> > > At Strings Camp we did that. It wasn't a river, though, it was a lake. I remember my friend and I, after getting out from our first swim, couldn't hear, walk straight, or get the blue completely out of our skin until well after breakfast. At Bible camp we went swimming in a different lake. This wasn't an early call, though. That was too cool. [Heh-- no pun intended, but it works pretty well, for one of mine.] Then there's always Portage... aah, Portage. Ever heard of Portage Glacier? It sheds [or used to, it's receeded dramatically :-( ] into a lake... you can't swim in that, you might get run over by a boat, but there are several smaller ones be the campgrounds... that was interesting. All three times.
> > >
> > > Chr"self-concept revolves greatly around outdoing cold stories"is
> >
> > I am familiar with Portage Glacier and may have seen it. However, I could be remembering it from a slide show.
> > Howard
>
> [getting excited... even more than when Howard mentioned having been in Anchorage]
>
> OK, I'm gonna see if I can jog your memory, because I really want to know. Don't know why, just do. Bear with me.
>
> If you saw Portage Glacier, it must have been several years ago or on a boat. If you saw it any time during the past few decades in person, you would see a cement-colored visitor's center place with a clear tunnel-type thing for viewing the lake [previously the glacier as well] from inside. In all liklihood, it was cold and windy or warm and windy. There's a nice visitor's lodge with a bear statue out front, around December it has a Santa hat on. It's attatched to a great little restauraunt [with some of the best homefries and reindeer hotdogs I know of].
>
> You might have seen, if you went in tourist mode, "Voices of the Ice." They've been showing that... well, since I was sentient, probably since they opened, there's a theatre at the center just for that movie. There's usually a small block of glacier ice with ice worms alongside some bear skulls and misc. fur samples on the front counter. There's a block of glacial ice for people to touch [never understood the attraction, but always touched it anyway] in front of a cheesy blue-plastic replica of an ice cave that leads to a room talking about glaciers with cool little demo-thingees to show how crevices are formed. Ummm... [racks brain] I think that's all that hasn't changed to my knowledge, other than the people working at the gift shop....
>
> Chr"So, ring any bells?"is

Yes, but it's the ship's bell. I saw much of that at a slide show on a cruise ship. I was in Anchorage about 1997. We flew in and stayed about 24 hours, then took a tour bus to Seward to get on the ship to cruise the inside passage. In 1999
we cruised up from Vancouver to Skagway and then back down without ever getting close to Anchorage.
Next trip -- Denali or burst!
Howard