Jun12

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 4

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 4

Alaska Day 4 (Saturday)… our original plan had been to drive the Denali Highway, an unmaintained 135 mile dirt road that goes east from Denali National Park to a tiny little town (which we learned barely qualifies as a town) called Paxson.  However, a morning rain storm and a bit of concern from the owner of the cabins we woke up at convinced that driving an unmaintained wet gravel road through the mountains in a Ford Fiesta was not the best idea.  So instead, we headed north to Fairbanks and planned to take the Richardson Highway back south to Paxson — a fairly substantial detour.

Our first stop was in the tiny railroad town of Nenana, home of the Nenana Ice Classic, where you can buy a ticket guessing the day, hour, and minute that the ice will break on the river and earn a six-figure prize if you’re correct.  Nenana is also home to Joanne Hawkins, who might be my favorite person that we came across on the trip.  Joanne was the clerk at a little gift shop in town and she had plenty of stories to tell us — including the fact that her book was just published and she had autographed copies for sale.  Only later did Laura and I figure out that this independent self-made woman owns half of Nenana.  I really regret not buying her book, although it appears to be available from an independent seller on Amazon.

After Nenana, we drove to Fairbanks and stopped to visit the hometown of our old college friend Jay Schamel (who is now in Georgia, alas).  Then we stopped at the North Pole.  Okay, not the North Pole, but North Pole, Alaska, where we did find Santa and his reindeer.  Deciding we’d had enough of the road, we took a break to go canoeing in the Chena Lakes before heading out to the Knotty Shop for some ice cream and souvenirs.

Shortly after we left the Knotty Shop (amazingly delicious butter pecan ice cream, by the way), we started seeing moose all over the place — we counted a total of seven.

After stops in Delta Junction to check out Rika’s Roadhouse (now a historical park) and get some dinner, we realized that it was 9 PM, but we were still too far from Anchorage to stop with any hope of getting Laura to her conference on Sunday.  We also noted that we were 151 miles from the nearest town that had lodging according to the Lonely Planet travel guide.  And so we did the only sensible thing — we made a pact to keep driving and hope that there would be something and agreed to sleep in the car if there was nothing.  After all, we didn’t have to worry about it getting dark!  We saw the midnight sun from the car, and after a few false hopes, we found the Meiers Lake Roadhouse, which doesn’t appear in any guides or maps that we can find.  But it was a bed and a shower — both very welcome things at 1 am.

Jun11

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 3

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 3

A much delayed report of day three of the trip because we spent the last few days at places with no wifi.  But at least there were showers.  Friday we woke up in the hostel and headed a few miles north to Denali National Park.   We took the green shuttle bus out to the Eielson Visitor Center and then went on a hike further into the park.  We saw quite the array of wildlife including:

  • Caribou, probably about a dozen total over three groups.  (Laura and I also saw one on the highway driving up from Talkeetna.)
  • Dall sheep… soooo many Dall sheep.  But the ones that were ten feet from the bus were the most impressive
  • A brown bear — This was the only animal that excited the bus driver.  “Bear on the road!  Bear on the road, 12 o’ clock!  Everyone roll down your windows and be quiet!”
  • Golden Eagle
  • Lynx

Sadly, the clouds blocked our view of Denali the mountain…  (Note that in the following video, I am standing about five feet in front of Laura, and as a result, I look like a giant compared to her — or she looks extra small.)

On the bus ride back we met Cass.  Cass is a clerk for the interpretive center at the park, but on Friday he was just taking the shuttle bus ride like any other visitor.  He pointed out something that changed the way I viewed the park: “The star of the show is not the landscape, it’s the light.  The mountains are a beautiful canvas, but the way they are painted by the midnight sun with its odd angles is what makes them more dramatic than any other mountain range.”  I’m paraphrasing him, but it’s a remarkable (and true) sentiment.

After we were finished, we drove to Healy and stayed at a cute little cabin a mile up a dirt road.  We were a little loopy at this point due to the lack of sleep caused by the strange psychological effects of the midnight sun… also, we hadn’t showered in a few days, so we don’t look our best.

Jun8

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 2

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 2

Laura and I are outside of Denali National Park staying in a hostel in Carlo Creek.  This is making Laura nervous because we are in a shared co-ed cabin with no locks. Luckily, no one else has checked in to our cabin, male or female, and no one stole our stuff while we went to dinner across the street.  I suggested we get the tents, which came with cots and sleeping bags, but the look on Laura’s face said that was a no-go even though it was cheaper.

But hey, there’s wifi… slow wifi, but it works.  Unfortunately, because it’s slow, there will be no posting of the Alaska Minute we filmed in Talkeetna this afternoon.  Nor any of the pictures we got of the waterfall we hiked to or our Sarah Palin impressions in Wasilla (for you, Scott) or the Caribou we saw on the side of the road or the corn hole game we played at the bar across the street from our hostel along a mountain stream.  (We lost, but there was beer and pizza so it was all good.)  We also went running around a dilapidated old building, which we think was a hotel, called “IGLOO.”  I don’t really know what it was or how to describe it.

Also, it’s still light out.  It’s five minutes to midnight.  We asked when we booked the hostel room when it gets dark.  The guy kind of laughed and said “Never.”

And an Australian just offered us a vegemite sandwich.  Hostels are great!

Edit: The hostel people restarted the router… it seems possible to upload a YouTube video now.  If it works, the embedded video below will be functional in the morning.

Jun7

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 1

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 1

Remember a year and a half ago when I went to Alaska and took an approximately one minute long video each day and video blogged the trip?  No?  Go to the right of the blog and look up the October 2010 archives… I’ll wait.

Caught up?  Okay, good.  Because I’m in Alaska again and video blogging again — this time with the lovely Laura Lopez.  Here’s one of the highlights of day 1, when we saw moose at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  Below that is a brief clip of one of the bears we saw there — not as cool as the time I saw the bear in the wild (you did just look through all the 2010 videos, right?) but still pretty neat to be that close to one… even if he was behind an electrified fence.

Also, it’s almost midnight here and it’s still light out.  My internal clock is so very confused right now.

May20

Athletics 6, Giants 2

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Athletics 6, Giants 2

A few months ago, I bought tickets to today’s Giants-A’s Battle of the Bay (ugh, I still don’t like interleague) primarily because of the giveaway: a Brian Wilson gnome.  If the only Brian Wilson you know is the lead singer of the Beach Boys, watch this and then you might begin to understand.  But I don’t think anyone fully understands the madness of the beard.

What I really misunderstood was the demand a Brian Wilson gnome would bring.  Now, I should have been tipped off when, pre-season, the only tickets I could get for the game were way up in the third deck behind left field — not exactly prime seats.  But this morning, knowing that the gates opened at 11 AM, I figured that leaving my apartment at 10:45 would be no problem.

Here’s the thing: my apartment is only a few blocks from AT&T Park.  To get to the end of the line that had formed, I had to go the opposite direction of the park from my apartment to just under the Bay Bridge.  Google maps tells me that it was a line of about 2/3 of a mile.  Some of the people I talked to had been there since 7 am.  Eek!  I was pretty sure I wasn’t getting a gnome.

But I was wrong!  After getting to the end of the line, it shortly started moving forward.  I kept waiting for a message to get passed back that they were out of gnomes… but none ever came, and when I got to the ticket gate, the agent handed me my very own box of gnome.  Would you like one?  They’re going for $60-$75 on Ebay.

Oh, and then there was a game.  It was a pretty exciting game and I decided (again) that I am an American League gal at heart and rooted for the A’s.  Which was good, because the A’s won and I was wearing a Kurt Suzuki jersey.

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May20

Giants 3, Rockies 2

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Giants 3, Rockies 2

For 11 seasons, Michael Cuddyer played for the Minnesota Twins at nearly every position, save for catcher and shortstop.  (Yes, he even pitched one scoreless inning during a blowout loss to the Texas Rangers.)  But, as the baseball economy goes, when Cuddyer was up for free agency last off-season, the Twins couldn’t afford to keep him and he was off to tap the Rockies (for more money).

This past Monday, I saw him in his new uniform and new number (3, for Harmon Killebrew) when the Rockies came to San Francisco to play the Giants.  While Cuddyer went 0 for 4 on the night (just missing a grand slam in the third by about 10 feet), the game itself was well worth the price of admission.

Scoreless for three innings, the Rockies struck first with a solo shot by Wilin Rosario to lead off the top of the fourth.  The Giants struck back in the bottom of the 6th went Gregor Blanco went yard to right.  The scored stayed tied at one until the bottom of the 8th when Blanco singled followed by an odd “Sac, E-2” by Joaquin Arias to put runners on first and third.  After Melky (not Miguel) Cabrera sac flied to left to score Blanco, fan favorite Buster Posey singled to center to score Arias, giving the Giants both the lead and insurance run that made fruitless the Rockies run in the bottom of the 9th.

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May13

Tigers 3, Athletics 1

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Tigers 3, Athletics 1

It’s Justin Verlander Day!

I don’t think I’ve hidden the fact that Justin Verlander is my favorite player outside of the Twins.  He’s just so consistently dominating — he’ll hit 100 MPH in the 8th or 9th inning like it’s no big deal.  So when I noted that he was going to be pitching against the A’s, I e-mailed my friend Suzanne and invited her to join me at the game.  (And even if she had said no, I’d have gone anyway.)

Verlander didn’t disappoint even my exceedingly high expectations.  The A’s didn’t get a hit until the 4th inning.  They got a second hit in the 5th, which happened to be a solo homerun by Seth Smith, but other than that, Verlander was lights out for 7 innings.  (And that homerun didn’t hurt as the Tigers had already scored 2 runs, but I didn’t go to watch the Tigers offense.  Especially since my former second favorite Tiger, Brandon Inge, is now an A.)

When he didn’t come out for the 8th, I was a little confused, because normally he doesn’t let things like pitch counts get in his way — it turns out he had a callous on his hand that had cracked open and started bleeding during the 7th and the trainer decided he should be done.  I will note that the 7th inning was the only inning he didn’t get a strikeout… probably the bleeding thumb.

This season I’ve been trying to pick 10 or so diverse pictures to illustrate whichever game I was at.  In honor of Justin Verlander, this time I picked 13 pictures of JV’s delivery, taken with burst mode, so you can watch him pitch in slow motion over and over again.

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May6

Mariners 5, Twins 2

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Mariners 5, Twins 2

My last game in Seattle I went solo — my Mom hadn’t decided to come along until after I had already purchased my 9th row behind home plate seat.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best game for being a Twins fan… other than two solo homeruns by Washington native Ryan Doumit, the Twins generated no offense.  By contrast, the Mariners scored three in the first, one in the second, and a fifth run in the fourth to more or less put the game away early.

But it was a gorgeous day for baseball and my view of the game couldn’t be beat.  Afterwards, I went up to the upper deck and saw Mt. Rainier, which was in full view for the first time all weekend.  Seattle — it’s a lovely town.  If only the Twins had decided to play a bit better, the weekend would have been perfect.

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May6

Mariners 7, Twins 0

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I nearly saw history last night… Felix Hernandez one-hit the Twins en route to a 7-0 victory.  Really, as far as the game goes, it was horrific for a Twins fan (me and my mother) and exciting for a King Felix fan (Amittai).  But we did have awesome seats, right behind the Twins dugout, purchased after a mini-adventure negotiating with scalpers.  As my mom put it, it really felt like we were watching a different game than last night.

Amittai also got me to do a thing I never do, which is leave my seat during the game.  We went and walked around the upper deck to see the views of the Seattle skyline — it wasn’t clear enough to see Rainier, but the sunset just past the Space Needle was nice.

And for those who might be curious, Amittai and my mother got along just fine.

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May5

Twins 3, Mariners 2

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Twins 3, Mariners 2

Twins win! Twins win!

Given the week they’ve had (i.e. they were no hit in their last game and hadn’t scored a run since Monday), I’m extra excited at having attended a win tonight. I got up this morning and flew to Seattle where my mother was already waiting for me — after having herself quite the adventure last night. (My mom is, uh, not a seasoned traveler. But she managed not to go to the hospital, so that’s something.) We headed out to the game early to check out some batting practice and get out of the rain.

That’s right, we went to the game to get out of the rain — because Safeco Field has a retractable roof. And actually, as far as ballpark roofs go, this was by far the best one I’ve ever seen, because it’s only a roof and there are no high walls. It doesn’t seal up the ballpark and the fresh air still comes in from outside.  (By the middle of the game, I might have been a little bit wishing that the air was less freezing fresh.)  Two thumbs up from me — plus the oyster po’boy was pretty delicious.

And as an added bonus, we were treated to a pre-game concert by Mike McCready, lead guitarist of Pearl Jam, who played the national anthem Jimi Hendrix style… and I recorded it for the Internet to enjoy, missing the first phrase:

And then there was the very excellent  game that The Twins Won!!  In particular, the 7th inning when they scored three runs on a Parmelee double, two walks, a fielding error, a fielder’s choice, and a Joe Mauer single.  It wasn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, but it got the job done as Carl Pavano and the Bullpen (new band playing covers at the local bar?) held the Mariners to only two runs.  Matt Capps even came and pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning with two strikeouts.  It’s a Star Wars Day miracle!  (May the fourth be with you…)  Maybe they can do it again tomorrow when I attend a game with my mother and Amittai?

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