Trips to the bush

In Alaska, anything off the road system is considered "bush." Although, there is definitely a spectrum of 'bush-ness' (no allusions to the current president intended), from places like Nome to tiny remote villages that see a plane less than once a week.

Anyway, thanks to my job (which I'm loving), I get to periodically take trips to the bush. Here are some pictures from recent trips. (Aren't ya'll getting jealous? :)

Views from a plane around Homer




Around Nome (it wasn't the most productive trip in the world, so we did a fair amount of sightseeing.)

The first railroad in Alaska...


Berry picking


the Safety Roadhouse (a bar, in true Alaskan fashion)

on medicine in the US

the story of a physician trying to
explain the dilemmas of the modern practice of medicine (this quote is attributable to a specific physician):

'You know,' he said, 'sometimes it feels like this. There I am standing by the shore of a swiftly flowing river and I hear the cry of a drowning man. So I jump into the river, put my arms around him, pull him to shore and apply artificial respiration. Just when he begins to breathe, there is another cry for help. So I jump into the river, reach him, pull him to shore, apply artificial respiration, and then just as he begins to breathe, another cry for help. So back in the river again, reaching, pulling, applying, breathing and then another yell. Again and again, without end, goes the sequence. You know, I am so busy jumping in, pulling them to shore, applying artificial respiration, that I have no time to see who the hell is upstream pushing them all in.'