Posted by David Porter on September 7, 2016 · 4 Comments
Note: click image for much larger view. ©2016, David A. Porter
There are quite a number of reasons that I love travel. For me, one of the biggies is to witness and stand in awe of creation.
As I stood here to snap this photograph, my senses were hungrily drinking in the sites, sounds, smells, and even the dampness of the air that touched my skin and entered my lungs. While there were certainly others enjoying the Sitka National Historical Park with us, it was fairly easy to find a spot where one might get alone to have your senses quickened to the remarkable surroundings.
As you can see, the park is filled with towering spruce and hemlock trees that are abundant in the Tongass National Forest, our nation’s largest national forest, covering over 17 million acres and the whole of Alaska’s Inside Passage.
And while this photograph is pleasing to most eyes, what you can’t experience from this photograph are the sounds of the bald eagles and ravens screeching from the tops of the trees. You can’t experience the damp woodsy smell of the forest. You can’t enjoy the hush that occurs when you step into this remarkable space. And you can’t enjoy the dampness that exists because you are also standing in the Pacific Temperate Rainforest, the largest temperate rain forest on the planet.
While I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to photograph and witness Alaska’s remarkable glaciers, I also greatly enjoyed the opportunity to again experience this wondrous forest in Sitka, Alaska. If you’ve never been to Sitka, we recommend it for your bucket list.
__________________________________________________
And now, a shameless commercial message….
Listen, if you haven’t sailed Alaska’s Inside Passage, you simply must. We promise, it will be an unforgettable experience. On this journey, we were sailing with Crystal Cruises, which we absolutely loved. To read more about our Crystal Cruises experience, click here.
We’re expert travel planners and know Alaska’s Inside Passage very well. If you’d like to take advantage of our considerable knowledge of the area, please give our travel agency a call at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
Plus, as we’re members of the $15 billion/year Virtuoso Travel Network, we’re very likely to have complimentary VIP perks to share with you that you can’t get on your own.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on September 5, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Sitka National Historic Park in Alaska
Click photo for much larger view. ©2016, David A. Porter
This was our second visit to Sitka, Alaska, and my love affair for this region grows and grows. In fact, during this visit, I suggested to Carol that we rent a house in Sitka for a month sometime. We can run our business from anywhere in the world, and this looks like a wonderful spot to me. Well, she didn’t bite, but I’m going to keep working on her.
I captured this photograph as we walked to the Sitka National Historical Park. The park is maybe a 15-minute walk from the center of town. But trust me, it’s going to take you 45-minutes to get there because you’re going to be gawking at scenes like this and shooting photographs of the bald eagles that are seemingly in the top of every tree.
Our last visit to Sitka was in May and during that visit we enjoyed sunny skies. This visit, as you can see, brought us clouds and drizzle. But we enjoyed the different perspective as this region gets over 130″ of rain each year.
When we were strolling through the park on this visit, we met a local lady who was busily picking these red berries. When we inquired as to what type of berries these were, she told us that they were red huckleberries. We had noticed that the forest was full of these red berries, but had no idea that they were huckleberries. With this new found knowledge, I probably picked and ate around 50 of ’em. They were tasty, tart, and certain to make a good jam, me thinks. Because of the tartness, Carol wasn’t as big a fan.
Oh, by the way, the bears love huckleberries too. So, be certain to be alert when walking through the park.
As I was writing this article, I found myself lamenting the fact that we didn’t buy some huckleberry jam when we were in town. Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, I went online and found this wonderful Sitka family that makes huckleberry jam and sells it on the Internet. I just ordered two jars. If you’d like to try it yourself, click here to visit their website. If you prefer Amazon, I noticed that they sell their jams there as well.
__________________________________________________
And now, a shameless commercial message….
Listen, if you haven’t sailed Alaska’s Inside Passage, you simply must. We promise, it will be an unforgettable experience. On this journey, we were sailing with Crystal Cruises, which we absolutely loved. To read more about our Crystal Cruises experience, click here.
We’re expert travel planners and know Alaska’s Inside Passage very well. If you’d like to take advantage of our considerable knowledge of the area, please give our travel agency a call at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
Plus, as we’re members of the $15 billion/year Virtuoso Travel Network, we’re very likely to have complimentary VIP perks to share with you that you can’t get on your own.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on September 3, 2016 · Leave a Comment
The Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Click photo for much larger view. ©2016, David A. Porter
When we shared this post with you about our visit to the Margerie Glacier, we were giving you a far off glimpse of the entire terminus of the glacier. Here’s a wonderful photograph we captured up close and personal with the Margerie Glacier.
To give you some scale, you’re looking at a small section of the glacier here. This puppy is over a mile wide with roughly 25 stories of height extending above the water. You can appreciate the scale a little bit if you take a peek at the seagulls (looking very minute) flying around in the ice cave in the bottom right.
On this journey, we were sailing with Crystal Cruises, which we absolutely loved. To read more about our Crystal Cruises experience, click here.
Listen, if you haven’t sailed Alaska’s Inside Passage, you simply must. We promise, it will be an unforgettable experience.
__________________________________________________
We’re expert travel planners and know Alaska’s Inside Passage very well. If you’d like to take advantage of our considerable knowledge of the area, please give our travel agency a call at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
Plus, as we’re members of the $15 billion/year Virtuoso Travel Network, we’re very likely to have complimentary VIP perks to share with you that you can’t get on your own.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on September 2, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Click photo for larger view. ©2016, David A. Porter
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is comprised of 3.3 million acres of mountains, glaciers, forests, and waterways.
It is one of the great highlights of Alaska’s Inside Passage and part of a 25 million-acre UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the world’s largest protected natural areas.
My photograph above captures the John Hopkins Glacier at the end of the John Hopkins Inlet. And here is a closer view I captured with my telephoto lens…
Click photo for larger view. ©2016, David A. Porter
Johns Hopkins Glacier is a 12-mile (19 km) long glacier located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. It begins on the east slopes of Lituya Mountain and Mount Salisbury, and trends east to the head of Johns Hopkins Inlet, 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the terminus of Clark Glacier and 79 miles (127 km) northwest of Hoonah. It was named after Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1893 by Harry Fielding Reid. It is one of the few advancing tidewater glaciers of the Fairweather Range. Access to the face of the glacier is limited to the Johns Hopkins Inlet (wikipedia).
The black material you see in the ice is called moraine, which is soil and rock that the glacier has scraped off of the surrounding mountains as it makes its way to the terminus at the water’s edge.
Lastly, when I’m standing in front of a remarkable sight, I always like to look around at the other folks enjoying the view. Here’s a couple that I caught enjoying the view of the John Hopkins Glacier with us.
Click photo for larger view. ©2016, David A. Porter
This was our second visit to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and our third sailing up Alaska’s beautiful Inside Passage. If there weren’t so many other beautiful places in the world to see, I could make this journey an annual visit. It’s that beautiful, pristine, and virgin.
On this journey, we were sailing with Crystal Cruises, which we absolutely loved. To read more about our Crystal Cruises experience, click here.
Listen, if you haven’t sailed Alaska’s Inside Passage, you simply must. We promise, it will be an unforgettable experience.
We’re expert travel planners and know Alaska’s Inside Passage very well. If you’d like to take advantage of our considerable knowledge of the area, please give our travel agency a call at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
Plus, as we’re members of the $15 billion/year Virtuoso Travel Network, we’re very likely to have complimentary VIP perks to share with you that you can’t get on your own.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on September 1, 2016 · 3 Comments
What happens when once a year, you bring 160 tons of tomatoes to 20,000 people and tell them to have at it for the next hour?
Well, a tomato throwing bash, of course.
That’s La Tomatina. An annual festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, a town located in the East of Spain 30 km / 19 miles from the Mediterranean, in which participants throw tomatoes and get involved in this tomato fight purely for entertainment purposes. Since 1945 It has been held on the last Wednesday of August, during the week of festivities of Buñol (via wikipedia).
Want to see lots more photos from yesterday’s tomato throwing bash? Come on, you know you do. Then head over to Instagram and take a peek at all of the fun.
Photo courtesy folhadespaulo on Instagram.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
The Roaming Boomers
