Anchorage Adventures

Saturday we drove down to Seward on a whim. We were looking for a nice place past Alyeska to hike some runs, but the snow conditions were fairly icy. We ended up in Seward checking out the town. Despite the overcast day, it was still beautiful. Here's a shot for J-Bo and Jo-Jo we took in front of their hotel. (The Van Gilder)













On the way back, we stopped by Alyeska and got in a few runs between 4:00 PM and 5:30 PM. It's the best value available - $14. And over the course of the day, a few inches of snow had fallen, so it was pretty fun. Initially when we showed up at 9 in the morning and checked out the hill it was ice galore, east coast style. So I was pumped in the afternoon, even if it was just dust on crust.


















Sunday morning we awoke to blue bird skies and a nice powder blanket in Anchorage. We hiked around Flat Top Mountain, after driving our rental Ford Taurus up the 4WD only access road. Anchorage is beautiful in the winter!















We did the standard shopping and big city crap, and then when it was time to leave we learned the flight was delayed. Que sorpresa. So we enjoyed a nice bonus sunset walk near the downtown portion of the Tony Knowles trail. And of course, our flight ended up getting cancelled, standard Alaska Airlines fare, and we ended up staying an extra night at the Puffin Inn before making it back to the big B-berg. Overall, it was a great trip... great to wander in and around the mountains again! Anchorage is cool... this picture doesn't show up too well, but it's a shot of a great big free place to ice skate and play hockey right in the middle of town.

Wired Again

We're back on-line, thanks to the GCI man coming out and fixing our internet. That's always nice. Of course, our old-fashioned book reading always declines when we are with net, but that's the price of love.

Genevieve is in town (Anchorage) for a conference, and I'll join her there this afternoon if the predicted blizzard doesn't arrive early. We've got big plans to enjoy fur rondy festivities and the vertical delights of Alyeska for some snowboarding bliss. Technically, this will be our 3rd day snowboarding this season, but the first at a resort. (A far cry from our Utah 90 day seasons. We've changed.) And of course, we'll be stocking up on groceries and goodies for health and fitness.

On the reading front, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates was pretty darn entertaining. Genevieve finished Freakonomics, which is thought provoking for sure. I'm in the midst of Old Yukon about one of the first Alaskan territorial judges wandering up here and meting out justice. And on deck is the classic Man's Search For Meaning.

And I'm becoming a volunteer firefighter. Bethel Fire Department (BFD... pretty funny) is putting on the "firefighter one" structural training course for free, so myself and 7 other Bethel residents are going for it. It's pretty cool. Getting back to my roots. Already we've been able to run around in firefighter suits, climb up and down the ladder truck, climb stairs, and drag dummies around cones. Last night in class we visited the dispatch center. You'd be amazed the info they know the second you dial 9-1-1. As they say in surf spanglish, "big hermano, man."

Fapacaca Mexico

For some odd reason, we've been internet-less for the month of February, but thanks to Mr. Longstreet, we temporarily have access. We are cat sitting for fellow law clerk and neighbor MB while she is in Anchorage. The absence of internet in our lives has been a source of significant consternation, but we are assured by the ever trusty flks at GCI that our problems will be solved some time next week. In the meantime, we are wireless internet pirates.




We left -20 and blustery...





















and arrived at 75 and sunny.









The Fapacaca was a great success. What's a Fapacaca? It's a lot like a Lapacaca, but forever. It's a more long term arrangement than Genevieve and I committed ourselves to.

We enjoyed one of life's little pleasant surprises when we ran into the stars of the show, Sasha and Andy, in the waiting area of LAX on the way down. We enjoyed the flight to Puerto Vallarta together. Their Fapacaca on the beach was a smashing success - lots of laughter, lots of tears. Generally a sign of good things to come. My favorite part was the reception and the customary smashing of the cake into the face. I believe Sasha was employing some form of cake jujitsu.

Anyway, the setting was beautiful. The beach was great, and the reception was held in a soon to be popular locale near the Sayulita plaza de armas. The Sasha Andy fapacaca reception was the place's inaugural event. A large handcarved three dimensional mural adorned the bar. The picture doesn't do it much justice, but it is pretty amazing.











One of those arranging the logistics in Sayulita was Mario, proprietor of Casa Duende and former judo olympic hopeful back in 1980.
















Here's a shot of the ladies looking lovely.













And a shot of those taking shots of the ladies looking lovely.














Getting back to Bethel was an adventure in and of itself. PVR-SFO-PDX. Overnight in Portland and out bright and shiny the next morning to PDX-SEA-ANC. We flew from Anchorage to Bethel (400 air miles), attempted to land twice and flew back to Anchorage. Supposedly the pilot couldn't see the runway on account of the fog. So we had a spendover in Anchorage, then hit the dusty trail on the 6AM flight and made it to Bethel just in time for work. Genevieve continued on to Emmonak, another 200 mile flight to a town on the mouth of the Yukon. All in all, it was about 40 hours of travel time. Needless to say, we read some books. Keeping us cool were three Arctic themed books - Ordinary Wolves, awesome, Looking For Alaska, pretty cool nonfiction about lots of different Alaskans doing the crazy things Alaskans take as normal (thanks, Jackle), and Nunaga, which was great to read in tandem with Ordinary Wolves. Sort of sets the stage in a way. It's about a Scottish dude who moved to the arctic and lived amongst the Inupiat Eskimos of Canada as a fur trader in the 50's. He lived as they did and took good notes, and his account makes for an exciting, Ernest Shackleton-esque read. We also covered the sci-fi genre with Brave New World and The Eye of the Heron. Genevieve read some Swedish crime novel. Some Vonnegut tidied it all up. And last and least, one of the least helpful self improvement books ever written, the 7 secrets of intimacy or something like that. But I don't mean that in a judgmental way, of course.

Mystery Solved... Thank you SCHLICHTER!

Things are well and warm in Guayabitos and Sayulita. And even better, we now know we can officially thank Schlichter for adding high comedy to our Alaskan outpost:

"Dawson, Law school has certainly honed your problem-solving skills. You figured it out – indeed it was I who initiated Buck's Bethel-boundjourney. Demartino, however, is entitled to some of the credit; it was he —ever cognizant of the norms of proper society — who told me that you are allowed to send wedding/life-partnership presents to people up to a year after the event. Once I laid eyes on Buck, I knew he belonged in Alaska.

An unintended bonus was that I created a Hardy Boys-style mystery, which I think I can now solve. Of course, had I been clever enough tothink of the admittedly hilarious idea of sending a singing male deerhead to Alaska in the middle of winter without providing any explanation, return address, or form of identification, I would have done so (posthaste). I'm really not that witty though; my Ebay pal"joepb" must have simply forgotten to put the note in the box that Iasked him to saying "Genevieve and Dawson, Happy Life Partnership,Andy"Anyway, glad I could solve the caper. Once I saw your blog, I actually contemplated creating a ghost email account (buckmustdie@gmail.com,surprisingly, was not taken) and stringing this out a little longer. Alas, my conscience said no.
Aloha!
Andy"

Buck is AWESOME

We raided our smoke alarm for a new battery for the microphone that came with Buck. We now know why the people on the ad look so stoked. Genevieve can't stop singing, and of course, neither can Buck. The mic's range is an impressive 50 feet.

It's hard to imagine if you don't see it in real life. The deer's mouth and head actually move to the sound of your voice, and it looks almost realistic. It's quite something. The amusement value lasts on and on.

Who would send a talking deer to Alaska?

The mystery continues! The following is an illustrated list of the people who have most recently asked for my address. Feel free to share any thoughts on who might be the most likely mystery santa. I'm also open to suggestions.

Justin Hill













John Pritchard












Andrew Schlichter













Tarifa Laddon-Kneib


























Mike Lechliter

He actually asked for our address ages ago, but I still list him because of my initial gut instinct.


Jason Gilder






















And of course, everybody from the Mary House is in the running...












An undetermined, but definitely awesome prize from Alaska awaits anybody who helps crack this riddle! In the meantime, we're off to Mexico. In court today I heard possibly the most shocking impossibility defense of all time. I'll have to save that one for a rainy day.