So far, during my trip to Alaska, I've seen numerous bald eagles and sea lions, one sea otter, no bears, Mt. McKinley and three Wal-Marts.
I'm staying outside of Anchorage for a couple of days because it's on my way back to Seattle, really. I'm spending today with an old college friend and his family. We took a drive to see Mt. McKinley, it's just over 20,000 feet tall. It's a beautiful, clear day. We're lucky. They say the mountain is so often covered in clouds that only one in ten visitors actually get to see it.
Three buses, two planes and a pickup truck later...
I find myself in Alaska shrouded by pine trees along a rocky coastline, preparing to tell jokes in what I'm what I'm pretty sure is not part of "The Yukon," but I'm not sure. We'll see what the fisherman at The Village Bar can tell me tonight. For now, I'm just guessing. I don't think it will be difficult for them to laugh at me.
I'm staying in a quaint bed and breakfast on the coast of Kodiak Island, a very bumpy one-hour flight from Anchorage. So far, I've lost count of how many bald eagles I've seen, several of which are not geese. Yet, there are also geese that live here at the bed and breakfast. Many of their eggs are stored in a bucket in the garage so they won't freeze. The geese will "sit on them" later in the spring. Wish I was going to be around for that.
In the meantime, I'm content to watch the water lap up against the craggy coast of Kodiak.
I have to go. Stormy and Louise are calling for dinner. By the way, Stormy, who is a fisherman, says that his name is real, but we'll see what the other fishermen at The Village Bar have to say about that.
This is just a test of the emergency broadcast blog. If this were a real emergency, you wouldn't be reading this.