Sono in Firenze. Forget the throngs. (Take San Gimignano and multiple by 1000.) And I donàt know why there is a need for a hundred different booths on the street selling the exact same belts, scarves, and T‑shirts. None of that matters. I was here 5 minutes, just walking to my hotel from the bus,…
Sorry to all who have been waiting for my first report; I only today discovered that the hotel has internet access. And this keyboard types some bizarre (Italian) characters, so if I accidentally type some accents, forgivè me. So the first thing to report it that it has been terribly hot the whole time. Today…
The cab came on time, my flight left on time and actually got me home early. Joy was there to pick me up, and I got home to find my house and my dog and my garden all looking just fine (thank you, Ursula).
The country itself … it’s grand. It’s so damn grand.… It’s like trying to paint Niagara Falls or a brilliant sunset or the Grand Canyon or some other visual aspect of nature which can only be described by people who have lived in it, have soaked it up, have been in that environment long enough…
8:10 a.m. What a difference a good night’s sleep can make. I’m ready and looking forward to my first-ever helicopter ride, and even though there are some clouds, the sun is out. The helicopter people are picking me up at 8:30, so I’m having a muffin and coffee while I’m waiting.
5:00 a.m. I just got dropped off at Denali River Cabins, where I have an hour to wait before my 6:00 departure. There’s a restaurant that’s supposed to open at 5:00, so I can get breakfast. A few other brave souls are here waiting for it to open as well. I’m sitting here wearing a…
7:30 a.m. I’m sitting across from the Alaska Railroad depot, which doesn’t look even remotely like what I expected. I imagined a quaint village depot. No, it’s nothing like Grand Central Station, but it’s more like a small white office building than a train station. Until I saw “THE ALASKA RAILROAD” on the front of…
7:05 a.m. Hard to believe that by the end of today I’ll be back in Anchorage. Five days ago, the thought of being in Anchorage was thrilling. Today it just means that my Kenai adventure is over. Yesterday on the road to Hope along Turnagain Arm, we stopped to check out the bore tide coming in.…
8:55 a.m. I gave up on waiting for sunset last night and was asleep by around 11:00. Full 8 hours of sleep — felt great!
5:00 a.m. Well the serenade of the creek was drowned out by the torrential rain pummeling the metal roof of our cabin. Finally, unable to sleep, I got up at 4:00, took my shower, got dressed and packed up. Turns out the downpour is just a light shower, amplified on the metal roof, and the…
7:20 a.m. Last night at the campfire the staff people were looking at the clouds in the west and saying that rain was coming. This morning it’s here. Kind of a Seattle-style rain. It’s grey and drizzly. Well, a little more than drizzly. I thought I packed my rain pants to bring to Fox Island,…
7:10 a.m. Thank you Mary for giving me the night mask. It was still broad daylight when I got to bed last night at 11:00. I woke up periodically during the night and had to look and see how light it was. At 1:30 it was kinda dusky. At 3:00, it looked like dawn. Mask…
