Janingalina

Tuesday
It was warm and a little drizzly. We drove down the Kenai Peninsula to the city of Seward. Had dollar tacos, karaoke, and fun for everyone at DJ's Wheelhouse. It was a _very_ local bar. After tacos, we got bored so we wandered down to the Yukon. As we were leaving, people started trying to buy us drinks and chat us up. It was odd.

At the Yukon we drank good beer, petted dogs, and played Scattergories with unemployed fishermen. It was great. We stumbled back to the hotel happy.

Wednesday
Dallied a bit in the a.m, noonish we caught a wildlife cruise around Resurrection Bay. We saw Dall porpoises, eagles, sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, and mountain goats. All kindsa stuff, as well as parts of Kenai Fjords National Park. They served Halibut for lunch on the ship, and made fresh baked cookies.



Then we wandered on to the Alaska Sea Life Center, where we got to poke tidepool creatures and learned more about the aquatic wildlife native to the area. Edjumakational.


Yummy seafood for dinner. All fresh. Gotta love a fishing town.

Thursday
We blew town early and turned up in Eagle River to pack for the BOW clinic. We did dinner at a Thai joint in Anchorage and proceeded to drink ourselves silly at Humpy's, enjoying the music of H3, 3 Hawaiian guys who live and play around Anchorage.

Friday
Caught a breakfast burrito at the Burrito Factory and drove out to Chickaloon, North of Palmer in the Matanuska Valley. Victory Bible Camp - heated cottages with bunk beds, and a big central building with mess hall and meeting rooms.

I caught the Avalanche Safety class, we dug the snow to see the different layers and learn which would slide first. At dinner we heard about the girl who got lost in the snow machining (snowmobiling) class. 'Twas the source of many jokes.

Saturday
Some of the broads in my cabin started moving around at 5am. Breakfast wasn't til 7, and we didn't have to be at the first course until 8:30, but they had to blowdry their hair and do their makeup. Good Lord.


Morning was Dog Mushing, learned about dog care, and got to rip around a trail mushing my own 3-dog team. Very cool, but I could never get into caring for that many animals. Afternoon was Skin Sewing - I made a mitten of elk hide and beaver fur. I'll get the other mitten done someday, I'm sure.

In the evening I wandered over to sample the food provided by the Dutch Oven Gourmet class - got to try Black bear, elk, and venison dishes. Verrry tasty.

Sunday
Oh yes, they got up at 5 O'clock again. And most were packed and ready to ship out before breakfast. After food I took the Snow Machining (mobiling) class. We zipped around a frozen lake to get the feel of the machines' handling. Next it was into the trails. It was fun, but not as good as motorcycles. It was more like 4-wheeling or riding a jetski. I got it up to 75mph on an abandoned airstirp, but the trail-riding was in the 15-20mph range. I can do that on a skittery little mountain bike, so it's way less exciting (though not as taxing) to do it on a stable internal combustion sled.


After stopping at a beautiful lookout for mug shots, we headed back down to the lake. I got bored with the handling exercises, so I went off and jumped some snowbanks. I wandered back up the trail and tried to turn at an intersection.

Long story short, I beached the huge unwieldy machine and had to dig it out myself. When I finally got it out (half an hour after the class ended) and drove it back to the shed, the Polaris guy looked at me funny. "I thought you might have noticed that I'd made off with one of your $8,000 sleds. Guess not."

"Oh, we were about to load the truck. We probably would have noticed then."


On the way back to Eagle River we hit the Musk Ox farm in Palmer. Petted the arctic beasts, learned more than you ever wanted to know about them, and went back to ER. We worked pretty hard on the leftover keg that night, and watched Shawn of the Dead.

Monday
We knocked around Anchorage, I bought the last of the prezzies I wanted to take home and learned how to operate an Eskimo Yoyo. Then it was dinner and a pitcher at the Bear's Tooth movie theater. Breakfast on Pluto - Sheila and I both get into Irish cross-dresser movies. Good and buzzy, I piled onto the plane and headed home.

These pix and more are up here

Many thanks to Meredith and Matt for putting me up. Also to Sheila for carting me around and partaking in the mayhem. :) Next year in Israel.