Special blog entry For Kids – What is this? And arrival in Alaska

Periodically there will be special entries to the GP Blog labeled ‘For Kids’. These entries are particularly intended for our grand kids, Will, Julia, Logan, and Lexie. But other kids may be interested. If grownups read this section of the blog they might discover things that interest kids are pretty darn fascinating. They will also realize the author “Pop Pop” (the kid’s grandfather) is nothing more than a big kid who is always trying to mess around with fun stuff, and find exciting things to do.

So Will, Julia, Lexie and Logan this is one of Pop Pop’s ways of staying in touch with you while he is away and can’t be with you to do fun stuff. I will try and keep you posted on neat things that happen while we are on our boat sailing to Japan or at stops along the way.

BTW, find Japan (that’s where we are going) on Google Earth and then find Seattle (that’s where we left from) – Will help your brother and sisters to do this. What do you see in between the two places? Lots of blue? This is the most blue you will see between any places on the earth because it is the largest ocean in the world, the Pacific. It was named by a Portuguese guy named Magellan who traveled west around South America and saw it first on a calm day – so he called it Pacific for passive. Little did he know that it is a rougher ocean than the Atlantic, but those early on guys frequently got things wrong so question what you read or what your teachers tell you (in a nice way).

So guys, we are into the GSSR trip now about three weeks and yesterday crossed the still disputed water boundary from Canada into Alaska, where Sarah P. is from. You may not remember her cause she was a loser and people tend to forget losers, but she is still one sharp cookie, and you will probably hear from her again.

According to the license plates up here Alaska is the “last frontier” and judging from some of the sights and people, true dat. It’s been kinda a different and strange place for a long time. In 1907 a guy named Bob Service wrote a poem about a freaky man named Sam McGee that starts out like this:

There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

Get your Dad to read you the rest of the poem. It’s cool to find out how Sam finally gets warm.

Now for some animal stuff.

Here’s a picture of birds on some logs.

So what’s the big deal? It’s not unusual to see birds lined up like this on utility wires and other such places. We thought they were seagulls or crows or whatever. But look closely. Do you see the white heads? Surprise! All these birds on the logs are eagles! The local people scoff at them and call them rats because they are everywhere. You know the eagle is the American national bird and his picture is on lots of our money. That’s why payday is known as “when the eagle flies”!

You guys should probably get to bed now. Next time I’ll tell you how to catch prawns (big shrimp) and dungeness crabs, and show you some pics to prove it.

Pop Pop [] []