North to Alaska, Part 2

OK, I just have to do this. Every time I think about our vacation or write the title for one of these postings, the old Johnny Horton song and that silly John Wayne movie come to mind. If you would like to have a song in your head that just won't leave for the entire day, please click the play button below. Actually, now that I've even mentioned it, you are probably doomed to singing it to yourself all day long.

Now that we have this out of the way—on with our story. Warning: One unpleasant picture below!

On the third day of our trip, we traveled into Denali National Park for a Wilderness Tour. There is essentially one road that reaches into the park nearly 100 miles. We experienced the first 53 miles of that road and all of the sights along the way, then returned the same way. The mode of transportation was what you might think of as a school bus, although all of the seats had been replaced with more comfortable coach seats. The driver provided narration of the sights and information about the park throughout the trip. Because we were so early in the season, we didn't see the meadows filled with as much green vegetation and flowers as will be available to travelers later in the season. Nevertheless, the vistas are remarkable and beautiful.

Here are the two of us at a rest stop along the way. We were obviously continuing to have a great time. The weather was very nice, and by the end of the tour, we didn't need our jackets.

You may know that Mount McKinley (highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet) can be difficult to see. They have something called the 30% club—only 30% of the visitors to the park ever actually see the mountain. It is so big that it strongly influences the weather near it, and so it is very often shrouded in clouds. This was our best shot, and you can get some idea of the interesting way that clouds sometimes layer above the peak. I guess you could say that we got to see the lower third of the mountain. I was glad even for that. We were told that there were numerous climbers already on the mountain. Stories about climbing Mount McKinely can be found in lots of places. Some folks die every year making the attempt. The various base camps, methods for climbing, and stories about successes and failures are interesting topics.

We did see quite a bit of wildlife. A sampling follows. This is a ptarmigan, which is Alaska's state bird. They were transitioning from their winter white to their summer brown plumage, and the males were often stationed at the very tops of spruce trees attempting to declare a territory and seek out mates. They are fairly large—about the size of our local pheasants.

Unpleasant picture time! We rounded a bend in the road, and the driver spotted this fresh carcass on the shoulder of the road. A Dall sheep had been killed and partially devoured by an unknown predator. It could have been coyotes, wolves, or a grizzly. (By the way, grizzly bears can run at about 40 miles per hour, so don't try to outrun one. This is fast enough for them to overtake a sheep.) The driver thought the kill was most likely by coyotes or wolves, since a bear would probably have dragged it away from the road. On our return trip, the carcass had been moved back away from the road by park rangers.

Soon thereafter, we rounded another bend and spotted a large group of Dall sheep right on the road. Animals in the park are very used to the buses and usually show no concern as long as people are not outside the vehicles. So, we would just slide our windows open and shoot all the pictures we wanted. This was a so-called bachelor herd (all rams) who evidently band together for protection when they are not fighting each other at other times of the year for harems of females.

At another of our rest stops there was a visitors center and some antlers were on display. I'm holding caribou antlers here.

Most of the time, the animals we saw were at quite a distance. Here, for example, is the only grizzly bear we saw. If you double click on the image below, you can maybe get a better look.

The driver had a long range movie camera that he could use to bring the images closer and then present on drop-down displays inside the bus.

We also saw two lynx. One was busy chasing a hare, but this one was napping in a secluded spot. He would occasionally stretch and roll around just like his domestic cat relatives do in the sunshine. They were quite large, much bigger than the bobcats we see in Wisconsin or even in Iowa.

So, that was what our day in Denali was like. We concluded the day with a beverage and nice dinner at the Chalets.

On the following day, we boarded motor coaches for our trip to Seward, where we were to board the Zaandam for our cruise to Vancouver. Honestly, it was a long day, even though the coaches were quite comfortable. Scenery along the way continued to be of pleasant, and we passed through a number of interesting small communities. At lunch time, we were in Wasilla. No, we did not see Sarah or her bus or have to listen to her awful comments about gotcha questions, lame-stream media, or made up history lessons. No one in Alaska ever seemed to bring her up as a topic. I didn't sense an awful lot of pride about her connections with the state. The city was really rather nice, and we had a good lunch there overlooking a lake and the mountains in the distance.

Outside the restaurant where we had lunch, there was a display about the Iditarod dogsled races, which was hosted by Kelley Griffin, a Wasilla musher. (Click on her name for more information.) Kelley was seeking donations for her next attempt at the race. I recall it costs something like $30,000 in total to participate. She had a couple of different sleds on display, one an old, heavy wooden sled, and another (in picture) of a modern aluminum sled. The sleds are equipped with covers that hold all kinds of supplies.

The two dogs she had with her were interesting. The image of a furry husky is not really very accurate. Dogs are chosen and bred for endurance, strength, and speed, and any breed will do as long as it meets those criteria. Indeed, they told us that the dogs are usually a kind of "musher's mutt." They were both very friendly. They don't want lots of fur, because the dogs get too hot when racing. If it is too cold, the mushers will put coats on them.

Toward the end of the day, it turned rainy. The sight of the Zaandam as we pulled into Seward was most welcome after the long bus ride.

Stay tuned for part 3 of this saga.

Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception

Permit me to briefly interrupt my series of postings on our Alaska vacation. Last night I finished a book that I want to bring to your attention. Entitled Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, the book is an extremely interesting (in my humble opinion) treatment of the ways in which numbers influence us as individuals and of the ways in which they are abused and misused by others to influence us. The book was written by Charles Seife. A good review of the book appeared in the New York Times, which you can read by clicking here.

Mr. Seife presents the idea that when we hear a claim made and backed up by a number, we tend to believe the claim more readily, simply because we take numbers to be cold, hard and objective. He then goes on to describe the various ways in which we can be misled by numbers. A simple example is when someone simply makes up a number to support a claim, as did Joe McCarthy when he started his anti-communist campaign by saying, "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist party and nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." Mr. Seife also gives a very nice treatment of the techniques of mathematical correlation and explains how we tend to assume there are cause and effect links between the correlated data even when no such links can exist. (Just because two concepts can be correlated does not mean that one causes the other.) Other topics include measurement error, statistical methods, and cherry picking (selectively choosing from the available data so as to force a particular conclusion).

I know what you are thinking, "Obviously this book would appeal to Bill. He's a math guy." Maybe, but you really don't have to be a math person to understand the concepts, and please consider that the best part of the book is that after helping us to understand the several ways in which uses of numbers can be abused, Mr. Seife presents a series of fascinating discussions of examples of such abuses, including public opinion polls, financial fraud, voting practices, judicial failures, and propaganda.

The book is a quick read at only 295 pages, and I think you will find it difficult to put down. I highly recommend it. Go back and read the New York Times review. If all of us, as citizens, were more aware of these issues, I suspect we would do better jobs of holding elected and public officials, campaigners, and businesses accountable.

North to Alaska, Part 1

I suppose you faithful readers know that we recently vacationed in Alaska and in Vancouver, Canada. We had a wonderful time, as we seem always to do when we travel. This will be the first post of several about our trip. Each of us carried a camera, and between us, we took 880 photographs, in fact more than we took on our Mediterranean cruise last year! I promise not to show them all.

You probably have some idea about Alaska's size. Make no mistake about it! Alaska is vast, huge, big, and immense in so many different ways. I knew it was supposed to be big, but until I was there, I really didn't appreciate how big it truly is. Various guides loved to ask if anyone present was from Texas. Then they would say something like, "You know, Alaska is 2½ times bigger than Texas!" or "You know, if we divided Alaska in two, Texas would be the third biggest state in the nation." We heard these comments so often, that they got a little old. On the other hand, I'm definitely OK about jabbing Texas. You could put something like 429 Rhode Islands into Alaska. If you placed Alaska on top of the "lower 48", it would cover most of the central US, and its panhandle would touch Florida, while its Aleutian Islands chain would reach California. Nevertheless, Alaska ranks 48th in terms of population with about 750,000 persons, exceeding only North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

I was impressed not only with Alaska's size, but also with the amazing vastness of the open spaces, as for example, in Denali National Park, and by the numbers of mountains, rivers, glaciers and plains. The nature of the environment is interesting too, given that so much of it is covered by permafrost and has such short growing seasons. To put this into perspective, we learned that the park is about the same size as New Hampshire or Vermont at 9,492 square miles, and it takes that much land to support the relatively small populations of animals that live there. This includes no reptiles, lots of birds, and several kinds of mammals. However, there are only about 90 wolves in the entire park and a similar number of grizzly bears. There are many more caribou and moose, but those populations are not large. The point is that it takes lots and lots (and lots and lots) of land to support relatively small numbers of animals compared to what you might find in the lower 48 states.

The number of glaciers surprised me. There are amazing icy-blue glaciers in every mountain range. We saw and heard some of them quite closely, as you will learn. By the way, Denali National Park is not even the biggest national park in Alaska. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which we did not visit, is 20,587 square miles. We did visit Glacier Bay National Park, which is sizable too at 5,130 square miles. Many more national parks and preserves are in Alaska, I suspect more than in any other state. There are numerous mountain ranges, and they are all beautiful. Many have very high peaks—Mount McKinley is the best known, of course, at 20,320 feet, it is the tallest peak in North America. We didn't see most of Alaska, most notably the large, open, roadless areas to the north towards the Arctic Circle, but we did see Anchorage, Denali National Park, and a good sampling of cities and areas in the panhandle down along the coast towards Vancouver and other parts of Canada.

A couple of other quick comments about our visit, and then I'll quit lecturing like a teacher and start reporting on our experiences. We felt fortunate to have such nice weather throughout most of the trip, given that we chose to travel early in the Alaska tourism season—temperatures in the 60s and rain that was light and misty and expected in coastal towns that have rain 300+ days of the year (often leading to gorgeous rain forests and other vegetation). Starting so far north, we saw days with nearly endless sun—we watched this change as we moved south over the course of the trip. The land parts of our trip and the cruise along the coast to Vancouver were equally enjoyable, each offering their unique treats. There were plenty of good eating opportunities, as you will learn in some of these postings, many involving seafood, especially salmon, of course.

We flew six hours nonstop from Chicago to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines. The distance was about 2850 miles, whereas the flight from Vancouver back to Chicago was about 1775 miles. Anchorage is quite a distance north. You may recognize the name of the person after whom the airport is named.

Maybe you can tell how happy we both were and how much fun we were already having later that evening when we found an excellent brew pub for dinner—The Glacier Brewhouse. I loved the several micro breweries and beers we discovered throughout our trip.

Kathie had rockfish, and I had salmon. Both were "catch of the day" offerings, and the presentations were typical of the dining we experienced throughout our vacation. Good both visually and in terms of taste.

The next morning, our first full day in Alaska, we boarded McKinley Explorer train cars owned by Holland America (our cruise line of choice) for a day-long ride to Denali National Park, where we stayed in a chalet for two nights.

The cars are pulled north by the Alaska Railroad, which has lines between most important points in the state. You can see we were high in domed cars with wonderful views of the many mountains, rivers, and other sights along the way. Beverages were available throughout the trip, and there were dining rooms in the lower levels of each car. A guide provided narration and information selectively along the way as we passed through communities and scenic areas.

One of the reasons we have so many photographs is that it is difficult to resist taking pictures of the scenes. Knowing you don't want to see picture after picture after picture of mountains, I'll try to just give you a taste.

A couple of the more interesting towns we passed through were Wasilla (more on that in a future posting—no, we didn't see Sarah, which was just fine with us), Willow, and Talkeetna. Willow is the host city for the official restart of the Iditarod dog sled race each year. As I understand, there is a ceremonial start, and then the big restart/sendoff begins in Willow. Talkeetna is the city from which most mountain climbers embark for attempts on Mount McKinley. There is an airstrip there, and they fly from that airstrip to the first base camp on the mountain. By the way, there are many, many, many airstrips in Alaska. Aviation is one of the state's major industries. Bush pilots get folks to destinations in most of the state, since there are so few roads. There are also many float plane harbors in the state, the biggest and busiest in Anchorage, where at the height of the season, takeoffs and landings occur at the rate of dozens per hour. We were told that airplanes can have priority for landing on roads, when necessary, and that vehicles must allow for that.

I love the Alaska flag with its depiction of the Big Dipper or Ursa Major constellation.

We saw quite a few critters while on the train, including caribou and moose. These are caribou.

After we arrived at the McKinley Chalet Resort (click for pictures and information), we relaxed awhile and then had dinner with many of our traveling companions at an old-time dinner-theater event within the resort. The food was quite good (salmon, of course, and ribs), and the servers soon became the entertainers. Their excellent voices and the skit they performed, about the settling of the state of Alaska, were fun.

Part 2 will continue with our tour of Denali and trip to Seward to begin the cruise portion of our vacation.

Mothers Day Date

I took two sweet young ladies out for lunch on Mothers Day. Orchard Green was the destination, where we were treated to a special four-course luncheon they were offering for the occasion. Each of my dates wore an orchid, which someone thought they should have in honor of being such special mothers.

After the lunch, we took an old-fashioned Sunday drive, since it was such a pretty day. Mother is always saying that there just aren't any barns anymore, since it is true that barns are a threatened species out in our rural areas. So, we thought we would show her one that is quite special. The 1883 Secrest Octagonal Barn near Downey, Iowa. Click here to read a little about the barn, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. After taking a look, we looped through the big town of Downey, West Liberty, Nichols and Lone Tree before heading back home.

Happy Mothers Day to Some of the Best Moms I Know

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers who are a part of my life. Let me start with these three, each one of whom has blessed me with one or more terrific grandchildren.

Betsy always shows such an understanding and patient way with her kids. Maybe part of it is the teacher in her, but she just seems to be a natural mom. Henry and Clara are very lucky.

Granddaughter Eleanor has one of the happiest smiles and most imaginative natures. The devotion Carrie shows to Eleanor's well-being is obvious in every book she reads to her, every adoring look she gives her, and every bit of time she spends guiding her life in good directions.

There is no question that Sandy was destined to have a delightful, energetic, blond-headed boy. Anders is already showing the benefits of the guidance Sandy provides through her affectionate, loving, coaching ways. Anders is going to have a wonderful life, in no small part because of the many things Sandy will do with and for him.

Then there is the newest mom, Jessica. She walked through her pregnancy and delivery of Maia like it was no big deal. And that Maia is one of the most beautiful brand-new babies I've ever seen. We have loved watching this new mom and this new little girl interact with each other.

My Kathie has proven over and over again what a great mom she is for Jessica and Travis. The problem solver in her works on their behalf whenever and wherever needed. She is also a very giving, caring and sharing stepmom.

My mother-in-law is another wonderful woman. From our very first meeting, she has made me feel a true part of her family, and though she might occasionally urge me to slow down, I know she supports the person I am. I am very grateful for her love and caring.

She'll even go hot-tubbing with her girls.

Finally, let me not forget my own dear mother and my grandmother. Both of them have been gone far, far too long, but I think of them often and remember with great affection the boosts they gave me in my life and the love they showed me and mine.

Grandson Baseball & Fondue

We visited Betsy and her family this past weekend. Arriving on Friday, we learned that Henry would have his first youth league baseball game that night. What great timing and what a great opportunity for me! Henry dressed himself initially, and we didn't think about the fact that he had put his number on the front. That was corrected when we got to the playing field.

He allowed me to take pictures and included this pose. The boy may be a pitcher some day. He has started to work on his windup moves, as you can see.

Clara was cheering him on, saying, "Go Henry!"

I must say I admired the dedication and methods of the coaches. I recall once coaching Rob's soccer team for a season, and I know how challenging it can be to teach anything about a sport while having to constantly corral and ask for attention.

The rules of the game were quite different from the baseball rules that I know, but they make sense for beginners. There were two innings, and in each case, all players on the defensive team took positions on the field. They were mostly scattered about the infield, so there seemed to be about two third basemen, two or three short stops, ... you get the idea. Henry was assigned in the first inning to the pitcher's mound. Later, he played third base. If you saw his mother's posting about this outing, you know that involved studying stray rocks and rearranging the dirt around the base.

When on offense, each player got to bat and run to first base. An adult pitched until the batter hit the ball or had three strikes, at which point a tee was used to allow the player to hit the ball. Base running was interesting, as was fielding. Since this is probably the kids' first introduction to baseball as a team sport, there is lots to learn about where to throw the ball once fielded and how to run bases, including when to advance. There were frequently multiple runners on the same base or runners who would pass a runner ahead of them. Naturally, there were lots of side conversations and playing (not baseball) at all times between fellow fielders or between fielders and runners. This tended to distract from attention to the fact that a ball might just have been hit and that fielding or running was needed. It was great fun!

Henry hit 1000 for the evening. He had two hits in two at-bats and never had to use the tee. Here he is about to take a mighty swing at a pitch. He has a good eye for the ball. Keeping those helmets on when batting or running the bases can be difficult though.

Here he is at third base after having successfully navigated around the bases to that point. You can also get an idea about how the players are set up defensively. It would seemingly be tough to get a ball through the left side of the field, even with a good hit.

After scoring a run, Henry showed me his pride of accomplishment.

Now the fondue...on Saturday evening, we went out to Fondue Stube for dinner. There were three courses: vegetables and bread with cheese fondue, meats and vegetables with oil fondue, and fruits and angel food cake with chocolate fondue. Henry and Clara both proved to be adept at using the fondue pots and all potential accidents were avoided.

Here's the whole gang.

I'll let you guess for yourselves which course was associated with this picture.

Disney Misstep

I've been looking through my thousands of photographs lately, both because it is a nice way to remember and also because I find it fun to share stories. This story is about how the Disney company doesn't always get things right. Or maybe it is about how the UI Athletic Department (UIAD) was rather dumb in thinking that a change was needed—sometimes you shouldn't mess with success. The mistake was probably more UIAD's than Disney's—that's not surprising!

In 1977, The UIAD decided it was time for an update of our beloved Herky the Hawk. (Why?) As I understand, they contacted the Disney company and contracted with them to come up with a new version. You will see the results below. Most of you will realize that the Herky we still have today looks almost exactly like the old one who appears on the left in the photo. The Disney version on the right was not well received. In fact, I recall the crowd booing when he was introduced at the game with some fanfare—falling flat fanfare would be a better description. I don't think he appeared more than a handful of times.

Oh, about those thousands of photographs...I have approximately 12,000 of them right now, having digitized most of my old film-based photographs and now having added lots of digital photographs. So, you may be in for lots of boring stories. I'll try to be reasonable.

Baseball

People who know me well, know that I love baseball. There are more things wrapped into a given game than you can find in almost any other sport: opportunity for a truly leisurely viewing experience (conversations, even if not about the game, are quite alright—no need to be in a hurry); beer and brats and hot dogs; strategy; politics; rivalries; stunning athletic moves; rare need to stop the game because of injury (this isn't a contact sport, except sometimes at home plate on a close play); statistics (lots and lots of statistics); opportunity for an extended, extra-innings game; apple pie; Chevrolet. (If you don't get the apple pie and Chevrolet part, watch the old Chevy commercial here. This is about remembering the good old times, not about unnecessary flag waving.)

Baseball was big in my home town. High schools in my neck of the woods were too small to support football programs, but we all had good baseball teams. Plus there were numerous Little League teams, pickup games at picnics and whenever groups of us kids gathered, summer softball teams, and quite good town baseball teams for the 20 year olds who still wanted to play. Many of our summer evenings were spent watching our town play a neighboring town at well-tended town baseball parks.

Baseball was so important that when the World Series was on (games were played during the daytime, not in prime time), our school allowed us to leave study halls to watch the games on a TV that was set up for us on the stage which was at one end of our gymnasium. The Yankees, during those years, were always contenders. What really caught my attention was the so-called "Race for Ruth", which occurred in 1961 and which involved both Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle (Yankees, both of them) in pursuit of Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a single season. More than anything else, these two men and the Yankees' winning ways, as well as other colorful Yankee players (e.g. Yogi Berra), made me a lifelong fan.

Both Maris and Mantle were on pace through the season to break Ruth's record. Newspapers featured a front page box that showed the current state of their progress toward this record. Maris eventually did break the record with 61 homers, although it was treated in a disgraceful way by officials, because Maris had eight more games in which to break the record than the Babe did (the season had been extended to 162 games per year from 154). Mantle was a media favorite, while Maris, a more reserved individual, was not always treated kindly. Nevertheless, these two guys were my heroes, and I came to like following the Yankees very, very much. I still do, although I must admit that my various connections to Minnesota and Wisconsin now draw me towards the Twins and Brewers sometimes too. People seem to either hate or love the Yankees—there is no in-between. I love them and love watching them, even if there is a lot of truth to the idea that they are the best team money can buy. (Sorry, Sarah and Josh!)

In July, 1968, I had an opportunity to see a Yankees vs. Twins game at the old Metropolitan field in Bloomington, Minnesota. In the picture below, which I took during the game, you will see Mickey Mantle at bat! Mickey retired from baseball that following September. Roger Maris, who by that time was playing for the Cardinals, retired at the end of that season as well.

Metropolitan field was located where the Mall of America now stands. You can read about the field here, if you wish, along with some history of the Twins (the relocated second edition of the Washington Senators). I like that the Twins are now playing outside again, where the game really belongs.

I thought about concluding with a paragraph on baseball movies. There are lots of good ones, and I have personal stories to go with some of them, so maybe that is fodder for a future blog.