Mareth Griffith's Blog, page 2

Adventures in Alaskan Car Ownership

I am back in Alaska, after having been gone for most of the winter.   Alaska, the hussy that she is, welcomed me back with a nasty head cold, negative windchill, and a broken-down car.   Missed you, too.   Maybe I should have stayed away longer.  Looking north across the frozen Kenai Lake

I caught a ride down to my cousins on the local bus from Anchorage.   These rides tend to be very interesting from a people-watching perspective, and this trip was no...

The Wine Trenches

            For most of November and December of this winter, I’ve been in West Virginia, and back working at the Wine Shop as a way to make some extra money while still staying close enough to help out my mother recover from her hip replacement last month.   So I’ve been spending a lot of time in the wine trenches, which are actually pretty good trenches to be in.   For one thing, the customers are generally pretty h...

Windblown in Aialik Bay

            For boats equipped with sails, wind on the ocean can be a wonderful thing.   For boats that do not have sails, wind (especially a lot of it at once) can be one of the most tricky things we deal with.   This was brought home to me on a trip I guided at the Iceberg Lodge this past June, which was the first of many interesting (and occasionally terrifying) scenarios that Alaska handed out to the Iceberg Lodge...

The Best of the Guest Comment Cards

            Like many places, the Iceberg Lodge solicits comments from our guests concerning how they enjoyed their stay, and whether they have any suggestions for how we can improve in the future.   Generally, these cards are filled with lots of thank yous to the staff, and recollections of fond memories of their stay.   Very occasionally, we get some interesting suggestions, often from guests who take exception to s...

Alaskan Signs of Spring

Spring in Alaska is...
The day of the vernal equinox.    The day the first rock sandpiper arrives in town.     The day that your favorite restaurant opens for the season.     The day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, instead of whatever weird alternate schedule it’s been following since November.    The first day when you can actually see grass in your yard.    The first day that the grass actual...

Turn Left for Reality Bypass

Here in Seward, we've had six or eight inches of new snow today, right after the guy across the street spent all day snowplowing his yard.   No, not his driveway - his entire yard.   There is a man who is fed up with winter.   


I overheard a very interesting conversation today at a local coffee shop, touching on everything from General Allenby’s military tactics in the Middle East during WWI , to the Illuminati – who apparently have an ambiguously nefarious p...