Libby Riddles

Dean Paige, the ship's Naturalist, told us to not miss Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditerod sled dog race who was giving a talk 7pm in the Vista Lounge while we were docked in Juneau Friday evening.
























With her beautiful face and long blonde hair, she did not give the impression of a champion sled dog musher who possessed the physical strength, conditioning, command of wolf-like huskies, and endurance necessary to participate in the 1,049 mile wilderness race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, much less win it. I am very fascinated by animal trainers for how in tune they are with these wild beasts, yet know how to stay one step, at least, ahead of them so that they maintain loving dominance, not just sympathy, in order to achieve peak performance. I think this sense is very akin to how an Orthodox Spiritual Father is with his spiritual children.
 
Her talk was very interesting, especially when she described, what seems like the clincher moment, when she decided to push past a checkpoint where everyone else decided to sleep during a blizzard. When she could finally go no further, she staked her sled, fed the dogs a snack, let them rest in their dog igloos, and slept for a few hours on the wind shielded side of the sled. When she woke up, she wanted to go back to sleep, but knew that she and the dogs would not only get passed up in the race, but could probably die in the sub zero temperatures. So she pushed on and won the race. She is a model of the asceticism, attentive focus, and skill that are necessary to achieve greatness.

Juneau - Cruise Day 5, Friday

I woke up the next morning to the Juneau pier outside of my window.


























Here's the view from the Promenade Deck as we were disembarking the ship .


Getting to St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church,





























which was started by Orthodox native Alaskans after the Russians sold
the territory, was a bit of a stretch of the legs through the town and
up the hill from the pier.

After visiting in their book store/gift shop and spending some time in the Church, where we met Father Michael who had recently moved from California, we took a tour of the State Capitol Building.

























All of the pictures of legislators were of white folks. The pictures of the native Tlingits were from the turn of the 20th century and depicted them in tribal, sometimes scary, dress.

We headed back downtown and had delicious
freshly made chocolates for lunch and stopped in a few tourist stores





























which displayed Russian or native gifts.

The Mount Roberts Tram is owned and operated by the Tlingits. Since the sort of steep ticket price includes the museum tour and an
award winning movie about native culture, combined with the views, it
was all worth while.


I'll add some more pictures here at the bottom and in my photo's and put them all in my Juneau Collection.