​This year we took three trips on the Alaska Marine Ferry System and got a first-hand look at the waters where so many Alaskans make their livings on fishing ships.
 
From Bellingham, Washington, we spent three nights and four days in early May sailing past Vancouver than through the Inside Passage to Ketchican, Juneau and Haines.   
 
In July we sailed seven hours from Whittier, Alaska, across Prince William Sound to Cordova, which is not reachable by road.
 
Finally, on our departure from Alaska we took a short ferry ride from Haines to Skagway on the state’s eastern edge.
 
Below are some of the views we encountered in the waters off Alaska.

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​My sister and brother-in-law, along with daughter Rachel, own the Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop, certainly the finest bakery and pastry shop in the state of Alaska. Our nephew Jason manages one of the bakeshop, too, making it a true family affair.

​When we arrived in May, they were overseeing the construction of their third bakery, this one with a giant oven to meet the demand for bread and cakes.
 
In August, Fire Island opened its newest shop on a beautiful, sun-struck day.
 
Take a tour of the construction site and meet some of the people behind the counter at the new bakery below.

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White settlers first came to Alaska 120 years ago in a mad stampede for gold and displaced many of the Native peoples who lived there. 
 
At a National Park Service display in Skagway, we learned about the thousands of people, largely men, who spent a year trying to get to the Klondike gold field only to find the gold gone by the time they got there. 

Twenty years later, the early Pioneers to Alaska celebrated their achievements and built community through a chain of Pioneer Clubs, each chapter called an Igloo. We visited Igloo #19 in Cordova.  

Throughout the 20th century Alaska teased the imaginations of people who wanted to get away from civilization in the lower 48  and take advantage of the isolation of the new frontier. We found signs as we traveled in Alaska of itinerant seekers who made their way north to Alaska through the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

In the Anchorage Museum,  we found  splendid new exhibits that tell the history of the state as well  new art that shows expresses new visions of Alaskan artists.  We end with a piece of mural art in downtown Anchorage.

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​Farmers in the Matanuska Valley are the major vegetable producers for south central Alaska and we visited the gardens in Palmer where we met the lovely Cabbage Ladies seen below.  The town grows beds of vegetables that grow to outsized proportions and the region is emerging as a center of peony cultivation.
 
At home, our gardens are more modest. We had two green houses, six beds, many containers and a fruit orchard to tend to throughout the summer. Our niece runs a small urban farmer growing greens and flowers and I helped out by weeding when I could. 
 
Check out these photos to see what you can grow in a garden in Alaska.

We have driven by hundreds of mountains in Alaska, and can testify that each one has its own special charm. That’s why we keep taking photos of mountains.

The tallest mountains are for viewing only. People climb them, but we are not up to challenge. We hike instead up other peaks and ridges to see glaciers, lakes and tundra.

If you like mountains, too, look below to see some of the beauties that we found this year.

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​We didn’t have to go far to see wildlife, they frequently visited us, grazing through the nearby woodlands.  When two black bear cubs were separated from their mamma, we listened to the babies cries and the mother calling them. 
 
The wildlife did not stop us from hiking in the outback where we found flowers, mushrooms, fungi and lichen.
 
Take a look at some sweet pockets of nature below.

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​When we stay in Alaska, we’ve been living in a small apartment attached to my brother- and sister-in-law’s house on the outskirts of Anchorage. Their house is perched on a hillside overlooking Turnagain Arm, part of the Cook Inlet.  Some of Janis and Jerry’s children live in the area and we often got together to share a meal. Their son Josh and his wife Tess came from NYC to celebrate an anniversary with us all.
 
Get a glimpse of how the family enjoys Alaska together below.

​Yes, the glaciers are receding from coastal Alaska. Yes, scientists report that 75 billion tons of ice are lost every year from Alaska’s glaciers, resulting in “sustained mass loss.” Glaciers are melting at the fastest rate in 400 years.
 
The warming trend brought by climate change could be reversed in time to stop the ice fields from melting but, pessimistic about the future, we have seen as many of these sparkling frozen rivers as we could. Yo get a good look, you often have to hike into the foot of the glacier. It's worth the effort. Look what we've found.

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As part of my quest to learn about my great-great-uncle John Hickey, I visited the Granite County Museum in Philipsburg, Mt., a volunteer-based organization that has re-created numerous rooms similar to those found in Montana during the boom years from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.  They have also brought in old mining equipment so visitors can experience how it feels to be in a mine.

Take a tour below.

We rested on a day trip to Yellowstone National Park where we joined the crowds to watch Old Faithful erupt on schedule, then took a walk to see some lesser-known but still spectacular bursts of hot, steamy water.