I realize it has been a long hiatus since the last post but in keeping with tradition, here is our 2017 Christmas Card. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone who stops by here! The raucous Red Dog Saloon in Juneau, a touristy testament to miners and prospectors, offered a warm respite from a cold cutting mist and food for our band of city slickers who'd spent a day amid real sled dogs towing momentary mushers. But Alaska's gold rush frontier is a withering footprint - a transient mark on a place much greater than its geography. Midmorning next we saw clouds being birthed on the bay and rising inch upon inch unmasking mountains and glaciers riddled by blue ice formed long before any human would leave a footprint anywhere. All engines stopped. The big ship drifted. Its wake dissipated and the bay rebalanced. Slow rolling ripples hit the hull sounding like polite pats on a toddler's tush urging us to move along. ...