Last night, Ron and I sat with Barry & Georgia and looked at old photos of family and friends. Our goal was to find some pictures of Crow-baby and Prentiss for a project Georgia and Ronnie are working on, and we did that. But we also found beautiful memories of things past: our trip last fall to the US-West; our trip to Alaska in 2004; birding trips to south Texas; trips from many years ago to Destin and other places. It was truly a memory lane….
So today, I am nostalgic both for times past and for the future, for new wanderings, new adventures. I was just browsing for something work-related, and I ran across the following email I sent from Alaska to our friends and family just about 2 years ago. Thought I’d post it here for your reading pleasure, too:
Subject: Saturday in Alaska
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 01:19:24
Hi, guys…It’s 10 p.m. here (about 1 a.m. Sunday) your time. We are sitting at our hotel after an 11 hour tour of Denali today….saw grizzlies, caribou, moose, and Dall sheep, golden eagles, magpies, gray jays, stellar jays, townsend warblers, and lots of other stuff. We are staying in a wonderful hotel called NordHaven (I leave the rest to your imagination) situated in a spruce forest. This morning over home-made cinnamon rolls and coffee, we watched birds flitting all around us from our 30 foot balcony . . .it’s pretty much heaven! But, of course, as the tour guide said today, “This is Alaska. Winter is pretty much the season we have. I’m expecting snow any day!”
Probably our most eventful happening so far was getting delayed just enough on take-off from PB Thursday morning that we missed our connection to Minneapolis. We ended up getting to Anchorage around 5 instead at 3 as expected so that put us getting to Talkeetna very late…around 11 p.m., but still light outside! Amazing!
Part of why we were so late is stopping to watch a moose try to cross the interstate, and, of course, we got lost in Anchorage…what’s an adventure without getting lost?! Oh, BTW, the moose won but did not make it over the interstate, accepting the better part of valor was to try and fail, before wandering safely back into the marsh it tried to leave to continue grazing….apparently unscathed by it’s near brush with 4-wheeled death! We, on the other hand, were seriously affected….I constantly scanned the sides of the roads for the next 4 hours as we drove!
So, we are having a wonderful time. I wish you were all here with us. It would be even more fun than our Texas Adventure last Christmas! Y’all take care. Next time I get somewhere that has internet service, I’ll write another piece of the picture. Just an FYI — I am only able to check email infrequently, so don’t be mad at me if you email and I don’t respond.
Thanks. See you all soon. September is just around the corner!
Lin
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