Sitka National Historic Park

The Sitka National Historical Park commemorates the 1804 Battle of Sitka between the native Tlingit tribes and Russian fur hunters. The collection of native totem poles on display along the trails are actually replicas, since the deteriorating originals are now kept in protective storage.

Juneau By Whirlybird

In Juneau I rode out to a tiny airfield at the edge of the city, beside a stream which reeked of dead salmon. There I boarded a copter which flew me over the mountains and out to a remote glacier, entirely inaccessible to land vehicles. My boots were outfitted with a Gore-Tex slipover grip for walking on the ice with a minimal of slippage. Even with the grip a misstep could be treacherous.

The vivid blue color of the glacier is an illusion, I was told, because the ice absorbs every color except blue, which is reflected back at us. How this differs from any other material object we see, I don't quite understand, but who am I to raise questions?

We saw a waterfall in the ice and learned that moraines are ribbons of ground-up rock and debris carried along by the ice flow. The glacier's surface was fractured by many crevasses of indeterminable depth. The pilot dropped a rock down one of these shafts and we listened to the gradual decay into oblivion of its ricochets. He advised us not to fall in.

As the chopper took off from the glacier the pilot pumped music into our headphones for dramatic effect. This could've been a cheesy ploy had the tune not been the "From Russia With Love" theme, which at that moment felt oddly appropriate. Our breasts swelled with undeserved heroism.

Hurricane Ridge

A scenic hike along Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

USS Turner Joy

The USS Turner Joy naval destroyer was launched in 1958. She spent a lengthy career on the Pacific seas and was awarded a total of nine battle stars. She was named after Vice Admiral Charles Turner Joy, a heavy player in the Korean War. Her motto: Esse Quam Videri ("To be rather than to seem").

During what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the Turner Joy and another ship called the USS Maddox fired upon what they thought was an attack by North Vietnamese ships but was later suggested to be false blips caused by weather conditions. This phantom attack led to severe US retaliation which shifted the Vietnam War into high gear.

During combat off the coast of South Vietnam a gun mount experienced a "hang fire," the condition when a shell is fired but fails to leave the chamber. The shell eventually detonated, killing three men and wounding several others. The ship was damaged again during Operation Sea Dragon. Designed to be quick and light, naval destroyers like this one were known as "tin cans" by their crew due to the unarmored hull being a mere 3/8 of an inch thick. As a result damage when sustained tended to be heavy.

Eventually rendered obsolete by computer-guided technology, the Turner Joy was retired in 1982 and is now permanently docked along a pier in Bremerton, WA, beside a well-stocked gift shop.