FLYING HOURS - FLYING DAYS

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THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

The hours in the day are flying. When we have a specific set of places we want to see, we plot out the day in advance giving structure to our day. The day after we fished, we had no structure; since we were exhausted we slept in until 9AM and then made the one big plan of doing laundry before we were to meet all our important kids for dinner. So the hours flew quickly as it took us the entire day to do two overstuffed loads of laundry. Why overstuffed? The laundromat only had a total of 5 washing machines and 4 dryers; for each machine running there were two people waiting for it; and most importantly it cost $4 to wash one load and another $4 to dry that one load. Which brings me to think about the cost of everything here. The average price of gas is $3.89/gallon, salmon (the most common ingredient in Alaska) sandwiches are $12 apiece, but the restaurant charge for a cup of coffee is $1 (and if you take your mug into the gas station it’s
free). Abbey’s friend is renting a 1-bedroom cabin, on a one yr lease, with electricity but without any other commodity like heat, insulation, or running water (no dishwashing without hauling in water, no flush toilets, no showers, and no washing machines!) is $300/month while Benjamin got a short term rental in the same town but on a bay front apartment in a HUD building for $15/mo - correct, no typo - $15. His two-bedroom apartment did have all the bells and whistles - like electricity, phone, heating, and water. Alaska is absolutely beautiful but an anomaly. No Alaskan thinks Anchorage is in Alaska but Anchorage is exactly where it is just like “the outside” or the lower 48 in appearance and prices. As they say, “About 10 miles out of Anchorage you’ll come into Alaska!”

It was nice to have clean clothes when we went out to dinner with Abbey and her love Jeff, Benjamin and his love Melanie, and Jeff’s identical twin brother Greg. The kids were so much fun! Greg had gone to a “Halloween” party the night before and Abbey and Jeff had helped him costume up. The party guests had decided that Greg was a “graduate”. Abbey teased him by buying a stuffed animal with a mortarboard - from the dollar bin - and presented it to him at our dinner. Dick then insisted that each person in the party, hold Greg’s stuffed animal and declare to the group what made him also “a graduate” which Dick photographed in movie style. We all laughed and made a strong presentation for our own case; but it hit me each one of us has moved from the old way, the safe life, and changed and grown this August. We all truly deserved that award of graduating.

Yesterday was spent with Benjamin and Melanie; they left Seward to fly home to continue with their college education. We road as Dick drove us to his favorite places that are “on the way” to Anchorage. In truth it’s hard for Dick to drive more than one mile on the road without him declaring a new favorite spot. Fortunately, we all agreed that each place we went really was fantastic.

Today we shopped in Anchorage. Melanie and I agreed to 4 hours of shopping; Benjamin and Dick almost had panic attacks about same 4 straight hours of shopping. In the end, we all really did have fun. But with the end of shopping came the BIG goodbye. The kids had had a wonderful four months living and working in Alaska, and it seemed hard for them to leave even though they are looking forward to the new school semester.

Now we are making full day plans again for this new week. The days will continue to fly by but we will again have the structure. Oh my, life is good!
Marilyn

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