Sep 25, 2017 | Southeast Alaska Life, Southeast Alaska Saltwater
In the photo above, I stood on the left shoreline, the edge of the North American continent. The shore and mountains of Douglas Island form the right shoreline. Gray mountains at the far end are on Admiralty Island, 12-14 miles away. Good eyesight? Can you see a...Aug 6, 2017 | Southeast Alaska Saltwater
Just home from a six weeks away from my home in Southeast Alaska. Although I had half a day of freshwater boating on Keuka Lake in western New York, and a short saltwater kayak trip in the Atlantic, I’ve been craving my weekly time on the fjords and channels, the...Jul 24, 2017 | India Explorations
With only a single day in Delhi, Prabhu took us into the streets of Old Delhi to visit the Jama Masjid mosque. The first day in a new place often overwhelms me. Cities like Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam or Athens, Greece or Delhi overload my senses and thoughts with...Jul 23, 2017 | India Explorations
Kate Troll (katetroll.com) and I have just returned from trekking in the Himalayas of India, a trip initiated by our friends, Mary and Deb, and organized through Prabhu Singh Bhati, a very experienced tour and trekking guide. Over the next few blog posts, I’ll...Apr 30, 2017 | Travels in Alaska
As a 36-year resident of Juneau and Ketchikan, I welcome the annual flood of travelers who visit each year. It’s not the economic effect of more than 1 million visitors who will arrive by cruise ship in Juneau (population 32,000) this summer. Nor is it that my...
Mar 19, 2017 | Travels in Alaska
Why am I captivated by this photo of an Iditarod dog musher on the Yukon River by photojournalist Bob Hallinen of the Alaska Dispatch News? When I saw Hallinen’s photo in his March 9 tweet during coverage of the 2017 Iditarod Race, I found myself returning to look at...Feb 26, 2017 | The Spirituality of Landscape
“We’re on the Razor’s Edge!” Today with our electric shavers, disposable razors, and depilating creams, “the razor’s edge” might seem like nothing more than an idiom attached to an antique shaving tool, the straight-razor (aka open razor or...Feb 11, 2017 | Life on the Ranch, Translating Past to Present
The Family Spammer vs. The Cursive Queen Note: This is the second of two connected posts. The first is here: No Letters: I hated Sundays! As I look back at the written materials in Billy’s chest, I find, old postcards of the ranch, greetings from friends, occasional...Jan 28, 2017 | Life on the Ranch
Note: This is the first of two connected posts. The second post can be found here: The Family Spammer vs. The Cursive Queen “I hated Sundays when I was a kid,” said my Dad (Milt Hanson). To say I was surprised would undersell my reaction. He was 82-years-old, a devout...Jan 13, 2017 | About the Alaska Billy Blog
The Alaska Billy Blog uses family history to consider how the landscapes of our past shape our future lives. Born in 1881, only 5 years after Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Big Horn, my grandfather and namesake, William Otis Hanson (Billy Hanson), grew up in...