Alaskan Adventure Day Two - The Grand Plan

Day Two:

Leslie took off early this morning for her daily five plus mile run at the gym and I thankfully slept in and took another indulgently long shower. I can not tell you the thrill of showering without a child sitting on the floor outside the door trying to tell you about the day or asking for the tenth time, "When are you going to be done?" Not that I don't enjoy talking to my children but a silent shower was so nice! Sleeping late in Alaska (this time of year) is quite easy because the sun doesn’t really come up until after nine. By the time Leslie got back I was ready to hop into the big Land Rover and head to work with her and hang out for the day. Being the Operations Manager does have its perks. We made a slight detour beforehand and went to “Gwennies” (an interesting lodge style restaurant) and had an enormous breakfast of reindeer sausage, eggs, grits and home fries and LOTS of coffee. I cannot believe that I ate reindeer. I was tempted NOT to have it. I think reindeer are adorable and kissable and huggable and eating them was not high on my agenda but then again I was not sure if I would ever have another opportunity to eat reindeer sausage. So in the end I did. It was good. Kind of like a spicy kielbasa, very rich but good. I am pretty sure that my children will be absolutely horrified that I ate a reindeer. The thought of them being a meat source, like a cow, wouldn’t sit well with them.

Off we went to Leslie’s work. I love that store. It smells so nice and has such fun things to look at. Fancy organic things that smelled lovely. Slightly out-of-my-price-range organically wonderful items, but wonderful to smell off and on for the day. I meandered through the city for short bursts of time taking pictures and finding some presents to bring back to my men. I bought the boys fosillized Walrus Tooth necklaces, fun regional snacks and goofy stuff like that. I bought Shad a hand carved wooden moose and a compass plus some other edible fun stuff. I love present shopping! We'll get to what I bought myself later.....

I made it a block the first time I wandered out the store and had to go back to the store and put on more clothes. Then later, after I warmed back up for a bit, I strolled for about three blocks and fed the parking meter for Leslie. Then I had to go back and warm up again. Do you see a pattern here? I was not being a wimp. It was like negative three that morning WITHOUT the wind-chill factor. It was becoming painfully apparent to me that my winter coat (that is more than adequate for Washington winters) was not going to cut it up here. Out on fifth and G Street I took one large breath in and out and my sunglasses fogged and froze simultaneously while the moisture in my nose crystallized. Boy is that one heck of a weird feeling! I can not even begin to tell you how weird that was and I suddenly felt nauseous and empathetic for anyone who might have a really bad cold in this weather.

The day was sunny and beautiful. All the trees were glazed over in a crystal sheath of intricate patters. There was a fine dust of glitter floating all around the city. It was not snowing, there was not a cloud in the sky but yet it was.... recycling off of the tall office buildings and blowing from the trees. Thankfully the wind was mild. I took pictures of the ice sculpture exhibit in the center of town around the outdoor ice rink. At some point I realized that my camera was getting cranky from the cold and would have to be placed inside my shirt and coat between shots to warm up. Nice little frozen block of ice next to the skin was not a completely wonderful thing but children were running and sliding across the ice in their snow pants having a grand time. Laughter was everywhere, the sun glowed through the ice on the trees and it looked like something out of a movie set. Then I realized, as I stood looking at all the splendor, that I could no longer feel my cheeks and my ears had disappeared from my body. I felt up there and could feel something lumpy but I was not entirely sure that it was my ears. I hightailed it back to the store. We goofed around in the store for a while and on returning from my later trip to the visitors center Leslie informed me that we were headed out the next morning to the Great Matanuska Ice Glacier on Alaska 1. The same highway that you can take all the way to the north pole if the weather is right. We were going north to mile marker 102.2. We would pick up keys to the small research cabin used by the nation forest service at the Long Rifle Lodge and spent the night at the base of the famous glacier. I was so excited I thought I would bust. A REAL adventure. Camping in negative thirty-degree weather was something we could actually do and not die? I needed a better coat. After that, the rest of her workday took a very long time but I was able to kill some time in search of a more appropriate winter jacket. I finally found a big fleece lined purple thing that was big enough that I could wear five other shirts underneath. Back at the Tuliqi counter we made our list of necessary supplies and our game plan. This was going to be quite an adventure for both of us. A two and a half hour drive into the wild mountains for an overnight subzero camping trip in a little bitty log cabin looking out across an amazing Alaskan glacier. No Indoor plumbing, an outhouse, a small wood stove BUT it had electricity!
I could bring my laptop! Muahahahahaha. That meant I could take pictures to my hearts content and download them onto my computer and start all over again. Whoohoo! If you want to see some other information just google Long Rifle Lodge. I spent the last couple of her work hours taking pictures of the store, us in the store, us outside the store, the things in the store, us being silly in the store…. It’s a good thing it was a slow customer day. I am afraid that I slowed down her productivity a bit. Bye the way sis, I HATE the mannequin in the back store room. Every time I went back there it scared me half to death! Nice job of reorganizing though. I guess I didn’t keep you from working completely.

On the way home Leslie drove me several blocks to the sea just as the sun slipped behind the mountains. It was beautiful. There are trails everywhere around Anchorage and instead of bikers I saw people skiing across the trails under lamplight. It was very cool. I also heard of a completely new sport called Frolf. I didn’t believe her at first. I had to look it up when I got back to her place. I guess it’s a big deal up here. Let me give you a run down. It’s like golf but you use a Frisbee disk instead and there are metal baskets at the end of each run that you need to get your disk into. The object is to be the person with the least amount of “throws” to the basket. I love the environmental factor of this game. Think of all the water that could be saved not keeping golf courses green and perfect! Ok, you golfers out there, stop throwing obscenities at me. Anyway, look up Frolf, Folf, or Disk Golf. It’s a big deal and there are some great Youtube videos out there too! Who knew, now I am going to have to find someplace to try it out. The baskets are kind of cool!

We got home that evening, packed and planned and dug out all of Tony’s warm wool socks, hats, headlamps, sleeping bags and “gear” for me to use. We cleaned the garage out of all things burnable and made a nice neat stack of gear to load out in the morning. It is amazing how much can be accomplished in so little time with no fuss, no swearing and no grouching! packing with the female gender only is SOOOO much easier! (settle down hubby dear, I am generalizing here not speaking of you in particular) We got to bed way later than we anticipated because the sisterly chat session had started and the wine was flowing and a box of photos had appeared and we were entertained until the wee hours. I got to see amazing pictures of all the places they had traveled to. What interesting “travels” they have had! Forget tours and standard “booklet” vacations. They understand the true adventurous spirit of world travel. I swear I live vicariously through my sister! Thank you Tony for the use of several pairs of your warm woolen socks, a really great REI wool hat, and the best, warmest, most wonderful, the most perfectly broken in boots ever. My toasty toes thanked you many times over the next two days. I was tempted to sneak them back in my suitcase!

End Of Day Two.

This was, by far, the most "typical" day in Alaska.... (and it was by no means dull) things were just about to get interesting.... Let the adventure begin!