Cruising Glacier Bay

Cruising Glacier Bay - AlaskaYou can watch movies about it, you can hear about it,you can read about it, but until you partake of it, youhave no clue how thrilling it is to cruise Glacier Bay.
Glacier Bay Mountain ranges with peaks over 10,000 feet,culminating in 15,320 foot high Mount Fairweather within theGlacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
Nowhere else in Alaska, or in the world, can you see theamazing sight of the tidewater glacier that spreads from apeak 3 miles high down to sea level, that is known as theMargerie Glacier.
Only 200 years ago, the beautiful fjords and cruising areasof "Glacier Bay", were buried under ice thousands of feetthick. In 1794, Capitan George Vancouver saw the face ofan enormous glacier at Glacier Bay's entrance at Icy Strait.
Naturalist John Muir found in 1879, that the vast ice hadwithdrawn an impressive 48 miles up the Bay. Amazingly, by1916, its face had receded 65 miles all the way backto the entrance of Tarr Inlet, where it is today.
So, in only 200 years, these massive glaciers have leftus with the beautiful, 65 mile long bay we enjoy now.
The glaciers on the Bay are extremely active and quitefrequently, you get to hear or see "calving". It occurswhen huge parts of the glacier breaks off and falls crashinginto the Bay.
The calving imitates an explosion, reverberating off thewalls of the glacier, and the ice makes a giant splash asit smashes into Glacier Bay.
Along with Mother Nature's incredible playful artistry oftwinkling icebergs and striking views, you will probablybe entertained by the plentiful wildlife that call thissection of Alaska their homefront.
Sea otters, sleek sea lions, wolves, moose, black bears,Alaskan brown bears, puffins, humpback whales, minkeand orca, harbor seals, porpoises, stunning bald eagles,mountain goats, and an amazing 200 breeds of birds area delight to watch.
Puffins are one of the most vibrant birds. They are smallseabirds, pigeon-sized, that live on the open waterthroughout the largest part of the year. Except forbreeding.They swim and ride the surface of the ocean allyear long regardless of harsh weather.
From April to mid August they colonize on islands, andseacoasts to breed. They have black and white feathers anda vertical, flat, triangular shaped bill which is brightlycolored especially during breeding season.
Whether in awe of the wildlife or breathing in the awesome-ness of the views, the beauty of Alaska stands out in thisimpressive Park.
=========================Jenna Grant is webmaster athttp://www.qtcruise.com =========================


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenna Grant is webmaster at http://www.qtcruise.com

Alaskan Halibut Fishing

If you are looking for a Great Fishing Adventure then you must go to Alaska and fish for Halibut. As you will see it’s more than just a fishing trip.I recently went to Alaska (for the first time) to go Halibut fishing, and got much more than I had expected. After flying across the country in big jumbo jets, when you leave for the lodge from Juneau you go in a Float Plane or Sea Plane, as they are commonly known. I went in a single passenger Plane, just the Pilot and me sitting side by side. The flight to the lodge takes you over and between many Mountains that are always Snow capped. You take off on the water and land on the water, if you have never done this before it’s a great experience all by itself.Once at the Lodge (always Saturday) within a half-hour you have your License and are on the boat heading out to sea. Besides the Halibut I caught Coho and King Salmon, Ling Cod, Red Snapper. The largest Halibut I caught was 140 pounds, King Salmon was 40 pounds, Coho Salmon was 15 pounds and the Ling Cod was 44 pounds. Work your muscles before you go because you will definitely be sore after the first days fishing, you can use the Hot Tub to relax after you return.If you want to go Stream Fishing with either Spinning or Fly-fishing gear that’s also available. We encountered Bear’s also fishing in the stream.Besides the Bear along the Streams you will also see Bald Eagles, Seals, Sea Otters, Sea Lions and if you’re lucky as we were you will see a Whale or two. Bring cameras and/or camcorders.The food is fantastic. Full breakfast, eggs, pancakes, omelets. Lunch on the boat, sandwiches, soda, beer, smoked Salmon. Dinner is mainly the fish caught that day but served like you’ve never had fish prepared before, we also had a Steak dinner.The fish that are caught each day are fillet and frozen in separate vacuumed sealed packages. Each package is a pound of two and you choose the % of each type of fish caught you take home. I took 75% Halibut and 25% Salmon and had about 100 pounds of frozen fish in two ready to take boxes.As you can see this is a very professional operation and I guarantee when you go that you will agree that it’s more than just a fishing trip, it’s an Alaskan adventure. For information please visit the web-site of the very best Fishing Lodge in Alaska: http://Tanaku.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am not a professional fisherman just a Webmaster that needs some downtime. My web-site is Digital Cameras, Free Shipping. We sell a complete line of Digital Cameras, Scanners, Printers, Free Cell Phones, Free Satellite Dish Systems, Cable Descramblers. We accept most Major Credit Cards and have Free Shipping. Visit the site at: http://rayboptions.safeshopper.comRayboptions@netzero.net

Author: Matt Martin

As a precious metals investor, you may heard much about numismatic and "semi-numismatic" coins, particularly the St. Gaudens $20 double eagle gold coin. While coin collecting can be an interesting hobby, it is not necessarily related to metals investing. Coins of this type vary in value with the ebb and flow of the collector market and are not strictly tied to metal value. Also, these coins often go for much more over spot price than bullion coins.

One of the concepts that gets bandied about quite a bit is the idea of U.S. government confiscation. While it is true that the U.S. government did have a gold recall in 1933 by executive order of FDR, gold coins of a significant value over gold value were not subject to this recall. Many dealers use this to imply that in the event of another confiscation these older coins would fall in this category in order to sell these types of coins to the unsuspecting or newer metals investor. However, the confiscation issue is a red herring for several reasons:

• The dollar was backed by gold in 1933 and the recall was designed at least in part to stop the run on banks; the dollar no longer has any metal backing.
  
• St. Gaudens $20 coins in almost uncirculated to mint state conditions are still very common even considering their age due to decades of mass storage in European bank vaults.
  
• There is nothing that states that numismatic items could not be confiscated in the event of another recall; the original executive order no longer has any force of law.
  
• Gold is no longer used in regular-issue U.S. coinage (the American Eagle gold coin, although it has a face value, does not count) and is typically used only in jewelry and privately-held investment vehicles such as bars and bullion coins which would be harder to recall and account for. The majority of recalled gold coinage in 1933 was housed in bank vaults.
  
• As gold is no longer used as a monetary instrument by the U.S. government, confiscation is unlikely in any event.

Now, you may be wondering about silver in regards to this as well. Silver held sway as coinage for longer than gold, and some silver coins can still be found in circulation. However, silver has never been subject to confiscation, and its status as an important industrial metal gives good reason to believe that there will never be a silver recall.

90% and 40% silver U.S. coinage is still widely available, and although it sounds contrary to what I stated above, these coins are a good value - as long as they can be bought at near silver spot or less. This is an important distinction to make, as old silver coinage (often referred to as junk silver) often carries very little to no value as a collector item over the metal value. These coins, if anything, are semi-numismatic, but don't bank on collector value.

In short, if you approach this from the perspective of a metals investor never look at a coin for collector value. Collector markets are often hard to get a pulse on, and numismatics are much more illiquid than their bullion counterparts. If you're paying more than spot plus a modest premium, you're paying too much.

Find more articles on gold and silver investing at Gold and Silver: The Future of Real Money.

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