A WOMAN ON THE EDGE

North to Alaska - A Day of Travel - 8/4/10

I awoke at 1:40 a.m. to shower and finish packing for this excellent adventure, certain only that I’d be missed by the dogs.  The much-vaunted Munson-Mobile showed up at 3-ish, and off we sped for Newark.  Several wrong turns and scary movie sets later, we stumbled upon the long term parking lot and took a van with a wedding party bound for Mexico to the airport for the first leg of an arduous travel day.  The flight left an hour late, but I dozed most of the time, and we finally took off bound for Seattle.  Had a really nice guy and his son next to me, headed for Petersburg, where he used to teach.  Finally got to Seattle, ran all over the airport and managed to catch our flight for Juneau, which thankfuly was short and sweet - a mere two hours, more or less.

Upon landing in Juneau, we had some time to kill so we checked in with Alaska Sea Planes and then sat out on a deck overlooking the snowy mountains we’d just flown through while enjoying an ice cold Alaska White. 

The Sea Plane flight was phenomenal - magical.  Just above the vast forest, through the towering peaks, the shimmering blue of the sea - an occasional glimpse of a glittering ribbon of water - and about 30 minutes later, we were touching down in Tenakee. 

To committhis moment to writing is almost to trivialize it.  And the “momentousness” of it - the true enormity - cannot be overstated.  To land on the Inlet in that little plane and see my cousins, cheering and waving on the dock, well, surreal doesn’t even come close.

The subsequent reveling, the tiny perfect cabins, the shrimp feast and frolicking Orcas right off the deck, the pioneer spirit…I am not made of this stuff.  I feel frivolous, inconsequential, useless, like tits on a football.  In awe of these cheerful, industrious, amazing people.  They seem so…happy.  What a great night we had.

Finally, exhausted, Frances, Linnea and I headed back to Frannie’s cabin and crashed hard with the sun still shining at 10:00 at night.

We are here.

NORTH TO ALASKA….

Travel Blog to follow….