Volleyball High

Michael and my aunt Paula (as well as all their colleagues and friends) have welcomed me into the ritual of park volleyball. Game after game, whether the team I'm on wins or loses, I feel invigorated for a total effect of leaving on a volleyball high. I feel like I could play forever. Today the games started at 3:30 and ended at 7:30. I imagine the group would have kept playing if enough people didn't have to go home to responsibilities. I know it would have taken nothing more than the request for another game to keep me going.

For someone like me who is constantly aware of time it is such a gift to find an activity that engages me in an entirely different way. More than once I have played past evening dates, unaware of the time passing. I lose myself in these games. Another gift is the gift of constantly changing teams. Nothing seems fixed. You get to play with everyone. Sometimes I feel like a strong player and other times a weaker link. But it is all fun. People give friendly advice that makes me want to play better. People encourage each other's efforts as much as they tease, both lovingly. People laugh. People bring their kids who play in that old fashion imagination way. I love every moment of it and I leave with a kind of high, what I have come to call the volleyball high.

Farewell Alaska

It has been swell but it looks like it is time to go home. Alas, I am just passing through. A few thoughts before I go...

Last night a friend texted me and told me to look at the moon. I looked out the window but it was still light. I have gotten quite used to these extra hours of light each day. I asked the woman in the bunk next to me if the moon came out here. I realize what a silly question this was the moment it came out of my mouth. I have seen the moon in the day before but it made me realize that I have not really seen much night here at all. Once in the three weeks I stayed up after dark and once I stumbled to an outhouse in what I assume were the early morning hours, but it has been light for most of the three weeks that I have been here.

I am a creature of habit. Although my time in Alaska is limited I have somehow become a regular at my new found favorites. I went to Snow City Cafe AGAIN this morning, Title Wave Books for a 2nd time (I was smart not to bring my wallet this time but just a pen and paper to write down some titles), Moose Tooth Pizzeria, and Cafe Del Mundo. People around town are even looking familiar. Traveling to experience the ordinary is one of my favorite things to do. I love going to parks in cities, finding haunts to haunt, and navigating the streets like I know where I am going. Thanks again Maria for the car to do it in here. I have felt so mobile and free...

If someone who has lived somewhere tells you that you must do something while you are there, you better do it. Thanks Vicki for the advice to take the sightseeing plane out of McCarthy. It was hands down the most stunning experience of my trip, well worth the price. I couldn't stop exclaiming how vast the glaciers were and how amazing it was to see how everything connected. It was especially incredible to see icebergs over 700 feet long floating in a lake, the undulations of the glacial flow, and the blue river canyon carved into ice. Wow, wow, wow!

A good hostel is more than just a place to stay. It is a place to meet people from all around the world, find yourself in an authentic potentially life-changing conversation, and consider different ways of living. I have been lucky this week to find not one, but two, such places: the Denali Mountain Morning Hostel and the Spenard Hostel International. I delighted in the lively Spanish family style meals that happened at each meal time, smiling each time I heard the Barcelona lisp and recognized words here and there. I also met a man from India who reminded me to be awed by the experiences I am having. He was wide-eyed and child-like recounting his travels through Alaska. I had been to each place and his enthusiasm was just what I needed in my travel weary state to remember that I am lucky and this world is full of wonders. In Anchorage, I was instantly engaged by my bunk mates, who talked education with me, made some thought-provoking recommendations for possible future studies, and reminded me that not everyone lets work dictate their choices, some make it bend to their wishes. A good hostel is a stimulating place, a place to meet new friends, listen to inspiring adventures, share a meal, do a chore to help out, and pass on what you have be it advice, a guidebook, or some extra food.

There are incredible people everywhere doing incredible things. Going to the writing workshop introduced me to a whole slew of inspiring people who I hope to stay in touch with (I have added them to my address book). Sharing in a common experience, even short in length, can be a profound way to connect. I have led such a fulfilling life and met so many people along the way. Continuing to experience the depth and breadth of humanity propels me on and on, from adventure to adventure, conversation to conversation, dream to dream.

But this adventure has come to an end...My 3rd graders await.

One Happy Non-Camper

Though I didn't get a sight of Mt. Mckinley, on my bus ride through Denali National Park I saw:

• 5 moose
• 1 lynx
• 1 wolf
• 2 dall sheep
• 2 dozen caribou
• 16 grizzly bears

simply amazing...

New Words

Funny how being in a new place for a period of time adds to your vocabulary. Funny that here most of the words I have acquired have to do with glaciers.

Down South - any place in the lower 48

Dryas - Alaskan version of dandelion. It starts off as a white daisy-like flower, with a yellow center but when it is time for seed dispersal, it transforms first into a pink twisted bundle of feather-like seeds. Then it opens like a dandelion, dispersing its seeds with the brush of a passing animal or the wind. The dryas don't need much to grow and grow in islands. A beautiful flower.

Erratics- rocks that have been carried and dropped by glaciers. They can be any size but the ones most often called erratic are huge isolated rocks, noticeably different from the surrounding geography.

Glacier Flour (aka rock flour) - fine grained silt that comes from the glacier which turns the waters a milky gray. Can be rubbed onto hands, pants, shoes from any gravel deposited from glaciers. It would appear this is what currently coats all my clothing.

Katabatic - a word that describes the winds that come off of the glacier. They are cold and fast because the wind has been forced down the glacier slope.

Moraine - an accumulation of rock and soil formed by the glacier. Many tourists asks why the glaciers are so dirty and this inevitably prompts guides to explain the different types of moraines. There are lateral moraines on the sides of glaciers, terminal moraines at the ends of glaciers, medial moraines that form in the middle where two glaciers meet, and ground moraines that form underneath the glacier. The more I look, the more fascinating these features of the glacier are...you can see so many different types of rock and it gives a whole different sense of the age and force of glaciers.

Ptarmigan - Alaskan state bird. A bit like a chicken but found in the tundra.