2016 Alaskan Cruise- Sitka

Our day in Sitka got off to an early start.

We boarded a former school bus that had been repurposed for tour groups. Green buses were all over the city. I think the locals must feel invaded during cruise season, seeing all of those darn green buses everywhere!

Our first stop was the Sitka National Historical Park, where we learned about Totem Poles. The Totem Poles on display are over a hundred years old and were donated by local Tlingit and Haida tribes for the 1904 Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. The Totem Poles toured around the United States, and were brought back to Sitka in 1906, when the current park was created.

Since we were on a tour, we only had twenty-minutes to race around the exhibits. Sitka National Historical Park has beautiful trails with the Totem Poles and a small museum. If I had been on my own, I think it would have taken over an hour to truly enjoy the experience. I'd love to go back.

Next Stop, was the Alaska Raptor Center, which was really my primary reason for booking this excursion. The Alaska Raptor Center is an amazing facility that rehabilitates injured birds with the goal of returning them to the wild. We were given a tour of the facility, which has an enormous indoor flight area and we got an up-close look at a Bald Eagle named Sitka. The Alaska Raptor Center is a non-profit doing good works, so if you visit, make sure to bring a little extra cash to throw into the donation bucket. This is a must-see for animal lovers of all ages!

We were give a little time to explore the center on our own and we found a pretty trail behind the main building.

and then, we saw this, quickly ending our walk in the woods.

The last part of our excursion was the Naa Kahidi Dance Show located at a community center in town. This thirty-minute performance by members of the Tlingit tribe ( kids and adults), was a sharing of their culture, including song, dance, and folk tales. The little kids performing were adorable and so excited to share their culture. I have to admit that I have never heard of the Tlingit tribe prior to this vacation, but came away feeling informed. On our ship, we were given daily Tlingit words and facts sheets, left on our bed during turn-down.

Our excursion ended after the dance performance and we had a few hours to explore the town. Sitka is quaint and filled with unique (not just tourist-trap) shops. I was thrilled to find Old Harbor Books, an independent bookstore with an excellent selection. I bought The Alaskan Laundry by Sitka local, Brendan Jones. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but perhaps I will take it on my 2017 return trip to Alaska!

Here are some other shots from around the town. You will notice Russian stores; Sitka has a sizable Russian population.

Alaska is full of fish n' chips food trucks. For lunch we ate at Ashmo's. The Mac and Cheese was fabulous.

On the way back to our ship, we saw these two dog, each in a truck parked on opposite sides of the street. They were just watching each other.

2016 Alaskan Cruise- Mendenhall Glacier

No trip to Alaska would be complete without seeing a glacier. Although we didn't opt to do a helicopter tour, where we would have been able to physically stand on a glacier, we did get an up-close view when our ship made a scenic voyage to see the Mendenhall Glacier.

The Mendenhall Glacier is located approximately twelve miles from the state capital of Juneau. Due to climate change, the glacier is retreating, but at the moment it is over thirteen miles long.

Dan and I found a quiet spot on the deck and bundled up. The approach to the glacier was beautiful, but slow. It took several hours and was very cold. If you travel to Alaska, pack gloves and scarves. The closer we got to the glacier, the more we saw floating ice in the water. The small pieces of ice made a fizzing sound, like soda or an Alk-Seltzer tab being dropped into water.

Holland America has a wonderful tradition of serving hot split-pea soup during the glacier viewing. A waiter approached us on the deck and handed us our bowls. The soup was delicious, but the best part was having something warm to hold!

As we approached the Mendenhall Glacier a live narration was piped in all over the ship. The narration was provided by a naturalist who was located in The Crows Nest Lounge ( prime viewing spot if you cared to go there early- inside and warm) and she not only provided facts, but fielded questions from passengers. The narration was interesting at first, but after awhile, it was like listening to Los Angeles newscasters giving a live play-by-play during a car chase. To put it more simply, she ran out of things to say and it would have been nice to have a little quiet.

Looking back on our pictures, I realize that there is no way that the pictures due justice to our experience of the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is huge. It's so big, that we began to feel concerned as the ship kept getting closer to it. One of my strongest memories is the sound of cracking ice as large chunks of the glacier calved and fell into the water. It sounded like an earthquake or the sharp crack of lightening. We saw at least a dozen enormous pieces of ice drop into the sea.

Here are the pictures, just magnify it in your mind.

Our stellar experience at the Mendenhall Glacier is one of the primary reasons that we have booked another cruise to Alaska for the summer of 2017. This summer we are taking my step-children who are from Sweden, so that they can also have this amazing experience too.

Generation Wealth

I definitely never took my hometown for granted, but moving to Oregon, made me realize just how spoiled I was living in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has so many museums and galleries putting on quality exhibitions. The Annenberg Space for Photography is one of my favorite art spaces in Southern California.

A few weeks ago, we had a very short, last-minute trip to Los Angeles and I saw an opportunity to see Generation Wealth, the latest exhibition at The Annenberg Space for Photography. Generation Wealth is famed photographer and filmmaker, Lauren Greenfield's exploration of our culture's obsession with wealth. Greenfield spent over twenty-five years examining wealth and our obsession with brands and image. Her exploration is not limited to the United States, she includes subjects from many other countries, including Russia and China.

The first part of the exhibition includes a thirty-minute introductory video. Although it's possible to skip this, I highly recommend the video. It provides a background for Greenfield's interest in the subject, including a mention of her documentary The Queen of Versailles, about David and Jackie Siegel's quest to build the biggest mansion in America. If you've not seen The Queen of Versailles, I highly recommend that you rent it. It was surprisingly heart-felt and relatable.

Greenfield explores a very complicated and emotional subject. No matter where you fall on the wealth spectrum, everyone is affected to some extent. Even if you're not purchasing spendy cars or handbags, you do have an opinion on brands, you're swayed by advertising, and you're concerned with image. It's easy to be judgmental, especially towards those with bigger budgets and bigger spending habits, but a majority of us still exhibit similar behavior, just perhaps on a smaller scale. The last part of the exhibition includes receipts from stores like Michael's Crafts, Target, and Petco; that give a strong impression of how it is so easy to overspend at stores that are not luxury brands. My take-away being, why is it okay to judge the person with the Channel handbag and not the person who builds a decked out craft room? Where are your spending sins? Maybe we should spend more time enjoying what we have, whether it's material or non-material things, and less time wanting or feeling envy.

Spending and image creating is like running on a treadmill: happiness is elusive. Greenfield looks at the psychology of spending, the momentary rush as you purchase a new object, but how quickly that excitement fades. Along with money, Greenfield examines body image and the obsession our culture has with both youth and perfection. Generation Wealth includes some very hard to view pictures of plastic surgery. We are a culture of dissatisfaction. What has to occur to shift the tide?

An answer might come Iceland, where Greenfield followed a banker who lost everything with the financial crisis. When he was working as a banker, he was stressed and worked so many hours that he was not able to spend time with his family. His career rebound was to go into fishing, a trade that had been in his family, and although his financial situation changed, he found that he was much happier. He commented that he felt that beyond his family, he was getting back to a greater sense of his community, spending time with his neighbors. On this same subject, Greenfield documented an extremely wealthy family in Russia. They live in a armed and gated mansion, secluded from neighbors. The wife mentioned feeling lonely. She is home, raising her toddler, but unlike her own childhood, she is without friends. Her daughter does not play with other children. It's almost like she is like she is a precious object in a museum. Although this woman being kept in a mansion is an extreme example, I feel that as a culture we are moving towards isolation, simply with the way we close ourselves off when spending time with our electronics. It's so depressing when you see couples or even whole families at restaurants, but they are all glued to their devices.

Speaking of the financial crisis, Greenfield had anticipated that she would see a shift in spending after the crash. Although many people did suffer by losing their homes and other financial misfortunes, the general culture attitude is to double-down on money and image. She saw an uptick in the way people put pressure on themselves to spend money to maintain the facade of wealth.

One of the more bizarre parts of the exhibition showed the way wealth is impacting China, including the popularity of etiquette classes. Chinese citizens pay upwards of twenty grand to learn western etiquette. In the introductory video, a glimpse into these classes is show and we learn the proper way to eat a banana. I'd be willing to bet that no one I know actually eats a banana this way, using a knife to slice a banana peel in a slick maneuver than is akin to skinning a fish, and then slicing the banana flesh into small pieces to be eaten with a fork. It's fussy! Maybe since I'm not upper class, I'm not privy to this fancy way of eating a banana!

I left Generation Wealth feeling hyper-aware of what I value and where I find personal happiness. On the way out, we found an interactive exhibit, where you get a receipt with a fortune. Nothing sums up the vibe of Generation Wealth better than this =

Lauren Greenfield's Generation Wealth is at The Annenberg Space for Photography until August 13, 2017. The exhibition is located in Century City, right across from the Westfield Shopping Center. I didn't even think about the irony of the proximity of the mall, until writing this, but I don't think that the stores are getting much business from anyone who has recently visited Generation Wealth. The good news is, the exhibition is free ( no excuse not to go) and the nearby parking is cheap!