I took this photo at my friend Dee’s house in Chugiak, Alaska, on Friday night. It was midnight.
You’d think after all those years growing up in the land of the midnight sun, I’d be used to this. But no, I had to stop and take a picture. I can’t believe the days are already getting shorter.
In the few short days since I returned home from Alaska, the summer solstice passed and the days are already getting shorter again.
A few minutes at a time.
I love dandelions.
They are such simple, earnest, friendly, happy flowers. I understand that people tend to despise the weed, but they warm my heart. They’re like children; they may make a mess of the yard, but really they just want to make you smile.
Besides, their greens are yummy.
These bear cubs thought so too. They were making quite a nice meal of Dandelions right alongside the highway. (We were a little east of Whitehorse, YT, here.)
We are in the midst of a road trip from Seattle to Alaska: my mother, my 2-year-old daughter, and I.
Naturally, the first move in a trip to the westernmost state, would be to go east for three days. Right? We’re taking the scenic route: the first night in Leavenworth, and then Coeur d’Alene, before heading northeast to Banff.
Think traveling with a senior citizen and a toddler sounds stressful? Let me tell you how we feed our little party:
After we crossed the border into Idaho, Mom started talking about getting steaks tonight for dinner. Sounded good to me. Moments later a billboard advertising a prime rib dinner on a floating restaurant appeared on the side of the road. I could go for some prime rib. After that, Mom had a one track mind.
But first we had to find the hotel. We turned off the highway when we saw the sign for our hotel. While we were waiting for a light to change, Baby Girl saw a Super 8 hotel sign, and started yelling “8!” because she knows that number. We were at the intersection with Apple Way, and it turned out that our hotel was right across the street from that Super 8. We checked in, and asked the guy at the front desk for directions to the restaurant.
“It’s real easy,” he said. He then directed us to turn left out of the parking lot, take a left at the light, follow that road and that we would see the big brown building floating on the water.
Sounded easy enough.
So we did just that. And sure enough, there was a big brown building floating on the lake. A very large, uninviting building with the name Hagadorn Corporation on the sign. Nothing even remotely suggesting a restaurant. I left Mom and the baby in the car to go investigate. I went up the ramp to an imposing, dark, locked door, that glared at me like I was trespassing, even if it didn’t say as much.
Hmmm…
Back in the car to drive around a bit more, maybe we didn’t go far enough.
We stopped and asked directions from a gentleman who admitted he had just moved to town, so he wasn’t sure if the name of the road was 90 or 95, but we should take it south and then we would see the sign on the left. Of course, we knew the name of the road was 90, because that was the road we rode in on.
Unfortunately, mom got in the turn lane a block before we got to 90, so we ended up turning down a frontage road along the interstate. We drove for quite a while, miles actually, and started wondering if maybe we’d gone to far.
But wait. We saw that sign right after we crossed the border into Idaho. Surely then, the restaurant would be in the vicinity of the sign. Wouldn’t it? Just then, the frontage road crossed over the highway. Oops. Now we’ve got an interstate highway between us and the river – not a great place to look for a floating restaurant.
We traveled along for a few blocks, and then decided to take a left and just get as close to the river as possible. If we travel alongside the river, at some point we will come across a restaurant floating on that river – right?
The first opportunity to turn came after we crossed the river, the we took a left on Riverview Drive. Of course, eventually, this road will have some view of the river. We drove, and drove, and drove along Riverview Drive. We drove 7.5 miles along Riverview Drive. We saw wild turkeys. We did not see the river.
As we traveled this misnamed road, mom admitted that she had looked for this exact same restaurant the last time she was in Coeur d’Alene with her sister. They couldn’t find it that time either, and ended up eating at A&W.
Eventually we stopped to ask directions again. “It’s real easy,” the young woman said. Just follow this road to the T, and take a left, and then when you get to 95, it will be on your right.
You caught that 95, didn’t you?
We continued on Riverview Drive, without seeing the river, until it came to a T, and we turned left on Upriver Drive, also lacking any kind of river view. When we got to 95 we took a right and drove a bit, but when the sign said Moscow, we started to question ourselves again. Maybe we were actually supposed to turn left on 95?
Yup, right after the intersection, there was the restaurant across the river on the right. This place better be pretty damn good.
We drove a bit further so we could turn on to the drive. Several blocks worth of RV park lined the left side of the road leading up to another sign for the restaurant. This one proclaiming that they start serving dinner at 4. A picture of the typical customer is starting to form in my head, and that picture included more polyester waistbands pulled up to the armpits than pretty damn good food. But we’d been on the road looking for this place for an hour and a half. It was time to eat.
We proceeded to bump our way down the very poorly maintained road, our overloaded truck bottoming out with each bump. We park, unload the baby and start our way across the awninged bridge, which was a little scary with the angry, swollen river up so close.
And the restaurant? It was closed for a private party.
Baby crying, mom and grandma both stressed out – all three starving. Now what?
We turned back on to 95 looking for another place to eat, and then took a turn on Government thinking we might have better odds there. We stopped at an intersection and then noticed we were on Apple Way, and there to the left was the Super 8 my daughter noticed when we came in earlier.
Yes, that’s right. We drove 30 miles, an hour and a half, to find a restaurant that was just a few blocks away. It was real easy.
We ate dinner at a little Mexican place down the street, and it was awesome. Most satisfying meal on this trip so far.
Finding our way through Canada to Alaska should be a piece of cake. Everyone says it’s real easy.
Note: I had to wait a few days before putting up this post, partially because access to the internet is really limited while traveling up here (may take a while to return comments on posts, too, but it will happen). Also because I didn’t want to scare my husband too much the first few days out. We’re doing fine Babe, and having a great time.
I guess it’s time for another update on the whole kicking-cancer’s-ass and getting-on-with-my-life situation.
Let me e’splain.
No, there’s too much. Let me sum up.
I finished up the radiation treatments and my skin is feeling much better, although it still looks dirty and scaly in a big square-shaped patch across my chest and collarbone. It’s not too much of a problem, although I look like I missed a spot while bathing if I wear a v-neck, or anything with a lower than crew-neck collar. That’s all fine though, and it will fade with time.
I just have a handful of Herceptin treatments left, and I’m done with scheduled treatment altogether! And my hair has grown back enough for me to have bad hair days frequently! Anna, I’ll be giving you a call soon so you can whip my poor confused locks into shape.
My lymphedema is not really under control, so I’m going to have to get (even more) serious about dealing with that, and find some time (and $) for more physical therapy treatments. The swelling isn’t too bad at the moment, but the pain is getting worse, and it makes my right arm essentially useless, even for little things like writing more than a couple sentences by hand. One of the best things I can do for my arm is not lift heavy things, but more on that later. I’ll also need more lymphedema sleeves and gloves (very pricey) as mine are getting stretched out and not snapping back into shape anymore.
The side effect that is having the biggest impact on my life right now is fatigue. It just seems like it should have lifted a bit by now, but it keeps getting worse. Part of the problem: I went back to school full time in January, and that may have been a bit too soon. I was determined, and I decided that cancer had sidelined my life long enough. So back I went. Full time. Why? Because I hadn’t been challenged enough lately? That semester kicked my ass, and by the time it was over, I felt like I just wanted to sleep for a month. (I did manage to pass all my classes, but I have never in my life been so happy to get a C.)
But no rest for me.
Aaron graduates with his Master’s Degree at the end of this quarter (that part isn’t bad, in fact it’s awesome!!), which means we need to be out of the school provided apartment, and get one of our own. So house hunting commences. And packing. And job hunting. And how do you get an apartment when you don’t have a job yet?
Also.
Mom is moving back to Alaska to live with my brother, and somebody has to pack up her apartment (hi). She wants to be completely out of her apartment by next week, then she will live with us a couple weeks until we hit the road to drive to Alaska.
Did you catch that “WE hit the road” part? Yeah, Gem and I are driving up to Alaska with mom! So Aaron can finish classes (teaching AND as a student), hunt for an apartment if we haven’t found one yet, hunt for a job, and finish packing up the house while the baby and I are on vacation. Then we’ll move into the new place as soon as we get back, just a few days before our vacate deadline for this apartment.
I’m really excited about this trip, and I have so many old friends in Alaska that I dearly miss and can’t wait to see again. Most of them haven’t even met my daughter yet. Brace yourself for this blog becoming a bit of a travelogue in the near future. I’ve been known to take a few pictures while on vacation.
and the best medicine any girl could ask for:
Originally built in 1923, the Dalby Water Wheel was one of the first hydro-electric plants on Hood Canal.
