9 July 2019, Portland OR USA
Hi Family and Friends,
Its been a while since we have posted here – not so much because we haven’t traveled, but we haven’t been able to catch up with the backlog. This year (2019) Ray traveled with Yoni to teach our Communicating Science course in Shanghai and Xian in the spring. Ray and Edie traveled to Geneva to teach the course at CERN in May. And now (8 July) we are almost half way through a “bucket list” trip to N. America.
The trip began with Ray attending the microwave power symposium in Las Vegas in June. The symposium was very good, but neither of us care for Las Vegas. Edie wisely opted to fly directly to our daughter Lilly near Denver, and Ray joined them after his symposium. We very much enjoyed our visit with Lilly, Nir, and Noam, except that Ray slipped playing tennis with Edith, and spent much of the time recovering from the fall. The pictures below are from a park in Lyons CO.
On 2 July we flew from Denver to Portland, to visit Edie’s La Leche League friend Cecily Harkins, and her husband Alex. We spent time together several years ago at a LLL conference in Costa Rico, and very much enjoyed their company. The flight into Portland was spectacular, with a great view of Mt. Hood. Much of the time here was spent “working”, Edie on LLL issues, Ray on editing a research proposal. But this past weekend we borrowed a car and had two great days of hiking.
Saturday we were in the vicinity of Mt. Hood, and hiked up to Lookout Mountain, for another spectacular views of Mt. Hood, this time from the ground, and some interesting fauna and flora on the ground.
On Sunday we drove to the vicinity of Mt. St. Helen, which had a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in 1980, killing 57 persons. We hiked to Harry’s Ridge, which in principle gave an almost continuous view of Mt. St. Helen. Unfortunately it was a cloudy and drizzly day. We could see the base of Mt. St. Helen, but above the base it was covered by clouds. However the ground alongside the trail was covered with a spectacular array of alpine flowers, along with the stumps of trees which fell in the volcanic explosion blast in 1980.
On the boundary trail, near Mt. St. Helen.
From here, we travel to Vancouver BC on Wednesday, from whence we will embark on a cruise to Juneau AK via the inland passage. Then we will fly to Anchorage, and travel by rented car to Denali National Park for a week of hiking.
Love to All,
Ray and Edith
11 July 2019. Vancouver BC Canada
We are visiting Vancouver for 3 days prior to embarking for Alaska. We have a very pleasant B&B in the quiet Marple neighborhood, about 10 min north of the airport. Our room looks like something out of a palace, and we have access to a nice common area for eating and working, which so far is our own.
Today we toured Granville Island, an unabashed tourist area just south of downtown. One point of interest was a neighborhood of floating houses.
Floating houses on Grenville Island
Painted cement factory
The area also contained countless stores of tourist goods, and a few very interesting galleries. We lunched a good fish restaurant.
From there, we bussed to Queen Elizabeth Park. It had various sports facilities, very nice gardens, and a stunning view of downtown Vancouver, with mountains in the background.
Vancouver and Embarkation onto Le Soleal towards the Alaska Inland Passage
12-14 July 2019
Read about the details by clicking on this link:
Vancouver and Embarkation onto Le Soleal towards the Alaska Inland Passage
Ketchikan, Iceberg Playground, and Petersburg Alaska, on board the Le Soleal, 15-16 July 2019
More photos and detail – click on the link below:
Ketchikan, Iceberg Playground, and Petersburg Alaska, on board the Le Soleal, 15-16 July 2019
Sitka AK and Tales of Whales – 17 July 2019
We visited Sitka, the Russian capitol of Alaska, and saw the Russian cathedral, the Russian bishop’s house, and the site of a Tlingit – Russian battle. Then sailing on Le Soleal we passed a pod of humpback whales.
For more details and photo’s, click on the link below:
Elfin Cove, Fjords, and Glaciers. 18-19 July 2019
We visited the isolated community of Elfin Cove, whose summer population of ~120 shrinks to ~12 in the winter, and then sailed into Tracy Arc up to the face of Sawyer Glacier. See details and more photographs by clicking below:
Elfin Cove and Sawyer Glacier — 18-19 July
Disembarkment and Juneau AK – 20-21 July 2019
Our cruise ended at Juneau. We had two days to explore Alaska’s capitol and hike on a trail into the mountains. Read about the details and see some photo’s by clicking below:
Disembarkment and Juneau AK 20-21 July 2019
Denali I — 22-23 July 2019
Ray and Edie Boxman Travels 