the cabin from a strip running down the middle of the ceiling.  It was very comfortable and nobody complained that we departed exactly one hour behind schedule.

It was a long, fairly bumpy 7-hour flight – just as long as going to Finland!  Happily, there was an empty seat between me and the other passenger on the 3-seat section in the middle of the plane.  Dinner was served and I watched “Monster-in-Law” (don’t!), cat-napped, and read, read, read.

As soon as I got into the Anchorage airport, there was no doubt where I was.  The first thing I saw was the head of something with antlers hanging on the wall.  Below was a glass case containing a stuffed musk ox, and along the way to baggage claim were many other examples of taxidermists’ work on local animals.  Frankly, I was too tired to appreciate them.

I collected my luggage and proceeded to try to use my cell phone to call the Inlet Tower Hotel to see when their shuttle would be by to collect me.  No phone service on my plan in Alaska!  So I used a pay phone and exited immediately as they said the van was 2-3 minutes away.  I stood under cover peering out into a blowing downpour for 20 minutes.  I dug a fleece and a jacket out of my suitcase.  It was 3 a.m. my time.  I saw dozens of tourists arriving with large coolers I presumed to be full of fish that they had caught.  The shuttle driver confirmed that.

The Inlet Tower Hotel was spectacular, my room a suite really.  Alaska Tour & Travel had chosen it for me because they had a shuttle to the railroad station.  After arranging for a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call, I crashed at 3:45 a.m. (11:45 p.m. local time), but of course couldn’t sleep.  I did eventually, though, but awakened at 5:15 a.m. local time to answer nature’s call (on my home schedule).  Total sleep – less than 5 ½ hours.  The wind howling around the building sounded like a blizzard in North Dakota, and a huge tour bus was idling out front.  I decided to get up, do my yoga practice, and write.  It was still pouring.

Sunday, 8/21

The hotel shuttle took me to the railroad station, which had some handsome totem poles out front as decoration.  I boarded the Denali Star for the all-day trip to Denali National Park.  Aboard this train were two charming hostesses – high school students who were volunteering – who pointed out sights and facts about Alaska at points along the way, and answered questions.  Frequently, there would be small airstrips.  Our hostess explained that these dot the whole state since only 25% of it is accessible by road for a total of only 1,000 miles of public roads, and only 30% of these are paved.  One of every 58 Alaskans is a registered pilot, and there is one aircraft for every 77 citizens.  Alaska is one-fifth of the total land of the United States and is 2½ times the size of Texas.  (That must have been hard for the Texans to swallow!)

We passed many full, roaring rivers and streams, due to glacier and snow melt in the summer.  When glaciers melt, glacier silt, a flour-like substance, stays suspended in the water, giving it a milky appearance.  This silt doesn’t allow sunlight to filter through, thus there is no photosynthesis, and no plant or fish life.  We saw the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountain ranges (well, barely in the clouds and rain).  Shortly into the ride, we passed through a farming community.  They have a 110-day growing season and on the best day have 19 hours of daylight.  This allows some flowers and vegetables to reach gigantic proportions.  The record for the largest cabbage at the State Fair was last year at 102 pounds!  We also passed areas which were gravely affected by the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, which measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, making it the worst ever recorded in North America.  The ground, made up mostly of glacier silt, shook for over 14 minutes.  That caused the ground to compact and lower and the salt water from the Pacific Ocean to pour in during a tsunami 25 minutes later.  This preserved fallen trees for a century before they’ll begin to rot.  We could easily see their white spines among the greenery that has grown up around them, a chilling reminder of that devastating event.

I got an “Alaska-sized” muffin and hot chocolate for breakfast in the snack bar and noted that they also offered reindeer sausage sandwiches, in addition to other more mundane fare.  Again I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to my assigned window seat, so I could really spread out all of my stuff.  There were many other empty seats on the train, which surprised me because when I had tried to make a reservation for a week earlier, it was fully booked.

When we reached the town of Talkeetna, we were allowed about a 20-minute leg stretch outside the train.  I was fully prepared to get off, but when I saw how hard it was raining, I opted instead to visit the on-board railroad gift shop, where I did some Christmas shopping for Wilma and Elis.  I also bought some postcards.  I then had some absolutely delicious salmon chowder with tiny oyster crackers, the first time I’d ever had it.  When we passed the town of Cantwell, in front of a general store which faced the tracks, one of the locals faced away from the train, dropped trou, and mooned us as we glided by.  Also a first for me!

We passed the town of Palmer, where the Alaska State Fair was in full swing during the last two weeks of August.  Had I known, I might have come up a day earlier to experience it.  We also passed over the 918’ trestle spanning Hurricane Gulch.  You’ve probably seen this as it’s on all the railroad’s literature.  Hurricane force winds are known to blow through the gulch, thus its name.

We reached the Denali station at 3:45 p.m.  It’s really a staging area for the dozens of huge, plush motor coaches — marked with names like Holland America and Princess cruise lines — to disgorge and corral their passengers.  And then in the downpour I saw a young guy with an “Elderhostel” sign and an arrow pointing to our waiting aged yellow school bus!  There had been 18 of us on the train and another 19 had arrived that morning by train from Fairbanks in the other direction, for a total of 37 hostelers out of a possible 44 spots available for the trip.

During the 8-mile ride to the Denali Learning Center, we saw a large group of cars up ahead and I assumed it was an accident site.  Indeed it was a moose sighting – two in fact.  This was also a first for me, seeing moose loose in their own habitat.

I was the only unattached member of the group.  One woman, a recent widow, was traveling with her daughter who was not yet old enough to qualify for an Elderhostel on her own.  Everyone else was part of a married couple.  We had an orientation session and a walking tour of the Denali Learning Center “campus,” the only Elderhostel site in the U.S. built exclusively for that program.  The only phone on the premises available to us was a pay phone in a little shelter that looked like an outhouse.  We had a very serious lecture on bear and moose safety, the moose being cited as the more dangerous of the two.  Grizzlies and moose had been known to stroll through the grounds, plus we’d be out hiking frequently and needed to know what to do.  I was relieved to hear that there has not been a single grizzly-related fatality in Denali since it was incorporated as a national park in 1917.

We slept in simple two-room log cabins, two to a room, with all four sharing a single central bath.  I, happily, didn’t have to share my room or pay a single supplement since the trip was undersubscribed.  The Nenana River, which marks the eastern boundary of Denali National Park, ran right outside the cabins.  There was a large log lodge where all of our other inside activities were held:  meals, classes, evening entertainment and lectures.  It had a small library, maps, a TV and VCR, a dry erase board, a large commercial kitchen and long rows of tables and chairs.  It had a delightful back porch surrounded by aspens and which overlooked the rushing river.  We had an exceptionally delicious dinner of salmon, pilaf, broccoli, salad, and blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  Coffee and hot water and fresh fruit and snacks were available at all times.  We agreed that if this was to be the level of the food service, we were all going to be very happy campers.

After dinner, we went around the room, introducing ourselves, telling what we “used to do,” if we’d been on an earlier Elderhostel, and where we’d traveled in the world.  Our group was made up of highly accomplished professionals who were seasoned travelers, deeply interested in the environment, and doing all manner of volunteer activities in retirement.  Just a few were still working.  I returned to my cabin at 8 p.m. to unpack, to prepare for the very active day ahead, to write in this journal, and to start the book “Red Water” for the September meeting of my book discussion group.  Because I was still feeling jet lag, I turned in at 10.

Monday, 8/22

I awoke just before 6 feeling incredibly refreshed.  The sky was starting to clear and I felt hopeful that we’d have a day without rain.  When I had checked weather.com before leaving, there was a rain icon in every date on the calendar – for both Denali and Seward – as far out as it extended.  I was feeling pretty depressed about that.

Following breakfast, we were taken to the entrance of the park in our school bus, where we boarded a tan park service bus, which meant we were going to have a fully-narrated natural history tour in the park.  It’s important to understand that the original park was only 2 million acres.  Another 4 million acres were added on around it as a “preserve,” so that the entire area is now 6 million acres.  It was originally called Mt. McKinley National Park, but when the preserve portion was added, the name was changed to Denali, the name the original Athabascan native people gave to the mountain, which means “High One.”  Officially, the mountain’s name is still Mt. McKinley, named after the president.  No locals refer to it as anything but Denali or just “the mountain.”  Only park vehicles are allowed to traverse the full length of the 91-mile park road.  Denali is a wilderness park; there are no trails.

On our natural history bus tour, we went in only 15 miles.  As we approached Denali (the mountain), our driver/narrator, Gary, became incredibly excited:  we were going to be able to see the mountain!  It had not been visible for nearly a month, the last two weeks because of smoke from forest fires.  The heavy rain we had cleared the air.  Indeed, fewer than 20% of visitors to the park get to see the mountain.  Excitement ran high, and there it was – a white monolith rising behind shorter, grey mountains.  We were 75 miles from it and it looked huge.  We stopped for photos.  Later we stopped to visit the Savage River Patrol Cabin, one of the original log cabins built as cook houses for the workers installing the road into the park.  When the crew would move on to a new area and build a new cabin, the old cabin would be turned over to the rangers to be used as a refuge during the winter when they are patrolling the park by dog sled.  The cabin was fully furnished and an interpreter was on the porch, telling stories as if it were the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Nails around window to discourage bears from getting inside

We were shown the difference between the demarcation a glacier makes as it moves (U-shape) and what shape water makes (V-shape).  On one bridge we crossed, it was obvious we were at the toe of a former glacier, since on one side the land was sharply split by the water rushing off the formerly melting glacier.  On the other side was a wide gravel bar with little streams of water running through it, called a braided river.  This is a prime growing spot for berries and bears are easy to spot in the open on these bars devouring the fruit.

We had been given bag lunches before we left in the morning and were advised to eat them on the bus so as to minimize any food crumbs in the park which could attract animals.  At Primrose Ridge, which is as far into the park as any vehicle other than a green park bus is permitted, we saw a herd of Dall sheep in the distance.  Dall sheep are the only white mountain sheep in the world.  The driver set up a scope, allowing us to get a really good look at them.  It was to preserve the Dall sheep from “market hunters” that the park was originally founded, thanks to the lobbying of Congress, over 13 years, by Charles Sheldon, who was named the first superintendent of the park.

As we were returning to the bus, one woman sidled up to me and said, “I really admire you for coming on this Elderhostel alone.  My husband was given two years to live a year and a half ago, and I can’t imagine my doing this alone after he’s gone.”  I asked her about his ailment and it was the effects of Agent Orange from his years as a soldier in Vietnam; he had been a career military man before his retirement.  I told her how glad I was that – together – they got to see Denali, since it was a dream of theirs to do so.  We two near-strangers hugged and it was a special moment.

We were returned to the Denali Visitor Center, where we saw a fantastic 20-minute movie about the park, which concluded with these words:  “If we listen to the land, it will tell us what to do.”  We broke into two different hiking groups, depending on cabin number, and proceeded with naturalists for 2 ½ hours.  We returned in time for a complete Thanksgiving dinner.  The stuffing was so good, I wanted the recipe.  It included walnuts!  Dinner was topped off by homemade pumpkin pie and real whipped cream.  After dinner, an elderly couple who had homesteaded in Healey, just outside the park, in the ‘40s, spoke to us about “The Way It Used to Be.”  This couple came up from Nebraska to raise livestock on 126 acres.  Their reminiscences of their extraordinarily difficult life, raising sheep while raising and home-schooling six children in those times and in that harsh environment, was spell-binding.

Tuesday, 8/23

After a pancake breakfast, we had a lecture and slide show by Nan Eagleson, a renowned wildlife biologist.  She had been the naturalist leading the hike I went on the day before.  While she has a Ph.D. in her area, it seems her knowledge is endless about every aspect of Alaska.  She, like everyone else who taught or drove or fed or organized us, was not native Alaskan.  These people came here on a whim, or a dare, or a vacation, or an escape, fell deeply in love with the area, and stayed, or ran home to get their stuff and returned.  And to a person, they were characters.  Do you remember the ace TV show of some years back, “Northern Exposure,” about a New York City doctor in Alaska, and the marvelous characters depicted on it?  We could match them on this trip.  Nan’s lecture on “Welcome to the Subarctic” made the movement of tectonic plates and the relationship between mosquitoes and grizzlies — and everything else she told us — riveting.  After lunch, we piled onto the school bus for the 15-minute ride to the Park Service Dog Sled facility where they put on a demonstration three times daily.  We had time to meet and pet the dogs, talk to kids from a local day-care center spending a full day at the facility, learning from them about their adopted dogs.  They each sported a badge with their dog’s picture and name, and could tell you its sex, age, age of mandatory retirement, and where they go when they retire.  The kids also wore badges urging people to walk gently on this land, and really that is the overarching, zealously proclaimed message of everybody here.  After the demonstration, we again split into two hiking groups, each accompanied by another naturalist.  Following the hikes, we reconnoitered at the Denali Visitor Center and were bused back to the Learning Center in time for a pasta, salad, and garlic bread dinner – again, top-notch.

That evening’s lecturer, Rainier Newberry, Ph.D., geologist, ran in the door late and proceeded to set up all of his stuff in a frenzied manner – another character.  His lecture on “The Geology of Denali” was somewhat over my head, but focused on a recent finding – the first in Denali – of a dinosaur footprint mold.  He taught us why it is so miraculous that this one was discovered at all and why it’s unlikely any more will ever be found.  He had hands-on visual aides but the difficult material he was presenting and his frenetic manner were off-putting to me.  With a request to be awakened to see the aurora borealis to Carol Cooper, the youngish woman accompanying her widowed mother, who faithfully awakened around 1 a.m. each night to try to see it, I went off to bed.  We’re all tucked into bed by 10 p.m. latest each night, as we’re up around 6-6:30 to start our days.  Continental breakfast is at 6:30, hot breakfast from 7-8.  Activities begin at either 8 or 8:30, depending on whether or not we’re going off-site.

Wed., 8/24

Another outstanding morning lecture and slide show from Nan Eagleson on “The Wildlife of Denali,” then lunch and off on a hike down to Horseshoe Lake.  Emphasis of the walk was on how things are changing in the park and what causes those changes.  The biggest of course is the tourists, but also nature itself:  the river meandering, beavers chopping down trees and damning up water.  When we returned, we signed up for special activities during our Friday free time.  Choices were several kinds of rafting, horseback riding, free hiking in the park, the Husky Homestead Dog Sled Tour, fly-fishing, and flightseeing.  After dinner, we had a lecture on “Predators and Prey in Interior Alaska,” by Tom Walker, a photographer for National Geographic, among other publications, and a prolific author.

Bear claw marks

Beavers’ work

Thurs., 8/25

Today was the showpiece of the week, a day-long green bus ride 58 miles into the park.  A green bus indicates that the driver is just a driver and does not narrate unless he or she wants to.  Both green buses I was on that day had drivers who wanted to talk, and all were amazingly articulate and well informed.  The first thing we noticed was that snow had fallen on some of the mountains since we’d last been in the park.  (The first snow of the season is referred to locally as “termination dust.”)  We were told that it had fallen at 4000’ and above the night before.  We also noticed a marked change in the color of leaves, bushes, and grasses.  The area was losing six minutes of light per day at that time and thus the fall color changes were coming on rapidly.  There’s an Alaska joke that winter is 9 months long with June as spring, July as summer, and August as fall.  And it’s certainly true!

We saw Dall sheep up high on a mountainside, and ptarmigan, the state bird, right on the side of the road, in the midst of their annual change-over from mottled brown to winter white.  They have large, heavily feathered feet to make walking on the snow easier.  One of the lecturers had brought in a ptarmigan foot and we all thought it was a furry rabbit’s foot.  What I spotted first, and which was then identified as a golden eagle, flew overhead, also a northern harrier.  Two running caribou came into sight.  The antlers of one were crimson.  This indicates that the velvet coating has just sloughed off, smearing the antlers with blood.  The bus driver had urged us to be the eyes watching for wildlife, while he kept his eyes in the road.  We were to shout out anytime we spotted something – or thought we did (there were a couple of false alarms) – and he’d stop the bus for viewing and photographs.  There was a relaxed pace to the trip, with comments on what we were passing.  Our driver, Lee McKelvey, was from Ireland, and had a delightful brogue.  However, he surely French-kissed the Blarney Stone, as he spoke nearly non-stop.  We’d make a comfort stop about every 1½ hours.  I found the toilet facilities immaculate.  There was no paper trash around because only an antibacterial gel was dispensed from machines in the stalls; there was no running water, soap, or towels available.  There were no concession stands of any kind in the park – hallelujah!

At Toklat Creek, it was announced that we could leave our group’s bus at this point to board a different green bus going all the way to Wonder Lake, just 7 miles shy of the end of the park road.  There was also another bus going all the way to the end of the 91-mile road, to the town of Kantichna, where there are a number of wildly expensive lodges ($400/night per person or $600 for a couple, with a 3-night minimum).  Since the bus ride in is so long, folks staying at Kantishna are usually flown in and out (and can afford it if they can afford to sleep over).  We were told that the last 7 miles between Wonder Lake and Kantishna was on a very poor road and the scenery along the way not worth the jolt to the system.  It should be noted that the park road, after the first 15 miles on which cars may drive, was not paved nor did it have any guard rails.  It was narrow and in many places incredibly twisty with a long, long drop down on one side.

I was the only one in the Elderhostel group who elected to change buses to go to Wonder Lake.  Our organizer, Terry Boyd, who was along on the trip, privately congratulated me on my choice and told me that most times Elderhostelers were reluctant to change buses.  I told him there was a good chance I’d never pass this way again, and I wanted to see it all.  He must have returned to the bus and given them a lecture, because four more folks joined me, one a very funny woman from South Carolina with a bad cold, who became my seatmate and companion on the extended trip.  It cost only $8.75 for the extra bus ride beyond what was included in my Elderhostel fee, and what a good investment that turned out to be!  We saw four different grizzly bear groupings, one a sow with her two cubs; she was a blonde.  Later we saw two adults with three cubs, then a couple of single, brown grizzlies.  They were in their pre-hibernation, hyperphagia stage where they eat non-stop for about 20 hours a day to put on an additional 300 pounds of fat to see them and their nursing cubs, if any, through the winter.  Their diet is mainly berries, which were in profusion  — low-bush cranberries, also called lingonberries, blueberries, soapberries, pumpkin berries, etc.  Grizzlies on the coast eat salmon, but there are no salmon – or any other fish, for that matter, except arctic graylings in a few spots in the park — because of the glaciated water.  The bears we saw were hard at it, eating as fast and as much as they could.  At one point a heavy cloud cover parted to expose the top of Denali surrounded by a halo of clouds.

We also saw more caribou and ptarmigan, a loon on a lake with a huge fish in its mouth, a red-throated grebe, and migrating sandhill cranes.  At Wonder Lake, we had a 25-minute lay-over.  It began to rain, followed immediately by the sun peeking out and a rainbow formed over the lake.  Indeed, a special sight.

We then returned the 84 miles to the park entrance.  Total travel time – 11 hours.  And total work day for the driver, also.  Twice the bus stopped to pick up hikers who had flagged it down.  This is the protocol in the park.  You can walk anywhere you wish, then make your way back to the road and flag down a bus going in whichever direction you want to go.  If there is room on the bus, you are welcomed aboard, and will be dropped off anywhere along the route you want.  Since the five of us who opted for the additional trip to Wonder Lake didn’t return to the Visitor Center until 7:30 p.m., we of course missed both dinner and the lecture on “Planning Denali’s Future.”  We took the shuttle back to the Learning Center and three of us headed off to the Roadhouse, a restaurant associated with McKinley Village, a hotel complex adjacent to the Elderhostel facility.  We all had the salmon sandwich, which was just fabulous.

Friday, 8/26

We started the day with our final class with the world-class lecturer, Nan Eagleson, on “Ethical Dilemmas.”  Actually, Nan didn’t lecture, but divided us into four discussion groups.  She educated us about the mandate of Denali National Park (protect, but provide access), which is often contradictory, and the wording of the Wilderness Act, signed by LBJ in 1964.  Then she gave each group a sheet with a current real-life dilemma in the park.  We discussed and argued for a half hour, then gave presentations about our conclusions.  It was very stimulating.  After lunch, we had our scheduled free time and I went to Husky Homestead, the kennels of three-time Iditarod winner, Jeff King.  Quite an operation!  His van picked up those of us who had elected that activity.  Workers offering 3-week-old puppies for us to hold met us at the kennels.  Another litter had been born just the night before, but we didn’t see them.  Jeff himself welcomed us and then turned us over to a guide.  We saw most of the 80 dogs he keeps, from the puppies to a very senior dog (a 2-time winner) who, at 18 years old, had arthritis, a fatty tumor on his underside, and pretty mangy fur.  He had the run of the place.  The others were tethered and were close enough to other dogs to play with them, but not to mate.  Females discovered to be in heat are quickly removed to their own kennels which they share with pregnant and nursing bitches.  We learned all about the year-round training of the dogs, their diet and exercise.  Then we went into a large building where we were seated for a presentation on the Iditarod race itself.  The race is an annual commemoration of the relay Pony Express-type dog sled run made in 1925 to carry diphtheria medication from Nenana to Nome.  This first run was accomplished in only 127 hours (about 6 days), in temperatures that barely rose above –40 degrees F. and in winds strong enough to blow over the dogs and sleds.  The serum arrived in time and hundreds of lives were saved.

We were returned to the Learning Center.  I spent the next three hours of my free time waiting in line to use the one washer and drier, and actually using them.  Then it was dinner time.  That evening’s lecturer was unable to be with us, so Terry Boyd, one of our organizers and a world-class photographer, gave us a moving introduction on how he got interested in photography and came to be in Alaska from his home in Arkansas, and then showed us slides of his work.

Saturday, 8/27

Our cabin check-out proceeded in an orderly fashion and we boarded one of those plush motor coaches for the all-day ride to our next site, the Kenai Fjords Peninsula Learning Center in Moose Pass.  As we passed McKinley Village, our driver stopped to pick up a friend of his, a tour guide who worked for Holland America Lines who was returning home to Anchorage on a break.  She earned her ride by acting the tour guide for a short while and telling us some amazing facts:

• Juneau, the capital of the state, is completely inaccessible to its constituents except by boat and plane.  There has been interest over the years in moving the capital to another city, but an estimate of costs came in at $2.3 billion, and the citizenry voted not to move it.  The town of Willow, which is equidistant from Fairbanks and Anchorage, had been identified as the possible site in the ‘80s.  A real estate boom ensued in Willow, and those who bought are still holding on today, hoping that the move will come to pass.
• Alaska has no income tax nor sales tax (except in Anchorage).   There is tax on personal property, land and buildings.  There is something called the Permanent Fund, funded by oil revenue, which cannot be spent except by a vote of the people.  The fund currently stands at $30 billion and every man, woman, and child in Alaska receives a yearly check as their portion of the interest on that fund.  The checks range from about $1000 to $2000 a year, depending on the interest rates.  Parents have the option of leaving theirs and their children’s payments in a fund for college expenses; these accounts grow at the same annual interest rate as the Permanent Fund.  In order to receive this check, a person must be an Alaskan resident for one year and cannot reside outside of Alaska for more than 90 days to qualify.  Snowbirds carefully book their plane reservations so as not to miss out!  Large families have been known to move to Alaska for the dividend.  A former mayor of Anchorage had 14 children, thus last year when the payments were in the $2,000 range, he received $32,000!
• The average house price in Anchorage, where approximately 42% of Alaska’s population lives, is in the $250,000-$275,000 range.
• There are many homeschoolers in the state since the ride to school is often prohibitively long.  A free college education has been offered by the state to the top 10 kids in every high school graduating class.  Often, the entire class gets to go, since there are sometimes fewer than 10 kids in the class in the more outlying areas.  If a student winds up paying for his or her own college education using student loans, the state will repay them if the student stays and works in Alaska.  There does seem to be a problem with Alaskan youth leaving the state.  However, many do return later.
• The cost of living in Alaska is about the same as in the lower 48.
• There is research being conducted at the University on fast crop growth because of the extended daylight hours during the growing season.
• There are about 100 earthquakes a month registered in the state.
• Medicine is often practiced by e-mail, especially in the back country.
• Alaskans consume more ice cream per capita than any other state!

We stopped a couple of times for photo opps of Denali totally devoid of cloud cover, bathroom breaks, even though there was one on the bus, and a coffee break/leg stretch.  For lunch we pulled into a beautiful riverside campground where all manner of camping was going on, from pup tents through pop-ups to modest RVs, asked in the office if a busload of Elderhostelers with bag lunches could eat at their picnic tables in their grove, and were waved in.  This would never happen in the “lower 48,” as the states down below are constantly being referred to.

In mid-afternoon, we had a stop at the Alaska Wild Berry Products complex, which had – among many other wonderful things – a chocolate waterfall!  I bought more Christmas presents for the grandchildren.  Most of us got ice cream cones in Alaskan flavors, and we continued on our way.  We arrived in Moose Pass at 5 p.m., right on schedule.  We settled into our rooms at the Trail Lake Lodge which is a motel now used only for Elderhostel groups.  The owners also run a restaurant and bar on the site, and of course feed us hungry hostelers three meals a day.  There’s no daily maid service on Elderhostel trips, but who needs it?

I had a one-hour hike to stretch after sitting all day, then we had dinner and an orientation.  The entrée was salmon, and that and the other parts of the meal – lots and lots of veggies and fruits – were as good as the food we’d had up in Denali.  Our rooms had TVs, so I watched the news for the first time in a week to see what was going on in the world.  It was all bad news about Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm, heading for New Orleans.

Sunday, 8/28

We had breakfast and by 8 a.m. were in a bus that was one step up from the rickety yellow school bus in Denali and on our way into Seward and the Alaska SeaLife Center, a 45-minute drive away.  A cow moose sauntered across the road in front of the bus.  We had an introductory talk and power point presentation on the mission of the Center, which is research, rehabilitation, and education, with the primary emphasis on research.  We were told that the town of Seward was the central point for animal rescue after the Good Friday 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.  The marine wildlife population in Alaska has declined 80-95% in a 30-year period, and the scientists at the Center are attempting to determine why.  One interesting strategy they’re employing is setting up video cameras in the wild on Chiswell Island in the Bay of Alaska and there is live footage that you can watch as part of the displays.  We were shown some interesting snippets of recent footage.  We then had 1½ hours to peruse the exhibits at the Center on our own, returning at 11 for another lecture on the research being conducted on the horned puffin and the common murre.

Lunch had been brought from Moose Pass – hot soup and sandwiches.  Then we had the entire afternoon free to wander around Seward.  Many places were closed since it was Sunday.  I tried both the library and the senior center for free Internet access, but was forced to pay $2.00 for every 15 minutes at a terminal in the Seward Shop.  I caught up on 8 days of e-mail.  I was also able to purchase another memory card for my digital camera, at a tourist price, but what was I to do?  Then I walked along a path by Resurrection Bay all the way down to the small boat harbor.  The party fishing boats had just arrived and I watched fascinated as men expertly filleted all sorts of immense, beautiful fish, including salmon, flounder, and cod, and gave them in plastic bags to those who had caught them.  I then walked back to the SeaLife Center where the bus was waiting to pick us up.  Most others had shopped and strolled and had ice cream, but some hiked.  One couple witnessed a thrilling helicopter rescue atop the mountain they had climbed.  Seems a crew member from the Holland America liner in port for the day went mountain climbing, slipped and badly injured himself.  I had seen the helicopter hovering over the mountain as I took my walk.

We had about an hour before dinner and I continued my reading of “Red Water.”  It’s gripping and I didn’t find much time to read it, although the bus ride from Denali down to Moose Pass was so smooth due to the plushness of the motor coach that I was able to read about half of it.  It’s the story of three of a Mormon man’s 19 (!) wives out in Utah in the mid-19^th century.  It’s a surprisingly sexy book considering it’s about Mormons and their harsh frontier life.  I highly recommend it.  It’s out of print, but readily available online.

After dinner, we had a most fascinating talk on “An Alaska Life” by Rosella Ikerd, whose story is not to be believed.  Some of the women stayed afterward to talk to Rosella and she commented that there were many available men in Alaska.  She quipped, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

It was announced that that night there was a good chance of seeing the aurora at around 2:30 a.m., so I added my room number to the list of those to receive a sharp knock should our leader see it.  An aurora-sighting index is listed on the TV each night along with the weather.

Monday, 8/29

At 1:30 a.m. what sounded like a fire alarm rang at the motel.  Those of us who had wanted to see the aurora dutifully got up, dressed, grabbed our cameras, and paraded down to the boat launch.  There was a total cloud cover and our leader was not present, so we concluded that the warning siren had had nothing to do with notifying us of the aurora.  Unfortunately, I was not able to get back to sleep.  The next morning at breakfast we learned that the night chef had done something to set off the smoke alarm in the kitchen and that’s what we heard.

We started the day at 8:15 with a lecture on “Alaska:  An Overview” by our organizer/leader, Kris Cassity.  At 9:30, we boarded our bus to Cooper Landing, where we were treated to an interpretive walk of “K’Beq” (“footsteps”), an Athabascan prehistoric archeological site.  A handsome raised boardwalk had been built in the forest so visitors could look down on the depression remaining in the earth that had been the site of a large home, a nichit, sleeping maybe 30 people.  We also saw a number of chugilin q’a, fish caches, surrounding the nichit site, a fish-drying frame, and learned alot about the everyday lives of the early native people who lived there.  Our guides were two young people, recent high school graduates, who were members of the Dena’ai tribe.  In a small cabin, there was a magnificent model of a nichit that a local 3^rd-4^th grade class had constructed.  We then sat at picnic tables and had a beading lesson from two older women from the tribe using great little kits we were provided with.  We enjoyed the lunch we had brought with us on the bus – salmon spread on bagels with lettuce and tomatoes, a delicious mushroom soup, vanilla pudding and apples.

After bidding farewell to our hosts, we drove about a half hour to Alaska Wildland Adventures for a 2-hour interpretive Kenai River float.  We had been warned that it might be cool on the river, so I already had on four layers.  We removed our shoes and were given nearly knee-high boots, rain overalls, a rain jacket with a hood, zip-lock baggies for our cameras, and gloves if we didn’t already have them.  There was much hilarity as we donned these garments, all of us snapping photos of the others.  Add to this a hat and my binoculars, and I waddled the short distance to the rafts.

Office and cabins available to rent at Alaska Wildlife Adventures, the facility where we had our raft ride.

We were given a safety talk on what to do if we fell in  (we had earlier turned in signed releases), and were shown how to get in the inflated raft and how to hold on.  The form and instructions were a little scary, but we were assured that in all their years leading raft tours, no one had ever fallen in.  Unfortunately, I was seated in the front facing backwards, so I didn’t see what was coming up and would see things our paddler pointed out long after we’d passed them or not at all.  There were 10 people in the boat, including the paddler.  Our paddler was a stunning young woman who was a veteran boatwoman and all around outdoorswoman.  I must interject here to sing the praises of the Alaskan woman.  Life in the backcountry in Alaska, particularly during the 9 months of winter, is no walk in the park, and these strong, skilled, accomplished, resourceful women take on any task or recreation usually associated with men and do these things seemingly effortlessly.  After rowing three different groups for 2-hour raft rides each, plus hoisting the rafts onto trucks at the end for the return trip upstream, our paddler was going fishing!  The women are accepted as equals, as they certainly are the equals of any man in that state.  I am in awe of their power and confidence.

Our float was peaceful, with only a few category 1 rapids, where some splashing did occur.  After being on the turquoise glaciated water of the Kenai River for awhile, we came to its confluence with the clear Russian River, formed by melting snow.  There were lots of anglers (the non-sexist term common in Alaska) thigh-deep in the water and in boats trying to catch the last of the salmon before their spawning and their turn to red exterior and mushy interior, prior to death.  One of the anglers pointed out a nearby bear to one of the rafts; our raft missed it.  Those on my raft saw several eagles’ nests and also male and female bald eagles sitting side by side on a branch, which was said to be highly unusual.  We saw lots of waterfowl and in the shallows, hundreds of the red salmon spawning.  It was cool on the river, but being very well dressed, I was completely comfortable.  Turning to look at things or using my binos or camera was difficult with all the layers and trying to continue to hold on.

We returned to our motel in time for dinner and a lecture on “Glaciers and Glaciology” by Ranger Doug Capra of the National Park Service.  This lecture was in preparation for our trip the next day to Exit Glacier.

Tuesday, 8/30

By 8 a.m., we were on our bus and headed once again to the Alaskan SeaLife Center in Seward.  We had two lectures, the first on the training program for the harbor seals and stellar sea lions.  This program conditions the animals for the various procedures that will be used to study them.  The unique thing about this program is that no animal is forced to do anything.  They are actually asked to participate, to “volunteer” is the word that was used, for the various measurements, studies, tests, etc.  They are not fed at a set time each day as they soon learn the drill and wind up lining up for a meal at the appointed time.  To mimic life in the wild and to keep the trainers from lapsing into a fixed schedule, they throw a die each morning to see how many times the animals will be fed that day, anywhere from 1 to 6.  Of course their reward fish for doing various requested activities counted toward their total daily calorie requirements and of course they were given sufficient rations, just on a varied schedule.  Later in the day, I happened on a feeding session and was able to observe the “targeting,” whistling, and hand motions I’d learned about.  Because of the close association with their trainers, these particular animals will never be returned to live in their native habitats again.  But in some studies, where the animals will eventually be returned to the wild, food is totally separated from human contact.  In these cases, fish are thrown over a wall or shot into an enclosure from a canon.

The next lecturer talked about the Giant Pacific octopus, one of which, “Thing,” was at the facility.  I learned so much about octopus that it’s hard to believe.  Did you know they have beaks and that in the male, one of the arms is used exclusively as a penis-like appendage to deliver sperm to the female, and has no suction cups on it?  The talk was riveting!

Full disclosure:  this is not one of my photos.

While we ate lunch brought with us, we watched a great movie about a boat called the Tiglit (“eagle” in the native people’s language) on which scientists go to the rookeries in the Arctic National Refuge to help restore these traditional breeding grounds for literally millions of birds.  When the Russians owned Alaska, they had brought rat-infested ships to these places.  Also foxes had been introduced to the islands, and between these two predators, some of the bird species were being decimated.  The crew methodically trapped and removed most of these pests over a several-month period, while at the same time studying the bird populations there.  Between the often-treacherous waters in which the boat had to sail, plus some of the death-defying places they ventured to study and tag the birds, it was a very exciting movie.  We then had about 45 minutes to enjoy the Center before re-boarding the bus for our excursion to Exit Glacier, about a half hour away.

This photo also is not mine; another Elderhostel traveler took it and sent it to me.

We first went to the tiny ranger center, then took about a 15-minute walk to the toe of the glacier.  As we drove in on the access road and as we walked closer, we saw signs with dates on them, going back as far as 1870.  These signs showed where the toe of the glacier used to be.  We were told that one of the definitions of a glacier was that it was always in motion and Exit Glacier moved forward at the rate of 2” a day.  However, it was simultaneously in what is called “retreat,” that is, it is losing mass to melting, so even though it is moving forward, it is shrinking in on all sides.  Glaciated water pours from the bottom of it, forming gravel bars with braided rivers.

Being up close and personal to a glacier was completely overwhelming to me.  The ice is about 200’ thick, and looks blue in the crevasses since glacial ice absorbs all of the colors of the spectrum except blue.  Some large and small holes have formed, which produced things that looked like they belonged in Arches National Park in Utah, except they were ice.  Signs and a roped-off area kept us from approaching too close.  We heard a story of a couple who ignored the signs.  The man was snapping a photo of his wife standing right next to the glacier just at the moment when it calved (a chunk broke off).  She was killed.  We could see some chunks lying at the bottom of the glacier, so it seemed a plausible tale.  We then walked up on a path through the woods next to the glacier to the top of it.  There is no way you could actually walk on the glacier because of all the crevasses.  If you fell in, you would never be able to get out.  It was an extraordinary experience, unlike anything else I’ve ever seen.

After much photo-taking and the walk back to the bus, it was time to return to the motel for dinner.  A half hour before dinner, I joined about half our group for a pre-dinner drink and an appetizer of halibut quesadillas, the specialty of the house at the bar/restaurant/pool hall at our motel.  This delicacy seemed the ultimate of fusion cooking (not unlike San Diego’s famous fish tacos), and I found it delicious.

After dinner, we had a lecture about a volunteer program on the Kenai River called Stream Watchers.  Because of the devastation of the paths leading to the river and the river banks, and the litter caused by the 70,000 anglers who come during the 2-month season, this group built a boardwalk from the parking area right down to the river, installed fish-cleaning tables at the water’s edge, and are on site each day to discourage littering, to encourage fishing from in the river rather than on the banks, to put up temporary fences to guide anglers onto gravel paths, to help with snarled fishing lines and to teach proper fishing techniques, etc.  This service is under the auspices of the National Forestry Service.

Wed., 8/31/05

Today was to be the peak experience of the second week.  We were bused to Seward, given our boarding passes and lunch tickets for the Glacier Express, a boat which would take us on the Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise, boarding at 11 a.m.  Prior to boarding, we separated into two groups for ranger presentations on the life cycle of the five types of salmon or local fox farming in the ‘20s.  We had been given very specific instructions for where to sit depending on our tolerance for boat motion/tendency to motion sickness.  Since I am a prime candidate for the latter, I chose to sit inside and downstairs and near the center of the boat.  I also took a Bonine tablet (new generation of Dramamine which does not make you sleepy) one hour before departure.  We were fortunate enough to get a captain who was as savvy about the wildlife as he was about the water through which he was guiding us.

We went out of Seward, through Resurrection Bay, past Pilot Rock and the Chiswell Islands (where the Alaska SeaLife Center had its video camera), into the Bay of Alaska and up the fjords to Aialik Glacier.  Along the way we saw sea otters, which are the smallest of the sea mammals, but actually the largest member of the weasel family.  They live entirely in the water, even giving birth there.  Because they have one million hairs per square inch of skin to keep them warm, they have no need for blubber or fat.  Their frequent rolling motion helps to keep their fur groomed in order to keep them warm.  In the late 19^th century, the Russians hunted them almost to extinction for these extraordinary pelts.  A minke whale was spotted, but I didn’t see it (nor had I ever heard of it).  We saw many stellar sea lions warming themselves on rocks, also a lone harbor seal.  In the bird kingdom, we observed horned, tufted, and tuftless puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, and two bald eagles.  Ninety percent of the eagles in the U.S. live in Alaska.  We were thrilled to see two blows and a show of fluke from a hump-backed whale.

But the star of the trip was Aialik Glacier, which came right down to the bay.  We were able to get to within ¼ mile of it and in addition to seeing its blueness and multiple fissures and crevasses, were able to hear it cracking.  It sounded like a combination of gunshots and thunder.  Then we could see huge chunks of it – hundred of tons of ice at a time – “calving,” breaking off and falling into the sea.  We were told that the ice we could see in that glacier was probably about 3500 years old.  We stayed there in awe for about 20 minutes, all of us wildly snapping photos at each calving.  The water all around us was littered with small ice bergs from the glacier.  We could hear them bumping and scraping the sides of the boat as we moved through them.  This glacier experience was truly without peer in my lifetime.

We then high-tailed it home.  I slept for the last hour, from a combination of the effects of the Bonine, the lulling of the boat, and the warmth of the cabin.  We docked a few minutes late at 5:45 and arrived back at our motel just in time for a scheduled late dinner at 7 p.m.  Following that, we watched a short video on auroras.  None of us had given up hope of seeing one during this trip.  Although we had a squall on the way to Aialik Glacier, by the beginning of our return trip, the sun was shining brightly.  However, the weather turned again and we arrived in a downpour.  By bedtime, it had again cleared so hopes ran high for an aurora sighting.

Thursday, 9/1/05

Our last Elderhostel day!  We again spent the morning at the Alaska SeaLife Center.  Our first lecture was by the director of research at the facility, who talked about what are light-heartedly called “Crittercams.” He was followed by one of the vets on staff.  Then there was a short presentation about the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.  The initial settlement with Exxon was a payment of $275 million to three separate entities – the majority to a trustee council, but $125 million of this was returned to Exxon in recognition of their help with the clean-up.  The $5 billion settlement is still tied up in the courts.  There was a realization after the spill that there was little data about the sealife in the area, thus the Alaska SeaLife Center came into being through funds from the trustee council.  However, no funds from the settlement are used for its ongoing mission.

We were told of another, more recent oil spill of 300,000 gallons and the ship’s cargo of soybean oil in the Aleutian Islands in December 2004.  The Malaysian ship actually split in half.  Recovery from that disaster – which virtually none of us had heard about – is ongoing.

After lunch, we were separated into three groups and taken on “behind-the-scenes” tours by members of the Center’s staff.  We then had a free afternoon.  I ran to the public library for the 2 p.m. screening of two movies about the ’64 earthquake.  From there I visited the senior center and sat all by myself in a room of six computers checking my e-mail.  For the last half hour before the bus pick-up, I once again strolled the streets of beautiful downtown Seward on a gloriously clear, warm day.

After dinner we had a closing ritual where we shared, if we wanted to, either what surprised us most about Alaska, what defining image we would take back with us, or in 5 years in the future, what would most likely still be vivid in our memories.  While the images of the glaciers were certainly high on my list, another person spoke of them first, so I said that the image I would carry home with me was how lightly Alaskans lived on the land, their respect for it and its inhabitants of all species.

Friday, 9/2/05

Several different couples invited me to spend the day with them in Anchorage, since we were bused to the airport early in the morning and none of us had flights until evening, even some not until the next day.  I joined the funny South Carolinian with whom I’d ridden to Wonder Lake and her husband.  We had lunch at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, then strolled the streets of the town.  They were hot to go to a furrier and had gotten some recommendations from Chris Cassity.  She finally did purchase a reversible fur vest.  Her husband asked if I were anti-fur when I showed no interest in the fur proceedings.  I assured him that I would not throw paint on his wife’s vest, but I did have a change in heart and mind about the wearing of furs from that trip.  I don’t think anyone in Philadelphia needs an animal fur to keep warm, but I certainly see their value in the harsh Alaskan (and other countries on that latitude) winters.  I think if I lived up there in the winter (we know that will NEVER happen!) I would buy a fur coat for the warmth.  And they were exquisite, I must admit.

We stopped for an ice cream cone, again featuring Alaskan flavors.  I had glacier silt, made with spice wafers, cinnamon and ginger.  The ice cream was the exact color of the Kenai River!  And it was delicious.

We returned to the museum and spent several interesting hours there, meeting several other members of our Elderhostel group.  We made our way to the airport, checked-in and had drinks and a snack since dinner wouldn’t be served until 9 p.m. or so.

I had the seat from hell on the Anchorage to Atlanta leg of my flight.  I was in the absolutely last seat in the back, across the aisle from a bathroom and with the galley kitchen behind me. There were no windows anywhere near me so I missed the magnificent parting view of Alaska’s mountains and glaciers, announced by the captain.  Sleeping was impossible on this overnight flight since people walked by me constantly to use the bathroom, and then there was the flushing.  The flight attendants gossiped throughout the night in the kitchen.

The Atlanta to Philly flight was uneventful and I was thrilled when I checked my voice mail to learn that Suji would be able to meet me.  Since the flight was right on time, we made a bee-line from the airport to the post office so that I could pick up my accumulated mail, rather than having to sit out the Labor Day weekend without it.  We made it in plenty of time.  Suji returned me to my home, which was in perfect order.

Postscript

The people I met in Alaska were primarily young and all told of loving their jobs.  Many were what might have been described as “hippies,” cobbling together a living by working seasonal jobs or several jobs, not necessarily knowing what was next for them.  They appeared universally hopeful.  They had learned how to deal with the difficulties of life in the backcountry, and even embraced them and that life.  They were gutsy and way ahead of the rest of the country in sensitivity to the environment.  Alaska is truly the last frontier in America.  The people I met were real individualists, but they exhibited a strong sense of community as Alaskans.

I urge you to come and experience Alaska soon.  The experience was life-changing for me.  I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be true for you, also.

The Seward neighborhood business association is sponsoring a program to have local artists paint sandwich boards for local businesses.  I finished painting mine this week.  Kinda fun.  I wonder which business will end up with it.

The middle of July, we headed up to Anchorage, Alaska to visit some good friends of ours.  We had a wonderful time hanging out with them and their three adorable girls. Mr. Charming and I had been to the southern part of Alaska on our honeymoon (we took a cruise), but had never been as far north as Anchorage.  Here are some pictures from our trip. First up we have the one and only moose we saw:

On top of Flattop Mountain over looking Anchorage:

Along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail looking toward Anchorage:
It’s a beautiful mostly flat (except the last huge hill to Kincaid Park) bike ride along the coast. My butt hurt the next day after biking 22 miles!

This picture was taken at a small lake near their house:

One of the days we headed down to Seward. This picture was taken going about 60 mph from inside the car:

Now you know what to do in case of a bear attack!

The next two pictures are of Exit Glacier. It was a beautiful blue color which was hard to capture on camera.

One of the days, we decided to head down to Seward.  By the time we got there, the weather was pretty cold and rainy.  Apparently it’s beautiful when the weather is nice, but this is all I saw in Seward:

 I have to admit, it was kind of weird that it never got completely dark while we were there.  Alaska is a beautiful state and if you ever have the chance to visit, do it!  

Today, Gardners Candies has 15 retail stores in Pennsylvania. Gardners Candies Stores are beautifully decorated with taste-tempting candies that some have described as “simply out of this world.”

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Locations:

Alexandria
Altoona*
Bedford*
Bellefonte
Belleville
Bellwood
Berlin
Berwick
Bloomsburg
Boswell
Breezewood
Burnham
Butler
Camp Hill
Canonsburg
Carrolltown
Central City
Centre Hall
Chambersburg*
Chicora
Clairton
Clarion
Claysburg
Clearfield*
Clymer
Coalport
Columbia
Conyham
Cresson
Cumberland,MD
Curwensville
Dauphin
Davidsville
Delmont
Dillsburg
Donegal
Dubois*
Ducannon
Duncansville
East Berlin
Ebensburg
Emporium
Entriken
Etters
Everett
Fishertown
Ford City
Freeland
Glen Hope
Grantsville,MD
Greencastle
Hagerstown,MD*
Hanover Twp
Hastings
Herndon
Hesston
Hollidaysburg
Hopewell
Houtzdale
Hughesville
Huntingdon*
Indiana*
Jim Thorpe
Johnsonburg
Johnstown*
Kittanning*
Kylertown

Lancaster
Landisburg Latrobe
LaVale, MD*
Leechburg
Lewisburg
Lewistown
Ligonier
Lititz
Lock Haven
Loretto
Loysville
Mahanoy City
Martinsburg
McConnellsburg
Mercersburg
Meyersdale
Mifflintown
Milesburg
Mill Hall
Millersburg
Milton
Montoursville
Mt. Holly Springs
Mt. Union
Muncy
New Alexandria
New Paris
New Stanton
Newry
Newville
North Versaille
NorthernCambria
Numine
Oil City
Orbisonia
Osceola Mills
Patton
Pennsburg*
Philipsburg*
Portage
Punxsutawney
Red Lion
Reedsville
Reynoldsville
Rimersburg
RoaringSpring
Saxton
Selinsgrove
Seward
Shelocta
Somerset
Snow Shoe
Spring Mills
St. Marys
St. Thomas
StateCollege*
Sunbury
Tipton
Tyrone*
Warriors Mark
Waynesboro
Weedville
Wellsboro
Westover
Williamsburg
Williamsport
Woodbury
Woodland
York

I wanted to show more detailed photos of Vancouver and Alaska. This whole trip was planned and arranged by my husband’s Aunt Gayle to celebrate Uncle Jim’s 70th birthday. It just so happened the trip fell at the same time that my job was dissolving. So timing was right on.

Here are some photos of flying into Vancouver, the city and lush foliage and flowers everywhere.

Vancouver

Inlaws

 Our view at dinner.

Inlaws and family friends the Campbell.

Brown Bear in the rainforest.

Totem Poles.

Native Alaskan Indian artist working on totem pole made out of red cedar.

Uncle Jim & Aunt Gayle

Humpback Whales

To start our journey we flew into Vancouver. What a beautiful city, so retro-European. Lush foliage and flowers are everywhere, I have never seen another city quite like it. Vancouver is getting ready for the 2010 Olympics in February. I would love to go back and visit when we have more time. We boarded the Celebrity Millenium cruise ship and started our journey thru the inside passage of Alaska.

We cruised the first night and day and stopped at Ketchikan, it poured down rain which is normal for this lovely little town, I did not mind at all. We took a bus to the Alaskan Rainforest  Sanctuary and hiked a trail where we saw a few brown bears catching salmon in the creek. We met an Alaskan Native carver working on a red cedar totem pole. The artwork these artists do is unbelievable.

Our next stop was Juneau, it stopped raining on us here. We took a tram up the side of the mountain, what awesome views. After we went back down my husband and father in law decided they wanted to go back and hike the trails further up the mountain. Well they did and then they decided to brave climbing back down 2 1/2 miles, don’t ask me how they did it, very dangerous.

Next was Skagway…boy was it cold and windy. We took a train ride up the mountain, talk about looking down. Miners back in the gold rush days had to be totally out of their minds, some of the stories we heard were just amazing.  My husband and his uncle highly recommend the book The Klondike Fever by Pierre Berton for outrageous stories about the gold rush. Skagway was a neat town and I found some cool stuff and artwork by the shop owner and artist at http://agatheringofspirits.com. We also walked down to the river and watched the salmon.

Our last stop to explore before heading to Anchorage was Icy Strait Point/Hoonah. We had to take a small boat to shore. We took a tram ride along the shore line and rain forest. We saw humpback whales. I also met a medicine woman who has a shop there selling Skookem Ointment and Devil’s Club Ointment (we learned about these plants on the rainforest tours) anyway she tried the Skookem Ointment (skunk cabbage) on me ( I was in a bit of pain) and the pain went away, no kidding. Anyway I bought the product and have ordered the Devil’s Club too. She has a website http://gutshuwu.com so check her out. I think you would be amazed.

We cruised all day to the Hubbard Glaciers. The photos do not do justice. Breathtaking…

Our final stop was Seward…we did not have time to explore the town, but had to take a bus for about 127 miles to Anchorage. When we got to Anchorage we hung out in the town for a while. I bought some cool hand painted pottery from Munk Farm Pottery. We then took a shuttle to the airport and had to wait around for hours until midnight for our plane home. In the meantime we decided to have dinner in Chili’s and when we sat down I looked up and in the corner behind the wall was the actor Ricky Schroder, he was sitting looking at his computer, I must say he is even more handsome in person than on screen. As I went up to him to ask for his autograph he said hold on a minute, the little boy across the aisle from him had started choking and the father was tapping him on his back and Mr. Schroder jumped up to help, thankfully the little boy was OK. Mr. Schroder then talked to me and gave me his autograph, I wish I had asked him if we could take a photo with him but I didn’t want to invade his privacy too much. That’s ok it was great to see a Hollywood actor who cared about someone else and trying to help them. He was really down to earth and nice.

 So all in all our trip was phenomenal and I wish we could do it all again.

Monday – Moose Pass, Alaska

Just a quick insert note here, I am in a position where I have access to a normal PC. The PC is setup with Firefox and is a normal aspect ratio screen. The pictures I am posting are showing fine and away from the right hand edge, in fact after seeing that I may even increase the size again back to what they were, as there is a 2cm gap there. Those who see cropped images, go into your desktop settings and check your screen size, this site is best viewed in 1024×1128, those with widescreens will see it with no issues

Well, we had another lazy lay in. Well, I did, I never got woken by cramps, but I could feel the muscles tighten every time I moved when I woke up during the night, so I had broken sleep. Never mind, after some late breakfast we packed up and headed off late morning. We only had a short distance to travel as we were going to hit the mail box in Anchorage then head to Seward and probably stay over. It is strange how things turn out eh, because everything went different to the way we had imagined, that is why I don’t make too many plans, go with the flow First off we headed south, now I took this photo because really, after all the smoke I had seen over the past two weeks, this is the only fire and it was a controlled land clearance burn off.

So we headed south and after a short time we arrived in Anchorage, it is only 40 miles from Wasilla, first stop was some lunch at a Wendy’s, just because it was there and so were we

After lunch we stopped at a car repairer to ask the way to the Harley shop as that was where we could get free camping. But, then I changed our minds as we had already decided we were going to Seward, so asked instead the way to Alaskaleather They are the dealers for Gerbing heated clothes and we had heard that the owner Barb, was a very nice person and could help us out. Specifically, the heated pants I bought from the Harley shop in Saskatoon did not seem to be working, also Simon wanted to buy a pair of them if they had some. So, we had an address and the GPS, via some flukey and weird back roads got us to the shop

Once there we met Barb who straight away wanted to help us, in fact right away she said, here is another pair and a new controller type thing, I will send those faulty ones away for repair! In the end we spent 2 hours here, trying various combinations of different gear to find out what was and what wasn’t working. The end result? Well, my pair of pants worked, but not well enough via the vest connector to be useful, so I bought a Y connector and plugged them direct to power, success Now, the only new pants in the shop were small, my pair were medium(which was all the Harley shop had at the time), now as they worked and fitted Simon, he took them and bought the small pair which I took from him and they fitted me better. Success all around, although I still have an issue with why they won’t work properly from the jacket connector. I am going through Washington state soon, I will drop into Gerbing and find out an answer there Thanks you very much to Barb and staff, they went out of their way to help us travellers out. They also had the Nolan helmet visor, pinlock and sunscreen I needed to replace my scratched and useless ones, so now I could see again

We then headed to the post office to pick up my mail, but the line was so long with only one person working that it looked like it would take forever, so I said forget it we can do that on the way back through. So we headed south and followed the coastline, the tide was out by the looks, we found out later it is one of the largest tides in the US, about 35ft.

Onwards and the mountains started to appear, some nice picturesque views and the roads were excellent, not much traffic, no idiot drivers, no sky diving moose, I fail to see the concerns about this road, although I did see a large amount of skid marks and quite a few death markers

Late in the evening we arrived at Seward with the clouds below the mountain tops. This was a nice little harbour village and was a total tourist trap as we found out trying to find some lodging

So, after some Chinese tucker we decided to head back north as we had seen some signs for rooms at a lot less than what they start at here, $130 for a basic fold out bed and nothing else So we found a place called Moose Pass where we asked the question, well the room was still not cheap, but at least a 1/3 cheaper than Seward, so as it was now nearly 9pm, we took it. Camping did enter our minds, but it was freezing outside, so it did not enter for long!

The views around here were brilliant, the weather was tops and across the road was a float plane dock and they had flights for $50 each, so we decided we would check them out in the morning, maybe go for a ride

Of course we had a beer or 3 while looking at the map to see where to go next. I had also been given by Art, another contact a bit further up north in Trapper Creek, they had been advised we may be dropping through but we had gone past the other day as we wanted to go to Talkeetna. I phoned Joe and he said come on up and there would be a place to stay, so that was tomorrow night sorted out, great stuff. I prefer to know where I am sleeping late afternoon, not 9pm at night, it makes the evening more enjoyable knowing where you are going to crash.

Our time together would be drawing to a close soon as Simon wanted to go to Chicken and Dawson City while I would be heading east and south, but not for a few days yet. For those that know me, they know I am a solo rider preferably, but Simon and my riding styles are similar, we both enjoy stopping for photos and ride a fair way apart, but we also ride at a similar speed on the pavement and the dirt, so we are not holding each other up in any way. Except me that is, I stop all the time for a leak as I am constantly drinking water Simon has that one worked out as well, as soon as he sees me reaching for my fly, he is gone and I have to catch up later

There was a stuffed bear in the bar, a small one though and a map with location pins in it, I was surprised to see a pin already in Rockhampton, but as it turns out Simon was just stirring and put it in for me, hahaha

We managed to find a weak signal for WiFi and I tried to get mail, this was bad timing as Des had sent out 4 emails with attachments which hogged the bandwidth for ages, I had no idea what was going on until the first one finally downloaded, but I had to leave it on as it was one of 11, so I knew I had others I needed to view as well. It was a late evening by the time we had showers and settled in, the weather for tomorrow was according to the locals excellent, but the weather page said overcast. We had seen some photos of bears catching salmon in the lakes and we hoped to do that by float plane tomorrow.

Day 216 miles and 348 km
Trip – 29,953 miles and 48,205 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

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Disaster Alert

Alaska – A river flooded its banks and washed out some roads in Seward rendering homes in the area inaccessible.  The Alaska chapter opened and provided a shelter for 20-50 affected residents. The chapter deployed vehicles and a trailer with supplies for affected residents.

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The updates are flying in. Here is the lastest from Community Service Alaska!

The Westcoast Blogger

Dear Parents of Community Service Alaska,

Greetings from Anchorage!

Seward has been an awesome adventure for our group! We were finally able to enjoy a little down time from the service activities and enjoy the many attractions Seward has to offer. On our first day, our group enjoyed the beautiful Alaskan wilderness on a hike of Exit glacier. The sheer size of the glacier was enough to leave us temporarily speechless. In the afternoon, we met up with a dog sledding team which competes every year in the Iditarod, a 1000 mile (dog sledding) trek in the Alaskan wilderness. We were taken on a sled ride with a professional musher. After the ride, we played with the young husky pups. They were so adorable that we wanted to take them home with us.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a cruise of the Kenai Fjords. We were all excited by the potential whales we would be seeing. The group spent a good portion of time on the deck seeking them out. Finally, after some time sea gazing, we spotted a pod of whales and observed them for quite some time. They are truly majestic creatures. We were also lucky enough to see puffins, sea lions and sea otters on our cruise.

At dinner, Jordanna, Vince and Jo organized a trivia game for the campers to test their knowledge of Alaska and see how much they knew about the 50th state. Nick won a beautiful pink camouflage cap by answering the average life span of a brown bear. Impressive!

The following morning, we headed to the Alaska Sea Life Center. At the Center, we saw huge sea lions, a sea otter named Skittles, which was actually rescued in Seldovia, and many amazing fish. In the afternoon, we had a classroom dissection of an octopus. While some of us loved the hands on experience, Nicole found she was more comfortable a good distance away from the slimy eight-legged organisms! The afternoon was reserved for a small hike and some sea kayaking. We all loved the tandem kayaks and had a good chuckle watching Emma and Jon S attempt to maneuver in sync.

Today we said good-bye to Seward and headed back to Anchorage, the final leg of our trip. On the way, we stopped at the H2Oasis water park for some good ol’ fashion fun. The lazy river was my personal favorite but I think everyone enjoyed the master blaster and the hot tub.

More adventure to come in our last days, and surely lasting memories as well,

 The Alaska Gang

by David J. Stewart & Andrew Friedman

At Benny Hinn’s crusades—he dazzles the crowds, plays captivating music, and manipulates the emotions of the audience; BUT, he is not of God.  What is happening is not of God.  Benny Hinn is a master con artist, who fully understands the human psyche.  I was watching one of Benny Hinn’s crusades the other day on TV.  At first impression, Benny Hinn appears as a man of God.  He has that curious and distinguishing look that mesmerizes the crowds.  Benny Hinn comes across as an extremely interesting character, with the power to hypnotize the masses with his charm, music, and exploitation of the Bible.

As I watched Benny Hinn perform on stage, it reminded me more of a rock star in concert.  There were many thousands of people in the audience, and no doubt, millions more on TV..  Just as rock-n-roll fans, the audience was in the palm of the performer, Benny Hinn.  Hinn never mentioned the word “sin,” never mentioned the word “Saviour,” but just kept talking about how wonderful Jesus is.  This is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions.  We read in Acts16:16-18, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.“  Just as the demon possessed woman in Acts 16:17 who spoke the truth while also serving the Devil, so does Benny Hinn speak of Jesus Christ while serving the Devil.

Hinn’s money comes mostly from people in TV land, who are foolishly conned by what they see on TV.  It couldn’t be more obvious that Benny Hinn has hired a top-notch group of manipulators to work with him.  One of the camera tricks which Hinn employs is to zoom in on certain audience members who look like they’re having a religious experience.  Seeing someone having such an uplifting experience, while hearing the emotion-producing music, and listening to Hinn ramble on with religious lingo, easily mesmerizes the viewer.  As I watched Benny Hinn, he told the audience to get ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.  Next, hundreds of people towards the front, dressed differently than the people in the back, all fell backwards to the floor.  It was apparent to me that the event was staged.  Then came the alleged healings.  During the healing period of the crusade, several dynamic, sharp-looking, and trained people bring forth the alleged recipients of Hinn’s healing power.  To no surprise, as is COMMON to self-proclaimed faith-healers like Oral Roberts, ALL of the healings are unable to be substantiated.  A small boy was brought up on stage, allegedly deaf in one ear since birth, but now able to hear.  Another woman in a wheel-chair was wheeled up to the platform, allegedly crippled from diabetes, then she walked on stage.  Another man was claimed to have been deaf in both ears from birth, but now was healed.  Then Hinn prompted the man to speak in an attempt to confirm the healing, and he did speak.  So when did the man learn to speak if he was deaf his whole life?

I’d like to see someone with no legs receive their legs back.  Why doesn’t Benny Hinn ever go into a hospital and empty it out of all it’s sick patients?  Why only on stage, behind the camera, while asking for money?

Benny Hinn ministries took in over $100,000,000 last year alone.  Again, I ask, why doesn’t Hinn ever use his alleged power to heal the sick people in hospitals?  The reason is abundantly clear … Hinn is a fraud.  Hinn, like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and so many other false prophets, EXPLOITS Christianity and God’s Word to gain wealth, prosperity, control, influence, and popularity.  God’s power is not for sale.  Do you really think God would allow anyone to exploit his power on stage, for money, and to a false prophet who praises the cult of Catholicism?  Satan is working relentlessly through today’s false prophets to UNITE Christianity with false religion, which is APOSTASY!  When Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of Roman in 380 A.D., it led to total apostasy, and the beginning of the formal Roman Catholic cult.  Don’t be deceived, Benny Hinn and Billy Graham are false prophets who are leading ecumenical churches into the New World Order (the beast system of antichrist).  Satan knows that the easiest way to deceive people is to obscure and blur the truth of God’s Word.  This is why we see so many watered-down Bibles nowadays.  This is why we see Protestants praising Catholics, and Catholics protecting homosexual priests, and homosexuals twisting the Bible around to claim that Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was only a lack of hospitality.  The Word of God is under attack!

The Bible teaches that the gift of healing ended with the Apostles.  The sign gifts were only to validate the message of the Apostles.  This is evidenced by the Biblical fact that the Apostle Paul, who had once been healed of a deadly snake bite, couldn’t find relief for his thorn in the flesh later in 2nd Corinthians 12:7.  2nd Timothy 4:20 also states that Paul couldn’t heal his friend Trophimus,

“…but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

Paul spoke of Timothy’s “often infirmities” in 1st Timothy 5:23, but he couldn’t heal his friend Timothy either.  Clearly, the “gift” of healing had ceased.  If you want to read an excellent in-depth Biblical examination of tongues, healing, and gifts, then please read FACE TO FACE WITH TONGUES by Pastor Max D. Younce.

In Benny Hinn’s crusades, he sings, he praises the name of Jesus, he places his hands on people and they fall to the ground; BUT, it is not of the Holy Spirit.  I’d like to see Benny Hinn cry one time.  I’d like to hear Benny Hinn expose the demonic Catholic religion.  Benny Hinn is a fraud!  According to a Dateline investigation in December of 2002…

Where does world-famous televangelist’s money go?

Benny Hinn has millions of believers and millions in donations

NBC News

Dec. 27, 2002 - Maybe you spotted him while you were channel surfing one night
or maybe you were already tuned in. Either way, he's hard to ignore. Benny
Hinn - televangelist, faith healer, and appointment viewing for millions of
believers. His popularity and his wealth are matched only by the devotion he
's shown by his followers, many of them desperate for help. Their stories
and his ministry play out almost every night in made-for-TV mini-dramas. But
there are other stories, other scenes that reveal much more about Pastor
Benny, caught on Dateline's hidden cameras. Correspondent Bob McKeown
reports.

   HE ALWAYS ARRIVES onstage when they begin to sing the hymn, "How Great
Thou Art."

    And whether you measure success in his TV ratings, attendance at his
live services or crusades around the world, or the money he raises, he is
unquestionably one of the most popular and successful televangelists in the
world today. His television show is available around the globe. He attracts
capacity crowds at arenas and stadiums at home and abroad. And scenes like
this one in his TV studio are a big reason why:

    Benny Hinn: "Yes Lord. A lower back is being healed. Thank you Lord.
Emphysema is being healed. We rebuke it in Jesus' name. Somebody's legs have
just been healed."

      On television or at his crusades, Benny Hinn promises that wherever
he goes, miraculous healing will follow.

    Benny Hinn: "In the name of Jesus, I rebuke the allergies out of you.
Touch! - The glory of God is in the studio. We are having a visitation in
the studio today as we have been taping these TV programs."

    Those miracles, Hinn says, can cure injury and illness - even
terminal disease.

    Benny Hinn: "The healing may happen instantly, and may happen
gradually but
 surely as God is God, your legs will work again, and your body
will be healed again."

    And according to Benny Hinn, it gets even more miraculous than that.

    Benny Hinn: "On the program today, you are going to see a clip of
this man who was raised from the dead."

    Those dramatic claims - and his dynamic preaching style - have
attracted millions of devoted followers, like Carlotta Moore.

    "When I go to a crusade, I'm going because I need to be refreshed. I
need to be renewed. I need to be revived in my spirit," says Carlotta Moore.

    Moore says she also watches Benny Hinn's TV show everyday.

    "The Bible speaks of spiritual fathers," says Moore. "That is my
spiritual father. He's a
 leader. And he is a mentor."

EVANGELIST AND FUNDRAISER

    And he is a master fund raiser as well, so along with that devotion
comes money - a lot of it. Though pastor Benny denies it, estimates of total
ministry revenue exceed $100 million a year.

    Benny Hinn insists his only mission is to preach the gospel, save
souls, and heal the sick. But is there
 more than that to the man they call
pastor Benny?

    "Dateline" looked at the ministry of pastor Benny Hinn, who claims
miraculous power flows from God through him. We'll take a closer look at all
his healings and at all the money that goes into his collection buckets.

     Hinn was born in the Middle East, raised in Canada, and modeled
himself after a faith healer, the legendary Katherine Kuhlman. Hinn started
a church in Orlando, almost two decades ago. By 1999, he'd left Florida,
building his ministry's administrative headquarters in Dallas and his TV
studio in southern California where he now lives.

    Hinn's claims of miracles have made him immensely popular, but those
healings, combined with his ministry's enormous wealth, have also triggered
scrutiny of a different kind.

      "I say he's in the business of raising money and spreading his own
celebrity," says Ole Anthony, who heads the
 Trinity Foundation - a Christian
watch-dog group that examines the workings of television ministries. The
organization operates on donations, grants, and sales of its magazine and
tapes.

    Ole Anthony himself has been highly critical of television preachers
who don't divulge the details of how they raise and spend their money -
especially Benny Hinn.

    "We've gotten most of the complaints lately from Benny's organization
and Benny's followers," says Anthony. "That became our focus, we've been
following him intently since 1993."

    "Dateline" asked the Trinity Foundation to provide access to, among
other things, documents and videotape it's collected about the Hinn
Ministry. We reimbursed the foundation for its costs.

    And we also went looking for some answers ourselves. For almost two
years, "Dateline" sought permission to videotape Benny Hinn's crusades, to
see how this affluent
 television ministry really works.

    Eventually we were allowed to bring our cameras to a crusade in
Atlanta. But the ministry made it clear we were only permitted to tape the
first hour or so. Then after Hinn's entrance, a few hymns and some saving of
souls, we were told to stop.

VIEW FROM A HIDDEN CAMERA

    So, in order to try to find out what really goes on behind the scenes
of the Benny Hinn Ministry, we attended a number of other crusades and
walked in right though the front door with everybody else. Only this time,
the cameras were hidden.

    At least once a month, somewhere in the U.S., 50,000 or 60,000 people
attend one of Benny Hinn's two-day crusades. Over the past two years, we
followed pastor Benny around the country to Hampton, Virginia; Las Vegas;
Buffalo, and a few cities in between.

    At each of the crusades we attended, the faithful began to arrive
hours before
 the service. And so did we with our hidden cameras.

    But even when you get there early, the best sections are already
taken - reserved for major donors, church VIPs and, at the back, for the
disabled and those in wheelchairs.

    In Buffalo, we found our seats high up in the bleachers and we began
recording the service in the middle of that noisy crowd with a hidden
microphone and camera.

    What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.
 What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.

      The script - Benny Hinn's tried-and-true formula - was always
 the
same. And it always started with the music. There's an orchestra, a heavenly
host of local church choirs, and an all-star cast of Christian headliners.
The crowd's emotional temperature seems to rise, as they anxiously wait for
pastor Benny.

    "It's organized more closely than a political convention," says Ole
Anthony, of the Trinity Foundation.. "There's the repetitive music, there's
the mood lighting, there's this whole arrangement of waiting and waiting and
waiting until he comes on stage. The band is playing, "How Great Thou Art"
and then the process starts."

    Once he arrives onstage, pastor Benny preaches, prays and spiritually
tends his flock.

    Benny Hinn: "If you mean business with God, he means business with
you."

    At a Benny Hinn crusade, you can't
 help but notice the faith of his
followers and how much they appear to believe in him and his healing
message.

    The impression one gets being among that crowd is that whatever's
happening down there on the stage, however it may or may not be
choreographed, these people have come because they truly believe.

    "There's no question that the people that are there have strong
belief or a strong want-to-belief," says Anthony, "and so they respond."

THE TENSION BUILDS

    In fact, all evening, throughout the arena, the tension keeps
building because everyone here knows what's going to happen next.

    Benny Hinn:
 "There's power here, people. Lift your hands and receive
it."

    According to pastor Benny, that "power" will soon lead to miracles:

    Benny Hinn: "By moving those legs that have been crippled for all
those years."

    This is from a highlights tape we bought from the ministry's Web
site.

    Benny Hinn: "You're tired of all the pills you've taken, and all the
needles they put in your body and all the pain you felt. Well, I'm here to
tell you, you will be healed tonight!"

      After the preaching, there's the passing of the collection buckets.
And then comes the moment when Benny Hinn makes his
 much-anticipated
announcement - God is speaking to him, he says, revealing a multitude of
miracles, actual healings now taking place throughout the arena, some of
them very specific.

    Benny Hinn: "There is a young man named George. George has HIV. But
my brother George, the holy ghost is burning it out of your body!"

    At all of the evening crusades we attended, it was about 10 p.m. when
Hinn announced God was speaking to him.

    Benny Hinn: "Another arthritis has been healed."

    Benny Hinn's ministry says that in order to verify the miraculous
healings that have taken place, it screens those who claim they've been
healed before they get up on stage.

    First, Hinn staff members talk to the people who get in line. This
screener is even a
 doctor and he evidently thinks this woman is a good
candidate to announce her healing up on the platform with pastor Benny.

    Doctor: "No pain? Great job. You couldn't do that before? (As she
moves her head around.) That is neat. Yeah, take her up there."

    The people selected by the screeners are then introduced to Benny
Hinn and the capacity crowd. Those who've been healed, and others who attend
each service, are given a blessing by pastor Benny with his own personal
touch. And whether he blows or flicks or waves his hand, the faithful are
strewn across the floor like bowling pins. So what exactly is at work here?

RELIGION OR HYPNOSIS?

    "They'd fall down," says Michael Cohen. "They'd fall backwards. He'd
blow on them. They'd fall over. And I thought these were actors that came in
and they paid them so much. And they had a string and they pulled them
 down."

    Even some who were skeptics at first soon became believers, like
Michael Cohen.

    "And when I finally went up there, I ended up falling down," says
Cohen. "I closed my eyes but I knew that Benny didn't push me. I knew I wasn't
 pulled or tugged. I knew that was God touching me."

    But Ole Anthony says he thinks it's a phenomenon that has much more
to do with mass hypnosis than religion.

    "And they watch him on television over and over and over for years,"
says Anthony. "And they see it, they expect it, they see other people
upstage are falling over right and left. Sometimes Benny falls over the
place. It's a circus. It's like professional
 wrestling."

    Bob McKeown: "But in fact he's been on the record time and time again
saying he is not a healer."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "It's God who heals."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "He's just the vessel that's been chosen."

    Ole Anthony: "What's the reason that people come to the crusades?
What's the main thing that happens onstage? That's his attraction. He
promotes himself as a healer, as a healing ministry."

    But according to former Hinn insiders, there's a great deal more to
Benny Hinn's crusades than what you see on television - and what we've found
supports that. A woman who worked at crusades said she was instructed to
look particularly for those standing in front of their wheelchairs.

    Benny Hinn: "Look at all the empty wheelchairs here in Las
 Vegas,
people!"

    Empty wheelchairs apparently imply there's been a lot of healing
going on. But for every one of the people declared healed by pastor Benny on
stage and on TV, many more leave the arena still sick or disabled.

    "Desperate people, the really desperate ones, the ones that break
your heart are at the back on the crusade, they won't let them up in the
lines," says Anthony.

    The broadcasts of Benny Hinn's crusade in Buffalo did not include
what our hidden camera captured. This man was escorted from his seat by
security guards after crying out for pastor Benny to touch his apparently
ill son. "I wanted to take my son up there and get prayed. That's all I
wanted," he said.

    So not everyone who wants to get up on stage is allowed to.. But what
happens to those who are called up on the platform to be touched by pastor
Benny? To try to find out, we attended a crusade in
 Las Vegas, and we did
our best to keep track of each and every one of the miracles Benny Hinn
proclaimed. By our count, there were 56 of them in all - many of which ended
up on this videotape we purchased through the ministry.

    This little boy said his damaged vision was cured: "And as soon as
God healed me, I could see better."

    According to one woman, her cancer was gone. Hinn said God told him a
demon had caused the cancer, and he cast it out.

    Benny Hinn: "Go out of her! It's gone!"

    One woman said she had a diseased lung.

    Benny Hinn: "The lord is asking me now to ask him to give you a new
lung."

    According to pastor Benny, she got that new lung, right there on
stage.

    Benny Hinn: "That's why she's coughing... that's why she's coughing."

    And there was this woman, who said she was cured of lung cancer. She
says: "She had cancer in the lungs. She don't have it now!"

HEAVYWEIGHT HEALING

    In his 25 years of healing, there have been thousands of similar
stories from Hinn's followers - none of them more famous than this one. At a
crusade in 1994, Benny Hinn came to the aid of the former heavyweight
champion of the world. Evander Holyfield had lost his boxing license because
a medical test had revealed a serious heart
 ailment.

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "The Lord is telling me right now he is
repairing Holyfield's heart completely."

    Reportedly, Holyfield promised Hinn a check for $265,000, and before
long, he got a clean bill of health, and won the world title back.

    But Benny Hinn doesn't only minister to the rich and famous.

    Bob McKeown: "And you needed a miracle."

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, did I."

    Bob McKeown: "You and your son."

    Belva Ventura: "Yes."

      We met Belva Ventura at a crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts. She
and her son had both been diagnosed with cancer. Both had been told it was
terminal. Before long, she and her son were on stage in front of 14,000
people, right next to pastor
 Benny.

    Bob McKeown: "And what did Pastor Hinn say to you?"

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, he hugged us. And he put his arm around me. And
he couldn't believe all the cancer in one family. And he said we're gonna
get this cancer out of this house right now. It's not gonna bother you no
more. And we came home, we were happy. I was healed. I know I was."

    The question is, despite all the claims, how does anyone really know
if Belva Ventura or any of the others was indeed miraculously healed at one
of Benny Hinn's crusades?

    So we asked pastor Benny to help us follow up on some of the people
we saw on his stage. Then we did some following up of our own.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't."

   Benny Hinn: "But as surely as God is God - your legs will work again,
and your body will be healed again, and your lungs will breathe again, and
your eyes will see again!"

PROOF OF HEALING?

    At all of his live crusades, Benny Hinn proclaims a breath-taking
litany of miraculous healing. Pastor Benny has said that everyone who gets
up on his platform has been checked by a doctor. His ministry also claims
 it
has a follow up process with people afterwards that it describes as
"exhaustive" and "thorough," and that medical information it collects is
reviewed first by a nurse, then by a doctor.

    So we wanted to find out how that process works and which of those
claims of miracles actually can be verified. We thought a good place to
start would be with the ministry itself. Last year, we asked Benny Hinn to
help us confirm the 56 healings we counted at just one of his crusades - the
one in Las Vegas.

      By the time we asked, dozens of those "miracles" had already been
broadcast around the world on his TV show, including the woman who Benny
Hinn said had grown a new lung right there on stage.

    Woman: "Feels like something in there, like someone was reaching in
my heart, in my lung."

    Benny Hinn: "I want you to
 go back to your earthly doctor, have him
give you an X-ray. I want to hear about it. I want a full story."

    But if Hinn knows the full story about who was healed in Las Vegas,
he's not sharing it with us. In a letter from its lawyer, the ministry
refused to provide proof of any of those healings to "Dateline."

    So since the ministry wouldn't give us any information, we did some
checking of our own about Las Vegas, and other reported healings.

    Remember the woman we met in Las Vegas who said she'd been cured of
lung cancer? With our hidden camera, we were able to go back stage to her
follow-up interview.

    Hinn staffer: "Now, what happened tonight that makes you feel God
touched you?"

    She did speak to a Hinn staff member, but it's hard to know how from
this conversation alone he could have known
 whether she was cured of cancer,
or even if she had it in the first place.

    Staffer: "That primary tumor can be one cell."

    She was asked a few questions, but it didn't appear to us that there
was any medical examination.

    Staffer: "Keep trusting God. Follow it up with your physicians. Thank
you so much. The Lord bless you all."

    Unfortunately, there's one thing we were able to determine about this
woman without the ministry's help. She died two and a half months after the
crusade. The cause was lung cancer.

    And then there was Evander Holyfield's heart ailment - which seemed
to disappear after that crusade in 1994 - touted as one of pastor Benny's
greatest healing successes.

    When Holyfield then won his world title back, it seemed a storybook
ending - except for one problem. According to the Nevada Athletic
Commission, two different clinics determined that Holyfield
 had been
misdiagnosed. His doctor had been given incomplete information about his
condition. In other words, there was nothing seriously wrong with Holyfield'
s heart in the first place. But three years later, pastor Benny was still
claiming credit for the champ's miraculous healing.

    On the "Larry King" show with Pastor Benny, he was aksed: "Evander
Holyfield credits you with curing his heart problem, although doctors said
that maybe it was misread in the first place."

    Hinn: "God healed him in one of our crusades, yeah."

    Evander Holyfield had no comment through his lawyer.

STILL DYING OF CANCER

    And remember Belva Ventura, who said Benny Hinn cast out cancer from
her and her son?

      A few weeks after that crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts, Belva's
son died of cancer. When we visited several months later, she said she hadn'
t had a follow-up call from anyone in the Hinn organization.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't. Otherwise, they would have got
hold of me. Nobody did."

    Her physicians evidently were not convinced of her claims of healing.

    Bob McKeown: "What do your doctors say?"

    Belva Ventura: "They laugh. They look at me and they laugh. They don'
t believe me."

    Belva
 still believed apparently until the end. A month after our
visit, she died. The cause, her doctor told us, was cancer.

    Bob McKeown: "If Benny Hinn, by whatever means, can give people like
that hope, is that not a good thing?"

    Ole Anthony: "Then why don't we just - why doesn't the FDA approve
snake oil? And we could have snake oil salesmen run around offering and
saying, "This little tube of water here, cost you $1,000. And if you take
it, you'll be cured of cancer." It's the same thing except he's doing it in
God's name, which makes it terrible, terrible. He's lying. False hope has to
always be exposed. It must be exposed."

    Benny Hinn says it's possible for someone to be healed at one of his
crusades only to have the illness or injury return later. Here's how he
explains it:

    Benny Hinn: "This is your Day Vegas... My
 Friend, hear this well. The
reason people lose their healing, is because they begin questioning if God
really did it."

    That, says Ole Anthony, only makes matters even worse for those who
are desperately ill.

    "Now they're twice as bad off as they were before because now,
according to Benny, they've done something wrong," says Anthony.

    After repeated requests to verify healings - specifically the 56 we
saw at the crusade in Las Vegas - Benny Hinn's ministry sent us details of
what it said were five irrefutable and medically proven miracles, but none
was from the Las Vegas crusade we were asking about.

    The cases they gave us ranged from a herniated disc, to heart
problems, cancer and Lou Gehrig's disease. When we called them, all five
people insisted they had been healed, but four of them wouldn't or couldn't
provide their medical records, and we could not speak to their
 doctors.

    As for the woman who said she'd been healed of Lou Gehrig's disease,
for which there is no known cure, we did speak to her neurologist, who said
he suspected she didn't have Lou Gehrig's disease in the first place.

    Though the ministry says publicly that the medical information it
collects is reviewed by a nurse and a doctor, in a letter to us from its
lawyer, the ministry acknowledged to us that it is ".... Impossible to
investigate and substantiate each and every one" of the healings proclaimed
at pastor Benny's crusades.

    But with our without absolute proof of the miracles, millions of
followers keep coming to the crusades, and continue to donate millions to
his ministry.

    But now, people who've worked inside the Hinn organization are
raising questions about where some of that money has gone.

Part two: Former insiders question what happened to some of the church
 money

Benny Hinn (at his crusade): "Only those who have been giving to God's work
will be spared."

    The money starts pouring in at Benny Hinn's crusades, thousands of
people filling hundreds of pastor Benny's collection buckets at every
service we attended.

    Chris Hinn: "One side cash, one side checks."

    A 1994 security tape shows Hinn staffers and volunteers counting the
collection money at a crusade.

    For three years in the mid-1990s, Mike Estrella says he was one of
those responsible for counting crusade collections in his capacity as Benny
Hinn's head usher.

    At the time, Estrella says, he was a devoted follower, and
 still
credits pastor Benny with curing his heart condition.

    Bob McKeown: "In cash, what was the biggest night you counted?"

    Mike Estrella: "In cash? Well, one night I counted $420,000."

    Steve Brock: "A dollar a day. Everybody say it with me - a dollar a
day."

    It may sound like they start out small, but the numbers soon get very
big. According to documents provided by the Trinity Foundation, and
published reports - Benny Hinn has more than 100,000 people who promise to
give him a dollar-a-day. If they keep that pledge, that would add up to at
least $3 million a month - $36 million a year.

    The people on this list seemed to be even more generous than that -
it appears some of them pledged or gave more than $100,000 apiece last year.

    Benny Hinn: "The greatest thing you can do for your finances is to
give to the work of God."

    On TV, and at his
 crusades, Hinn promises that not only will God
improve your health, but your financial life as well - perhaps by getting
you out of debt with an unexpected financial windfall. But first, you have
to give money to his ministry. Hinn calls it "sowing the seed."

    Benny Hinn: "Amen. So expect a financial harvest but you have to sow
a seed to see it happen... you may want to call your seed in today. Our 800
number is on the screen."

    Hinn follower Carlotta Moore told us she sows a seed of $12,000 a
year with pastor Benny, and that she expects to be financially rewarded.

    Carlotta Moore: "Because the Bible say [sic] what you sow, you gonna
reap. Now if you sow good things, you
 gonna reap good."

    Bob McKeown: "But might that mean that if you give money, you get
money back?"

    Carlotta Moore: "Oh yes, you will get money back. You will get money
back. Out of the clear blue sky, checks will come from somewhere. You go to
put on a dress or something, or take out a pocketbook up there in the
closet. There is $50 or $60 laying up in there. You'll be like, 'Woah, woah,
woah. Thank you, Lord.' You understand?"

    And the money Benny Hinn's ministry gets is not only in the form of
donations.

    "He sells his books, he sells his tapes, he sells everything, and is
just a money machine, and money pours in," says Ole Anothony. "He's one of
the most successful money raisers in history."

    In recent years, the Hinn ministry's total annual income has
increased dramatically from $50 million in 1997 to the latest estimates -
that the ministry says are inaccurate - of more
 than $100 million a year.
And because the ministry is registered as a church, all that money is
tax-free and Benny Hinn is under no legal obligation to make his finances
public.

    Bob McKeown: "Is there any way to know how much Benny Hinn makes?
Whether he's personally benefiting or not, and where the money goes?"

    Paul Nelson: "There really isn't, and that's why an organization like
ECFA has been formed."

    Paul Nelson is president of ECFA, the Evangelical Council for
Financial Accountability. Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and the Salvation
Army are among its 1,000-plus members who voluntarily disclose to potential
donors more financial information than the law requires.

    "We believe that most people would like to know that the charities
that they give to are governed responsibly, that they practice disclosure of
their finances and other activities, they willingly answer questions,
 and
that they raise funds with integrity," says Nelson.

    Members release audited financial statements, including the salaries
of their ministers.

    Benny Hinn is not an ECFA member. He wouldn't tell us his annual
salary, but five years ago he acknowledged it was then between $500,000 and
$1 million a year.

    And Hinn won't specify how his ministry's money is spent, except to
say he doesn't personally benefit from any of it.

    Benny Hinn: "Every dollar you give this morning is going to the work
of the Lord."

    What Benny Hinn does tell his followers is that all their donations
are spent on God's work - for example, the expenses of his TV show and
crusades, the salaries of his staff, supporting churches and orphanages
around the world and more importantly.

    Benny Hinn: "So everything you give this morning is going for souls.
Is going for what?"

    The crowd repeats: "Souls."

    And many of his faithful, like Carlotta Moore, say they have no doubt
that's true.

    "We're not giving it to Pastor Benny, we're giving it to the ministry
to do the work the Pastor Benny has been entrusted to do," says Moore.

    But this former Hinn ministry staff member says he has reason to
question pastor Benny's sincerity.

    "And Benny was laughing and joking and saying, 'Hey guys watch how
much money I make tonight,'" says Michael Cohen.

    For years, Michael Cohen and his wife were church members. He also
belonged to Hinn's security detail, traveling the world with
 him. Cohen
recalls an incident after a service at the church where he says pastor Benny
bragged about his financial conquests.

    "Like one little grandmother one time came up and cried, I think she
said, this is my last $5. And we got back in the Green Room and he said,
'Ha, I got her last $5, guys,'" says Cohen.

    The ministry says the incident never happened.

    As for his lifestyle, pastor Hinn has explained that some of the
perks he has enjoyed like custom-made suits and expensive cars have been
paid for by his personal income, including the royalties from his many
books.

    While that may be true and legal, it's only part of the story.
According to the Trinity Foundation, the biggest customer for pastor Benny's
books is pastor Benny's own ministry. Trinity says the Hinn ministry buys
thousands of the books for which Hinn apparently collects the royalties.

    The ministry then
 offers them for sale at crusades and on its Web
site, and gives them away to donors.

    According to Paul Nelson of ECFA, that kind of business deal is too
close for comfort, and wouldn't be allowed if Hinn belonged to his
organization.

    "Our standards prohibit the royalty in that case going to the
individual," says Nelson. "The royalty must go for the benefit of the
ministry."

    The Hinn ministry also spends a great deal on pastor Benny's
lifestyle when he's on the road. These records show hotel suites for well
over a thousand dollars a night and transatlantic flights on the Concorde -
at more than $8,000 round trip. That is, before pastor Benny began flying in
a multi-million-dollar private jet.

    But Hinn contributor Carlotta Moore says that use of money given to
Hinn's church for God's work is just fine with her.

    "I'm pretty sure NBC's man that owns NBC probably got his own
 jet and
multimillion dollars," says Carlotta Moore. "Probably got houses here,
houses there, and this that and the other. And I believe that the preachers
of the gospel, I believe they should live better than even NBC's president."

    But Benny Hinn's followers may not know about how all of their
donations are spent. For example there's Hinn's palatial new home, now being
built for $3.5 million in an exclusive gated community overlooking the
Pacific Ocean.

    The plans call for more than 6,000 square feet - 7 bedrooms, 8
bathrooms and a basement garage with enough space for ten cars. Who's paying
for that? Not pastor Benny. That mansion on the Pacific is considered the
Hinn ministry's church residence or "parsonage," and the ministry is picking
up all the expenses for land, construction, even property taxes.

    The ministry says the house is a good investment, but Paul Nelson of
ECFA says Benny
 Hinn should be concerned about the perception of that house
deal. He says the expenditure of millions of dollars of church money on a
house for it's leader, is almost unprecedented.

    Bob McKeown: "Are you aware among your membership of any church
residence, parsonage, that is worth $3 million?"

    Paul Nelson: "I am not aware of that."

    Bob McKeown: "Not Billy Graham's..."

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so. No."

    Bob McKeown: "...residence? Pat Robertson's?"

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so."

    However it managed to pay for his house. Benny Hinn's ministry has
apparently had problems finishing other special projects.

    Since February of 2001, the Hinn Web site has been soliciting
donations for a new orphanage to be built in this little town outside Mexico
City saying it would be finished "soon.."

    But when we checked in Mexico, more than a
 year-and-a-half later, we
could find no sign of any construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising
that construction would be finished in, "a few short months."

    That was news to the local official in charge of construction in the
town, who told us the Hinn ministry hadn't even been issued a building
permit yet.

    What we did find, however, was this sign - curiously not in Spanish,
but English - attached to a house the ministry called it's 'temporary
orphanage,' which appeared to be empty. The Hinn Web site continued to
solicit donations.

    And then there was pastor Benny's most ambitious project - his $25
million healing center to be built in Texas.

    Benny Hinn: "And the Lord said to me to build a healing center that
people can come to 24-hours a day, any day of the week to be prayed for and
get
 healed."

    That was Benny Hinn raising funds for the project in 1999, but this
was Benny Hinn on a Christian telethon a year later: "Many of our wonderful
friends have called and said, 'What's with the healing center?' and
basically what the Lord has said to me is to wait for his voice."

    Hinn announced that God had told him to postpone construction, so he
said he was going to spend that money on other things.

    Benny Hinn: "I am putting all the money we have in the ministry to
get out there and preach."

    According to ECFA's Paul Nelson, that kind of unilateral diversion of
funds would simply be unacceptable.

    "They're creating a backlog of funds and they're not really released
to spend those funds on anything else,"
 says Nelson.

    But now apparently, pastor Benny has changed his mind again and says
the money raised for the healing center is being held in special ministry
accounts until the time is right.

    Benny Hinn: "The day will come, I am in no hurry, neither is God. The
day will come I will fulfill that vision."

    Remember Mike Estrella, who was the head usher at Hinn crusades? He
says one night, the ministry's chief executive officer offered him a wad of
cash taken from the collection.

    How much money? Mike Estrella says thousands.

    According to Estrella, the man who took that money from the
collection buckets was pastor Benny's righthand man, CEO Gene Polino.

    "I just push it back," says Estrella. "One day he told me
 these
words, he says 'Mike, if you follow me and listen to me, I guarantee one
thing, you never have to work again.'"

    After that Mike Estrella says, he began to watch Gene Polino more
closely.

    Estrella: "One time, Polino says give me all the hundreds and all the
fifties. And I did that. And many of them went to his pockets."

    Now how does he know that? "Because I saw him doing it," says
Estrella.

    In a telephone interview, Gene Polino, now retired as Hinn's CEO,
denied those claims.

    Gene Polino told "Dateline" he has "no problem" with Mike Estrella,
but that the former head usher sometimes got "confused." But two years ago,
in a deposition given under oath, Benny Hinn's 's brother Christopher, who
worked in a crusade counting room, testified he too saw Gene Polino
regularly stuff $50 and $100 bills into a bag. Christopher Hinn also
testified that the ministry CEO told
 him "...don't worry about it." Hinn and
Estrella both say they don't know if Polino kept the money they described
seeing him take.

    But Gene Polino told us none of it happened, insisting he never took
any money from the collections.

    Bob McKeown: "You categorically deny that?"

    Gene Polino: "Surely."

    Polino was never charged with any crime and the ministry says he did
not engage in any wrongdoing while employed by the church.

    Christopher Hinn and Mike Estrella both say they told Benny Hinn what
they saw, and we wanted to ask him about it. Through his lawyers and
spokesmen, Hinn repeatedly turned down our request for an interview. We
finally approached him outside his hotel after a crusade in Buffalo last
year.

    Bob McKeown: "Pastor Hinn, I'm Bob McKeown from 'Dateline, NBC.'
Could we have a word with you? We would like to arrange an interview. As you
know,
 we've been trying to contact you."

    Benny Hinn: "I'm so tired right now. I'm worn out."

    Bob McKeown: "Well, we would be pleased to do it at any time you'd be
available."

    Benny Hinn: "Alright."

    Bob McKeown: "In the near future. But as you know, we've been trying
to do this for several months now."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I've been so busy."

    Bob McKeown: "And we haven't had much luck with you."

    Benny Hinn: "No, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey, gentlemen, please."

    Bob
 McKeown: "We seem to be having a bit of a problem with your
security detail here."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I'm sorry about that."

    We did eventually get a final answer from Benny Hinn to our interview
request - it was still "no."

    Benny Hinn's brother Christopher has left the ministry after a
dispute with his brother, and the church says it has had no further dealings
with him.

    As for those other former Hinn insiders, head usher Mike Estrella and
security man Michael Cohen, they say that when they tried to complain to
pastor Benny about abuses in his organization, they were fired.

    In another letter from its lawyer, the ministry says Mike Estrella's
allegations are "unfounded and
 unsubstantiated," and that he was "... Acting
irresponsibly, maliciously or suffered from some impairment when making the
charges."

    As for Michael Cohen, the ministry says, "he is motivated by a
misguided personal vendetta against pastor Hinn and the church..." and
called him an "...unstable and unreliable source."

    Bob McKeown: "What would he say about you now, and the things you're
saying about him?"

    Michael Cohen: "He may tell people that haven't been around for
years, that I'm a disgruntled employee. The fact is, when I first started
working for him, for two years, I wouldn't even take a paycheck."

    Bob McKeown: "Do you believe that he has healed people? "

    Michael Cohen: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Or that people are healed because of him?"

    Michael Cohen: "No. I don't. I believe that people have been healed.
It's God's power, it's not Benny's. Benny, in the
 last couple of years,
wields this power around likes it's his power."

    Cohen and Estrella maintain they were true believers, who put their
faith in a man they thought could bring hope and healing to millions.

    "What I saw was a big business rolling millions of dollars every
year, many people getting rich," says Mike Estrella. "And the rich getting
richer, and the poor getting worse."

    But then, there's Carlotta Moore, a pastor herself, who like millions
of others says she still believes in Benny Hinn.

    She says, "Pastor Benny's job is the work that God has called him to
do, to be that mediator, that channel for that anointing that God has placed
on his life, the work that God has called him to do, to carry that work out
here on Earth."

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "Stand up, lift your hands, and
 receive
from heaven, in the name of Jesus!"

What more information do you need?
Benny Hinn is a manipulator who EXPLOITS the Gospel and Christianity.

You are a false prophet, a liar, & a misled snake in the grass who has no truth in him. It’s a shame, really. you ought to read my testimony of miracles that occurred in my life when Jesus Christ made Himself known to me, in 11/06/2006. Typically, many pagans lack the courage to view my testimony in it’s entirety, but hopefully, you’re not as cowardly as the rest of your type usually is.

According to you & your pride, Jesus Christ is “fake”. but you just keep telling yerself that, & when you begin to beg Him for yer eternal life at the end of time, yer gonna look back at every single time He tried to send one of us your way to try to get you to see the truth about who He is, & the miracles that He could have performed in your life, but out of all that worldly garbage pride you people so covet, you chose not to. So be it. It’ll be your loss, & you’ll have no one else to blame for your getting tossed into hell, but yourself.

I hope that you will come to your senses, my main man. the test for you at this time is this: Do you have courage? Are you that eager to avoid an eternity writhing in agony in hell? Let us see, if you are brave, or if you are a sorry sucker of Satan. Y would you wanna side with an eternally- condemned deity (Satan) who will do nothing but get inside your head to fuck with yer health, both physically & spiritually? Surely you cannot be that much of a sorry sucker, are you? Or is it that you’re just plain weak? Because anyone who has either heard of an extensive story of miracles that Jesus Christ the King of peace performs in one of our lives, or if one of you have read one of our extensive testimonies of the miracles that He’s done in our lives but refuses to give Him a chance anyway, is nothing more than a sucker, & a coward — PERIOD.

Don’t you know that Satan is nothing more than a permission boy? He’s just some bullshitter & a chicken shit, who every time he hears the name of Jesus Christ, he runs like one. Oh & just so you know my man … we as the born again Christian have power over witches & warlocks. So getting cute with us will only get the fire returned back to you, alrghty then? Hahahaha …

Keep in touch, my main man.

Sincerely,

Andrew Friedman

http://delta-flt1189.xanga.com/703169840/miracles-that-actually-happened-to-me-on-the-night-of-11062006/

DELTA_flt.1189@yahoo.com

Community Service Alaska writes in!

The Westcoast Blogger

Our arrival in Seldovia made a big splash amongst the locals. Not only did we represent a 10% increase in their total population, we also came with a positive attitude. Our first service project required a little bit of physical labor and some patience. We were asked by the community to build a rock wall surrounding a garden in the center of the town. The girls did a terrific job weeding the garden while the boys helped Doug, one of our local contacts and the resident grouch, to move rocks out of the garden. Rachel and I learned the importance of pulling the weed out completely to prevent any re-growth!

In the afternoon, we made our way up to the Boys and Girls Club to run a camp for the local kids. Everyone immediately clicked with the kids and Emma, Kristin and Debra helped the girls make friendship bracelets all afternoon. The children here have very little and the fun we provided will last a long time in their memories. The next day, we returned to the garden for another morning of gardening. Our group worked tirelessly and in the end, the rock wall looked amazing. We later discovered that this garden was being refurbished because the Village tribe wanted to tear it down and put a parking lot instead. The hope is that by beautifying the area it might discourage them from doing this. After seeing the final product there is a good chance it will! The afternoon consisted of sports and arts and crafts with the kids from the Boys and Girls Club. We planned an amazing talent show and each child rehearsed with their big brother or sister. Sunday was a much needed and much deserved laid back day for everyone. We got to sleep in and in the afternoon we met our nature guide “Pig” (he demanded we called him that) and went on a hike up Rocky Road trail. While the hike was grueling, the scenery was breathtaking. Pig showed us many berries and plants that can be consumed in the wild. The next day was our first day at culture camp. This is a camp run by the Seldovia Village tribe each year. The camp is held at Red Mountain and we set out for a bumpy ride up the mountain. At the campsite, we were greeted by Brie and Al, the coordinators of the culture camp. They led us on a hike up Red Mountain. While many of us stopped along the way, Vincent, Andrew, Hally, Christine and Jake hiked all the way to the top with the guide. Jon S, Kristen, Eddy, Emma and Jon K trekked all the way to the snow under our watchful supervision. Needless to say, we got our exercise for the week! We left the camp and returned to our suites tired but satisfied with our accomplishments.

The next day of culture camp was really educational. We met with a pilot for Homer Air who takes people on bear excursions. He taught us a lot about bear safety and how to observe a bear. Then we assembled a bear skeleton, aided by our culture camp friends. We are now on our final day in Seldovia and we are taking the ferry back to Homer and continuing on to Seward. We have some exciting adventures in store there too.

We will keep you posted, we promise!

The Alaska gang