And Now the Other Direction

Hi people!  Back by popular demand a few people's encouragement, I'm going to keep writing about cold places that start with A.  I last wrote about my first Antarctic sunset and awaiting a big ol' vacation.  I saw innumerable indelibly beautiful places throughout New Zealand and Thailand.  I swam in a sulfurous hot-spring river and petted elephants.  I ate lots of cheap noodles and drank out of a coconut bigger than my head.  It was pretty fun, and though I was often deeply sad about getting divorced, the time spent traveling allowed me to sort some of my thoughts in a way I hadn't managed while redirecting angst at steaming pans of for-institutional-use-only meat.

Island Hut Hotel, Koh Mak, Thailand:

And now in just a week I'll go to Alaska (where roughly 17% of people trying to recall where I've been take a stab at guessing since Antarctica is too implausible).  Seven degrees shy of the Arctic Circle, just a few miles from the entrance to Denali National Park, I will flip eggs -- and pancakes! -- at a small "lodge," really thirty or so little cabins with a restaurant next door.  It's still early spring and near-freezing at night, but the summer season will ramp up quickly as thousands of people flock to the remote area to be frightened by bears and eat acceptable omelets.  

With three days off a week, I should re-learn French, perfect my fly fishing...I'm open to suggestions.  One fun thing is I mostly have to procure my own food and cook for myself, an interesting prospect as the grocery store is a few hours away.  I'll bring in a good amount of staples, but it would be awesome to forage for mushrooms and berries and pork tenderloin.

So I hope you enjoy dispatches from up north.  I'll return to regularly scheduled Antarctica musings in October, but with the inside view as science cargo admin (but don't worry, I'll still keep abreast of the latest in food folly).