July 20 - “On the water”

As vacation blog posts go - and have gone in recent days - this one will rank as somewhat mild, I’m afraid.  Oh, I’ll tell you what we did.  But will there be attacks by mysterious multi-horned beasts?  Will some mysterious creature rear its ugly head?  That, my friend remains to be seen.

We started the day off with a boat ride.  Ah, a morning on the water.  Finally.  Of course this was on a river.  I guess they are trying to slowly transition us to life on the cruise ship.  The great riverboat ride of Fairbanks, Alaska.  A little bit bigger than The Colonel of Moody Gardens, this boat held, oh, maybe four or five hundred people, all seated in chairs.  We were allowed to wander around, though.  Good thing.  All the cool action took place on the port side.  In ship lingo that means “the other side from where we are sitting.”  Here’s a typical action comparison.  On the port side a water plane did a take-off, circled the boat, and landed.  On our side we saw a mama duck and her seven chicks swimming in the water.  On the port side they saw a demonstration of sled dogs from the kennels of eh woman who won four Iditarod championships.  On our side we waved at some really nice people on the bank.  Oh, and we saw a giant rubber swan swim toy as well.  Don’t get me wrong.  It was a nice boat ride.  We even stopped at an Eskimo village.  Well, a re-creation of one.  We saw a lady gut and fillet and hang up a salmon to be smoked.  We saw a demonstration of a $30,000 Eskimo parka.  even saw another stuffed moose - antlers attached.  Our guides were cousins from the same little village.  They taught us some Eskimo words.
Nanda donja- apparently means something like aloha.
Ana masta- thank you
Ana basti - thank you (no idea the difference)
Ah koo baloo- please sit down
Babeesh- moose skin rope
Klabash- serrated knife

After the boat ride we had a hearty lunch of stew and vegetables and salad, all served family style around huge tables.  Good stuff.  I admit it was hard to eat, though.  Not a reflection on the food.  Just an update on the Toothless/fillingless saga.  They did have an experience available that we availed ourselves of.  A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lock yourself in a freezer that measured 40 degrees below zero.  Yep.  Crazy cold.  Example of life in Alaska every winter.  Pretty creative use of the freezer, I must say.  They are supposed to email us the photo they took while we were inside.  Haven’t seen it yet, though.  Oh, and I received a distinction among our larger group.  I was the last one on the second bus.  The first bus left without us.  Our tour guide was less that happy to see me.  Problem?  There was no ID visible on any of the buses.  No driver visible.  No tour guide visible.  Sigh.  At least I got a rousing round of applause as I took my seat.

The bus ride was uneventful, other than the sign we passed that said “North Pole Next Right.”  We turned left.  Our next venue was revenue-related.  A lecture at the Alaska pipeline (that was a sleeper.  I had a really hard time staying on the bench when I dozed off).  Then we hopped open a little train kind of like they have at the zoo that took us to what was supposed to be the highlight of our experience - panning for gold.  I never did “get it.”  And I was certainly not alone in the remedial class.  I did get some help from the staff, though.  Chris and I pooled our flakes and came out with a whopping $10 worth of gold. No, we didn’t get it embedded in jewelry like some people did.  We’ll just treasure the experience, right?  Oh and Bigfoot.  We’ll treasure him, too.  So much so that we’re bringing him home with us.  Cute little fellow.  Fit nicely in the mailing box along with the other guys.  Hope our mailman doesn’t get a hernia.

Back at the lodge we ordered supper from a local eatery.  It took more than an hour, but it did finally arrive.  It wasn’t horrible.  Mine wasn’t what I expected in a monte cristo sandwich, but the clam chowder was really good.

The hand and foot tournament continued, but there wasn’t much reason for five of the six of us to even show up.  Chris won every hand.  Completely smoked us.  Of course they did enlist another girl to hang out at the tabloid with us.  Totally illegal distraction, but the guys knew it was important for the girls to experience a win.  We love our wives and their happiness helps to define our very existence.  So, congratulations girls.  See, we learned ...

Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Father, would you give us a safe plane ride back to Anchorage today?  Amen.