Today in Alaska

It's a weird thing to wake up in the morning and head off to work not knowing that you'd go to sleep that night in your childhood bedroom thousands of miles away. Just to give you an idea of just how far, take a look at this map from Yahoo! when I punched up the driving directions:


Bellevue to Fairbanks

Yeah, I flew, so it took only about five hours plus transit time getting to and from airports, but still. I bought my ticket and was on the plane about nine hours later. (Incidentally, the Alaska Airlines MVP program is awesome - I was upgraded to first class for free on both legs of the trip.) I arrived in Fairbanks a little after 1am, then went and found my mom's car in the parking lot where my parents had left it for me. While a few highway connections had changed, I didn't really have any problem finding my way to their house. Nobody woke up when I let myself in except for Lily, their dog, whose kennel is now in my old room.


Lily

I spent most of the daytime with my grandmother, whose current illness is what brought me up here. Her spirits seem much raised over yesterday, so perhaps my visit is a boon to her. After getting really upset yesterday, I think she is likely to get through this and be just fine, but she needs some closer attention the next week and it's a lot for my parents to do because of their other commitments.

My dad seems really happy to see me, and I know I'm really happy to see him, even if it is under less than desireable circumstances. His stress levels had pretty well hit the roof and my arrival has helped ease that substantially. I'm thinking that coming up here this time is already proving to be as much for him as for my grandmother.

Fortunately, my manager at work is being very understanding. I will likely change my ticket to stay through next weekend and work out some things I can do remotely this week, effectively telecommuting.

The mix of emotions coming back to Alaska, where I spent most of my teenage years and where I graduated high school, is always hard to describe. I was very happy to leave here, as it was time to get some more exposure to the wider world. I'm happy to come back to visit, though, especially in the summer when it's beautiful weather. (I say beautiful, which in this case is low 40s at night, low 70s during the day - I can hear Olympia shivering from her perch some 5000 miles from here.) With my more recent return to more outdoors activities, I have a new appreciation for the location of my parents house. Just look at this picture, taken near there just today. (Although I have to say, even the large size of this picture you'll see by clicking on it just doesn't do it justice.)


Denali in the Distance

When my mom got home from work today, I had dinner with my dad. That's always entertaining, because it's much more fun to talk to him face-to-face than over the phone, especially when you get a couple drinks in him. After that, I went and walked with Lily for almost seven miles, starting and ending at my parents' house. Since it's July, it's basically light all night. Even as I write this at 1am local time, it's still light out. I took a picture of the road I was walking down at 10pm, and I didn't edit it to add any light to it.


Melanie Road, Fairbanks, Alaska, 10pm, July 21

Another interesting thing about being here is the way that as I walked down various roads and cars would pass, roughly half the time, the driver would wave at me as he went by. I'd make sure Lily was properly reined in and wave back. I didn't know any of these people, they were just being neighborly. A guy walking a dog down the road in their area is pretty much assumed to be a neighbor and someone you should wave at.

Finally, I'll leave you with one more photo. By no means do all the houses in Alaska look like the one pictured here, but this one was just so prototypical Alaskan, I just had to snap a picture of it and share it. A log cabin with snowshoes, a canoe, an Weber kettle grill - it's just classic.


An Alaskan Home