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One of the ports we stopped in during our Alaska cruise last year was Juneau. Along the waterfront there are quite a few totem poles. They’re part of the Totem Pole Trail(Kooteeyaa Deiyi). Each pole tells the story of lineage, clan crests, and ancestral history. There are story boards and scan codes to explain their stories beside the totems. There are plans to expand to 30 totem poles representing all the clans of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples.
This one is the Kaagwaantaan Totem Pole it was created by artist Nicholas Galanin in April 2023. It depicts clan crests including the Killer Whale, and Eagle.
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This year for the first time in Nevada’s history a tree from The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest will be traveling to Washington, D.C, and the United States Capitol Building to be The People’s Tree aka The National Christmas Tree.
The tree is named “Silver Belle”. She’s 53 feet tall (1.615.44 cm) and it’s a Red Fir tree.
After she was harvested she was taken to get ready for her journey across the country. There she was decorated, and placed in a special trailer that will be driven to Washington, D.C. She made her first stop in Carson City on November 1, 2025 in the Nevada Day Parade. There are windows so you can see just the top of the tree.
Since early summer Nevadans have been making ornaments for National Christmas Tree. I heard the call was made for 10,000 ornaments, and Nevada delivered and more! The extra ornaments will be used on companion trees that will be placed in other Federal Buildings.
While getting the National Christmas Tree ready they made a tree cookie and discovered the tree is 50 years old, has a 20 inch diameter, and 16 inch crown spread.
After the National Christmas Tree left the parade the truck and National Forest Park Rangers made their way down the street to the Toyota Dealership where the tree was on display for 3 hours. We were able to sign the banner, take photos, and see Smokey the Bear.
I have several favorite panels on the tree skirt. Douglas, of course it’s my county, and it’s full of stars. I also like Eureka, Pershing, and Washoe’s panels a lot. I’m not sure if this will be on the lawn under the tree or in a building under one of the companion trees? Most likely indoors.
The truck and National Christmas Tree will be making its way across the country making 13 stops along the way. You can sign the banner, buy official U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree merch, take loads of photos, and learn more about Nevada’s National forest. Here’s the list of scheduled stops.
Saturday, Nov. 1- Nevada Day Parade, Carson City, Nevada
Sunday, Nov. 2- Lovelock, and Elko, Nevada
Monday, Nov. 3- Ely, Nevada
Tuesday, Nov. 4- Las Vegas, Nevada
Friday, Nov. 7- Flagstaff, Arizona
Saturday, Nov. 8- Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sunday, Nov. 9- Amarillo, Texas
Monday, Nov. 10- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Tuesday, Nov. 11- Lenexa, Kansas
Wednesday, Nov. 12- St. Louis, Missouri
Friday, Nov. 14- Paducah, Kentucky
Saturday, Nov. 15- Lexington, Kentucky
Thursday, Nov. 20- Joint Base Andrews, Maryland
The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree initiative began in 1964. One of the 154 national forests provide a tree to serve as the Nation’s Christmas Tree.
This is the first time in the program’s history that a tree has been selected from the Humboldt-Toyabe forest.
It’s pretty neat that Nevada was chosen this year and I was able to see it and be there for its first leg of the historic journey to Washington, D.C.
If you’re near or in one of the cities it will stop I hope you are able to see it too. All events are free and open to the public.
Notes- It’s really cool that the National Park Service worked so hard during the shutdown to make sure the National Christmas Tree got to the West Lawn.
I blurred the faces of a lot people in the background of several images because there were kids, and people who may not want to be included in my blog post. I hope you didn’t find it too distracting.
Information gleaned from the Official 2025 Nevada Day Program| NevadaDay.com
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Several weeks ago a girlfriend of mine sent me a photo of a building in Eureka, NV via a text message. She said, “Here’s a door picture for you! ❤️ Eureka, NV.
I asked her if I could share it with you all and she said, “Yes. I knew you’d like those.”
It has 4 doors!
Foley-Rickard-Johnson Building (1879)
She said she did the walking tour and this building is number 35 on the tour. She sent the passage about the history of this site/building too.
Photos by Jarlath
I hadn’t heard of Eureka, NV prior to her sending me these images so, I looked it up. Travel Nevada says, ” Eureka, Nevada bills itself as the Friendliest Town on the Loneliest Road in America. This charming little town is one of the American West’s best-preserved mining communities, thanks to dozens of beautifully intact historic buildings to admire and plenty of hands-on history to explore, along with modern comforts, tasty food, and drink, and endless outdoor adventure a stone’s throw away.”
“In 1864 several prospectors made their way east from booming Austin in search of less crowded diggin’s, which they found—at least for a brief moment. Eventually, their “eureka” moment arrived in the form of a silver strike that would become the state’s largest, second only to the unrivaled Comstock Lode in Virginia City.
Unlike thousands of Western boomtowns that quickly went bust, Eureka continued to prosper, thanks to its proximity to troves of silver, lead, zinc, and (still today) gold. At its height, Eureka could churn out 700 tons of ore in a single day, a feat that secured status as the seat of the richest county in the Silver State.”
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This week I’ll share some photos I made of the ship we sailed to Alaska on. She’s the largest Royal Caribbean ship we’ve sailed on.
She was built in 2014 and sails under the flag of Bahamas. At the time of her delivery she was the third largest cruise in the world by gross tonnage (168,666 GT). She’s 1,141 feet long (347.7 meters) and 236ft 3inches tall, (72 meters). Her top speed is 22.0 knots and will hold 4,180 passengers (double occupancy), and a maximum of 4,905 passengers, with a crew of 1,500.
On sea days we felt the 4,900+ people on board especially on the days the pool deck was closed due to heavy winds, and rain.
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Some of you may recall that He-Man and I took a Cruise to Alaska on board the Quantum of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean Ship earlier this month. I thought I’d start sharing our trip with photos of our stateroom .
We were sailing out of the Port of Seattle so we flew up a day before our cruise departed. We stayed in the north end of town in a Comfort Inn & Suites. The room and hotel were nice, the neighborhood…a little sketchy, but we felt safe enough to walk to the nearby stores and a restaurant for dinner. We just pulled our city street awareness spidy senses out of the archives and stayed alert while walking.
This was the view from our room of downtown Seattle, and Mt. Rainier way in the distance on the left just as the city lights were coming on for the evening.
That parking lot is car dealer spare lot we think.
We took an Uber to the port after checking out of the hotel. Getting through security and checking in with Royal Caribbean was a breeze. Our stateroom wasn’t quite ready so we headed up to the Windjammer Cafe for lunch. I haven’t got any photos of that sorry!
Then we headed to Deck 12 mid-ship to our stateroom hide-away for our departure. We had a stateroom with a balcony on the port side of the ship. The images in the gallery are our main stateroom and view of the balcony, one closet, we had two closets, the bathroom, the big bed…bigger than our Queen at home and there was storage in a cupboard above the bed, the vanity I used for applying my makeup, and over the course of the cruise our Stateroom Attendant left us 4 towel animals. My favorites were the bear, and elephant.
Views from our stateroom balcony-the busy port where people were being dropped off to get onboard, and the port crew loading the luggage, food, and all the things we’d need for the week, and the Seattle Skyline from our balcony on Deck 12 shortly after we left the port.
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He-Man and I were recently on an Alaskan Cruise which was a lot of fun and full of beautiful scenery, but you know I had an eye out for the unique or unusual door too. I think this one fits the bill. Vintage’s Bar on the Quantum of the Seas ship.
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