Yes Doug, just like Joao's Hi-Yo Silver one.. just a beautiful hat, had a moth bite and fixed it with glue and felt powder from the inside of the hat...
Zombie, I was expecting your obligatory picture with hat taken from atop Mt. Denali. Camera must have malfunctioned in the cold?
Thank you! I wish I had some sort of wise insights into how to make a relationship--marriage or otherwise--last so long, but I jokingly attribute it to equal parts stubbornness and stupidity.
Neither my wife nor I care for salmon, but otherwise I agree 100%. The big cities like Anchorage don't appear to be much different from any other, but once you get into the smaller towns and communities (and can get away from the businesses that are owned by the cruise lines) the people are indeed wonderful. My wife and I have a knack for talking to people and getting them to drop that "business owner" veneer because we're interested in them as people (i.e., beyond what they can offer us professionally in that moment), and we've heard countless interesting and fascinating stories.
I wish. The closest we got to Mt. Denali was the view from the resort. But while we were there, the cloud cover that normally obscures the view of the top of Mt. Denali cleared, and we were able to see it's peak. I don't know how true it is, but we were told this was a rare opportunity. In fact, everywhere we went people told us we couldn't have chosen a better time to visit as far as the weather was concerned. We encountered some light rain on the day that "horseback" photo was taken, and a brief downpour on another day as the ship cruised south down the coast, but otherwise it was very nice with highs in the low-70s (°F) during the day and lows in the mid-50s (°F) at night (Alaska's version of night, that is).
That's another thing about Alaska. The majority of it is wilderness that's deemed uninhabitable, so it's sparsely populated. You don't really notice it until you get away from the big cities, but we were told Alaska averages one person per square mile. During the "land" portion of our trip they bused us from one hotel to the next, and we often wouldn't see another car on the highway for half an hour or more. So, yeah, being surrounded by nothing but nature as far as you can see can make a person feel pretty insignificant.
Alden 403 Moc Toe Boot - Brown Chromexcel - $680 The classic "Indy" style Alden Boot in the classic Horween brown Chromexcel. 
Grant Stone Diesel Boot Dark Olive Chromexcel - #395 Goodyear welted, Horween Chromexcel, classic good looks. 
Himel Bros. - The Ross Mk. 1 Leather Jacket Classic D-pocket motorcycle/aviator style jacket. 
Next summer the whole family is doing the Denali/cruise vacation. Trying now to decide what hats to bring. I lived in Alaska in the early 80s when the mountain was still called Mt. McKinley!
You mean it's not called Mt. McKinley anymore. You'll be telling me next that The Aussies now call Ayers Rock: Uluru.
This is a great image. Love the juxtaposition of hard iron with soft beautiful felt. Artsy fartsy!Bantam blacksmithing?
I never thought I would see Harv and "artsy fartsy" in the same sentence.
Ha! He's arty fartsier than we think
Ha! He's arty fartsier than we think
Fine with me as long as he's more "artsy" than "fartsy".Ha! He's arty fartsier than we think
