Donald H. Harrison

By Donald H. Harrison SKAGWAY, Alaska –The narrow-gauge railroad that climbs from this town 20.4 miles to the Canadian border at White Pass, and then some 90 miles farther north up to the Yukon territorial capital of Whitehorse, is given the same sort of respect by civil engineers that they accord to such marvels as the

  By Donald H. Harrison SKAGWAY, Alaska – Carlin “Buckwheat” Donahue bought and sold oil leases in Colorado, acted in Skagway’s gold-days pageant, and tended bar, before he found his Princess. “Thanks to them, I’ve had a wonderful career,” he boomed. Princess Cruises has been bringing passengers to Skagway since the 1980s, and holds the

By Donald H. Harrison JUNEAU, Alaska – Back in the summer of 1982, when daughter Sandi was 9 and son David was 7, Nancy and I purchased a recreational vehicle and set out on a three-month family vacation to explore America.  One of the first “big stops” was the Grand Canyon, and, en route to Arizona, we talked

  By Donald H. Harrison JUNEAU, Alaska – At the end of a 20-minute drive from the cruise ship terminal to the visitor center’s parking lot for the Mendenhall Glacier, the MGT bus driver announced that return trips would leave from that very spot on the hour and the half hour until the last departure

  By Donald H. Harrison KETCHIKAN, Alaska – Just as stories can be transcribed into writing in books, they also can be told with immense carvings on totem poles.  The extended family that owns and operates Potlatch Park here has been producing both kinds of literature for the education and delight of the many visitors to

By Donald H. Harrison VICTORIA, British Columbia – They say we can never go back again, certainly not back to those years of refinement marking the transition from the late 19th to the early 20th century. But “they” are wrong, as they so often are.  You can go back, to a time of refinement, serenity,

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN FRANCISCO – In previous articles in this West Coast travel and sightseeing series, I have described visits to such Bay Area attractions as Alcatraz, the presidential yacht USS Potomac, the California Academy of Sciences, the Jewish Contemporary Museum, and the Wells Fargo Museum. Before taking leave of San Francisco,

Concord Stage Coach at Wells Fargo Museum   By Donald H. Harrison SAN FRANCISCO – Joycee Wong missed the fourth-grade study week in Old Town San Diego when she moved with her family from Hong Kong to Chula Vista, California. Starting her U.S. schooling in fifth grade, she didn’t have the opportunity to learn very

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN FRANCISCO – Anyone who flatters himself into believing that he has “been there and done that” will be quickly disabused of that conceit during a visit to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The sprawling complex houses a planetarium, tropical rain forest and aquarium as well

  By Donald H. Harrison ALCATRAZ ISLAND, California – From the prisoners’ viewpoint, what was the worst thing about the federal prison here on “the rock” in the middle of San Francisco Bay? Was it the strict routines they had to follow? The loneliness? The chance that they may fall afoul of the rules and

    By Donald H. Harrison OAKLAND, California – Ever since the 1990 enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it has been increasingly commonplace to see buildings, vehicles, and streets built to be accessible to wheelchairs.  But such was not the case in 1936 when Franklin D. Roosevelt was the President of the United

  By Donald H. Harrison CARMEL, California – In some parts of the world, particularly Europe, the saint for whom Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo is named is better known than the man nominated for sainthood whose body is buried under the floor next to the altar. But here in California, the reverse

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN LUIS OBISPO, California – In the heart of downtown is an alley that runs between two high brick walls – or, at least, brick are what they once appeared to be.  For generations, students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, abetted by tourists, have been covering the walls each