Pictures from Seward

Maps can be deceptive. Many people who have not lived in Alaska look at the map of our state and try to imagine the amount of time it takes to travel from town to town; Homer to Anchorage, Homer to Fairbanks, Homer to pretty much anywhere. The perspective is a little screwed up.

I am always impressed when we receive visitors and they allow us to pick them up in Anchorage or let us drop them off there. It's a 4 to 5 hour drive and many of the guests don't realize the distance after they've looked at it on a map. It is an amazingly beautiful drive, but a long one none the less. You see, it's just that I can't bare the thought of a friend paying over $200 round trip per person from Anchorage to Homer when we have the most useful rig on the road, "The Mel Mobile".

The cool thing about all this driving with the kids is that they rarely ask, "How much longer until we get there." because they know the answer... forever. Because we don't have electronic equipment they are very mellow travelers who are good at amusing themselves. I know, it is weird.

I was especially impressed when my Aunt Carolyn and my Auntie Lynn (Caroline's Sister-In-Law) allowed us to drive them back to the airport for their flight to St. Louis via Seward so that we could drop into Seward on Aunt Phyllis and Chuck.

We aren't cruel, we didn't make them sleep in the Mel Mobile, they stayed in a circa 1945 tiny hotel room. They did spend their evening hanging out by the fire and roasting marshmallows with the family. Yes, they enjoyed it very much.

We ate in our favorite restaurant, The Smoke Shack. This picture is of Willie at the Smoke Shack. He had never seen a train up close before. The girls shopped around Seward, watched the kids ride bikes and play at the park, and hiked Exit Glacier. We visited a fish ladder run by Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, Bear Creek Hatchery. This was the high point of the kids trip to Seward and we spent several hours working the ware with the biologists. Where else in the country would the kids be allowed to have a total hands on experience without a safety briefing and a harness? Yes, we were there for hours.

I was trying to capture a picture of the fish jumping and could not get it. This is an incredibly difficult image to capture, believe it or not. So, when you see that iconoclastic picture of that bear with the fish going right into it's mouth, take a moment to honor that lucky photographer. Marina said, "Mom, let me try." and on her first snap caught this fish.

She has Beginners Mind.

After we had been there for a while a bus of tourists came from a cruise ship. There were two kids in the group younger than my two and both of my kids took them under wing to give them a full tour of the facility. The cruise ship tour guide was fully freaking out. Not only was he being upstaged at his job, but was being hyper safety conscious and this is when I realized how incredibly unsafe this must seem to people not from our state. The kids loved it.

After this long day, my mom and I hopped in the Mel Mobile with the Aunties and drove them to Anchorage (a two and a half hour drive) to the airport. We got there with time to spare and said a satisfied and sad goodbye. I am so lucky to have such a strong family.

It was now 11pm and my mom and I were driving around Anchorage needing sleep. Of all my travels, Anchorage in summer is the most expensive place to get a bed. Absolutely. Got $200 a night for a decent place? Got $150 for a hole in the wall?

Mom and I decided to sleep in the van. We pulled in to the parking lot at Sam's Club near the MacDonald's where the RV's were set up. Mom hung tee shirts in the windows. As we laid there underneath our sleeping bags, strategizing about what we would do if we had to pee in the night, I said, "Mom, I am so proud to have a mom who, at your age, is still willing to sleep in the back of a van in a parking lot in the middle of a city. It is cool to have such an easy going brave mom."

The next morning at 6am, we watched the sun shine on the mountains behind the Sam's Club from the Formica seats of the McDonald's. It's hard to admit this, but I had a perfect moment. In the margin of my Sudoku book I wrote this note:

Perfect

A sunny window

Sade playing overhead

Old Asian meeting; loud chatting over coffee in an old language with earphones of ipods in their ears

Invigorated internally from hilarious image of Mom and I sleeping in van,
while Mom saves $0.50 by ordering a Senior Coffee here at McDonald's

The drive back from Anchorage to Seward was peaceful. It was great to be alone with my mom. In Seward, the kids had taken a great hike with Vince up into the mountains which surround Seward and had gone back to the fish ladder, where they 'worked' a shift. We considered staying another night, but Phyllis seemed to be doing OK, and she promised to call us... Chuck is getting closer to his translation. During his awake times he was very interested in our putting him in the car for a road trip to Homer. When I kissed him goodbye all I could tell him was, "I'll meet you out in the car." It seemed to be enough. Then he hugged the kids and said good-bye. Outside his room, in the tree the little robin has hatched her babies and they seem to be doing well.

Transitions, translations, trust...