Monday, July 04, 2011
Back from Alaska
Images from top to bottom: Native American Dancer in Tribal Meeting House
Totem in Native American Village
Man viewing bald eagle from small boat
I have just returned from a one week cruise up the Inland Passage to Alaska. The trip was quite interesting. We saw many whales, eagles, and even one bear (from the train--he was running along the side of a mountain across the way.) Alaska proved to be as unusual as everyone has reported. It is for the most part still unsettled territory, and somehow conveyed a real sense of loneliness and isolation. Fortunately I had brought my heavy sweater and winter coat, so I kept quite warm (temperatures were mostly in the sixties.)
We saw snow only on the tops of the mountains in the distance, though we did visit one glacier called Mendenhall Glacier (hope to put a picture up tomorrow). Somehow I had expected to be sailing among icy cliffs that often "calved" into huge chunks of ice, but that was not the case, though we did sometimes see large pieces of ice floating down the water beside us.
I had never been on a cruise before, so I did not know what to expect. The ship was amazingly well organized to handle some 1700 passengers. The food was delicious and everything ran quite smoothly. There were families and others from across the world on board, mostly (it appeared) from the middle class of their respective countries. Everyone was very pleasant and friendly, and someone suggested that if the world would only be as accepting and peaceful as the folks on the ship many of our problems would be solved.
I met no one on board who shared like interests with me, and realized that I was indeed a small minority of the world's population. Yet I liked my fellow passengers, though I had an odd sensation of slipping into a different field of consciousness (theirs) now and again. I also seemed to develop a taste for music and entertainment quite outside my usual preferences (they often played loud rock and roll and sometimes the performers made corny jokes.) So I am glad to be home and safe from being seduced into some state of consciousness outside my own "subtle energy" field. I felt no K. energies during the entire trip, but rather enjoyed the "external" play of activity.
