On the road again….too soon…

I can hardly believe that I have been in Alaska for six weeks already and that it’s time for the Jazz and I to wing our way home tomorrow. I always have to psych myself up to come, anticipating the journey, the cold and the change of scene, and then once I’m here I acclimate quickly, revisit all my favorite haunts and then at the end I get sad thinking about leaving.

But I’ve enjoyed a few beers,

drunk way too much coffee,

got snowed on continuously (not really it just seems that way!),

enjoyed the beauty of Alaska,

eaten delectable food,

then tried to walk a lot to (unsuccessfully) keep the pounds off,

and as a result, tired the pokey little puppy out.

I think it’s time to go home!

SNOWED IN!

Okay that headline probably doesn’t seem too crazy considering I am currently spending my annual weeks in exile up in Alaska, and even the midwest is still getting pelted with snow, but even for Anchorage the current snowfall coming down is pretty excessive.

The snow started falling during the early hours on Sunday and it is still coming down on this Monday morning with no plans of stopping until sometime on Tuesday. Now that’s a lot of snow!

For the first time in many moons I am literally snowed in, which seems crazy to me in this day and age. You would think that here in a snowy state like Alaska they would be on top of stuff like snowy streets, but you would be wrong! They do a mediocre job of clearing the streets and they don’t use salt they use gravel.

Last night on the local news they said the plows would come out after 11 pm and plow all night to get ready for Monday morning. I guess that was the first time they were coming out to clear the already 8 plus inches on the ground. Crazy, huh?

But people here are a hardier lot than I am, plus they have cars and trucks with studded tires and four-wheel drive, we, on the other hand, own a 1990 something vehicle with lousy tires, so I guess that makes them hardier by default!

But I am also a bit of a spoiled princess! I’m used to living in a town near a big city where the streets are plowed quickly and efficiently and everyone on the block owns a snow blower. Here in our little condo neighborhood we have a couple of guys with shovels clearing the front stoop and little bobcat vehicle trying to clear the snow from the driveways and streets. I think they are finding it a bit of a losing battle as fast and heavy as this snow is coming down! I feel for them I really do.

Little Jazz is also finding it a bit bewildering. She loves the snow, but this morning’s depth of the white stuff left her confused and paralyzed with indecision about how to navigate her way around the unplowed driveway and streets. She pretty much sticks to the tire grooves to walk but even those were and are filling up quickly with snow.

Our shoveled front walkway

Right now as I look out the window it’s become a swirling, pelting, blowing white out, which has totally obscured any view of the majestic mountains normally within my view. I’m really glad I don’t have to venture out in this and it’s not such a bad thing to be snowed in when you have a nice warm place to wait out the storm, plenty of reading material, adequate food supplies, electricity, and communication with the outside world, it could be worse! Although it could be better because I’m out of beer!!

Oh, the weather outside is icy!

Here in Alaska the neighborhood side streets are ice skating, hockey playing slick. It’s treacherous and pretty scary taking that first step off of the driveway onto the glass-like surface that greets me every chilly morning when Jasmine and I start out on our morning constitutional.  So the other day I got smart and bought myself some grippers for my shoes.

Man these things are great, although a bit loud!

There is no chance of me sneaking up on any wild life, or for that matter hearing any if they decide to sneak up on me!

Alaska Book Bonanza!

I love the Anchorage Library!!

It looks like I better get reading and quit spending so much time on the computer!!

Middle Seat Agnst

Flying to Alaska

Last week was another flight and yet another middle seat. I’ve always avoided these in the past and sought out the aisle seat, but since I’ve been flying with the wonder dog, AKA Jasmine, I have done a 360 and actively been seeking them out instead!

I discovered the hard way that her soft-sided dog carrier does not fit under the aisle seat. Our first journey to Alaska had me sitting in the aisle, struggling to jam her and the carrier under the seat with the result being a squished Jasmine. I felt terrible. Luckily for me no one showed up to take the middle seat and so I placed her there and discovered the extra real estate the middle seat possesses. Since then the middle seat it is…

Jasmine under the aisle seat

Jasmine hanging out in the middle

It’s a terrible seat to sit in for 6 plus hours, fighting for the arm rests from my fellow passengers, a dog between my feet, nowhere to go….and now that we’ve just completed our ninth one way flight I have to say it hasn’t gotten any easier! Every journey is different because my seat companions are always different. Most people are nice, but as anyone who’s flown knows, not everyone is pleasant and understanding, or even likes dogs for that matter!

There was the red-eye flight where the guy in the aisle seat shut his eyes at takeoff, placed his arm on “my” arm rest and never budged for the entire 6 hours, sleeping pill perhaps? or the impatient woman who got mad because she had to wait in the aisle for 20 seconds while I got Jasmine placed under the seat and then pouted the entire journey.

But the worst was the crabby old woman in the window seat next to me that screamed, “There’s a dog on the plane, there’s a dog on the plane!” and asked the stewardess to move me. Luckily for me the stewardess said I had paid for that seat and she would be glad to move her if she liked, which of course she didn’t, so unluckily for me I had her sitting next to me the entire flight. Even more unluckily for me she had her deaf, 80-year-old boyfriend moved to the empty aisle seat next to me, and throughout the trip she leaned across me with her arm patting him to get his attention, and passing him food from her voluminous carpet bag of a purse! Worse trip E-VER! The best part though…when we were deboarding and her very nice boyfriend (he was too nice for her!) said, “There was a doggie under the seat the whole flight?, what a sweet dog”. Oh brother!!

But the nice people make up for the bad, the stern looking businessman who turned to mush when he realized there was a pooch next to him on the flight, the people who spot Jasmine and get a wistful look in their eye when they tell me they wish their pup was along for the ride too, and the Alaska Airlines personnel (and some TSA agents too!) who always fawn over her and comment how she is so well behaved.

It always gives me a warm feeling when Jasmine and I are strolling through security and the airport concourse before a flight and I see how excited and happy people get when they see this peppy little doggy strutting amongst them. That part alone makes the whole thing worthwhile!

An Anchorage Trifecta

I’m back residing in my other abode for a few weeks, and yesterday I decided to go out and explore three places on my ‘Alaska to-do list’.

Title Wave Books is a 30,000 square foot bookstore, almost completely stocked with used books. It’s huge and extremely well organized by category with a great Alaska section featuring non-fiction books, as well as local authors, and novels featuring Alaska. Unfortunately it doesn’t have very many old books of the smelly variety that I love, and I do think their used book prices are pretty darn high, but that being said I still ended up walking out of there with two titles!
Thanks to Simon at Savidge Reads for the recommendations,

Attached to the store was a restaurant I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time. My reason for wanting to try it? It’s name~ Yak and Yeti. You see I’ve already eaten at another restaurant by that name in Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, which I really enjoyed, so seeing that name here in Anchorage intrigued me. I must say the Anchorage Yak and Yeti restaurant’s food was excellent.

I had the Pork Vindaloo because it was recommended to me by the clerk at the bookstore, and she didn’t steer me wrong. It was yummy, but I know I’m going to have to go back and try something else very soon, because just reading their menu online has me drooling!

My third stop of the afternoon was Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge. The name alone sounds delish doesn’t it? I’ve been on their email list for ages, but because of my M-O-B diet during my last few times in town, I avoided the temptation. But thankfully the kid is married now and I can indulge a little, ok a LOT, so to the chocolate lounge I went!

It’s a fairly small store, but painted in lovely brown chocolatey colors, with several small seating areas, and saleable artwork and jewelry around the perimeter. I wasn’t sure what to order, but I knew that they served drinking chocolate which is something that is often sipped by characters in some of my favorite Victorian novels. When I inquired about said chocolate I was offered a sample to try, either spicy or non-spicy. Hmm, decisions, decisions. I chose spicy!

It was so rich and thick that the sample handed to me was served in a small paper cup with a spoon~~creamy, rich with a kick…heavenly!  I ended up getting a mocha latte made with their spicy Mayan drinking chocolate and took my time enjoying it. Well, I had to take my time, because it was FIERY! I loved it, but it’s not for the faint of heart…or everyday consumption
Modern Dweller’s chocolate studio not only produces the drinking chocolate, but also truffles and candy bars.

I bought one truffle, Golden Goat, a mixture of goat cheese and dark chocolate ganache, but I have yet to let myself indulge, maybe tomorrow.

Anchorage is a great place to go exploring for unique shops, and restaurants. Yes, it has all the chain places you’d expect, but there are so many hidden gems. I can’t wait until my next adventure, and you know it’s going to have to include food!

Related articles

• Drinking Chocolate: A Timeless Treat (adammatthewdigital.wordpress.com)
• Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford (savidgereads.wordpress.com)

Check ‘Go to a State Fair’ off the Bucket List!

 

I bet when I posted that I was fulfilling a wish on my bucket list while in Alaska, you thought it was going to be something exciting like white water rafting, or zip lining or even mountain climbing, but no, this tick of the pen goes next to something I’ve always wanted to do ~~ Attend a State Fair.

I know not very exciting, huh?

So maybe it wasn’t high on my priority list but it was definitely on there. See I grew up going to two County Fairs in Ohio almost every summer with my family and friends. Then when my kids were little I took them to the County Fair too. But I’ve never made the trek to the BIG ONE, the State Fair. We’ve never lived close enough for one thing and I guess we never felt like spending money on a hotel room for an overnight stay, but with the Alaska State Fair located only an hour a way in Palmer, Alaska, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

They had all the usual stuff you expect at a fair…

Livestock…

Ribbons given out for bake goods, crafts and flowers…

Gigantic Produce…

Fried Fattening Food and Scary Carnival Rides …
(I ate my fried Halibut too quickly for a pic, and I did NOT ride this scary swingy-bungy thingy!)

and then a few things I didn’t expect…

TIny Daredevils (the youngest was 3 years old!)…

A Wine Bar (we had to check it out!)…..

Alaskan Native Dancers (this lady was so joyful and cute!)….

And Gorgeous Scenery…..

I don’t think I ever expected to be at a State Fair with views like that!

It was a terrific day, and I even remembered to make a guess in the Annual Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off, 119.85 pounds, sure hope it’s a winner!!

 

Bouquet List

The title of my post is really an homage to one of my favorite TV characters Hyacinth Bucket, but what I really want to talk about are Bucket Lists. Do you have one?

I never thought I did until that movie with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson came out a few years ago. Before The Bucket List I had never even heard that term. I had a list of things in my head to do ‘someday’, but I’m pretty sure I never used the gloomy phrase ‘before I die’.

In 2003 the travel book, 1,000 Places to See before You Die by Patricia Shultz, was released and was so wildly popular that the Travel Channel created a television show based on it and a slew of copy cat books and websites have been created telling you other things you must read, watch and see before you kick the bucket. It’s exhausting just thinking of all the thousands of things I have yet to do as my ticker keeps ticking down!

But somehow the use of the phrase ‘Bucket List’ has crept into my vocabulary and I find myself, and notice others, using the phrase frequently. While I haven’t written a physical list of things I want to do before my demise, I do have some ideas percolating in my noggin.

And today, here in the great state of Alaska one of these percolating ideas is going to be ticked off my bouquet list…..

….stay tuned!

Running Wild

If anyone would have told me when I was in my 20′s that I would be running in 5K races when I’m in my 50′s I would have told them they were cuckoo bananas!  I loathed running. I liked Jazzercise (the Zumba of the 80′s), golfing and bowling~~the latter two especially because you can drink beer while participating!

But here I was today participating in my 5th 5K! It was a good one too as I got to run through the streets of Anchorage, along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, and in the midst of the 2012 Iditarod Champ, Dallas Seavey. There was also a lot of music…a real live cowboy sang the National Anthem, and a troupe of native Alaskans did a tribal dance about running and there were even some Scottish bagpipers about half way along the course. Alaskans are a very eclectic group to say the least!

I didn’t see Mildred, but I did meet Stanley

As an added bonus Nanook and I finished the race side by side, hands clasped in the air, as excited that we ran together as we were that we made it up that last incline without keeling over

Then the icing on the cake….they gave me this nice shiny medal!…

…well they gave everyone a nice shiny medal, but it’s the thought that counts!

The Beauty of Alaska

The first thing I noticed as our plane made its descent into Anchorage (besides the ring of mountains!) was the deep shades of green dotting the landscape. With most of the country suffering a severe drought this summer it’s fantastic to come to Alaska and see gorgeous pops of color at every turn. Nanook and I took a stroll downtown this afternoon and I can’t resist sharing a few snaps.

And since Alaska summers are filled with lots of daylight, plants, flowers and vegetables grow to gargantuan proportions! Next week we are heading to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer to check out the annual Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off where any veggie under 125 lbs. is considered puny!