The perfect date

Beth and I went to the state fair on Monday night, and it was probably the best date I've ever been on. This is true despite having a bad cold! I'm not exactly sure what made it so great, meaning I don't know if I can capture it in words, but it really was just about perfect.

We ate a TON of food (sharing almost all of it): corn dogs, cheese on a stick, fries (these were just me), cheese curds, apple cider, caramel apples, pineapple ice cream, and an Italian sausage. I think that was it, as if that's not enough! Everything was good, but someone needs to explain to Minnesotans that a proper Italian sausage requires the peppers and onions to be GRILLED. That was disappointing, but it didn't wreck it completely.

We hit up many of the buildings, including Education, Creative Activities, Food, and Merchandise. I always love seeing the goofy stuff at the fair - crop art, random crap that you see on TV, clothing, you name it and the fair probably has it! We also watched part of the Brandi Carlile concert, and that was excellent. I really, really love her music, and she puts on a nice show. We just watched from the street, and it was nice to not be in the big crowd. After that, we rode the Skyride Tram, and it was really neat to see the fair from above at night - great colors, and we could also see the Minneapolis skyline. Quite romantic, and just all around fun!

To end the evening, we went through more buildings and then the animal buildings. What doesn't say romance like the swine barn I tell you. We know how to rock it. In all seriousness though, the night was basically perfect. Perfect company, great food, picture perfect weather, romance, all around awesomeness! :)

Alaska - Day 8

Saturday, August 23, 2008:

I slept in quite late this morning, until about 10:00, which was slightly nuts because I went to bed at about 9. Dad tried to make it until sunset last night, which would have been close to midnight, but he couldn't make it either. It would have been neat to watch a midnight sunset, as our room had a perfect view of it (and the ocean), but we were both too exhausted. I woke up and could tell my cold was already worse, despite drinking OJ, a Naked Vitamin C drink, and water. I had to run around to get ready, as the check out time was early (flight wasn't until 8:00 pm though). I was happy to leave the stinky hotel (I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but we stayed at the Top of the World hotel, and our room smelled like feet - yuck), but we weren't sure what we would do, as we had the tour on Friday. We went down to the lobby and decided to sit there for a few minutes, and we met a wonderful couple from Australia. We talked to them for a long time, and they were really interesting folks. We've been lucky to meet some fantastic people on this trip!

After that, Dad and I set off to walk around Barrow. The bus tour made it seem so much bigger, but it really was pretty small. The horrible quality of the housing really struck me as we walked around. I honestly have no idea how people live in them, especially through winter. Along the way, we stopped at a store and got some meds and cough drops for me, and the cough drops helped tremendously.

We continued on, and as we were walking, a guy on an ATV pulled up next to us and told us to be careful, as we were approaching a polar bear. I said," seriously?", and he said, "yes, seriously." Dad and I thought he might have been playing a joke on us, but we kept walking and noticed that tons of people were gathering around. We walked on, met up with the Aussies again, and found the spot. It turns out the guy WASN'T joking, and there really was a polar bear swimming in the lake in town! He was really far away, but we could see him. A woman lent us her binoculars, and then we had a great view. Awesome! My camera couldn't capture the bear (it's a little black spot in my pics), but we did see it. The locals were VERY concerned, and kept telling everyone to stay back. Polar bears are quite dangerous I guess, but right now, most of them just want a nap on the beach, as the ice is really far out and they've been swimming for many miles. I felt very lucky to see one, and I was glad it was at a distance. To get where s/he was, the bear would have walked through town...running into a polar bear on your morning jog would be quite a shock! Yikes!

Speaking of polar bears, the Aussies were on a private tour on Friday night, and they saw a polar bear. Suddenly, as they were watching it, some young men pulled up, pulled out a gun, and shot it five times. The poor thing still wasn't dead, so they had to go up and shoot it again. Now, hunting is part of the native culture, and they will utilize every part of the bear, but the Aussie gentleman, an outdoorsman, said the bear could have been killed in a much more humane way (better gun/better shot). He didn't mind the hunting - he just hated that it was done poorly. I guess some woman on the tour was quite distraught, and the Aussies said it was quite sad too. I'm glad I didn't see that, but I kept thinking someone might shoot the bear we were viewing in town. I'm glad they didn't!

Before the bear sighting, we walked along the Arctic ocean for part of the morning, hoping to maybe see a whale, but we didn't have any luck. The Aussies and another pair of people we met did see one, right along the beach. That's the only wildlife I'm sad I missed, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal.

After the bear, we walked back toward the hotel to have lunch at a place called Osaka, a Japanese restaurant with a huge menu. Being wusses, Dad and I both ordered American food. Everything was quite expensive, but we had a pretty good meal. Even the pie was good! Beth had told me that Osaka had the best ratings, and she was right - definitely better than Pepe's. The town also had an Arctic pizza joint; I think it would have been cool to try that too. Just not enough time or money!

We finished eating and decided to stop back in the hotel lobby for a bit. Ran into two other women from our tour on Friday, and we wound up talking to them for a couple of hours! Eventually the Aussies came back too, and we all had a nice time chatting. The women were mother/daughter, and the daughter lives in Lenox, MA, which isn't too far from where Sarah lives. The mom has traveled the world, including to Antartica and Siberia - cool. The Aussies are on a 3 month trip, going through AK, Canada, and a huge part of the US. All of them were quite nice, very intelligent, and easy to talk to, and it was an excellent way to spend the afternoon.

Eventually, our shuttle driver picked us up, and we were on the way to the tiny Barrow airport. As we waited to board, the Barrow football team arrived home. They have to fly to every game, which is absolutely insane. I think that's a total waste of money, but it's their choice. Anyway, the place was filled with the players' family/friends/fans, and they cheered loudly as the players entered the airport. I guess they beat a team they never beat before. Pretty fun to watch - I imagine small town Texas is like that. I just don't get caring about high school football so much, but everyone is different, and like I said, it was neat to witness it.

Our flights to Fairbanks and then Anchorage went smoothly, and we were met by a coach at the baggage claim. We were at the Anchorage hotel (Clarion Suites, which I highly recommend) by midnight - not too shabby! Anchorage seemed like civilization, which is odd, since it's not that big, but I guess everything is relative! Looking forward to being home tomorrow - yay!

Alaska - Day 7

Friday, August 22, 2008:

We woke up at 4:45 am to catch our 5:30 shuttle to the airport. Good bye Fairbanks - too bad we couldn't spend more time with you. We made it to the airport with what should have been plenty of time, but it was the slowest airport check in I've ever seen, and that includes in all of Europe and in Israel too. Insanity. When we finally got up to the counter, we were checked in quickly. My bag is close to the weight limit - yikes! I have to be more careful when I pack.

While we were waiting to board, we saw a soldier saying good bye to his wife and child. She was crying, but the kid was a bit oblivious. Very, very sad. Who knows where he is off to? I almost cried myself. I hope he returns safely.

Our plane took off and first landed in Prudhoe Bay, a major oil field/oil rig field. Tons of men got off the plane - looking like they were heading to work. I imagine it's hard work - sort of like that new show, Black Gold. We noticed that the plane carried a lot of cargo to them as well - I think that's one of the only ways they can get stuff there. Definitely different than home.

After the pit stop, we landed in Barrow, and it had the smallest airport I've ever been to - basically one room, one luggage chute, and one check in counter, and that was it. After a bit of confusion we met up with our tour guide, Eli, and we had a 6 hour tour of Barrow. The town is tiny, so we could have finished sooner, but all in all, it was a nice tour.

Along the way, I got to see and touch the Arctic ocean - it is beautiful. We also saw lots of ships coming in - there are no roads to Barrow, so everything comes via plane or boat. Here are some facts about Barrow and its residents:

• Barrow residents will be paying $7 a gallon for gas this upcoming year, no matter what the price is everywhere else. This is because they buy the supply for the whole year once a year, and it is delivered via ship in late August/early September.
• Milk costs $10 a gallon! Eggs were >$4 a dozen, and a 12 pack of soda was $12, with some being on sale for $9 or so. Chips were $8 a bag. I think I would be screwed here - I love my diet coke, but who can afford that?!? I guess some people actually bring coolers when they fly to other places so they can return with food. What a different way of life.
  
• 80% of the people here hunt for subsistence - they hunt caribou, moose, seals, bears, whales, and birds. Our tour guide and his family hunt, and they ate a caribou head the day before. I mean the whole head ,brains included! Not sure if I could do that
  
• There were animal skins drying all over town. They use the skins for different things.
• Oh, it's a heavily Inupiat community - run by their tribe. I saw signs for a regular court house and a tribal court - kind of a split between native and non-native ways of life. Interesting to see the blend. Another example of this - as we watched some native dances, one of the singers was texting on her cell phone as she sang. A clash between new and old I guess you would say.
  
• The town boasts a big Native Heritage center, where they showed us some native dances and drumming. We got to participate in a blanket toss, and that was really neat - as a group, we were able to throw the woman probably more than 15 feet in the air! The blanket toss is part of the succesful whaling celebration, and you literally toss a person into the air via a blanket (we all stood around the edge, holding it, and then we worked together to toss her).
  
• About 5000 people live here, and it's the northernmost US city!
• Odd contrasts here - the houses are total slums for the most part. Windows broken, crappy paint, you name it. Just total crap - they look worse than third world housing, but it's still part of America. However, the heritage center and some other buildings were quite nice. And they have a $1 million football field. Most of the money for that was donated I think, but man, they need money for regular housing! I don't know how they make it through winter in some of those houses (it can be 70 degrees below zero there).
• They catch approximately 18-22 bowhead whales a season or a year here. The whales are huge - we saw the skull for one that was 57 feet long. They share the meat and the other parts with the community. Cool.
• Lots of other native traditions in daily practice. I like that.
  
• No polar bear sightings today, but there are signs posted in town saying they are in the area and to be careful!
• The roads/yards are dirt/mud, and sort of go all over the place. Only some parts of the town are based on a grid system. No sidewalks.
  
• People get around by ATV, snowmobiles, boats, or trucks/SUVs. Hardly any regular cars here.
• Sometimes, the whales come right up to shore. They do this to scrape the barnacles off their skin. We didn't see any whales, but some people we met did.
• It's dark for months in the winter, but the sun doesn't set for part of the year either.
• The town had four hotels and several restaurants. Nothing fancy here at all. Very basic, but the restaurant menus were rather extensive, considering that everything has to be brought in via plane/ship. We did eat at a Mexican place called Pepe's, and it was pretty good. Huge menu.
  
• The grocery store had all sorts of food, including fresh fruit and veggies, even asparagus. Again, pretty amazing considering how things have to be shipped there.
• You can see the remains of ancient sod houses all over town - they are over 2000 years old and they housed early inhabitants of the community. Sort of looks like bumpy grass. There are grave markers on many of the bumps.
• There are only 3-5 feet of unfrozen ground before you reach permafrost - this means that graves are dug very shallow.
  
• We had a dinner of sandwiches, chips, and potato salad in the room. All of that stuff cost over $40 at the grocery store!

I went to bed super early, as I'm sick. As a result, I missed the midnight sunset, which is a bummer, but I really wasn't feeling well and needed the rest. Dad tried to make it, but he didn't last either. We could have seen it right from our room, but it just wasn't meant to be.

We had excellent weather all day - we both imagined it would be absolutely freezing in Barrow, with highs predicted in the high 30s, but we had sunshine and little wind. Not sure what the temp was, but it did feel warmer than 30+ degrees. I guess we were lucky to have clear skies, as it's often foggy/cloudy, and planes don't always make it in. It seems we are bringing the sun with us on this trip, as we had clear days in Denali too. I credit Dad with this luck, as it certainly didn't come from me! :)

Saturday, it's more time in Barrow and then a flight back to Anchorage. The flight back to Anchorage arrives late, and I'm probably going to bed right away. Then it's home on Sunday. Yay!

Alaska - Day 6

Thursday, August 21, 2008:

We started out today with an awesome breakfast at Fannie's Flapjacks. It was a family style breakfast and included eggs, meats, biscuits, potatoes, pancakes, juice, and fruit. It might have been the meal in Denali, probably by far. We also met some nice folks from Indiana - they were part of a giant tour group. It seems most people are on tours, which often makes us the little misfits on the bus/dinner room/etc. It's pretty funny, and the others seem to adopt us with no problems.

After breakfast, we went over to the Denali Visitors Center, checked our bags, and did some day hiking. We had some time to kill because we had to check out of our room by 10:00, but the train didn't leave until 4ish. This was good though, as Dad really wanted to so some hikes. We got a map and set off. Our first trail wasn't anything special, but it did bring us down by a river. After that, we chose another trail which was somewhat difficult - uphill for a long way. The view of the meadow below when we made it to the top was worth it though, and I was pleased we made it without too much struggle. Dad did much better than I did, but this doesn't surprise me, as he's a runner.

I lost my favorite long sleeved t-shirt along the way - fell off my bag. Dad speed walked all the way back along the trail for quite some time, including uphill, and he found it! I was so happy!
I also randomly found $40 in my pants pocket - think it was from my last trip, and it was washed in the washing machine. Sweet! When I lost the shirt, I thought, well, at least I found money to buy a new one. When Dad found the shirt, the cash was an extra bonus!

We ran into some sort of bird on the second trail - it jumped out and scared Dad. I thought he was going to fall down the side of the mountain! After Mom suggested what it might be, I googled it and she was right: It was a ptarmigan, Alaska's state bird. Cool! It sort of looked like a pheasant, but I swear it had red eyes.

After we finished hiking, we picked up our bags and headed to the train depot, which is right across from the park visitor center. Again, sort of a contradiction - a huge natural wilderness right across the way from 1000s of tourists. It's like Disneyworld - Denali.

As we waited for the train, we met up with some fellow train riders from the previous train trip and passed an hour plus chatting with them. They were great folks from Salt Lake City, celebrating their 40+ wedding anniversary. We boarded the train with them, and we were off to Fairbanks - the train started moving before we even sat down! This time, the car was pretty empty, and Dad and I had tons of space in the back. That made it much more enjoyable.

The Utah folks asked us to eat dinner with them, and we chatted for another hour plus - really great people! We even managed to discuss politics civilly! They were knowledgeable about many things, and that was awesome. Good stuff. If they ever came to the Twin Cities, I could see my parents hanging out with them. They were that friendly!

Oh, crazy guy was on the train again, and he moved from his assigned seat to sit right in front of me. He was much more calm and chill this time. I feel bad for him - Utah folks knew who he was and thought he has some sort of problem, perhaps DD or something. I agree. Sad. Dad figures that someone in Denali must have told him to shut up, because otherwise we can't figure out why he was so quiet. I can't imagine having to endure a 9 hour wildlife/park tour with him - yikes!

We saw a HUGE bull moose in the far distance while eating dinner on the train. It was pretty far away, but it was neat to see.

We arrived in Fairbanks with no problem, and got our hotel. Walked around the city a little bit - tiny city, very industrial. Sort of bleak really, could be right out of the 70s/80s. Reminded me of how MN of the 80s is depicted in movies - like in North Country! Pretty much like that. There were lots of homeless people walking around, and nothing open. The sun didn't set until quite late - it was very light at 9:30 pm.

Fairbanks is a big city in AK - in winter, there are times when they don't have water, as pipes freeze! There are million dollar mansions with outhouses! I can't imagine why people would want to live like that, but clearly many do.

We are leaving SUPER early for Barrow tomorrow morning - flight at 7:30, shuttle pick up at 5:30 am. Thus, I have to jet, as it's quite late! Oh, note the time in the clock picture - 9:30 pm and it was still quite light out!

Alaska - Day 5

Wednesday, August 20, 2008:

Dad and I went on a park tour today, utilizing the park shuttle buses to do so. Denali National Park does not allow people to drive their own cars past mile 15 in the park, so the only way to really see a lot of the park is on a tour. There are all sorts of tours, but we went with one offered by the park itself, as it was affordable and fit our schedule. It was also available - we didn't know it would have been helpful to book some of that stuff ahead of time. Regardless, the tour we took worked out fabulously well, and I have no complaints.

A little about the park - it's enormous. Honestly, gigantic. I don't have the stats on hand at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I once read that the park is bigger than the state of Massachusetts. Google that if you want. :) The only road in the park runs for about 96 miles, and it barely touches the surface. However, it takes about 7 hours to drive the entire 96 miles, and then you have to turn around and drive back (it's not a loop like other parks) unless you stay in the expensive lodge at the end of the road. Because we didn't feel like spending 14 hours on a bus (basically slightly modified school buses), we chose a shorter tour that turned around at mile 66 - Eielson Visitor Center. The scheduled time for this trip was 8-9 hours, also a long day. We had to buy box lunches and bring snacks and water, as the park doesn't sell any food in the park. They do this to help keep the animals wild - once they taste human food, they don't forget it and pursue it. Thus, even though we had to spend $16 for a sandwich and chips (basically), I support the park's decision.

We started off at 9:30 am, and we wound up having an excellent tour guide. We weren't even guaranteed commentary at all, so this guy was a nice surprise. He told us a great deal about the park and the wildlife in it. A nice bonus! Along the way, we stopped about every hour so we could get out, stretch, use the bathrooms, take pictures, etc. It worked out quite well, and I never felt super uncomfortable. We also were allowed to get off and go hiking on our own if we wanted; if we had done that, we could have just caught the next bus and rode it instead. We chose to stay with our bus, which was just fine.

The road itself is only paved for about 15 miles, and then it was gravel. Additionally, the road wound through the mountains, both up and down, and it was quite narrow at times. We actually had to stop at some blind corners to make sure another bus wasn't coming around the corner! The drop offs were steep, and several of the passengers had to switch sides because they couldn't handle seeing the drop off out the windows. I didn't feel too nervous, but I did choose to buckle up during these stretches. I don't know why I did, as there is no way a seatbelt would have saved me if we had rolled off the side of the mountain, but it felt comforting regardless.

Along the way, we had fantastic views of Denali. Seriously - the views we had are what they print on postcards. Absolutely stunning. We were able to exit the bus to take pics, and I think I got some decent shots. We were still about 40 miles away, so my camera can only do so much, but the image is etched into my brain and it was fantastic. We also saw some other amazing scenery - rivers, streams, other mountains, etc.

As for wildlife, the second main attraction after Denali, we saw 5 grizzly bears, numerous caribou, a lynx (third to the bottom pic), a coyote, and some dall sheep in the far distance. This was a very successful wildlife outing, as seeing a lynx is very rare. Dad was the first one on the bus to see it, and he called out stop so the driver would pull over. Go Dad! The guide also said it was rare to see a coyote, but I've seen them before so I didn't know that. We didn't see a moose, which I guess is odd, but Dad and I had already seen two outside of Anchorage. No wolves either, but they are quite elusive. I would have liked to see a bear closer than we did, but you can't control the animals. I feel lucky to have seen what we did.

After about 4-5 hours, we arrived at our end destination, Eielson visitor center. Sidenote - My sister Amanda teaches at Carl Ben Eielson school in Fargo - cool stuff. The center had fantastic views of Denali and the entire AK range. As we pulled in, the clouds started to gather around Denali, and by the time we left the center, Denali was almost completely covered in clouds - we were very, very lucky to actually see the mountain! One person we heard of has been to Denali four times, and he has only seen the mountain once! Yay us and yay weather! We hiked around the center a bit, and then it was back on the bus for the return journey. By that time, I was feeling a bit tired of being on the bus, and I think others were too - it was a lot quieter for the most part, and people seemed to stop looking for animals (except Dad, who saw the lynx, and the woman in front of us, who spotted the coyote).

At about 5:30, we pulled into the Denali Visitors Center and left our green tour bus behind. We caught the hotel shuttle and went back to our room for a bit to rest before dinner. Before leaving for the tour, we had purchased tickets to cabin night, a dinner theater production put on at our hotel. I was a bit worried that it might really suck, but it turned out to be pretty dang fun. The dinner was family style (delicious ribs, salmon, corn, biscuits, potatoes, beans, and blueberry cobbler), and we met nice people from Kansas and Sydney, Australia. We had a great meal and great conversation, all the while being served by Alaskan Amber, who stayed in character the whole time. Pretty dang funny, as her character was a bit...slutty to say the least. She really cracked me up though, and it was fun. After the meal, they put on a little show, and it was charming. Hokey, but really fun - I couldn't help singing along and smiling the whole time.

After the show, it was time for bed. We were both exhausted. Who knew sitting on a bus all day was so tiring? :)

So far, I'm having an absolute blast on the trip. So glad I came here to see this - who knows if I'll ever make it back here!

Some random notes:

• Denali and Mt. McKinley are the same thing. The Athabascan natives called the mountain Denali, which means the tall one, and many local folks still call it Denali. Its official name is Mt. McKinley.
• We saw both taiga and tundra in the park. According to our tour guide, taiga is almost tundra, but it has trees on it. Tundra just has smaller ground plants. Both were beautiful, and the tundra was already starting to show its fall colors. I imagine it will be breathtaking in 2 weeks, and it probably is the same in the spring, as it flowers.
  
• The shower in our hotel room sucks. It alternates between spraying freezing and scalding water. I think it actually burned my foot! I had to do an odd little dance to wash my hair and rinse off the soap. Not cool. The only other time I experienced a shower like that was in Brighton, England.
  
• I forgot to mention that we saw our first Target store in all of AK - it was in a town called Wasilla, between Anchorage and Denali. The Wasilla area is the third most populated in the whole state. Since we saw a Target there, we now wonder if there is a Target in Anchorage. If so, we could have avoided Walmart. Oh well.
• GLBT issues in AK - my Lonely Planet guide actually says that this isn't a gay friendly place and to be careful in deciding whether to come out. Wow - it can't be good at all if the book actually says that. It's not like I'm always running around shouting out that I'm gay, but sheesh! I hope our lesbian friends from the train stay safe - they mentioned that they had seen the same warning, so that's good.
• The train runs over 700 moose a year - wow!
  
• Most of the rivers in the park (if not all, I'm not sure) don't contain fish because they are too filled with glacial silt. That's a lot of silt!
• This last picture was taken at 11:30 pm as I was standing on the deck outside my room at the McKinley Chalet - still some light!