Andrea Elizabeth's blog

Whale Watching

After leaving the Fjord, we counted about 15 whales. I suppose they were humpback. They were very hard to capture with the shutter delay.

Leaving Tracy Arm Fjord

Dean Paige said that after the glacier carves out the rock mountain, lichen are the first plants to grow, then their decay leaves soil for moss, which leaves deeper soil for bigger plants, and so on, until years and years later, trees can grow. Patience, my heart.

Tracy Arm Fjord - Cruise Day 7, Sunday

Early Sunday morning the ship took a sight-seeing cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord, a deep inlet formed by a glacier that is still receding. We were sad to leave Alaska, but this detour into the interior left a sweet taste in our mouth.

Skagway - Cruise Day 6, Saturday, Aug 4

Skagway experienced two booms. One when gold was discovered in 1896 in the Canadian Yukon which was only accessible by sea and a grueling trek across White (Dead Horse) Pass. The second was when the U.S. decided to defend against Japanese invasion during WWII. Skagway by then had a rail way to Canada's interior which proved useful to supply the building of the new Canada - Alaska Highway to fortify against the Japanese take-over of one of the Aleutian Islands. I didn't realize the Japanese actually had occupied, and not just bombed, American soil. The Battle of the Aleutian Islands is known as the Forgotten Battle as the Battle of Guadalcanal, in which the USS Juneau sank, overshadowed it. "There were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire."

Today it's mostly a historic tourist town keeping the past alive. This photo was in a museum in back of a store.

"Of the twenty mushers who rushed the serum from Nenana to Nome, 674 miles away, the man who drove the furthest in perilous conditions was Alaska's great sled dog racer Leonhard Seppala. And the dog that led Seppala's team on a loop of two hundred and sixty miles, including a long stretch over the fracturing ice of Norton Sound was the same dog with an impressive record of race victories over the previous decade -- a small, feisty Siberian Husky named Togo, the real hero of the serum run. It wore Togo out and he was unable to race much after that." Please read the rest of this dog's story here.

Prayer

I copied this from Handmaid Leah's blog. The painter is Dmitri Petrov.

Libby Riddles

Dean Paige, the ship's Naturalist, told us to not miss Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditerod sled dog race who was giving a talk 7pm in the Vista Lounge while we were docked in Juneau Friday evening. With her beautiful face and long blonde hair, she did not give the impression of a champion sled dog musher who possessed the physical strength, conditioning, command of wolf-like huskies, and endurance necessary to participate in the 1,049 mile wilderness race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, much less win it. I am very fascinated by animal trainers for how in tune they are with these wild beasts, yet know how to stay one step, at least, ahead of them so that they maintain loving dominance, not just sympathy, in order to achieve peak performance. I think this sense is very akin to how an Orthodox Spiritual Father is with his spiritual children.
 
Her talk was very interesting, especially when she described, what seems like the clincher moment, when she decided to push past a checkpoint where everyone else decided to sleep during a blizzard. When she could finally go no further, she staked her sled, fed the dogs a snack, let them rest in their dog igloos, and slept for a few hours on the wind shielded side of the sled. When she woke up, she wanted to go back to sleep, but knew that she and the dogs would not only get passed up in the race, but could probably die in the sub zero temperatures. So she pushed on and won the race. She is a model of the asceticism, attentive focus, and skill that are necessary to achieve greatness.

Juneau - Cruise Day 5, Friday

I woke up the next morning to the Juneau pier outside of my window. Here's the view from the Promenade Deck as we were disembarking the ship .

Getting to St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, which was started by Orthodox native Alaskans after the Russians sold the territory, was a bit of a stretch of the legs through the town and up the hill from the pier.

After visiting in their book store/gift shop and spending some time in the Church, where we met Father Michael who had recently moved from California, we took a tour of the State Capitol Building. All of the pictures of legislators were of white folks. The pictures of the native Tlingits were from the turn of the 20th century and depicted them in tribal, sometimes scary, dress.

We headed back downtown and had delicious freshly made chocolates for lunch and stopped in a few tourist stores which displayed Russian or native gifts.

The Mount Roberts Tram is owned and operated by the Tlingits. Since the sort of steep ticket price includes the museum tour and an award winning movie about native culture, combined with the views, it was all worth while.

I'll add some more pictures here at the bottom and in my photo's and put them all in my Juneau Collection.

Saints Zachariah and Elizabeth

Today is my Namesday, so I'd like to post this icon.

Painted at The Convent of St. Elizabeth, the Grand Duchess of Russia.

Embarking in Sitka

 

Luckily once you get to the pier in Sitka, the town is all within walking distance.

This was the first sight we saw on dry land.

When we crossed ourselves upon entering the Cathedral, the lady who receives $3 a tourist, said we could get in for free since we were Orthodox. While we were venerating the icons, a Reader named Philip approached us, asked us if we were Orthodox and then asked if he could give us a tour! He took us behind the cordoned area so that we could venerate the Our Lady of Sitka icon. It was more beautiful than I remembered from when it was at St. Seraphim's Cathedral in Dallas on tour a couple of years ago. He also brought out from behind the altar St. Innocent's Blessing Cross! He had hand carved it out of ivory, and we were told it has a piece of the actual cross inside it. We are very blessed to have been able to venerate it.

Just as it was closing, we arrived at the Bishop's House where St. Innocent lived. The Ranger allowed us to tour the ground floor anyway, which is full of artifacts from the historic and lovingly successful Orthodox mission effort to Alaska. I'll post some more pictures in my photo's. I also have a Collection, accessible at the bottom of the sidebar on the right, called Way Out West Vacation, both of which have a slideshow type option again in the right sidebar if you click on a picture. It's chronological if you click on the last photo first.

Cruise Day 4 - Sitka, Alaska

Because of the high winds and waves the evening of departure, that continued into the next day, our progress to Sitka was delayed. We were supposed to be there from 12p - 6p Thursday. The ship didn't drop anchor at the Sitka harbor until around 2pm, and then we all had to draw a number for "tender transport". We drew numbers 540 - 547, but the numbers continued to around 1000. The people who had booked a shore excursion didn't have to draw a number and were transported off the boat first. Thus we didn't set foot on Sitka shores until 4pm! and they said we still had to come back by 6. This was quite the bummer as Sitka, home of St. Innocent of Alaska, was our premier destination.

More about St. Innocent from oca.org:

St. Innocent of Alaska

Evangelizer, Teacher, Visionary
Equal to the Apostles, Enlightener of North America
1797 - 1879

Drawing of St. Innocent by the Very Rev. L.P. Koulos which appeared on the cover of the 1997 OCA Desk Calendar and the OCA Sourcebook.

Throughout 1997 Orthodox Christians in North America will celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of their "apostle" and first bishop -- St. Innocent (Veniaminov).

Born on August 26, 1797, in a remote village in Siberia, John Popov (who later assumed the surname of Veniaminov) studies for pastoral service at the seminary in Irkutsk. After his marriage to Catherine Sharina (1817) and ordination to the priesthood (1821), Fr. John volunteered for missionary work in Alaska.

Arriving with his family in Unalaska in the Aleutian island chain (1824), Fr. John began his remarkable career as a missionary priest and bishop in the far-reaches of the Russian Empire -- Siberia and Alaska. Following the death of his wife (1839), he entered monastic life by taking the name Innocent and was elected the first resident bishop of Alaska (1840-58).

A person with many skills and interest, Fr. John carefully studied the traditional cultures of his flock and well as their natural environment. He also designed and built churches including the Mission House and St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka.

An accomplished linguist, Fr. John learned the various native Siberian and Alaskan languages of his diverse flock. While serving in Unalaska, he learned Unangan, the Fox Island dialect of the Aleut people. Along with Aleut leader Ivan Pan'kov, he devised a written grammar and alphabet, translating the Gospel of St. Matthew and liturgical texts. His spiritual treatise Indication of the Pathway into the Kingdom of Heaven was first published in Unangan and was the first Aleut book.

Later in his life he was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow (1868). However, Metropolitan Innocent's evangelical zeal never diminished -- establishing in 1868 the Orthodox Missionary Society. He died in Moscow on March 31, 1879, and was canonized a saint of the Orthodox Church on October 6, 1977.