more pictures to come

I'm sitting in an RV in Homer, Alaska. I can see the ocean, snowy mountains and even a volcano or two (I'm told -- though they don't look any different than the other mountains). Behind me there are actual glaciers in the mountains.
We spent the last three days doing Denali National Park. We took a train from Anchorage to Denali one day, spent the next day in the park itself, and then took a bus back south the next day.

For some reason, our internet connection at the RV park won't let us upload pictures (either to blogger or via email), but I can tell you a little bit about our time in Denali and maybe upload pictures once we get to Seward tommorrow.

I have seem some really beautiful places in the last few years. The Pennsylvania countryside is a peaceful, rolling hills sort of place. When Mark and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge at night, that was a beautiful experience. But I can say with all certainty that I have never seen anything like Denali in all my life.
The mountains, of course, are amazing. There's only one road into the park, and a shuttle bus takes you in. Most of the time we were in the park, we were above the tree line, so even though the mountains towered above us, we were in a raised valley -- 2,000 feet or so -- and I felt like I was in this totally secret place. Only one road, and only an occasional park bus at that, very few hikers visible. There are no trails in Denali... The mountains were covered in tundra, the short spongy grass and miniature flowers, and only sometimes would there be bushes -- maybe five feet high -- but no trees.
Before we went into the park, we were told that it's pretty rare to be able to see Mt. McKinley; it's only visible maybe one out of every five days. The rest of the time it's covered in clouds. So when we got to mile nine into the park (our first chance to glimpse it), and it came into view clear as day, there was an audible gasp in the bus, and even a few cheers. The tour guide said she hadn't seen it since May 29th. It's the biggest mountain in North America, and has the biggest vertical rise in the world (while Everest is 9,000 feet higher, McKinley looks higher because it starts at a lower point). After that, our whole way into the park (four hours in, four hours out, not counting hiking time), everytime it came into view, the people on the bus would get really worked up. It was incredible how white and snow covered and dramatic that mountain was. I'll certianly post a picture when I can. It's interesting, though, how most of the mountains weren't that jagged and snow covered (just McKinley and its buddies) -- just smooth and green and tall and rounded. It was so easy to picture where the glaciers must have plowed their way through.
We saw a lot of wildlife -- a momma grizzley bear and two cubs (from far away), moose, and lots of caribou and bighorn sheep really close up. One caribou got on the road in front of our bus and walked right in front of us for about 15 minutes; we just had to slow down and drive with it.

I can't believe how lucky I am to have seen a place like that.

What would a trip be without frisbee golf?

On our second day in Anchorage, we sort of just hung around the city; not much to do. Having a big city in such a pretty place seems like a good idea, but it turns out that downtown Anchorage is pretty much just a collection of gift shops. And coffee shops. Someone recommended the zoo. We were told that it was started because someone one an elephant in a poker game and needed a place to put it. We were also told that a wild bear kept hanging around the zoo and coming back to it, so they just put it in the cage with the other bears and let it stay. There was a free shuttle from downtown.
Well, I have to say that the Anchorage zoo is not all that you might think it is (certainly no St. Louis zoo, I'm told). We counted 19 species total (not counting the birds because they don't count), and all of them were sleeping. Or pacing. The best thing we saw was baby goats in the petting zoo portion. They were play butting each other. Also they had wolf puppies, but they were just sleeping.
After the zoo, we walked a mile or two to a Play it Again Sports to get, you guessed it, a frisbee golf disc, and we played a round (only nine holes).
We had Mexican food for dinner, and my parents came into Anchorage late that night. The next morning we took a train to Denali National Park!

First day in the Land of the Midnight Sun

So after leaving our house at 8 in the morning on Saturday, we finally got into Anchorage about 20 hours later. It was a little bit exhausting, but it was so amazing to finally get to Alaska and see the mountains poking through the clouds -- and sharp snowcapped mountains at that.
It looked like this:


That picture was taken at eleven o clock at night. Notice the high level of daylight. We were super excited about getting to experience so much daylight. It's so novel to be walking around outside at midnight when it's light (and on our way to the hotel from the airport, we saw people playing frisbee golf at midnight), but when you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, and daylight's streaming through the cracks in the curtain, and your internal clock is already four hours off... Not so much novel as disorienting.

But we got off to a good start this morning. Mark and I rented a tandem bicycle and went for this 30 mile bike ride through the city trails of Anchorage.


Anchorage is an interesting city. There are a lot of neat paved trails running through the parks, but we also rode along some roads. Anchorage pretty much looks just like the rest of America -- roads, cars, discount storage places -- but like somebody dropped one of those painted backgrounds behind it. You know, like a stage set or like the picture of a home library that they sometimes put behind families at Sears Photo. Except the backdrop is an everpresent picture of these gigantic mountains.


Towards the end of our ride, we came to the most amazing part of the bike ride -- the coastal trail. We came out of the woods and the view opened up before us... we were on a bluff overlooking Anchorage's inlet. It was low tide, so there were miles and miles of sand and small pools -- blue grey and brown -- and then beyond the water, mountain ranges. Some of the mountains were close and dark brown and we could see downtown Anchorage nestled between them and the water. But other mountains were jagged and distant and altogether snowy. They were so amazing, but I had to keep reminding myself that they were there -- since they were so white and far on the horizon, my eye kept reading them as clouds. Take a look -- don't be fooled; those are mountains on the horizon. Of course, it's so hard to get a good picture to do it justice.


We saw some people playing frisbee golf up on this bluff, and Mark immediately felt sorry that he didn't have his discs. "I bet this is the best frisbee golf course in the world," he said. "I bet so," I said back.


That was definitely the highlight of the day. We rode our bikes back into Anchorage and had some lunch. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a "Fur Factory" near our hotel. $3,000 fur coats, silver fox pelts, and, of course, fur lingerie. I'm not sure how anyone could actually wear this and not feel like a R rated Betty Rubble.


Tomorrow we're planning exploring the downtown and maybe eating some Mexican.
We'll let you know how it goes.

Nice night, nice dinner, nice rash...

I have to say that nobody does grilling like the Bateses...

We went over to their house Monday night for dinner and had a lovely time. I got to play with the neighbors' puppy; we took our time to make dinner, laughing and talking with other good friends Carl and Jeremy; the six of us (seven if you count Bates-in-utero) sat on their back porch feasting and looking at their view of the mountains. The weather was perfect; the beer was cold. I don't think I could ask for anything more.

But like I said, nobody does grilling like them (and by the way -- if you're reading Bateses, thanks for being such great hosts), and here's what we had on the menu:

Not only did we have grilled steaks and corn, but they made

1. Lobster (Maine lobster)
2. Mussels (yum)
3. and Scallops (double yum)

I think I ate my weight's worth in seafood and butter, just great!

In other news...

I think I have a newfound shellfish allergy.

Either that or someone switched my face soap with poison ivy.

The next morning my face and neck got a little swollen, got very red and very itchy (still is), and my lips are itchy too. When I talked to Penn State's advice nurse (over the phone), she freaked out a little bit and told me I had to immediately see a doctor or go to the emergency room. Ultimately they just wrote me a prescription for Zyrtec and sent me on my way with instructions to not eat any crab on our upcoming trip to Alaska (sigh). At least they didn't give me a shot.

Also

Here are a few more pictures from our weekend trip to D.C.... On our way back to State College, we stopped at Gettysburg and had a look around.


A field, maybe where, umm, Pickett's Charge took place.



Millie poses in front of a cannon.




Millie contemplates our nation's complicated past.

Reasons you wish you were in D.C. last weekend:

1. Trader Joe's
Have you grocery shopped here? It took everything I had to not pick up every last item in the store to inspect its concept, content, nutritional info. They had pumpkin ice cream. And European chocolate. And apple chicken sausages. And all manner of strange and unusual gourmet items.

2. Ikea on a Saturday morning
just as many people as you might think. Still fun to walk around, though.

3. Jeremy and Jessica
hosts extrordinaire. It was nice to hang out with them AND they were gracious enough to let Millie come with us AND it turns out that Jessica (whom we know through Penn State) knew some people that we know.
We were sitting around the dinner table and we were talking about middle names. Someone at the table had a directional middle name (West), so I mentioned my friend Melissa North. Melissa North M__, I said. "Oh," Jessica spoke up, "I know Melissa M__" She went to my high school! (Although we know Jessica from Penn State, she went to high school in Tallahassee). Laughs and exclamations of coincidence all around.
Then I said, "she's marrying someone named Nahum next weekend." "Nahum B__?" she asked. Now I was a little weirded out. "Yes, Nahum B__" I answered. "He volunteered at my church youth group" she said.
Now how about that. I thought those of you who are friends of Melissa and Nahum might appreciate that...

4. Hilary and Flo



We had a very nice dinner with my old and dear friend Hilary on Saturday. We grilled out. She showed me the wonders of Trader Joe's. Millie played with her greyhound, Flo.

5. Sheetz Subs

My new favorite thing about driving anywhere is getting a sub at Sheetz. Yum.

6. Overall Nice Time

It was a great weekend, and on our way back to State College, we stopped somewhere with a famous address. More on that later!