Tag: Buffalo

Thoughts Of Australia

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

It was December of 2007. My life was changing in drastic ways, and I was on my way to Australia. These are the thoughts and experiences surrounding making that trip...

Originally written December 2, 2007

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Another rushed morning preparing for travel.

This usually happens on a Monday morning, or even a Tuesday. Rarely ever a Saturday, but today’s trip is unlike any other I’ve taken.

Australia.

The other side of the world; my first journey off of North America. It is a trip I anticipated back in the summer. The project plan started in March. I received my assignment in April and they projected I would have to make this trip in late June. Back then, I was excited to go. To get away from the things bothering me here.

Those months seem so long ago.

Since then, so much has changed. And although I still want to go to Australia and make a trip to a place I’ve never been to, and perhaps would never get to go to… the timing couldn’t be worse.

I start my morning by skipping the bathroom routine – no teeth brushing, no shaving… just go to the fridge and pour a glass of orange juice to get things going. I know I’m not going to have the time to brew coffee and no one here will do it for me, so I skip it. I can get some with lunch when I land in Charlotte.

My real-estate agent calls at 8:15. He didn’t realize the bank wanted a fully executed contract yesterday, so we have to do it today before I leave – 11 days from now might be too late. Trying to make a real estate transaction happen while bounding around the country... never in town… and make it happen in half the time of a normal transaction.

It has already been stressful, timing makes it doubly so.

I work in my office, preparing things for my extended absence. I have to get FedEx shipments together – 11 days from now for them will be too late. I send my last few emails, back up the accounting software. The contractor noticed a mistake on yesterday’s invoice and he needs me to fix it before I leave. I print out a new invoice and email it to him.

Everything is packed and ready to go except my laptop. My agent arrives at 8:45 – the contract is printed but he needs to review it. A thirteen page contract, sign and initial every page as we review it. There are four copies to sign and date. I only have an hour, and he wants to do this thoroughly. The clock is ticking, I need to shower and get dressed, I need to finish a few things in my office… time is valuable.

We finish the contract… he looks up at me with a smile and says, “Australia? Wow. I have to admit, I’m a bit envious.”

“It’s just a business trip. I’ll make the most of it but, it’s just another trip to me…”

“No, it’s not.” He says, “some people might say, yeah, no big deal, you’re just getting on a plane and you’re there… but a trip that far, there is so much more to it than that. It takes a certain amount of bravery to undertake that kind of trip. I don’t know if I could do it.”

“If you can get past the boredom of two full days on airplanes, you can do it.”

“I suppose. Try to enjoy some of your time there, and take lots of pictures! Don’t worry about the house… I’ll make sure everything goes smooth.”

“Thanks,” I replied, “I really do appreciate how you’ve gone the extra mile on this one.”

“My pleasure. Safe journeys, and we’ll finalize things when you get back.”

He left. Now it’s 9:40, I have to leave for the airport at 10:15 and I know my exit from the house won’t be quick or easy.

I rush through a shower and I’m ready to go. My laptop goes in my bag, my MP3 player in an outside pocket and I carry everything from my office downstairs.

I can hear the kids playing on the other side of the house… I round them up for hugs. My daughter, the eldest of the three, comes to me with tears in her eyes.

“I don’t want you to go…” she says while bravely trying to hold back her tears.

“Awww... I know… I don’t want to leave you for so long either, but this is part of what I do…”

“I know…” she replies. She has been missing me more and more these days. School has been rough for her this year. The boys are getting older and more mischievous. She gets less attention at home, and growing up, has more responsibilities. My travel has become more stressful to her.

I took a morning off a few weeks ago before driving to a job in Syracuse to join her in a father-daughter breakfast at her school. We had a wonderful time just sitting and enjoying the morning. Then they announced it was time for the dads to go so the kids could get to class… as I left I turned to look at her, and she was crying. I couldn’t leave her. I went back in, took her hand and walked her to class. I spent some extra time in her classroom just, hanging out with her.

She might be seven now, but she’s still my baby.

After a ninth or tenth round of hugs and kisses, I loaded up my truck and was on my way to the airport.

It still felt like crisp morning air outside. Winter is settling into the north… the air was very brisk. As I drove east on the highway to the airport snow began to fall. Fluffy, winter clouds were beginning to cover the icy blue sky and the bright sun was dimming overhead.

My truck skated on the slushy, wet road. Being the first snowfall of the year, I started wondering if this might actually cause some delays in my travel today.

I got to the airport and checked in the old fashioned way – talking to an actual person. The kiosk didn’t seem to comprehend I had to go to another country.

She handed me the boarding passes and then sent me to the United counter to get a seat assignment and a Visa for the flight to Sydney. Apparently Visa’s aren’t a common thing at the Buffalo airport – they had quite a bit of difficulty generating one. As I stood there waiting for my Visa to process I began to think of the travel that lies ahead. I began to think of what I am leaving behind. I began to think of the return trip and how things are going to change when I get back. I began to think about responsibilities and the things I need to do, and business, and a little girl with tears in her eyes….

…and my stomach filled with butterflies. Tears welled in my eyes.

I began to question, for the first time…. Can I make this trip?

It’s not an option. I have to. This is something I try to impress upon my children daily. Sometimes we don’t have the option – we have to be brave and do… whatever it is we need to.

I want everyone in my life to understand… this isn’t just a job. This… what I do… it is what I have to do.

As the United agent worked on my Visa, I helped her passengers queuing in line figure out the check-in kiosks.

Sometimes I am really baffled at how helpless people are with even the simplest technology.

She finished my Visa, returned my boarding pass with seat assignment and passport, and I was off. It was getting to be boarding time for my first flight by now; a two-hour layover in Charlotte. A rare flight to Charlotte on a regional jet. Only on Saturdays, a slow travel day, would they not fill a large jet to Charlotte.

The flight departed Buffalo at 11:55. I hadn’t had a chance for breakfast or lunch, so the first bag of trail-mix was a great option.

The flight was smooth and uneventful. Even the climb out of Buffalo, through the wind and snow was relatively turbulence free.

With not much to do but sit and think on the flight, a song popped into my head. Lyrics that speak to the moment.

“Sailing away on a crest of a wave, it’s like magic.
Oh, rolling and riding, and Slipping and sliding, it’s magic.”

The trip had officially begun. With a sense of concern, but at the same time, a sense of relief… knowing it’s underway.

I stared out the window at the passing clouds and the mountains below. The mountains that a few months ago were lush and bright green are now brown and dark green with traces of a rusty-red… winter is even moving into the south. The landscape below passes by and I think of you. I know when I’m supposed to see you again, but will that be when I see you again?

I hope…

…I have had hope in my heart since that time in Marietta when we got to know each other so well.

I hoped this day would come. But it’s not here yet. And the first plans made, didn’t transpire as we had hoped. Ten days… how much could happen in ten days…

“Taking a dive, ‘cause you can’t help but slide, floating downstream…
So let her go, don’t start spoiling the show, it’s a bad scene…
And you… and your sweet desire… ”

The plane lands in Charlotte. It’s 1:47 PM.

I exit the plane and head through the concourse to the main terminal, dragging my rolling bag behind, but the heavy thoughts weighing on me. I slowly walk through the airport looking at the people passing by. Sometimes I wonder… what are they facing in their lives? What secrets do their eyes hide?

I sit down at the quiet, mostly empty restaurant at the airport. I’ve been here so many times before… once, even with you. I remember that trip… sharing nachos and smiling at each other. Knowing we would soon have to go separate ways, but enjoying the last moments of our time together on that trip.

I wonder if the future will change how much we appreciate that time… the time pressed and forced into our schedules, just to spend time together.

I take my MP3 player out and plug in the headset. I remove the memory card in it and replace it with the card I loaded last night while chatting with you. You sent me music… without me listening to it first – I know if it’s something you enjoy I will enjoy it too. I loaded it onto the MP3 player as your unintentional surprise to me. Music I’ve never listened to… and it would surprise me when it is played in the midst of music I know and am familiar with.

I put on the ear-buds and played the first song… it was one of yours, but not one of the new ones. A Bjork song you had me listen to a long time ago. I love it… it’s so you, and you had said it reminds you of me. I listened to it as the waitress came to my table.

“Hola! How are you today? Would you like a margarita or perhaps a cold beer today?”

“No, thank you. How about a coffee please?”

“Cream and sugar?”

“No thanks, just black is fine…”

I sat and listened to the song. I thought about when you had sent it to me… what you had said about it. I listened to the lyrics as if listening to them for the first time. Taking them in – understanding what the song was saying.

I sipped my coffee. I took some Tylenol. I closed my eyes, leaned back on the bench seat and thought about the pictures you sent me the night before.

I logged onto MSN on my phone while having lunch and we chatted. We planned. We discussed the future. A future only days away, but it feels like it will be so long… so far away. With so much ahead of me in the next week.

We spoke on the phone as I boarded my next flight. San Francisco. An area I’ve been to before but an airport I’ve never flown to.

It was so nice to hear your voice and your laughter. I’ve missed it. The past weeks have been so full of stress for you… I needed you to find your laughter. I needed to help you find it…. I felt like I failed you when I couldn’t do that.

As the closed the flight we said goodbye. The plane pushed back from the gate, as I leaned my head on the wall and dozed off…

It’s a six hour flight from Charlotte… and I had already been traveling tired and ready for sleep.

They offered a meal for first class – three-cheese calzone or seafood lasagna. I love seafood, but, when offered to me on an airplane I think of the movie… “Airplane!”

“Our survival depends on finding a passenger who cannot only fly and land this plane, but who also didn’t eat the fish.”

I never eat fish on an airplane.

“What did you serve for dinner tonight?”

“Well, the passengers had their choice of either steak or fish…”

“Ah, yes, I remember now... I had the lasagna.”

Reminds me of a cross-country flight to San Diego when I was young… back in the ‘80s when they served a meal to everyone on a flight. Flying with my family, we had the choice between a chicken dish, fish or vegetable lasagna.

My mother ordered the chicken. My father ordered the fish. I ordered the lasagna.

My mother said, “You know, it’s not like the lasagna I make at home…”

I said, “Yeah, but you’re going to eat a meat or fish on an airplane? Are ya nuts?”

“Good point…” she said.

We all survived the flight anyway.

The attendant covering first class wasn’t shy about serving the drinks. Before the in-flight movie even started, I was on my third.

The movie was “Unaccompanied Minor.” Not a masterpiece of American cinematography, but a cute family movie about kids traveling alone stranded in an airport at Christmas. I doubt anyone produced it hoping to win an Oscar, but if a couple million families shelled out $10 a person to go see it, I’ve sure they cleared a profit.

The fourth and fifth drinks blurred past as I listened to the music you gave me… and the sky outside turned from bright blue, to red to dark…

You asked.. “I wonder what kind of interesting people you’ll meet on your flight to Sydney…”

I will soon find out.

I guess the answer to that question was, no one.

I sat alone. Which suited me just fine because it allowed me the chance to sleep. A fourteen hour flight after traveling nine hours just to get to that flight… have to get at least eight hours of shut-eye in there somewhere.

Well, probably more than that. They served dinner on the flight and I read the first few pages of one of the books I brought with me… the first in flight movie was “Transformers.”

I looked up at the screen once in a while, but opted to listen to the music you sent me instead. The movies just weren’t going to keep my attention anyway.

The dinner was decent. Airline food, but not entirely bad. At least the portions were right – maybe the airlines have something there. Smaller portions, lower cost. We don’t need to eat as much as can fit on a twelve-inch plate and then go for seconds. We’d be better off as a society if we could moderate just that one thing…

I fell asleep about halfway through “Transformers.” Woke up briefly during the second movie, which I didn’t recognize. Next time I woke up, “Ratatouie” was on… I quickly fell back to sleep.

The next time I woke up they were showing “Live Map” on the screen… only 3:48 left in the flight. Still, a long time. But at least that confirmed I actually did get a good amount of sleep.

As I type this out, they’re beginning breakfast service. “The Santa Clause…” two. .or three… or how many of these crappy movies have they made? Anyway, that is what is on the screen now. Yeah, I’m typing and listening to music and not watching it. A shocking turn of events, I realize. Please sit, catch your breath… then I can go on.

Movies rarely catch my interest anymore. It seems as though Hollywood is content to put out movie after movie with low quality acting, poor editing and plots as thin as cheap nylon stockings, but not nearly as sexy when the right person is wearing them.

Less than an hour now to land in Sydney… then a connecting flight on Virgin Blue to Melbourne.

One thing I can say, for the distance and size of this plane, this has been one of the rockiest flights I’ve had in quite some time. These things happen I guess.

Customs should be interesting… I hope they don’t seize my trail mix.

Well, the bastards seized my trail mix. Damn them! Damn them all to hell I say, as I shake a fist in their direction.

Customs was interesting. Customs took over an hour, after presenting my ID and entry card to about thirty five different customs agents, I was finally allowed to enter the country, which basically meant I got to go do a different area of the airport…

Even more interesting is the airport itself. Domestic transfer to Virgin Blue was a 20 minute bus ride to the other side of the airport. And the coffee shop doesn’t double-vent their cup lids so it’s almost like you have to suck the coffee out of it.

I feel like I’m two again.

Now I’m just waiting on my flight to Melbourne… I’m so excited to be getting on yet another plane….

Getting used to the accent here will take some time. They’re making announcements in the airport that I really, have, no, clue what they’re saying. It’s English, for sure, but my simpleton brain can’t wrap around it yet. But that’s ok, the lady at the coffee stand asked me for my name four times before I finally had to spell it for her.

And really, it’s pretty common, even for here.

The airport has a Krispy Kreme, a McDonalds, a Subway… also has a toy store called “Kaboom.” Is that an appropriate name for a store in an airport? So there are some familiar things, but mostly, it’s a much different world.

But, I could get used to this….

Kodiak

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

This story was originally written on September 10, 2008. There are many pictures from this trip in the Travel section of my portfolio as well.

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The adventure begins…

I am going to kill my laptop battery on this trip. Fourteen hours on planes or in airports. So much time to kill, and so much I have on my mind that I feel a need to… just… get it out.

Another 6am start to the trip – flying to Chicago but my eventual destination is Kodiak, AK. The island is located south of Alaska in the Bay of Alaska. The forecast for this week: highs in the low 50’s and rain. I still intend to take pictures – the best pictures I can get, at least. I should have time on Tuesday to travel a bit along the island. Judging by the map, there aren’t too many roads there so getting around shouldn’t be a problem.

But even as I sit here waiting for my flight, my mind is still scattered and focused more on the memories of this past week. It was an amazing week at home… so incredible. The timing of this trip has become terrible. Just as so many things are happening, changing… so busy. So much to do at home. Fortunately it will only be a couple days…

In the brief time that I dozed off to start the flight between Chicago and Las Vegas, I dreamt of the last time I made this trip. Returning to somewhere familiar, I could see and feel that familiar place. The images and sensations of the past. What I would be returning to, but… without the companionship that I enjoyed the last time… companionship that makes these trips enjoyable to the end. Not a task, begging time to go by, but begging time to stop. Begging time to allow me to enjoy it each minute and then a minute more.

This trip I must make on my own. Return to the roots of what I had set out for, the original goals of this contract. Travel – see what I had never seen. Meet new people. Find new adventure.

Find out more about who I am.

And hell, make some money in the process.

I have two days in Kodiak, Alaska to do just that.

A brief stop in the Las Vegas airport. It hasn’t changed. Still completely lacking descent places to sit and eat. Fox Sports bar has 20 TV’s and the same football game on 15 of them. Good thing I managed to talk my way into a first-class seat in Buffalo for this leg of the trip, otherwise I’d be killing someone before we land in Anchorage.

What was Obi-Wan’s line when walking into Mos Eisley? “Nowhere will you find a more vile den of scum and villany…” something like that. That pretty well describes the Las Vegas airport.

Except you can add to the list the elderly tourists who think the moving walkways are someplace they can rest.

I think the only redeeming quality of the place is the women strutting around in short skirts and spandex pants.

*ahem*

Not that I look….

Of course not.

The flight out of Vegas, uneventful. The man sitting next to me, headed north in Alaska to do some salmon fishing. A trip that sounds absolutely blissful compared to my reasons for going.

Even though I’m half-way to my destination my heart is still thousands of miles behind me… my mind, still, focused elsewhere. I have a feeling this won’t change at all this week.

Oh… and the visualizations in Windows Media Player take on a life of their own after your ninth drink. Trust me on this. Which only makes sense. I’m fully convinced Microsoft’s programmers do drugs daily anyway.

The Anchorage airport didn’t help my trip any. My flight over to Kodiak was on ERA Air. My flight into Anchorage got in early so I was on time to make the earlier flight over to Kodiak. Unfortunately it was sold out, so I asked the ticketing agent to put me on standby – she agreed and told me to go wait for them to call standbys at the gate. Which, I did.

They called standbys, but didn’t call my name. So I went to inquire as to why.

Apparently, between the time I asked and the agent said she would do it, she forgot to do it and therefore I wasn’t on the standby list. If she would have put me on it, I could have gotten a seat.

So now with 4 hours to kill in Anchorage, I certainly wasn’t going to do it in the airport. I grabbed a taxi and headed into town. The Moose’s Tooth was calling, as was a pint or two of Bearstooth Ale and some good pizza.

I sat at the bar and killed some time and probably some brain cells. A local sat next to me and told me all about how he’s homeless right now because he blew up his son’s car in his garage giving it a tune-up.

Something tells me, he didn’t read the manual.

Another cab ride back to the Anchorage Airport. Oddly, there is no security check for ERA flights. You just ticket and head to the gate. After a short wait, I was on a twin-prop on my way to Kodiak. I love those prop planes. Most people hate them, but the Dehavilland Dash 8 is one of the few small planes designed where an averaged sized person can fit comfortably. There is leg room and the arms of the seats don’t hug the love-handles. That and the gentle rocking motion caused by the rotation of the propellers puts me to sleep almost instantly.

I also discovered on this trip that my roller bag will fit in the over-head on them – a very important fact since I packed my camera in it. Having to throw that in the belly of the plane wouldn’t have been a good thing.

So the sleep on the flight over was good. I woke up when the plane landed and proceeded into the very tiny, one-gate, Kodiak airport. The Avis at the airport closed at 9:30PM and we landed around 11PM so I had to find alternate transportation to my hotel.

In this case, it was my feet. The hotel was only a short walk across the road from the terminal.

Monday morning greeted me with a thick fog and a gray, gloomy sky. The sun barely able to illuminate the landscape the clouds were so oppressive. I walked back to the airport Avis to get my car and head into work. I finished the work I had to complete in a short amount of time and was out to explore the area by 4PM. By this time, the gloom had turned into a downpour. I waited a bit to see if it would clear, but it didn’t.

I wrapped my camera in plastic with a hole for the lens, rubberbanded tight, and a hole for the viewer. I would have to do everything in manual mode on this one.

Given a tip from some of the locals I heard a good amount of wildlife could be found heading south toward Chiniak. I drove out at least 40 miles, making frequent stops on pull offs. I walked a couple river banks deeper into the hills to get away from the road.

Nothing.

Gulls were not flying. The ranch cows were laying down. Even the horses looked depressed by the weather. I pressed on further, to where the road ended, and kept going.

Yes, I signed the waiver that I shouldn’t take my Toyota Camry off-roading, but… you know the question, what is the difference between a Jeep and a rented car?

You can drive the rented car ANYWHERE.

I fully subscribe to that. So up a rocky trail I did drive, up mountain sides, down to beachfronts… but the heavy rain and fog made getting decent pictures very difficult. I was soaked through my jacket. My shoes squished with every step. I cranked the heat to the floor to dry everything out as I drove.

I retired from the quest a bit early and drove back to the hotel to dry off a bit and get some dinner, with the hopes that Tuesday would be a better day…

Tuesday morning came and I woke to much of the same gloomy weather. No rain, but a thick fog covered the mountaintops. It wasn’t as bad as Monday morning – I had hope.

I finished my work by 11AM and on the advice of on of the gentlemen I was working with, I mapped a route back to the south, and out towards Pasagshak. I left the hospital to bright sunshine and puffy white clouds. I celebrated a little inside and headed down to the main pier to take some pictures in town before grabbing an early lunch.

After lunch I hit the highway and headed out in the direction that was suggested. My end goal was a location called Fossil Beach. According to the man who suggested this destination, at the end of Fossil Beach is a nature preserve for seals and where there are seals, there are whales.

And where there are whales, there are good photo opportunities.

As I got further from town the weather became gloomy again. The sun ducked behind heavy gray clouds and a light mist was falling. The roads frequently turned to mud from construction and I once again made frequent stops to take pictures.

The nice thing about this area was, there was no traffic. As long as no one was coming and I wasn’t in a blind spot I felt safe enough to simply stop on the highway and snap some shots.

The landscape was revealing itself. Without the haze and fog being quite so thick, I could now see mountains that were completely hidden the day before. The sun breaking through the clouds made for some amazing views.

After a couple hours of travel I finally arrived at Fossil Beach. The access road was a turn-off just before the main highway ended and the land became the domain of the US Government. The access road was… barely a road. Full of ruts, some spanning the entire road filled with a foot or more of water. My Camry barely fit between the shrubs over gown on the road sides and the steep inclines and descents causes the ABS and traction control systems to constantly kick on.

I made it to the end of the access road and stood atop a bluff over looking the beach. The beach’s black sand looked soft and warm, but the icy cold wind blowing over crashing waves told a much different story. The climb down the bluff was a steep hike down to a rocky shore strewed with driftwood and these crazy sea plants that had washed ashore.

I walked the beach standing, looking and listening. No seals… no whales. Nothing moving around the beach at all. I was completely alone; nary a stray footprint in the sand.

It felt a bit eerie to be standing here alone. Little could be heard over the crashing surf. Cliffs lined and towered over the beach as the inland water flow carved its path through the rock and sand to the ocean waves. I walked from end to end of the beach, seeking some good photos. The wind cut through me and the mist from the waves blew in my face like tiny pins of ice. I stayed for thirty minutes, maybe more. Waiting, watching, listening. But still, nothing. I stared my climb back up to my car and traversed the access road again.

On the drive back I stopped to take pictures of a few water falls. I walked the stony banks of a couple rivers, climbing down from the roadside precariously over loose rocks. I didn’t want to fall and risk my camera.

I walked as far as I could before running out of river bank. Still, nothing.

I continued to drive back towards Kodiak. The landscape dotted with farms, cows and horses behind barbed fences. They were seemingly all over the place. In a more wilderness area, up on a hill I saw a group of dark brown cows…

I drove by them more slowly. Something caught my eye. I thought to myself… those aren’t cows. They’re too stocky… they’re… buffalo???

Holy crap! I didn’t know they had wild buffalo here!

I pulled over into a construction area. The buffalo were on the crest of a hill about two hundred feet from the road. As I stepped out of my car and stood to take pictures, they heard me and walked to the other side of the hill.

Crap.

Now I’m going to have to go chase them.

I walked up the hillside. It was steep, covered thick with grasses and flowers and water ran down under the thatch. I cautiously and quietly walked up the hill, keeping an eye ahead in case they decided to return to this side.

I was cautioned… no matter what kind of animal I’m taking pictures off, make sure they can’t out run me back to the car.

I was way far away from the car. This was no-man’s land for me if something got angry at me and were to give chase.

I reached the top of the hill, and there they were! On the crest of the next hill below, standing and grazing. They lifted their heads to keep an eye on me but seemed completely unimpressed by my presence. I crouched and got low in the wet grass. They were magnificent! A couple of them wandered off to the other side of the hill but a few stood and grazed on their meal, letting me creep closer… to maybe 75 feet away, separated by a small but steep gully.

My heart raced a bit. It is one thing to see these behind fences at the zoo… but here they are – enormous, majestic creatures that have roamed this land for centuries, if not millennia. I couldn’t help but be enthralled watching them.

I felt the wetness of the grass land starting to soak through the legs of my pants. I thanked the buffalo for the opportunity to enjoy them, bowed and headed back down the hill. That made my day!

I got back in the car and turned up the heat to the floor to try and start drying out my pants. As I pulled onto the road I looked back up at the buffalo one more time… and drove about 400 feet… and saw… five more buffalo standing right on the road side!

Well, it was a fun trek up that hill. I stopped and took pictures of these too – a couple standing right along side the rain water ditch. I kept my distance and enjoyed them until one came to coral its calf. Little baby buffalo… it was so cute, but the mama buffalo didn’t look to happy with my being there. So I let them be and continued my drive back towards Kodiak.

That was good. If nothing else, it was a good day just to get pictures of those buffalo.

I drove a little quicker now, not quite as urgent to capture more images. I still stopped here and there when some scenery caught my eye. I stopped along side a heavily wooded area to check out the forest canopy. A marshy forest floor covered in moss. Tress covered in moss – it was a scene straight from somewhere on Dagobah.

Amazing foliage and forest. Untouched and wild. Sunlight barely able to penetrate the thick cover of towering conifers. Water dripped from the tree tops; rain saved from their recent soakings. The bed of moss so soft and inviting, I could almost imagine being an animal and taking a rest from the hunt here.

Almost back to Kodiak… maybe eleven miles from town… crossing the Russian River, again something caught my eye. I slowed and there it was.

A Kodiak bear fishing on the river. I quickly pulled over, checking for oncoming traffic I backed down the highway and pulled to the side. I heeded my warnings and snapped a couple of quick pictures from nearby my car. It was gorgeous. It had caught its meal and headed for the cover of brush. A passing fisherman saw me taking pictures and pulled over to see what it was I was watching. We both walked to the rivers edge on the road.

Soon eight more cars had stopped. This really was too close to civilization.

Another Kodiak lumbered out of the woods to the river bank. The river was heavy with salmon. Hundreds in a shallow area no bigger than a swimming pool. The bears wouldn’t be at all interested in us… their meal was ripe for the taking.

After a few minutes a state trooper pulled over to break up the party, and issues some parking tickets... *ahem*. It was worth it. To see these animals in the wild, doing what bears love to do… it was worth it.

Back in town I stopped for dinner and then headed north of town to take a few more shots. My flight was in about 90 minutes… back to Anchorage. We took off under an orangey half moon smiling over the bay. The white capped waves breaking below us as we climbed towards the low hanging clouds. Soon everything was as obscured as Monday morning…

…ahhh… back home tomorrow.

But the memories, and these pictures… will keep me coming back to these two days in Kodiak for a long time.

Letchworth

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

On Thursday, October 26 we had some freak 80-degree weather here in the north east. As luck would have it, the boys had off from school that day as well, so we took advantage and drove out to Letchworth State Park to hike the area casually referred to as the "Grand Canyon of the North East."

The Grand Canyon part I'm not so sure about, but it is definitely unique geology and a very pretty area to hike in.

More images can be found on our Facebook page. Go give it a like.

Yelp At Octoberfest

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

I was asked by Alex, the new event coordinator for Yelp.com locally, to photograph their promotion at Saturday's Oktoberfest.   So I teamed up with Julie, a fellow photographer to cover the event.

I don't have anything creative or witty to say about this.  It was a fun day of photography, that for me, didn't end with Oktoberfest.

On with the images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There will be more.  Lots more.  Stay tuned!