AWOL Blogger

It's been a few weeks since my last blog. Somehow, in the madness of it all, I couldn't bring myself to blog. That said, I am back... Since last time, I: - Went to Phoenix to say goodbye to my nephew. He's gone for two years on a church mission. - Went to Telluride for Blues & Brews Festival. Saw Etta James, laid in the sun and spent time with my close friend Melissa. (Miss you already, Mel!) - Spent my first weekend at home in over a month. - Bought a Wii Fit and Dance, Dance Revolution. (This has sucked up a fair amount of time...) - Got a cold that laid me up for a full week straight. I mentioned to Daniel last night that it was SO cool to breathe through my nose. That's something I used to take for granted, not now! - Lost all my files on my cute little USB Flash Drive. That's five years of work, life, financials, etc. (Word to the wise, back up people!) So, it's been an eventful few weeks and I am happy to be back in sane, healthy life for a little while.

The Best of Alaska

Most Amazing Concept: Alaska is huge and even seeing it doesn’t get that point across. We stood on a glacier and looked at a mountain that we thought was about 100 yards away. Someone explained to us that it was actually about a mile away. It’s impossible to have an accurate perspective when there is so much undeveloped land. Best Meal: I had a Salmon BLT one evening that was perfection. I can’t speak highly enough of the halibut and salmon we had in Alaska. The stuff we buy at the grocery store will never compare. Also, the amber ale from Alaska Brewing was surprisingly tasty and we had several of those on the trip. Best View: The ride from Godwin Glacier back to Seward was amazing. I was speechless from the views of mountains, water and glaciers. Favorite Refrain: We were instructed that if we came upon a bear during our travels we should just speak to it calmly and say, “Hey, Bear.” We repeated this phrase constantly when turning blind corners, hiking or really anytime. Coolest Sound: Aialik Glacier calving directly into the ocean while we watched. Everyone on the boat was dead silent as we heard the thunder and cracking that precedes a small amount of the glacier breaking off. Most Alaskan Moment: Hiking in Denali National Park and feeling complete solitude. Also realizing that it wouldn’t be uncommon to walk around a corner and find a moose or bear, because after all we were in their home, not the other way around. Overall an A+ experience, we’ll be back someday!

Alaska - Part Two

On Friday, we headed down to Seward via train. The train ride between Anchorage and Seward is quite beautiful, especially when the weather is clear. During the train ride alone, we saw humpback whales and sheep. As soon as we arrived, we were whisked away to our helicopter ride to Godwin Glacier. I was terrified a few years back when we took a helicopter to Catalina, so I didn’t know quite what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, there was so much to see that I completely forgot my fears. There is a dog sled team that spends their summers on this glacier and we got a chance to talk with them, meet the dogs and ride on a dog sled. One of the guys up there will be running his third Iditarod next March and it was really neat to hear about all that goes into planning for that event. I had such a neat time riding on the sled that when D. fell off, I didn’t notice. Sorry honey, at least we were close to the main camp! Here are a couple pics from that experience:

On Saturday, we took a day-long Fjords cruise. The cruise was enjoyable and we again saw humpback whales (closer than I would have liked) and amazing glaciers. The scenery was great. They urge you to take seasickness medicine for the cruise and ironically, the medicine made me sick for the first part of the day. Other than that, we had perfect weather and smooth sailing. We cruised up to Aialik Glacier and got to hear the glacier calving. It’s almost complete silence and then you hear the cracking and thunder as small parts of the glacier break off into the water. All around the glacier, you have “ice water” since large chunks remain in the very cold water. Here’s a picture of Aialik: We spent our evenings in Seward at a place called Ray’s Waterfront. It’s ridiculously expensive, but we ate at the bar and felt like a part of the family by our third visit. The whole town of Seward seemed very “Mystic Pizza”-esque to me and I really like the idea of a teeny fishing village until our last day when the weather was ugly and I realized that there’s nothing fun to do in a small fishing village if it’s raining. We sat under a tree and played Yahtzee until the rain finally drove us inside our favorite spot, Ray’s. (I guess that’s what you do in a fishing village when it’s pouring, have a beer.) Meals including Salmon or Halibut Count: 8 Total Meals: 12

Alaska - Part One

Well, we’re back from our trip to the vastness that is Alaska. It was a great trip and Mother Nature was surprisingly cooperative. On Monday, we flew into Anchorage and checked into a very small, but cute room at a bed and breakfast on a lake. That evening, we took a walking tour of downtown Anchorage with me serving as a tour guide (with help from Frommer’s). I can only say that as I consider what I should be when I grow up, tour guide isn’t in the cards. Even D. lovingly pointed out that I was a horrible ambassador to downtown Anchorage. I would walk up to a building and say, “Well, this is the old courthouse. I don’t really know anything about it.” That was if I could find the place. We ended the tour at a bar called “Darwin’s Theory” where the locals seemed QUITE skeptical of us despite our best efforts to look like locals. We then took in a movie that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone that doesn’t like really inappropriate and overly graphic movies. In my defense, it was the only movie showing at a movie house/restaurant/pub that had great reviews. Here’s us beside some (???) building on our walking tour that had totem poles…

On Tuesday, we took the 4.5-hour scenic drive up to Denali National Park. Fall has arrived in Alaska and the colors were quite beautiful. Since we forgot binoculars, we stopped at a Wal-Mart in the town of Wasilla (don’t judge, I didn’t know a Target was one mile down the road). For those of you interested, Wasilla is the town where John McCain’s shocker of a running mate was a city council member & mayor before becoming governor of Alaska. To gauge size, I would guess the town has about three stoplights. We spent our two nights in the Denali area at a neat inn on a lake. The views were fantastic the whole time although Mount McKinley didn’t come out to play due to overcast skies. Regardless, we saw moose, grizzly bears, black bears, caribou, dall sheep and a variety of birds. They call moose, bears, caribou and dall sheep the “Big Four” to view in Denali, so I guess we were lucky. We took two intense, but gorgeous hikes (I swear we gained at least 1700 feet in elevation, so they were quite steep) and really enjoyed the quiet. I would say Denali is probably the most “natural” national park since they have taken great strides to keep development out. On our last morning in Denali, we went rafting in glacial run-off. They say that means the water was on a glacier within 24 hours of our raft trip. (AKA extremely cold water.) Shortly after, we headed back to Anchorage for a short stop-over before the next leg of our trip. Here’s a picture of us in the park… They tell me that Mount McKinley is somewhere behind the clouds. I will believe it when I see it!

# of Meals in Alaska that included salmon or halibut so far: 4 # of Total Meals in Alaska so far: 7