Haines Real Estate

If we had the money we’d buy this spot. 

If we could figure out who owns it. 

And get them to sell. 

Constitutional

We are staying with an Alaskan friend in Haines. We were chatting about hats and Gregg brought out this lovely Aussie style wool felt number with a leather chin strap. Dunn’s of London I noted the band to say:

Then I looked at the other side of the hat band.  Leonard King it says;

Great was surprised. He’d never noticed that part of the hat. Mr. King was one of the signatories to Alaska’s constitution. 

A pretty cool piece of history. 

Haines Beer Fest 26th Annual

Haines Beer Fest fun. One of our friends couldn’t make it this year but he came in photos. There were lots of costumes this time. 

Skagway to Haines Fast Ferry

We’re on our way to the Haines Beer Fest. A couple years ago this company started fast ferries between these two lovely Alaskan towns making summer travel between the two places fast and convenient. 

Dogs and bikes are welcome. 

Crash and Burn/Nuke and Pave

Who knew that a phone might need a nuke and pave, i.e rest to factory settings. Well, mine did. Granted, it has had a hard life; knocking around in my pocket, getting dropped occasionally. Anyway, after hard work in Italy, my phone decided to pack it in an stop talking to the digital world. The only fix? Back to the beginning. There is no doubt that digital tech has some great features, but the amount of time they require babysitting is just no fun.

Crocuses

The first sign of spring here is the eruption of the crocuses. 

Home Again

After a few hiccups with yesterday’s flights I’m home! I really am so happy to be here and sleeping in my own bed. And I get to do spring again. There is still snow on a neighbour’s lawn. Yikes. And on further examination there appears to be snow on a par of our lawn too. 

The Journey Back - Spargle (white German asparagus)

We undertook modern day time travel again as we flew for more than nine hours from Frankfurt to Vancouver to arrive only am hot later in Vancouver than when we departed from Frankfurt. We had a most enjoyable layover experience, organized by our friend Jorg who shanghaied a friend of his, Joseph, into taking us to this beautiful forest village restaurant where we were able to enjoy one of the springs most lovely vegetables; spargel. It comes as a surprise to Germans when you tell them how special these big white tender sweet asparagus, I’ve never seen them anywhere else. I enjoyed mine served with the delicious green sauce that’s the specialty of the Rhinegau region where we dined.

A menu consult with Josef whose English was excellent, but taxed by some of the more special foods - like sweet woodruff in one of the deserts.


Then the next morning at a civilized hour we we onto the ‘new’ Air Canada Dreamliner. That is the Boeing 787-800 series. I put new in air quotes because there’s no way in my mind (speaking as a long retired hotel maid), that there could be that amount of ground in crud in  cracks and crevices if it really was a new airplane. It’s also much less sociable than that other large body aircraft with seats in business class. Yes I know I’m not really one to complain about that, the Dreamliner is perfectly suited for individual business travelers but less so for couples or small families. We even got told off when I sat on Christopher's lap because the seats are only designed for one person‘s weight! I was also quite sad that they threw away the champagne before I had a chance to have a Mimosa with my breakfast. All in all I give the Dreamliner a B+. Here’s one sitting on the tarmac in Vancouver. 

Roma Rambles

We stumbled on a spot we were familiar with from a prior visit - Via dei Serpenti- and this charming bar with Strawberry Thief wallpaper. 




Then Trevi- which has barricades keeping people from getting close enough to throw a coin in the fountain to guarantee their return. 

A little road near our apartment with a plaque I’d never noticed. 






And today we are off! 

Ciao Roma!