Day 3 or Did That Really Just Happen? Really?

Today we decided to hike in the Denali park entrance. No long bus ride just a relaxed day of hiking. We thought since we weren't going deep into the park that we would see less wildlife. Oh my were we ever wrong.

We started off the hike to the top of Mt. Healy and not 10 minutes in we see this:

That is a baby moose chillin' like a villain about 50 feet of the trail. Someone on the way down gave us the heads up so I threw the zoom lens on and there you have it. A picture of a moose. But it doesn't stop there. Oh no our wildlife tour was just begining. We walked up the trail about another 100 feet or so and saw this:

That's momma moose. I had to lean in for this shot and my heart was pounding out of my chest. We weren't terribly close but moose are really big and I was kinda freakin.

We continued our hike and got close to the top of Mt. Healy. We made a new friend:

This crazy prarie dog let me get so close it was uncomfortable. I didn't have the zoom lens on for this I was so close I could have reached out and pet him. I didn't.

The whole hike we spoke to people that had seen the moose we had seen at the begining of the trail. It seemed that they had been there a while so we were optimistic that we would see them on the way down. That's when we saw this:

Are you freaking KIDDING ME? This was the same baby we saw on the way up but it had crossed the trail and was having lunch. We were about 15 feet away.

We hung out and took pictures and video but we knew momma was close by so we didn't linger too long. I think I didn't breathe the entire time we were there. It was surreal. No zoom lens for this one either. It was the real deal. Up close and personal.

Everyone that is reading this I must tell you that this is a place you need to see. If you have a bucket list add Denali too it. This has already been the most amazing trip and we are only 3 days in.

Denali

Well folks there it is. Mt. McKinley. It is an amazing thing to lay eyes on and we got really lucky, the people that went into the park the day before didn't see the mountain once, but the clouds cleared for us and we got a spectacular view.

It never really gets dark here. The sun "sets" at about 10:00 but even then it doesn't get truly dark. It sort of stays twilight all night until the sun comes back up at 5:30 or so. It's very bizarre. In fact it is somewhat unsettling. I didn't realize it but there is some comfort in the dark of night. I will say, though, that you really can get a lot into a day when the sun stays up for so long and it's really easy to lose track of time.

Bear in the road!! :) Now off to hike some more.

Days 1 and 2 in Alaska

Warning. Blogger has had 2 glasses of wine and 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. Typos and tangents may occur.

yesterday is much as you would imagine it...17 hours of travel time in either a car or a plane. Surprisingly smooth but loooong nonetheless. After two delirium inducing flights we were in a car on an Alaskan highway headed for the highest mountain n the USA. Very exciting. Very exhausing.

Route 3 to Denali is a two lane highway that is undergoing some serious renovations. After a pretty major delay for roadwork we started to get into the scenic part of AK (PS Anchorage is a shithole Wasilla is ok if you like target and Sara Palin and stuff.) Mountains everywhere just jutting out of the ground like they owned the place. When we were about an hour from Denali we started to see really huge mounians.

Michael: "Wow those are some big mount...holy shit that's McKinley."
Me: What that sticking up out of the clouds?"
Michael: "Yeah!"

Honestly it must have been the cloud placement or something but the mountains we were looking at and marveling at their size were absoutely dwarfed by the peak sticking up through the clouds. I laughed.

How many of you took band in school? Show of hands? OK put your hands down.

My band teacher introduced us to all of the instruments in the orchestra our first day of band class. From the highest note on the piccolo to the lowest note on the basoon. I remember when he blew the lowest note on the basoon I lauged. I didn't mean to it was just the absurdity of the note. It was so low it was just funny. I had the same sensation when I saw McKinley. The absurdity of the size of this mountain was just comical. Mountains we were in awe of were just a joke. I was surrounded by mountains that were taller than any I had ever seen and here was this crazy peak making a mockery of them. It was like the dude that came in and built a mansion in a shantytown.

We arrived at the McKinley creekside cabins and let me just say that if you ever come here this is where you should stay. Our cabin is right on the creek and the white noise is to die for (Amy this is your spot!) the food is amazing and the pillows rock. Pillows are big in my book.

We went into Denali today and hiked a bit. We saw pretty much every animal you can see in Denali. including a bear in the road! A bear in the road playing with a traffic cone!

Pictures will follow. It's hard to upload here but I'll do it soon.

Dance Like No One's Watching?

Well, I do that all the time in the appropriate setting. I mean if I'm out dancing I don't really hold back. There are terrible pictures of me dancing at people's weddings (yes that picture, Doc Sue) because I just don't care at all what I look like when I'm cutting it up. I know I must look a fool when I'm out there killing it on the dance floor, but I simply can't help it. I just lose all control. I've been told I'm the life of the party but really I think it's just a nice way of saying I'm a total dork.

So when I walked by Borders this morning and Adam Ant was coaxing me with his Goody Two Shoes, I had a really hard time keeping my pace and continuing on to work. Damn Borders and their awesome outdoor speakers. I honestly wanted to just drop what I was carrying and dance to Adam Ant. That would have been crazy, right? Yes, definitely crazy. If I had been with someone else that had that same urge and two of us took to dancing in front of Borders at 8:30am on a Tuesday morning it may have seemed less crazy, right? I mean we may have been able to get all the johnny-punch-clocks to actually dance a jig before heading into their mundane desk jobs. Everyone in downtown crossing would have had a better day because of the two people that spontaneously danced on their way to work. We would have had a crowd of people dancing to Goody Two Shoes! I know it! At least that's the way it would have worked out with two people dancing...in my head...sigh. One person dancing in front of Borders would have inspired all the johnny-punch-clocks to call the cops.

And here is my question to you...would you be that person to drop everything and dance with me to Adam Ant at 8:30am in downtown crossing Boston? Would you?

Who are you REALLY appreciating?

I got this in an email. Subject field read: CUSTOMER APPRECIATION!






















So I, the actual customer that has been giving you money all this time, can't get the discounted massage. I have to give it away. How is this customer appreciation? I'd call this customer utilization.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider Went Into Julie's Bag

I think some of you know that our house has an inordinate amount of spiders. About a year ago I went to boil water for tea and three spiders came crawling out of the hinge on the spout. We have had several spider eggs hatch which resulted in about a thousand baby spiders on the wall; once when we arrived home at 2am after a night of carousing about town. I am sure if anyone was watching it was comical to watch two drunk people squish a thousand spiders with paper towels. For us, not so fun. Most recently I had a spider drop out of the tissue I was blowing my nose into.

Seriously horrifying stuff. Today I have added a new chapter to the spider chronicles.

I left the house this morning with the promise of a rainy commute home so I packed my rain boots and other goodies in a Whole Foods reusable bag and took off for the bus stop. The bag was pretty full. It held my aforementioned boots, a pair of shoes to change into in the office, a book, a yogurt and my purse. When I got on the bus it was pretty full but I managed to find a seat. I busted out the old lady reading glasses (which must be ultra hilarious to my fellow commuters to see me reading Twilight with old lady reading glasses) and my book and settled in for a crowded commute. As I took the book out of the bag I saw the spider on the book. The bus is packed at this point, someone sitting to my left someone standing in the aisle to my right. Freaking out was not an option. I transferred the spider from the book to the inside of my bag, where he stayed visible for about 3 seconds then scampered down into the depths of my bag.

Horrors.

The guy sitting to my left saw all of this go down and asked, "Are you OK? Do spiders freak you out?"
I said, "They freak me out enough to NOT want one sitting on my lap."
"Well if he comes back out I'll try to kill it for you."

There was no room to put the bag on the floor so there it sat, on my lap. I tried to read but I was distracted by my constant vigil, waiting for the evil little thing to resurface.

I got out of the bus and emptied all of my business out onto the sidewalk. Out came the yogurt, the boots the purse...no spider.

So now there is a spider somewhere in my purse or boots or bag. It's enough to drive one to madness, knowing it's there, waiting to pounce. It'll probably lay an egg in my purse.

Staycation

Yeah that's right I said it. Staycation.

We went away for 6 days but didn't fly, didn't leave the country we didn't even leave the state. We stayed!

I will say this about our trip, we have traveled far and wide and haven not encountered so much adversity and weirdness. Don't get me wrong, I had a hell of a time, but we really had a lot of obstacles to overcome and just flat out wacky stuff happen.

First off we had an uninvited guest. His name was Danny and he proceeded to piss all over us and our fun times. It rained our first 2 days of vacation and I'm sorry to say that, for some of our friends, this was the only time away they had. We tried to make the best of it but just ended up with soggy shoes and dampened spirits. We finally said F U mother nature and took the coolers, cornhole and chairs down the dune and sat in the drizzle on the beach. We used the beach umbrellas as...well...umbrellas and defied the elements for about an hour and a half before giving in and heading into the 'combah.

As usual we got beers, steamers and oyster shots. The Beachcomber is my happy place. I love it there and it was the only thing keeping me from being livid about the crappy weather. Usually we can get out of the bar without incurring any injuries, but alas the evening resulted in a swollen eye (I walked into a door. The bathroom doors at the comber are set up poorly and one opens in while the other opens out and I was stuck in the middle of it.) and a broken foot. The broken foot was not me it was poor Jenny who got stomped on by some dude on the dance floor.

Then on to Nantucket where we had beautiful weather and I was able to get in the last beach days of the season. Good sun was absorbed and I may actually keep the tan till October. The house we stayed in was beautiful and perfectly located (albeit jam packed with spiders) between town and Surfside beach. There was a tiny path that led to a nearly deserted beach and Michael and I decided to take said path via bicycle. Well...it was adventurous and really fun in an exhilarating sort of way, but I did fall off the bike and that has resulted in a decent case of poison ivy on my butt. Michael has it too on his wrists. I think from helping me up? I don't know. Whatever, we both have poison ivy and I'd much rather have it on my wrists than on my ass, thank you very much.

Anyway, we ate at two insanely good restaurants while there. Black Eyed Susan's is the home of the best linguine and clams ever. Yes, faithful readers, I have found my death row linguine and clams and they reside at Black Eyed Susan's in Nantucket. We went to LoLa 41 as well and that place was very impressive. I had the sesame chicken noodles (I love a good noodle, people) and it was delicious. When I inquired about the dish the waitress said, "it's a brothy dish." I said, "so it's soup?" She reluctantly agreed it was soup. What do Nantucketers have against soup that the waitress couldn't call a spade a spade?

Sigh...we are home now and even with all of the adversity, I'd rather be on vacation than sitting at work in my veal crate of a cubicle.