Hanoi was an interesting place. We only had one day there to see things and now we are having breakfast in the Hanoi Airport and are 3 hours into our 36-hour journey back to Sarasota. The picture below shows Ray inspecting a column of NVA veterans. The veterans are visiting the Ho Chi Minh memorial complex in the center of Hanoi. Ray is now in his 80s. Ray is a veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam and has his veteran hat on for the picture. Ray's wife passed away a year ago during the holidays. He's taking this trip by himself.
You can't take any pictures in the huge mausoleum. They move small groups though quickly. Ray comes close to collapsing from shortness of breath and I fall back and help him slowly move past the body. One of the Honor guards approaches and asks if Ray is all right. Another guard motions impatiently for us to move along more quickly. We ignore him and move past the body as soon as Ray can begin to catch his breath.
Uncle Ho wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread in both halves of Vietnam after reunification, but they ignore his wishes and do a Lenin style display of his body in this giant mausoleum. They close the memorial two months a year to refurbish the body. Uncle Ho died in 1969 before he could see the reunification that occurred in 1975.
In the market, I see a street artist doing a copy of a stylized portrait of Hunter S. Thompson.
The wiring in Asian cities we visit always appears as if it would be difficult to troubleshoot. We really like our Vietnamese guide, Tony. Tony says that when they have an electrical problem, it is not uncommon to just give up and string a new wire.
We see the lake in the center of Hanoi. They fished John McCain out of it with a broken arm after he parachuted out of his Navy fighter jet. This dragon is on the lakeshore.
The dragon seems to have a happy face (and so does the statue in the background).
They customize scooters and bicycles in very innovative ways to transport goods.
The weave and dance of vehicles through intersections and roundabouts are completely amazing. They all seem to ignore what traffic lights there are. A double beep on the horn seems to mean "watch out, I'm coming past".
We visit the Hanoi Hilton, where some American fliers were imprisoned. The building below was right at the edge of the little historic prison, which was also used by the French. It had a guillotine at that time. The prison itself is just not all that photogenic. The cells are very dark and do not photograph well. There is a video explaining how well the Air Force POWs were treated. I'm sure that when Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib become museums, we will produce something very similar. The victor gets to write the history.
We're in the Williwaw campground of the U.S. Forest Service outside Whittier....according to Wiki, "a sudden blast of wind descending from a mountainous coast to the sea. The williwaw results from the descent of cold, dense air from the snow and ice fields of coastal mountains in high latitudes, accelerated by the force of gravity. Thus the williwaw is considered a type of katabatic wind."
The campground itself is very beautiful and there are salmon nearby...
You can only reach Whittier by sea, air or a 2.5-mile tunnel through which train and vehicle traffic take turns in a single lane....the tunnel was built during WWII to disembark troops and supplies...
Whittier has about 200 permanent inhabitants, but this swells in the summer with tourists, fishermen and cruise ship passengers.
The tunnel costs $12 for a passenger car....most of the inhabitants live in a single building which was once the largest building in Alaska...It's a former U.S. Government structure which has been converted into condos...
The other large building has been abandoned. It's a wreck and full of asbestos, ice, bears and collapsed walls, windows, and pipes.
Right now the port is full of commercial and sport fishing vessels.
This is the Buckner Building. It was badly damaged by the 1964 earthquake and tsunami... Demolition is impractical since the debris would have to be removed by boat or through the tunnel...
There's not much to do in Whittier so Mrs. Phred and I explore the building. The stairwell leading to the basement is in total darkness and at the bottom of the stairwell is "The Door". Through the door is the basement which, although caved in, is still accessible. In the Eastern corner is access to an underground tunnel leading towards the city. It runs downhill for over 500 yards, ends abruptly and is completely immersed in darkness. We explore the tunnel for about 400 yards but are chased out by a large animal or creature of some sort....possibly a bear or troll...
Custer made Major General during the Civil War at the age of 25. He had eleven horses shot out from under him during the Battle of Culpepper Courthouse. He was 37 on June 25, 1876, when his career came to an abrupt end in Montana.
I'm not one to criticize a great military leader, but it seems odd that Custer would divide his forces into three prongs at the banks of the Little Big Horn River and then subdivide his remaining third into two wings.
He asked his second in command, Major Reno, to attack the Lakota camp from the South. Reno's men were routed as the Lakota boiled out of camp like hornets.
Custer's own 209 men, after attacking from the North, moved to a hilltop, shot their horses in the head and used their carcasses for what has been described as well-organized breastworks and last-ditch bid for survival.
The whole thing was the result of a land grab by American authorities who had reneged on a previous treaty because of the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. The slaughter of the buffalo upon which the Lakota depended as food was another cause of the conflict.
The Bighorn Mountains were off to our left as we moved up through Buffalo and Sheridan...antelope and deer browse the grassland with no apparent fear...
They've placed dead soldier markers all over the battlefield where Custer's last command was wiped out. A CSI type investigation of firing pin marks on cartridge cases and arrowhead types and broken finger bones and crushed skulls was also done...it all jives very closely with contemporaneous Indian accounts of the battle...and they were the only ones talking...
There is a National Cemetery here. The first 200-300 graves are for Custer's soldiers, civilians and Crow Indian scouts ...
after that, you start seeing old Indian Scouts, Spanish American war vets, WWI soldiers and eventually WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan...totally cool...I could be here someday...or not...LOL...My outfit was the 7th Military Airlift Squadron running cross-Pacific missions in and around Viet Nam...we used to joke that we were the offspring of Custer's 7th Cavalry.
This is a shot of The Little Big Horn River today...The Lakota and Cheyenne had established a large camp on the river in search of antelope when Custer decided to try to force them into a smaller reservation...
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were two of the best known Indian leaders. They engineered Custer's ignominious defeat. Below is an actual photo of sitting bull...Sitting Bull fled to Canada after Little Big Horn. He returned five years later and in 1890 was killed by Lieutenant Henry Bull Head. Sitting Bull's death coincided with the massacre at Wounded Knee and may explain the Ghost Dance movement that spread widely at the time.
This is an artist's rendition of Crazy Horse. A gigantic statue of Crazy Horse is being carved out of a granite mountain in the Black Hills. The project has been underway for 70 years and may take another 500 to complete. The effort makes Gaudi's church in Barcelona seem fast-paced by comparison. Here is a link to my Blog about the Crazy Horse project. When finished it will be the largest statue in the world....bigger than the pyramids...carved from the hardest rock in America...
Wiki has this story about Crazy Horse.....
""In the fall of 1867, Crazy Horse invited Black Buffalo Woman to accompany him on a buffalo hunt in the Slim Buttes area of present-day northwestern South Dakota. She was the wife of No Water, who had a reputation for drinking too much. It was Lakota custom to allow a woman to divorce her husband at any time. She did so by moving in with relatives or with another man, or by placing the husband's belongings outside their lodge. Although some compensation might be required to smooth over hurt feelings, the rejected husband was expected to accept his wife's decision. No Water was away from camp when Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman left for the buffalo hunt.
No Water tracked down Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman in the Slim Buttes area. When he found them in a tipi, he called Crazy Horse's name from outside. When Crazy Horse answered, No Water stuck a pistol into the tipi and aimed for Crazy Horse. Touch the Clouds, Crazy Horse's first cousin and son of Lone Horn, was sitting in the tipi nearest the entry. He knocked the pistol upward as No Water fired, deflecting the bullet to Crazy Horse's upper jaw. No Water left, with Crazy Horse's relatives in hot pursuit. No Water ran his horse until it died and continued on foot until he reached the safety of his own village".
A bronze statue by James Ford imagines Black Buffalo Woman....as she might have been...I took a long walk along a dirt road this morning just after sunrise...it's a beautiful country...a herd of about 20 mares and colts stared at me strangely on the road...they were "paints"...the creek here is named after Major Reno...After Custer asked him to attack from the South he led his men in a mad scramble to run away from the Lakota camp and lived to fight another day and bury Custer...
Reno was later charged with public drunkenness and with making unwanted advances toward another officer's wife. He was also charged with cowardice and drunkenness for his behavior at Little Big Horn and also indicted for peeking through the bathroom window of the daughter of his commanding officer...
the hilltop of Custer's last stand....the last 50 or so of his 209 men fell here at the spots indicated by markers...after shooting their horses....
Since 1995, I've been spending a couple of weekends each year in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, diving the wall with Captain Angel.
I went to San Juan, Mayaguez, Caguas, Aricebo and Ponce on business, helping one of our subsidiaries through their audit in September and installing and upgrading computers, new software, local area networks, telephone equipment, and wide area networks.
There were lots of problems with computers broken in shipment, power failures and burned out electronics. Eventually, I had all six of the Puerto Rico offices interconnected to each other, Tampa and the National Office in Atlanta by a wide area network. When we started they didn't have a single computer.
The picture above is Captain Angel. One of the fringe benefits of my side duties on the island was always a diving weekend in Parguera. I took Mrs. Phred there a couple of times. My last time I took my son. Once I took a strange consultant named "Bob" from Chicago when we changed accounting systems. When I went online to book a dive trip today, I found that Angel closed down last January. It is a shame. He is a nice young man with a lovely wife and two young children. Sometimes he would get a call on the boat and smile and say that the baby just had a bowel movement. He had a nice life running dive trips out to the wall. I had hoped that he would succeed.
The dives were among the best I've done. They started at about 60 feet and went down a coral covered wall with lots of fish and eels.
There is the last time for everything. Due to the tenuous nature of existence, we can never be sure when it's happening. I'm going to miss the Parguera Divers polo shirts and the rainbows over the phosphorescent mangrove bay.
I'll really miss the cool Parguera Divers polo shirts with the little neon fish logo.
My son enjoyed the last trip. He's a poet/lawyer/guitar player with (so far) six very handsome and well-behaved children. I'm not biased about that in any way about that.
Halibut and Salmon Fishing in Alaska - July 23, 2005
Alaska is a place of unparalleled beauty. Parts of Alaska extend past the 180 meridians making it the furthest western, eastern and northern state in the USA. There are few roads and travel to most of the state is still accomplished only by small plane or boat and sometimes by dog sled or snowmobile.
The waters of the Gulf of Alaska, including the Aleutian chain and Pribilof islands, are nourished by deep ocean upwelling which provides rich nutrients to plankton that in turn support a rich and complex food chain of sea life including seabirds like the puffin and marine mammals such as whales, sea otters, seals, and walrus.
Although Alaska is a huge place, if you like to fish, raft, dig for clams, hike and enjoy spectacular scenery (including snowcapped mountains, fjords, glaciers, and exotic wildlife) consider renting a car in Anchorage and spend several summer weeks in the Kenai peninsula only an hour to the south. Traffic is light and the natives are few but friendly. The main Kenai destinations are Whittier, Hope, Seward, Soldatna, Girdwood, and Homer. The Kenai Peninsula is adjacent to the spectacular Cook inlet, ringed by snow-covered volcanoes. This area was explored by Captain Cook, accompanied by a young William Bligh. Cook was searching for a northwest passage.
Alaska National Maritime Wildlife Refuge
The Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge covers 2,500 islands, four time zones, nearly 47,000 miles (76,000 km) of shoreline and a distance east to west of about 3,000 miles (5,000 km).
The refuge headquarters and extensive exhibits of living seabirds, seals and other marine mammals are in Homer, Alaska on the coast of the Kenai peninsula. Homer is also famous for Halibut fishing. It is not uncommon to land a 300-pound (140kg) Halibut and these may reach a size of 1,000 pounds (450kg) or more. Halibut over 100 pounds (45kg) are usually voluntarily released as a conservation measure and steps are now underway to limit Halibut catches by charter boat captains to the 1999 levels to ensure the continued future health of this species.
The refuge provides a vast and rich feeding ground for salmon during their years at sea before they return to spawn.
Overview of Fishing Regulations
Take some time to study the local customs and fishing rules before going fishing. For example, Alaskans believe that when you intend to release a fish, you should take care to avoid handling it or removing it from the water. Handling a fish removes the slimy covering and makes them susceptible to bacteria.
Where and when fishing is allowed, permitted baits and fishing techniques and daily 'emergency orders' are posted online and updated each day. Alaskans believe that tourism and fishing species conservation are closely related. The emergency orders1 may close certain types of fishing, some places to fish or they may double bag limits if there are too many fish entering the rivers or streams. Non-residents that purchase a fishing license are expected to record their catch and return the license by 30 November. Usually, the local tackle shop where licenses are sold can provide helpful current information.
The Alaska Fish and Game Department monitors 15,000 streams and rivers and offshore waters on over 47,000 miles (76,000 km) of coastline. Salmon entering rivers from the sea are carefully monitored by sonar. This information is updated daily on their website and decisions to expand or contact fishing limits is delegated to local Fish and Game officers. The Coast Guard also vigilantly patrols the Aleutian chain of islands to prevent fishing by commercial boats of other nations.
Salmon Life Cycles
Salmon begin life as a fertilized egg deposited in gravel in a stream bed. Salmon life cycles are anadromous which means that they are born in freshwater, feed and grow there for a year or two then undergo a morphological change that adapts them to seawater. They roam and feed at sea for a few years and then mysteriously navigate back to their home stream or hatchery to spawn and die. A 40-pound (18kg) female king may contain 5,500 pea-sized eggs (roe), weighing up to 5 pounds (about 2kg). Curiously, where and when such bait is permitted, king roe attached to a lure is the bait of choice for king salmon. Five Types of Salmon
Alaska has five types of salmon. These are the coho or silver, chinook or king, chum, pink, and sockeye or red. Salmon farming in Alaska was prohibited in 1990 to protect the wild salmon population. Farmed salmon tastes fatty and carry diseases to the wild population. They tend to suffocate in their own feces, which is an unappetizing thought.
The king (chinook) salmon is highly prized by sport fishermen for its size, growing to nearly 100 pounds (45kg), but the sockeye or red is most sought after for its taste because of its dark color, high-fat content and firm flesh. Chum is the most available salmon but it does not travel well and most of it ends up in cans. The silver (coho) is the most aggressive and will attack nearly any type of lure.
There are other salmonoid species such as the steelhead trout that have a characteristic salmon taste and color. Semelparous species, such as salmon, spawn once in a lifetime and immediately and die. Steelheads and other iteroparous species can spawn several times.
Often precocious immature salmon return to spawn while they are very small - 2 to 4 pounds (1kg to 2kg) for a king. These are called jacks or jennies depending on sex. Jacks and jennies may be kept and eaten without counting as part of the daily bag limit.
Fishing for Kings on the Kenai River
The Kenai River is the place to catch kings in Alaska. The largest ten kings ever recorded all came from the Kenai River near Soldotna. The largest so far was over 97 pounds (44kg). The way to catch kings is to hire a local guide and fish from a drift boat. Some guides use outboard engines and others row against the strong current. You should use a guide who has an outboard because the kings enter the river on the rising 30-foot (9-metre) tide and the local guides know where the kings will be on an hourly basis. The rowboats have a problem with mobility in the strong current.
The local guide will provide bait and tackle. Kings average 20 to 40 pounds (9kg to 18kg). After landing one you must immediately record it on your license and cease fishing for the rest of the day. Kings must be hooked in the mouth. Snagged or 'foul-hooked' kings must be released. You may also land smaller 3-pound (1.4 kg) 'jacks' or 3-pound 'rainbow trout'. These will taste very good on the grill the same evening.
The time to fish for salmon is during the summer when they swarm upriver to spawn and die.
The Seldovia Bay Enhancement Project
The village of Seldovia can be reached by a spectacular 20-mile (32 km) water taxi ride from Homer. Things to do there include hiking, a great ice cream parlor where you can do laundry and a restaurant that also offers customers a large selection of used books to read. There are interesting bed and breakfasts there and you could consider booking a halibut fishing charter at the docks.
The Seldovia salmon enhancement project involved releasing king and red spawn into a tiny stream that runs through the Seldovia village. The mature salmon have no place to spawn when they return and are easy pickings for bald eagles, bears and Native Americans in the shallow stream.
The Salmon begin to run upstream in bunches with the incoming 30-foot (9-metre) tide as the stream changes from a downstream trickle to a raging reversed river twice each day. Although it is considered to be a bit like 'mugging', this is one of the few places where one can simply cast a weighted triple gang hook (after 13 June) and snag and reel in a delicious 10-pound (4.5kg) red after a fierce struggle. The remote village stream is not crowded by fishermen and it is interesting to watch the village children land these even if you choose not to fish. If you will be fishing you will need to pack a rod and a spinning reel with perhaps a 20-pound (9kg) test line. Weighted triple-gang hooks can be purchased on the Homer Spit, but buy several because you will snag the bottom. Bring waders and polarised sunglasses. Begin watching for fish to snag when the children start to congregate at the bridge on the incoming tide.
Combat Fishing
Another way to catch salmon on the Kenai is combat fishing. In June and July, the aggressive silvers run 40 miles (64km) up the murky blue Kenai river and then dart into the clear Russian river at their confluence near the village of Coopers Landing. To catch salmon by fly fishing it is best to see them rather than merely 'flogging the water' with your fly. Polarised glasses and wading boots are necessary. Polarised sunglasses employ a magical trick to bend light waves and permit fishermen to see fish passing underwater by cutting surface glare. Keep your lunch on your back to keep the bears from raiding it so that you do not need to enter the water above the height of your waders to avoid the bears. Halibut Fishing from Homer
Lift weights for six months before you go Halibut fishing from Homer or Seldovia and only go on the half-day trips. These only cost half as much and everyone catches their limit (two halibut) before the half-day is over anyway. The hard part is deciding what to release and what to keep. The halibut bite as quickly as your bait hits the bottom and anything less than 20 pounds (9kg) or over 100 pounds (45kg) should probably go back in the water. Keep out a chunk to make grilled halibut in the evening.
Travel Tips
Alaska has a very short tourism season and accommodations, rental cars, meals, and activities tend to be pricey. It is probably wise to book your accommodations long in advance because they are limited and tend to fill up. Many lodging facilities offer the use of outdoor gas grills where you can cook part of your fresh catch. Fodors.com has a chat room where you can ask questions and get recommendations from other travelers. Go frequent flyer if you can, but try to book your flight twelve months in advance before all the seats are taken. Buy a cheap styrofoam cooler upon arrival and keep it stocked with ice, sandwich makings, water, and breakfast snacks. A 2-for-1 Alaska coupon book is available for about $100 which offers half-price accommodation, horseback riding, raft trips, fishing guides, glacier cruises, and charter boat fishing trips. The coupon book is well worth the cost and may help your trip planning and budget. A good Atlas of Alaska with large scale topographic maps can be purchased online and will be useful for locating hiking trails and assessing the difficulty of the terrain.
Bringing it all Back Home
Homer and Soldanta offer a variety of fish processing options for the traveler. It costs an average of a little over a dollar (the local currency) to have a filleted pound (454g) of fish flash-frozen and vacuum packed in one-pound fillets. For a few dollars more per pound, a portion of your fresh catch can be smoked. These companies will Fed-Ex your frozen fish back home in a special container on a day of your choice. Another option is to fly your own fish back in a cooler with frozen gel packs. This is considerably less expensive. Consider packing your clothing and a cloth travel bag in your cooler on the way over and fill the cooler with frozen fish and gel packs on the way back. This will save the cost of purchasing a good cooler at Alaska prices. Check with your airline for weight limits and surcharges for checked baggage.
Fish recipes
Fish recipes are almost as plentiful as fish. Here are two simple recipes you could try on the outdoor gas grill in your Alaska bed and breakfast.
Grilled Fresh Alaska Salmon
Ingredients:
½ stick melted butter
Garlic powder
1 pound (454g) salmon fillet
Preheat the grill to high heat. Brush meat side of the salmon with the butter. Place the salmon on the grill, on a piece of aluminum foil and close lid. After about six minutes, baste again and sprinkle on garlic powder cook for about 8 more minutes or until fish flakes with a fork. Do not overcook.
To Accompany:
Alaskan wild berries (in season) or defrosted frozen blueberries from the local market
Small red potatoes wrapped in tinfoil and cooked on the grill with butter - do not begin to cook fish until these begin to soften
Choose your own wine - Washington State semmillion or Oregon Riesling
Grilled Fresh Alaska Halibut
Ingredients:
1 pound (454g) halibut fillet
lemon, pepper, salt (for seasoning)
Preheat the grill. Place the halibut skin side down on oiled tin foil, sprinkle with lemon-pepper-salt mix, and close the grill cover and cook only until the flesh flakes with a plastic fork.
To Accompany:
Consider sliced red peppers and mushrooms wrapped in tinfoil and steamed on the grill
Wild rice is also nice if there are indoor cooking facilities
Choose your own wine - French white Burgundy or California Chardonnay?
Emergency Orders and In-season Regulation Changes: An Emergency Order has been issued to raise the Kenai River bag and possession limits for salmon 16 inches (40cm) or longer, other than king salmon, from three (3) per day and three in possession to six per day and six in possession in all portions of the Kenai River open to salmon fishing except in the Russian River.
I've been watching the presidential candidates and thinking about the power to launch the nuclear triad.
I tested out at the 99th percentile on my Air Force Officers Emotional Stability Quotient (AFOESQ) . I was an Airman Basic in Lackland Air Force Base in 1963 and wanting the Air Force to send me back to college for a degree and a commission under their Airman Education and Commissioning Program. (AECP). They had 100 slots a year and I wanted and got one.
The test took about three hours and had hundreds of questions that were designed to detect lying and inconsistencies. My orders promoted me to Staff Sargent (nine months after enlistment) and sent me to Florida State University to study accounting. They had 98 slots for meteorologists and 2 for accountants.
Some of the questions went like this:
a. My friends usually came to my house.
b. I didn't have many friends.
c. I usually went to my friends' houses.
d. I always stayed at home and masturbated.
Often the questions were trickier, but I thought, "How would Captain Jack Armstrong answer this question?". When I graduated from Florida State in 1965, they offered me the chance to be a pilot or a navigator. Since pilots were being killed willy-ninny in Vietnam, I chose the latter occupation.
Jack Armstrong was the "All American Boy" fictional radio character from 1933 to 1951. I caught the broadcasts on our old radio during the program's last three years. No great mental feat to promote him to a being a Captain in the United States Air Force and use him to answer all the questions...What Would Jack Do (WWJD)? Does knowing the right answers mean that I am emotionally stable? So far I haven't gone postal. On the other hand, my cousin has my M-1 carbine up in New York with the two 50 round banana clips taped together so my chances have been very limited.
Apparently, Jack passed the test with flying colors so when Mrs. Phred questions my sanity or asks if I'm depressed I refer her back to my test results...after all how many of us are certifiably that stable compared to the general population of Air Force Officers?
By the way, I recently acquired a t-shit that says "Charlie Don't Surf" over a picture of a young Charles Manson. No matter how many times I explain to Mrs. Phred why this is hilarious...she fails to see the humor...what do you think?
