Eagles and Their Chick

During our 3 weeks away from home, the eagles have been working hard to feed their one remaining chick. Here, the male eagle sits atop one of our birch trees in the backyard, drying his wings after hunting the hay flats in the rain all day.


There were two chicks when we left, but only one remains. The body of the other chick lays on the ground below the nest. Likely, the stronger chick pushed the sibling from the nest, freeing up all the food for himself. Nature sometimes seems harsh, but this remaining chick is fat and and healthy, and will be a fine addition to the many offspring our two resident eagles have produced. One day when our two eagles pass on, maybe this chick will take up residence on our bluff where it was born.


The pose he strikes while drying his wings reminds me of the aquila, which is the eagle emblem we saw everywhere in Rome. It was a symbol of the Roman Legion, and was carried atop a standard bearer anytime a Roman Legion was on the move. Aquila is latin for 'eagle', and in Roman legend this bird carried the thunderbolts of Jupiter.

It's no mistake that the "full bird" rank of Captain in the Navy (equivalent to Colonel in the other Services) also bears a striking resemblance to the Roman Legion symbol.

Except that instead of thunderbolts, it carries arrows in one talon, and an olive branch in the other. Despite what you may have heard about the eagle changing the direction it faces during wartime, the eagle always faces towards the olive branch, and away from the arrows. This same emblem is used in the Presidential Seal.


Don't think I ever posted this on the blog, but here's a shot of my upper potato plot, right after we planted the potatoes last month, with barriers up to keep the moose out. Garden is delayed a little due to our absence, but it is starting to recover and all the potatoes are up now. Onions and lettuce are doing ok. Carrots, beets and pumpkins are struggling, but we'll catch them up before long.


I probably take too many pics of the eagles, but they seem to constantly give us opportunities for great views. Compared to when we first moved here 10 years ago, they have really grown comfortable with us. Heidi the cat, however, we are keeping in the garage for now.....especially after seeing how much food that little eagle chick is demanding. Don't want to see Heidi end up on the eagle chick's menu.

Touring Juneau (on our way back home)

Whale-watching, made easy in Juneau.


We stopped in Juneau for a day on our way back home from Germany, and captured this whale breaching in the background behind the boys in this picture.....


....except that it is not real...it's a new sculpture on the waterfront in Juneau. When the fountain is turned on, it looks just like a live whale breaching.


Before Juneau, we had one day to tour Frankfurt. But we were so tired, we stayed close to the hotel in Raunheim and didn't go all the way back in to Frankfurt. We made sure to find a good German restaurant, which meant everyone ate a variety of meats and sausages.


The boys had a giggle or two at some German words. Einfahrt or Ausfahrt  - decisions, decisions.


They were able to learn some basic phrases in their third language for the trip (German, Italian and French) - enough to say hello, order food and ask if anyone speaks English. But they also still made up stories to go with the signs they didn't understand, just like they did in Italy and France. Evidently this one means that if you hold your child's hand, you get a bike for free!


No comment on this one.


Back to Juneau.....we walked around the Governor's mansion.


It was a quiet weekday, so no one was around.


The well-kept North lawn of the Governor's mansion.


The State Capitol Building was also mostly quiet, we met and talked to just one state senator, everyone else was out of town as the legislature is out of session.


The Senate Chamber - not so busy these days with the legislature out of session.


The House Chamber. Same story.


Where most of the House's work is done - the House Finance Committee.


And the corresponding Senate Finance Committee meeting room.


We're In! Alaska Daily News paper from the day Alaska was voted in to the Union in 1958. It became a state early the following year in 1959.


The Governor's Office. He was out of the office, but we did get to see him on our flight back to Anchorage.




Impressed with the artwork and design detail in the Capitol Building's entryway - the last renovation was well executed.


Secretary of State William H. Seward. He negotiated the sale of Alaska from Russia to the U.S. in 1867. At only ~2 cents per acre, it will likely forever be the greatest negotiated government land purchase in the history of the United States. Seward was a man of vision. Ridiculed by some in Congress at the time for buying an "icebox", the ~$7 million purchase price was eventually eclipsed by the 40 million ounces of gold mined from the state (worth nearly $60 Billion), with another $3 Billion of gold, zinc, copper and nickel currently mined EACH YEAR in the state. Additionally, the state has produced 17 Billion barrels of oil (worth $1.2 Trillion in today's dollars), and 13 Billion cubic feet of natural gas, with a large amount of both still in the ground and off-shore around the state, some of which makes up our National Petroleum Reserve, securing our nation's energy needs in case of crisis. Not to mention the incredible strategic platform Alaska afforded the U.S. during WWII, the Cold War, and even today. Alaska is the only reason the U.S. is an Arctic nation, providing us a voice in how the vast resources of the Arctic will be managed in the future.

All for just ~2 cents per acre. Seward was once asked to name his greatest achievement, he said "The purchase of Alaska, but it will take the people a generation to realize its worth". A wise man.

Seward was one of the three politicians targeted for assassination on the day Abraham Lincoln was killed, but Seward survived, enduring 5 stab wounds to his neck and face, which was carried out simultaneously with the attack on Lincoln. Later in life, he would only allow his left side to be photographed/painted, due to the scars on the right side of his face and neck.

In addition to Alaska, Seward looked elsewhere for expansion as well, advocating for the purchase of Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands (which Congress also balked at, but later authorized a war in order to claim some of those possessions from Spain). In 1890, Alfred Thayer Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History" was published, in which Mahan advocated for the same expansion in the Caribbean that Seward had sought some 20 years earlier. Some of those possessions (like the Virgin Islands) cost the U.S. much, much more when we did eventually buy them than Seward could have negotiated if only Congress had shared his foresight. Seward should be credited with launching the United States into an era of geographic, economic and global influence expansion which ushered the Nation into its role as a great power. He is a worth-while historical figure to study, and is too often overlooked in studies of our Nation's history.


The Alaska State Museum....I doubt any other state museum has an entryway as unique.


The section of the museum concerning the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  I got a kick out of this t-shirt they had on display.


We took the tramway up to Mount Roberts, overlooking Juneau. At the top, two Tlingit Alaska Natives were carving a totem.


Lady Baltimore. An injured eagle kept on Mount Roberts. As we walked by her enclosure, I wanted to take a picture of her proud stance, but as we approached, she seemed to bow - and I missed the picture of the proud stance. But now that I look at the pictures, I think this picture is even better.


Looking down on the cruise ships in Juneau.


The boys with Gastineau Channel in the background.


On top of Mount Roberts.


Some unique rock formations.




Although in Alaska, Juneau is actually in a temperate rain forest.


Another Tlingit Alaska Native, carving a marker into a tree on Mount Roberts.


A memorial to the light cruiser USS Juneau. The ship was sunk on November 13, 1942. The cruiser was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in the battle of Guadalcanal, losing all but ten of her 697 crew. Hit during the early morning hours by a torpedo launched by a Japanese destroyer at point blank range, Juneau withdrew for repairs. But as she was sailing away approaching noon, a Japanese submarine gained sight, and launched another torpedo into her side. She sank in 20 seconds. ~600 crew went down with the ship, and the remaining ~100 were left afloat in the water. By the time help arrived, only 10 survivors remained, the rest being picked off by sharks, drowning or succumbing to injuries. Among the dead were the five Sullivan brothers.

Earlier this year, the ship's wreckage was finally discovered off the coast of the Solomon Islands.


On the plaque, each of the killed are named, including the five Sullivan brothers. Two of which went down with the ship, and the remaining three dying in the water afterwards waiting on help to arrive.

Overall, we enjoyed our last day in Germany, and our day touring around Juneau on the way home. Our National Lampoon's European Vacation is now in the books, and we're glad to be back home again.

The Alps and the Dolomites, our last day in Italy

For our last day in Italy, we drove into the Alps, to the small village of Coi, in the Val di Zoldo near the Monte Civetta ski complex at the edge of the National Park of the Dolomites. Coi lies in Northern Italy, near the borders with Switzerland and Austria.

There is very little written about the history of Coi. The small village only has ~50 summertime residents living in a few historic houses in the village. No one spoke English, so we did the best we could interpreting the history lessons the people of the village were trying to relay to us. This is our BnB, on a hillside overlooking the Alps.

Looking back at the Italian Alps, from a hiking trail above Coi, Italy.

Just down the street from our BnB, a great view of the Dolomites overlooking the village of Coi.

The 'main' street through Coi (actually, the only street through Coi).

The village's church, with the Dolomites in the background.

We hiked into the Alps, and were able to witness many scenic overlooks, with remnants of older structures all around. 

A couple of Zamorano burros, a breed that originates in Spain. Frequently seen in movies as pack animals used in older European-set movies, here they were grazing just off the trail at the base of the Dolomites.

More scenic views from Coi.

There was only one restaurant in town, La Caminatha, and it was a winter-season hotel/restaurant catering to skiing, so for our summer trip we were the only visitors to the restaurant that day. After speaking with the owners, they opened the restaurant for us, and they had only one table set in the middle of the restaurant just for the four of us. They lit the fire in the lobby (normally used in the winter to keep the skiers warm). The dishes were unique, and we didn't really know what we were ordering, but ate every last bite.

We got a history lesson of Val di Zoldo (Zoldo Valley) with our meal which we enjoyed greatly, even though we could only decipher a few words of the mostly Italian descriptions. From what we can gather, there is a lot of history in this village and in this restaurant, from both ancient mining and timber activities. Nearby is a clear-cut area where much of the timber used to build gondolas in Venice was harvested (at least that what I think they were saying). Or maybe the origin of the word gondola came from the residents in that clear-cut area, not really sure which. Either way, the village has something to do with the history of the gondola.

View form La Caminatha's back deck.

The only street in Coi centers around a public square with a community well, pouring water from a mountain spring into a trough for the citizens' use.

Nearby hangs the Venetian flags, you can see the unique fringed ends of the flag, reminding one of Venetian blinds.

This Ash tree is several hundred years old, and has special meaning to people of the village, although we weren't able to make out its full story, beyond that it was vandalized sometime in the last 100 years and has the top cut off. The history of why the tree is here goes back to the 1500's, but the full story was unfortunately unclear to us.

Being silly while trying to yodel in the Alps.

Another view of the BnB before we loaded up "Luigi" one last time (Luigi is the name our boys gave the little Fiat we drove around Italy this past week).

View from the BnB.

Chilling in the Alps.

In the lower city of Zoldo Alto, at the bottom of the valley, with portions of the Dolomites in the Italian Alps in the background.

Afterwards we flew back to Germany, and are recovering in Frankfurt before our morning flight back to the States.