Seeing how tiny the boat is one can appreciate the magnificence of the mountains.
We had to stay up later and later to any glimpse of a sunset.
But the “Golden Hour” lasted much longer than an hour.
Tag Archives: Alaska
The Story of Romeo
Ok I promised to tell you about Romeo so here it is.
This is the story of Romeo, the Mendenhall Glacier Wolf. I first heard it from our guide, Phil, but since then I have seen many children’s’ books. This version is condensed from The Alaska Cruise Companion.
Romeo’s story began one day in April 2003, when a young black wolf was struck and killed by a car within 1/4 mile of Mendenhall Visitor Center. Sad as this event was, park officials made the best of it and retrieved the wolf so that at least it could be prepared for display in the visitor’s center. They determined it was a female black wolf, which is a sub species of the gray wolf, and they also determined it was a young female. Young females will generally only leave a family pack with a new mate to start a family of their own, so park officials expected to see the mate in the area. Over the summer there was no sign but during the long, cold winter nights of November that year, residents repeatedly heard howls of a lone wolf ringing across the wilderness of the lake.
The first sighting came shortly after the new year, in January 2004. A local naturalist and author, Nick Jans , was skiing across the Lake with his dog Dakota when he noticed a lone set of wolf tracks stretching across the lake. He took Dakota home and returned to the lake , and encountered the wolf for the first time. It was alone and it was a young male black wolf. A solitary wolf is unusual , especially in winter when wolves typically regroup with their family packs to ensure successful hunting, so when Jans reported the lone wolf sighting, wildlife officials presumed they had found the mate for the young female killed earlier in the year.
As the winter stretched on, the young wolf began to appear regularly , even accompanying Jans and Dakota on their routings across the lake. The wolf would play with Dakota , just like any other dog might, and even took to following the duo home. There he waited outside the house for the female lab to appear, leading to his nickname, Romeo. Unbelievably, this went on for many years. Romeo would disappear over the summer but return each winter once the visitors had left and the lake was frozen over.
The iconic appearance of a lone black wolf against the dramatic backdrop of the snow-white lake was enough to draw attention on it’s own , but Romeo was also sociable, and other visitors to the lake had the same experience as Jans and Dakota. Romeo would appear and play with the pets even fetching tennis balls. He didn’t become a pet. No one tried to feed him or pet him but he quickly became a living legend in the region.
In 2009, the story took a sad turn. Romeo failed to reappear that fall and in fact was not seen or heard of again. Eventually a wolf pelt surfaced that was identified as Romeo’s, and in May 2010, two hunters were charged with illegally shooting the protected wolf.
Although Romeo is gone now he dispelled many misconceptions about wolves and in so doing has become a legend.
For more details Nick Jans has written a new book, Glacier Wolf, about his encounters with Romeo.
Absence
You guys are awesome. I didn’t expect to be away from my blog this long but internet connections are few and far between and when I can get them they are slow and quite expensive so, my friends, please be patient a little longer as my introduction to The Great Land is coming to an end very soon. I have barely scratched the surface of all there is to see but I will share with you my experiences and observations so stay turned! 🙂
Real Estate, Interviews and Alaska…Busy , Busy
Sorry I missed posting yesterday. I had an interview right in the middle of the day. I just couldn’t get myself settled enough to write and I didn’t want to jinx myself by talking about the interview before it was over.
The other excuse is that I need to buckle down again to finish the real estate licensing class. That’s four hours a day for 10 days not counting the additional studying. I’ve completed 8 hours and I’m working on the 3rd block of 4 hours. It would be nice if I could finish and get the test done before we leave for Alaska but it will be cutting it close.
I ‘m also staring at my home office that needs a major renovation and I haven’t taken even a baby step toward getting that done…ugh. I am feeling overwhelmed and I’m not even working. So much to do so little time.
Now you have my excuses so please bear with me over the next few weeks. I may be a bit “spotty” on my posts until we get back from Alaska but I know I’ll have tons to share from that.
Oh and speaking of Alaska I picked up our cruise documents and plane tickets. Other than confirming the dates were correct and that I had vouchers for everything I didn’t look at them too closely. Then I got an email from Princess Lines referring to changes. Again I glanced but didn’t look too closely. I had too many other things going on but my sister looked. She emailed me that we had a balcony room!
Well that got me moving and I looked it up. Sure enough. We were upgraded from an ocean view on the Baja deck to a Balcony on the Aloha deck. How cool is that!
I’m getting excited. Hard to believe it’s almost here!
AAA Travel Marketplace
Every year I read about the AAA Travel Marketplace. It’s touted as THE Travel event of the year. According to it’s advertisements you should come prepared to book your trip as there will be deep discounts and show specials.
Like most shows it always falls on a weekend and like most shows, I end up missing it because of my work schedule but this year I decided to take a day off and check it out. There were a couple of reasons for my decision. One was that I am writing this travel blog and I felt I should be able to offer some comments on the show and the second reason was that I wanted information on Alaska Cruises since that’s the goal for 2012.
I went on Friday because it was easier to get a Friday off work than an Saturday or Sunday. That meant that I missed the public appearance of Wally the Red Sox mascot and the rep from the TSA who was going to speak about the controversial airport screening policy., both things I would have liked to see/hear. Oh well…in a perfect world J Let’s face it, we can’t have everything even if we want to and life is all about choices.
The show opened on Friday at 2pm and was at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. I headed over to arrive around 3pm. I pulled up to the Fidelity entrance as indicated on my ticket but the doors were locked. While I looked around several other cars pulled up and soon there was quite a crowd milling around. About the time I was pulling out my cell to call AAA someone else got the same idea. He got through first and informed us that that we had to go to the other side of the stadium complex and enter there. We all loaded back into our cars and caravanned around the complex.
When we got to the other side we saw the parking attendants and signs…AAA parking.
Even so close to opening time the lots were filling up fast. Looking at the number of cars and the distance I was from the doors I chose to lock the DSLR in the trunk and just take the point and shoot. I felt it would be easier to carry and less conspicuous in a crowd.
It was a good choice.
One inside I was directed up the escalator to the 2nd floor. As soon as I walked in I was in Canada land. There were booths for Quebec, New Foundland, Nova Scotia, Montréal, Bay of Fundy and on and on. I was cornered briefly by one of the Canadian reps… bonjour, Com on sa va etc then with brochures and bags I continued on past Ireland, Costa Rica, Bahamas. My head was starting to spin!
Then the crowds began to thin out. There was a large area with desks and computers marked “Reservations” . Apparently this was where you could whip out your checkbook or credit card and take advantage of all the show specials. I gave that area a wide berth. I only wanted information.
And then I saw the Cruise booths. There was Princess, Disney, Linblad ( Nat Geo’s cruise line of choice), Holland America, and more. I started asking about Alaska at the first booth and was immediately told they were all booked up. I moved on to the next and was also told to try again another time…no specials here. When I reached the Holland America booth the rep was more gracious. She gave me brochures and explained how they set up their cruises and excursions. She said they run the most trips to Alaska so very seldom sell out early. She also told me to go to the web site and if I had questions just to call and they would help. She said it was not to0 early to reserve a cruise in 2012. She said a small deposit holds the reservation. Then she looked around and said “You can go though AAA travel agents, but they will charge you a fee”. That is the same thing my friend Julie told me too.
With my cruise information collected and enough reading material for at least a month, I just wandered around the rest of the show. I’ll tell you a little about that in my next post.