Be Careful What You
Worry About…
Sometimes, a great vacation needs to overcome all kinds of
obstacles because something ALWAYS goes wrong on every trip—sometimes minor
things (little forgotten items), sometimes major stuff (flat tires, etc.), and
ever-hopefully, not catastrophic events (plane wrecks, etc.) At the beginning of this trip, my purse strap
broke—no biggee!! My toe was fractured
June 1st and was still pretty sore—okay, I can handle that!
But sometimes, you’re just given information that makes you
ANTICIPATE something going wrong—for example, on this trip, that would be my
tooth. As the fates and natural aging
would have it, my dentist informed me recently that one of my teeth has decided
it does not belong on my person anymore and could actually “blow” at any
time. Arrangements have been made for
taking care of this tooth, a.s.a.p. but unfortunately the “a.s.a.” part will
happen AFTER we get back from Denali.
The endodontist, in emphasizing how important it is for me to take care
of this quickly, painted a gory, painful picture should this tooth “blow” at an
inopportune time, say, on a vacation.
According to him, it would take an emergency room visit, lots of pain,
lots of money, and lots of hassle if this were to transpire. My dentist, bless her heart, tried to lighten
my load so that I could have a good vacation and told me all would be fine and
stressed for me “not to worry.”
Of course, my dentist doesn’t know about my gene pool. Very few in my family know how to “not worry”. My sister and I often console each other that
we’re not hated, or incompetent, or other such absurdities. It’s like most of my family, except for my
Dad, has cornered the market on worry strands of DNA. It is somehow our birthright, our
destination, our legacy.
We boarded our plane to Anchorage, settled back, then I
smiled and worried about my tooth. “Sit
back, relax, and enjoy the flight…” …Unless
you have Darcie’s gene pool. So, forget
that all of our pre-board activities went just fine. Yup!
Gotta worry ‘bout somethin’…
Guess I could worry about the latest Malaysia flight that went down
recently to offset the worry about my tooth.
Yes, let me do that!
Chris, on the other hand, who has more that he COULD worry
about than myself, is absolutely worry-free as he excitedly swaps fishing
stories with the guy on the other side of him, then digs into his crossword
puzzle. He is my example, and so I crack
my book and am, for the time being, able to “sit back and relax.” Maybe there’s a way to infuse some of his
gene strands into my own so I could make this last forever…hmmmmm. Somehow, though, I feel compelled to keep the
worry lamp lit even as we’ve had a marvelous smooth flight, a great lunch at a
spot near the Anchorage airport, and everyone is pleasant and friendly. No worries—that worries me!!!
Denali—Here We Come!
7/18/14—Friday
We made our
way through the airport in Anchorage, rented a brand-new car (with a temporary
license sticker in the window—nice!), had lunch at Denny’s and headed off to
the Grizzly Bear cabins (about a 3-hour drive).
We were impressed with our cabin, and proceeded to check out the Denali Park
Bus spot where we would be picked up the next afternoon. Drove to the Salmon Bake Restaurant--good
food and slanted floors (think Batman episodes), I kid you not. I kept wondering if the staff all had back
problems walking at an angle all day. We
also were “blessed” with a grumpy neighbor at the table next to ours—complaining
and demanding—and Chris, in his usual “quippie” style, said, “Wish I could buy
him for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth!” We finished our evening by looking for decaf
coffee we could make in our cabin but there was none to be found. Did some filming and returned to our cabin to
enjoy the surroundings and turn in.
7/19/14—Saturday
The Visitor’s
Center was pretty crowded but we managed to finally get parked in an overnight
spot, then bummed around the museum and shops for a couple of hours until time
to load up. Layered up a bit as it was
starting to cool off.
The bus tour
was definitely worth it—6 hours from start to finish, heading into Denali and
ending 92 miles later at the Kantishna Roadhouse where we would be staying for
2 nights. Our driver/tour guide Marsha
was great—spotted various wildlife and stopped so we could enjoy and get
pictures. The scenic shots suffered a
little as the weather had turned rather rainy/cloudy, but the animal pics were
still a hoot. We saw grizzly bears,
moose, and caribou, but our favorite spotting was when we were treated to a
mama grizzly trying to get her cubs to cross the river behind her. The twins were having none of it and grabbing
each other and we were witness to a universal sound from children everywhere
(and that would include our cat when she goes into the bath): “Noooooo!” Both the cubs, holding each other and crying
a very clear “Nooooo!” Mom would look at
them from the other side as if to say, “Really?
Do I have to come back over there?”
That would be a yes. Back she
came…talked to the 2 once again…then back across while the twins held each
other and protested. Finally one of them
took the plunge and the other followed…we could have watched them all DAY!
We stopped along
the way at another Visitor Center that had etchings of Mt. McKinley/Denali on
the windows indicating where the mountains would be if you could see them. That alone tells you how much rain and cloudy
weather they get!!
The
Kantishna Lodge welcomed us/fed us and showed us to our cabins. We hit the beds only after signing up for a “Wonder
Lake” outing the following day.
7/20/14—Sunday
Wonder Lake
and other fishing attempts proved to be a bust, partly due to silt in the water
made worse by the rains, and partly due to tacky tackle offered at the
Roadhouse—but it was still a good excuse to get out, walk, film…and try out a
mosquito head net. They’re dandy in
effectiveness, but kind of skew the views and make filming rather
difficult. I resorted to my bug badge
and spray to keep the pesky pests from biting me, then managed to drop the head
net into the water and later “lose” it, having to go back and retrieve it after
we were “done”. Ooops. Our main accomplishment was that we managed
to get one of our 2 sets of clothing wet, so now we’d better watch the puddles
and such! Had a great lunch and then
went to the cabin to play some cribbage but got as far as lying down on the bed—nap
time!!
We woke up to
a slug of people, evidently 1-dayers just staying for lunch. We decided to check out “Fanny’s lodge” and
learned all about Fanny Quigly—a tough old gal who braved over 700 miles of
travel on her own and ended up living out the rest of her life in Denali,
catering to various miners and then townsfolk once the prospects dried up. Part of her adventure involved shooting a
moose and climbing inside the carcass in order to survive a blizzard. Wow!
People respected her for her straight-shooting mouth and ways—well,
maybe not so much Joe Quigly, her temporary husband who took off and never came
back, leaving her to fend for herself (which she appears to have enjoyed just
fine).
The rain
continued but then the sun made itself known for about 5 minutes and it was
like a celebration woo-hoo moment! We
passed some of the rainy time by sitting in the upstairs lounge—a beautiful
view of the river and oddball assortments of books and oddities. One of the furnishings, for example, is a
glass-topped table encasing various examples and descriptions of scat found in
Denali, complete with a “crap stick” for lips, supposedly made out of poo. The claim is that it may not do much for the
chapped part but it’ll keep you from licking your lips, which is a plus! By the way, for those of you who care or who
are, say, WORRIED, our Cribbage “tournament” at that point was tied up at 3 a
piece.
We were
served—and yes, ATE—lamb shanks for dinner, yummmm! Then one of the twin rangers (tall
Amazon-like women) Kirsten gave a great talk on glaciers. Both of these young ladies impressed us—they were
home-schooled, brilliant, and very sweet but very strong and hard-working as
well.
After much
ta-do about when we were flying out the next day—finally came down to us flying
out at 4:30 p.m. instead of 3:00, and, oh yeah, the luggage had to go by bus,
even our ONE carry-on lightly-packed—no room on these tiny planes for such!
7/21/14—Monday
We had set
the alarm to get our bag on the front porch for pickup at 5:00 a.m. then
promptly went back to sleep. We ate too
much at breakfast once again (eggs benedict—how can you say no?) then decided
to take a filming walk. We took the
nature trail walk and were really glad we did—wow, what a view at the end right
by the river/mountains.
We had a
little time before our plane would leave, so we decided to take part in another
activity. The other twin, Ananda treated
us to a fascinating dog sled lecture/demo and Chris, not a dog person, kept
remarking on how well-trained they were and was duly impressed!! The dogs got so excited when they got to pull
the “sled” (this would be a 4-wheeler in the summer) and they seemed happy with
their lives. I felt a bit sorry for them
at first as they’re more limited with space and “romp room”—chained to their
houses, walked separately—but then seeing them interact with people made me
realize that, as always in life, happiness is relative. In their world, they’re happy!
Ready to fly
back to Denali’s entrance! We waited at
the lodge high above the air strip and filmed incoming/outgoing planes while
our plane returned and was readied for us.
When An Experience Is Worth Bold
Letters…!!!!
WOW!! Everything…and I mean EVERYTHING paled in
comparison to this flight through Denali.
“Wow!!” was all Chris and I could keep saying. We were hoping just to get a good view of
Denali on the way out, but we instead got the thrill of a lifetime as we were
treated to one of the most spectacular experiences either of us had had or seen. Up close and personal with Denali—it’s not
only a TALL thing but HUGE in its entirety.
The thrill of a lifetime, indeed.
Both Chris and I shot film of it, hoping it did even a fraction of
justice to it!
Got back to
the Visitor Center, still reeling from our flight, picked up our bag and headed
back to Grizzly Bear cabins for one last night there. We could not believe our day and were still
chatting excitedly remembering various sensations from that flight.
Had supper
at Denali Roadhouse Restaurant and played a cheap game of cheap pool on a cheap
table that kept getting stuck returning the cue ball. Oh well!!
Nothing can take away from a thrill of a lifetime…it’s okay!
7/22/14—Tuesday
We’re
heading off on our own today! We’ve
enjoyed the booked/reserved stuff we did (especially the Denali plane ride—have
I mentioned that yet?), but are happy to not have plans for the next couple of
days—we’re seeing how it plays out. As
Chris says, “We know we’re going to do SOMEthing today!” Our main goal is to reach Seward, a place we
have not seen before. Road muffins and
coffee for breakfast and off we go!
The weather
was picture-perfect—lots of photo ops and we took advantage of that! We voted the drive from Anchorage to Seward
hands down the most beautiful drive yet—even rivals the Cassiar highway which
had so impressed us before.
We decided
to stay at the Holiday Inn Express on the harbor (had a balcony and view of the harbor—fantastic!)
and enjoyed the view, then grabbed some dinner.
7/23/14—Wednesday
Took in our
complimentary breakfast and assessed the weather. It had rained during the night and was now
cloudy but we enjoyed the view/room and decided to stay another night. This meant we had to switch rooms before noon
as ours was spoken for—no biggee, as we still got the view!!
Our next
room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we went for a drive that ended up at Exit
Glacier. A beautiful little hike that we
filmed/enjoyed and then, the glacier—up close—was amazing!! I just can’t seem to get enough of those amazing
ice-blue colors that peak through glaciers.
Almost like a religious experience in itself. But wait, there’s MORE…!!
Just as we
were about to turn and go, a black bear bounded across the ice and we were able
to catch it on film. The rangers at the
place said they had NEVER seen a bear on the glacier before. Cool!!!
Got back and
checked into our room then went for another drive. Chris just picked a road at random and
Boom! A moose right by the side of the
road!! We stopped to film her and she
was pretty unconcerned (must have been some good stuff she found to eat!). We then drove to the other side of the water
to look back at Seward—neat view. Next
stop, the Seward library, where we could check on email and, ever-so-important,
our online Scrabble games! The library is
covered with the most amazing tile that changes colors as you walk. They’re basically the same color but from
different perspectives and lighting, they look multi-colored from wherever you
stand. Neat!
Once back,
we took a nice long walk around the harbor, then ate big beautiful salads (as
we were feeling a bit roughage-deprived of late) at a recommended place 2 doors
down. Slow-walked back to our room to
turn in (about 11:00 pm by then).
7/24/14—Thursday
We were
going to lounge around before checkout time this morning, but the day turned
out to be gorgeous (with predicted rain that upcoming night), so we got up to
get going and make the most of it. Chris
was up and out before me and was able to film the beautiful blue sky and
sunshine on the mountains. You can’t
beat this! We decided to take our time
getting to Whittier where we had planned to spend our last night before flying
out of Anchorage tomorrow night.
Here’s the
thing about Moose Pass Café, which is somewhere in between Seward and Whittier. It presented itself at a time when I needed a
bathroom break and it was the only thing open.
A big sign out front admonishes, “Our restrooms are for restaurant
patrons only.” Feeling oh-so-clever, I
offered to get Chris a cup of coffee to go so I could use their
facilities. Everything worked like
clockwork and when I got back to the car, Chris was cracking up. “Well, that certainly told a story! Every woman who came out of there had a
coffee to go!” Guess I don’t get points
for originality. Sure enough, we passed
about a dozen fellow women with coffee-to-go’s in hand on the way out of the
parking lot.
Whittier’s
surrounding glaciers and mountains did not disappoint—wonderful!! The tunnel is quite impressive to get there
(3 miles long and 5-6 minutes with enforced speed limits). Whittier Inn lunch and view were great. Whittier the town…uhhhh…well? Kinda small, kinda dumpy…we filmed the best
and worst and headed back through the tunnel and decided to see what the town
of Girdwood offered in terms of places to stay.
On the way,
we drove to the town of Hope and back—nice drive, but nothing much to the
town. Arrived in Girdwood and took a
chance on a questionable-looking house that said “lodging”. When we entered, we were greeted by a
gorgeous exotic-looking Bali-princess-like woman named Tanya who happily booked
us in a condo/resort. Her store was full
of amazing local art and she was peaceful and happy as was her music. It was one of those places where you enter
and immediately feel warm and happy all over.
What luck! Girdwood is a ski
resort town and during the summer becomes like a ghost town full of resort
stuff—some of which is open year-round—it was fun to be there in its off-season
when hardly anyone was there. We landed
a great condo at the base of Mt. Alyeska—verrrrry comfortable with all the
fixins. We napped, took a walk around
Girdwood itself, then grabbed some snacks at the store we could call dinner and
tuned into some old movies (hey, full cable…why not?). Tonight we were packing up for the final leg
of our journey. Chris planted the
Northern Lights bug in me—as in there might be a chance as we were flying into
Fairbanks at dark night (our flight leaves at 11:00 pm). Seeing the Aurora Borealis is definitely on
my bucket list and the anticipation got me going…
7/25/14—Friday
Slept well
and got up for our final day. Took our
time getting up and showered, ate a couple of bananas we had brought with us
from our complimentary breakfast in Seward, and still managed to get out by
8:00 a.m. The day was gray/rainy/cloudy,
so not the photo ops we’ve had the last couple of days. Stopped to watch some fisher folks, then went
about the business of gassing up and turning in our rental car before we got
charged for another day (noon was the cutoff).
Found out that they won’t check bags in until 4 hours before the flight,
so we took advantage of the security storage service to hold our luggage for a
fee. Okay, so we had about 12 hours
before boarding. Great. We burned out on Cribbage finally, calling a
halt to it after several “tournaments”…then, let’s see…what else? Got a paper, read that, worked some puzzles,
ate, people-watched…looked at museum pieces,
sat up in the observation tower, walked other gates to see how the “other
half” lived and then Chris decided we should ride the moving walk back and
forth and see how long it took for someone to stop us. No one did, so we finally tired of that too. No sleep would come, even though we
tried. It seemed like as soon as we
nodded off in the least, some airport employee would need into a cupboard
within earshot, or banged the garbage cans around while emptying them.
Needless to
say, we were quite happy when it was time to board finally. Whew!
Made it! Fairbanks was a quick
switch to get on our flight back to Portland.
AGAIN, we tried to sleep and failed—those airplane seats just aren’t
real comfortable and we chatted and looked out the window (sorry, Darcie—no Northern
Lights), and worked puzzles.
Be Careful What You Don’t Worry About…
By the time
we reached Portland, we had basically been up 24 hours. Ahhhh—but we were on the last part—picked up
our luggage, shuttled to our car in the Thrifty Parking Lot, and home we go…or
so we THOUGHT. Visions of cooking in our
own kitchen and getting caught up on sleep danced around in our heads as we
pushed the button for our Prius to go.
Our reliable Prius. Our
quiet-running Prius. Our gas-efficient
Prius we had thoughtfully filled before heading to the airport a week ago. She didn’t budge—dash lights came on, and
battery showed some juice—what could possibly be the problem? Out of gas.
Operator(s) error!!!! Our Prius
runs so quietly that when the shuttle showed up behind us as we parked, we
jumped out, loaded up and left the Prius…running…efficiently…out…of…gas.
Luckily, the
folks at Thrifty happily helped us get a gas can filled—to no doubt get us off
their lot, I’m sure!—and we finally chugged the poor Prius back to life after a
2nd can (note to Prius owners:
you need to make sure to go OVER 1.8 gallons to make the “Low Fuel”
light go off if you ever should happen to run the thing out of gas).
It was
probably all of that bragging we did during our trip of how smooth all
transactions and reservations had gone and how wonderfully free of problems the
trip had been. That might have jinxed it…who
knows?
I’m betting
that it’s probably because I had stopped worrying by then. Where ARE those genes when you NEED them???
