I've been visiting with my friend Amy Johnson, a former co-worker of mine from Barnes & Noble. We haven't seen each other for 4 years, but have kept in touch through letters and, very recently, by e-mail. Amy rented a car for our travels, a 1994 Plymouth Acclaim, quite different than the usual choice of rental cars offered in the lower 48. I love this car. The seats are really comfortable and it truly seems like a "road-tripping" vehicle. We'll have it for 2 weeks. 

The day I arrived we spent the afternoon in Anchorage, walked through the downtown and took a stroll along the shoreline. Then we headed towards Girdwood (Amy's home) which is about 45 miles away from Anchorage. 

Amy lives in a small cabin near a beaver pond and a large mountain (I'm still learning the names) and shares her place with a friend from Juneau, Gail, and her cat Chenga (pronounced Jayga). 

The same day I arrived we went to Portage in hopes of seeing Portage glacier. The glacier wasn't visible, and the trail that would lead us to a better view still had snow on it. Still, the drive was beautiful and the inlet of water near where we stopped was covered with breaking ice which made a soothing sound like wind chimes (Amy's observation). 

In the evening I kept waiting for the sun to go down and "night" to come, but it never did. We're approaching the summer Solstice so the place just doesn't get dark. It's a little unsettling to be in near-full day light at 11:00 at night! 

Yesterday we went to Homer. We found a comfortable campground and while Amy took a nap, I explored the town. Homer is a little touristy, but it has a nice feeling to it. For popular music fans, this is Jewel's hometown. When Amy woke, we decided to take in a performance at the community theater. The woman working at the theater wanted to make sure we liked Modern dance before we bought our tickets. Amy mentioned that she had always wanted to be a dancer, and I once took a modern dance class in my youth (with disastrous results!), so it seemed like a good choice. It's hard for me to fully explain what we saw. In many ways it was dance, there were leotards and scarves flowing, but the dancers were a little, um, less than star-quality. It was an original piece called "Well of Dreams" and it explored, well, dreaming. There really is no way for to explain what we saw that night, but if you see me in the near future ask that I do a small example of the dance, and I will oblige. The best thing about the performance was that since it was opening night they offered free refreshments for the audience. It almost made up for the bad dancing (as if I should talk). 

Earlier in Homer we wandered around the "Spit" area which is where the majority of the businesses are located. As we pulled up to the stores (they're all on stilts) we heard an awful noise. We looked over and some burly fishermen were dragging up a huge shark up the boardwalk. We stopped and took a look. It was a 350 pound salmon shark that had just been caught. It drew quite a crowd (in fact, the next morning Amy heard people in the post office talking about it - eye-witnesses to history, we were.) 

Today we simply drove back from Homer. I saw 2 moose on the way - one was grazing by the side of the road, and the other must have been grazing a little too close, as he was dead. In fact, this is such a problem that all along the highway were signs reading "Give Moose a Break" and then a count of how many had been "road kill" that winter (321). 

Tomorrow were going to Seward and taking a Kenai fjords cruise for most of the day. We'll spend the night there and then probably head up towards Denali, where we'll camp for a couple of days. Then we'll visit Fairbanks, and be there for Summer Solstice (the longest day of the Year, and my 25th birthday). On June 23 or 25th we're taking a 2 day ferry ride to Juneau, which on July 3rd is where I'll leave from. 

I'll be checking my email probably once or 2x a week. 

Bye, 
Marisa