Time to Regroup

We just returned home from a two week driving vacation and I need another vacation to recover.  We don’t usually drive almost continuously when we travel, but this trip was a bit different in many respects.

I think I’ll just outline it first, then write about segments as I find the time.  I think my fibro fog is kicking up as a result of the pace of the vacation and I’m finding it difficult to stay focused enough to write for long stretches.  So I’ll try a different method to see if it helps.  That’s really what living with fibromyalgia successfully is all about.  Using what seems to be working until it doesn’t – then trying something new until you get to the place of balance again – knowing full well it isn’t a permanent state.

The trip began with a flight to Kansas City, MO.  In Kansas City, we rented a car for a one-way trip, loaded up the luggage and set off for Kansas and Nebraska.  We spent one night in Lincoln, NE and a second night in Alliance, NE. 

Phase 2 of our trip was a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation and our Lakota friends there for 5 days.  When I write about that, I’ll talk about the people we visited and the mileage we put on in just those 5 days. 

Phase 3 was the return trip.  It included visits to Custer State Park (SD), Theodore Roosevelt National Park (ND), stops in Dickinson and Fargo, ND and our final destination before flying home, Minneapolis, MN.

Right now the fibro fog is fairly thick and I’m struggling to think clearly – and fighting the urge for a nap at 10 AM.  The pain did flare up due to the varying quality of the mattresses at 7 different motels.  I sometimes wish I could take my own mattress with me, but I think that would put our luggage into the overweight category.  Airlines are getting finicky about that!  Besides, I’m not sure it would fit with my pillow already in there.  Fibromyalgia does make travel more challenging.  But with a little planning and a lot of attention to details, it can still be fun to travel.

But for now, I think the nap urge is going to win . . .

Dancing with the Stars

I am very excited that one of my favorite shows has finally started it’s new season.  I hadn’t been watching much TV since Deadliest Catch closed their seasons.

Dancing with the Stars (or Dancing with the “Doobers”, as my husband calls it) has the spontaneity of live TV with the fun of seeing people outside their comfort zones.  This season has too many stars right now, in my humble opinion.  It’s almost impossible to keep them all straight, especially since many of the women, at least, look similar.  Maybe that’s why Kelly Osborne stood out to me.  She exceeded my expectations and was a breath of fresh air.

My pick for the “What on Earth were You Thinking?” awards go to Macy Gray for the women and Tom Delay for the men.  Macy is innocence but she isn’t graceful and I suspect the only reason she’ll make it to the next round is because there are a couple of women who are even less coordinated than she without her charisma (Kathy Ireland).  Tom was a shoe-in for the award.  Watching him salsa to “Wild Thing” was less pleasant than a root canal.  The costume alone would qualify him for the award.  The dancing was awful and I pray he doesn’t have the votes. 

I don’t have a favorite yet.  But I’ll keep watching because they have supplied enough stars with a modicum of talent that it will be interesting.

I can’t wait to see who gets booted tonight!

I don’t feel anything

I should clarify that.  I do feel physical pain.  You can hardly avoid that when you live with Fibromyalgia. 

I don’t feel anything about learning that my stepfather has esophageal cancer.  We found out today.  I don’t feel any emotions about it at all.  I don’t understand that.

I do feel emotions about other people and other things.  But not about my stepfather.  He was never abusive to me or anyone in the family.  He’s loud but when you have a fair amount of hearing loss, that’s not uncommon.  He used to drink when I was in high school, but all he did was get loud then, too.  He loved my mother and she loved him.  He supported the family along with my mother.  He has been a wonderful grandfather to my 2 children. 

So why don’t I feel anything?  Not one blessed thing?  I don’t know.

I do feel sorry for my children, worrying about their grandfather so soon after my mother died.  Whatever happens, it will be difficult for them.  My daughter knows what her grandfather is like – she wasn’t surprised that his statement to the doctor, after having treatment suggested, was, ” I’m 85.  We all have to die of something.” 

I am most concerned about my sister.  She is close to my stepfather.  She lived more years with him and my mother after they married.  I was off to college and marriage.  My sister is also a breast cancer survivor – almost 15 years now!  She knows the fight ahead of my stepfather, if he chooses to fight it.  I could see the fear in her eyes this morning.

So I have feelings for my children and my sister.  But I have no feelings about my stepfather.  I am not sad or worried or fearful or anything else.  Nothing negative, nothing positive.  Nothing.

I’ll let you know if any feelings surface along the way.

Heart Palpitations and a Seizure

The last two weeks of August brought more excitement than I needed!

Due to the heart palpitations that had caused my husband to be hospitalized for observation, he ended up being scheduled for a number of cardiac tests.  First he was given a 24-hour monitor to wear.  It made him aware of every palpitation because he started anticipating them.  At least he had some.  When I had my test last year, everything was normal for that 24-hour period.  It figured.

His second test was another one I had had the pleasure of having previously – a nuclear stress test.  Most of us know what a stress test is – walking on a treadmill while hooked up to a heart monitor.  A nuclear stress test takes that up a notch.  Prior to walking on the treadmill, a dose of a radioactive agent is administered intravenously.  After a short wait, they take a scan of the heart prior to exercise.  Then you walk the treadmill, as usual.  After you reach your limit on the treadmill, the scan is repeated.  The test gives a more detailed and accurate picture of what the heart is doing before and after exercise.  My husband, who is his own worst enemy when it comes to medical issues, was really stressed at the prospect of this test – even though I had been through it previously with no ill effects.  He was sure they were going to find something really wrong with his heart because the palpitations had not gone away.

The long and short of it is that all of his tests were normal.  In fact, he walked longer than about 95% of those taking the test while maintaining a normal blood pressure and heart rate.  In plain words, healthier than a horse. 

In order to get him to believe that there was nothing wrong, our doctor had him see a cardiologist to tell him about his test results.  I think he finally got the idea – sometimes our body does things for no good reason and those things are totally benign, even if they are weird.  It’s a difficult lesson for someone who never gets sick.

On August 31, the last day of a crazy month, we got a truly upsetting phone call.  My stepson had experienced a seizure and had been taken to the hospital.  His girlfriend was calling and would call us back when they knew something.  They are in Delaware and we were in Massachusetts.  His mother, my husband’s ex-wife, is also in Mass. 

The original call came about 6 PM.  While we waited to hear, I made my husband start packing slowly.  I knew we would be headed to Delaware no matter what we heard.  We waited … and waited … and finally couldn’t stand it anymore.  My husband called his girl.  In the ER, nothing to report yet.  By 8 PM, I decided that, since we would have a 6 hour drive, we should get started anyway.  We were, after all, packed and ready.

My husband’s ex had asked if she could ride with us – she is alone and was afraid to drive by herself as upset as she was.  So we picked her up and the three of us headed to Delaware.  I drove the first couple of hours so my husband could calm down a bit.  He drove the rest of the way.  When we finally got there, only two persons could go in to see him – guess who got left out.  That was when my calm disappeared into my fatigue.  I paced and paced until my husband finally came out and agreed to take me to the hotel.  I truly felt like the 5th wheel. 

After being admitted, my stepson had more tests than you can imagine – MRI, CT scan, bloodwork, heart monitor, brain wave EEG test, maybe a couple I’ve forgotten.  By the way, the job he has (I should say had, but more about that another time) does not come with benefits.  So this 23 year old young man, who had all this medical treatment, is uninsured.  The “health care debate” just got personal!

He was discharged the following afternoon.  The diagnosis – unknown reason for seizure.  It didn’t show up in any of the tests, so they felt it wasn’t neurological.  He had to see a primary care doctor and the neurologist for follow-up. 

He saw the doctors for follow-up.  The primary thinks a sinus infection was at least partly to blame.  He applied for Medicaid and we hoped his income would be low enough to qualify.  We needn’t have worried.  The neurologist had to disable him from driving for three months (with official notice sent to the Registry of Motor Vehicles).  His job required driving.  No driving, no job.  Definitely qualifies for Medicaid now.  Unfortunately, while that will pay the medical bills, it won’t pay the rent – or any of the other ordinary bills.  So now he has to hunt for a job he can walk to, get deferments for his school loans and hope to survive on his girlfriend’s income alone.  It will definitely be a challenge all the way around.

So far there have been no further seizures.  I guess that’s good and bad new.  It’s good as far as his health and getting medical bills paid is concerned.  It’s bad because he’s out of work for no good reason.

My husband and I leave for a trip out west in about two weeks.  Vacation again.  We’re holding our collective breath, praying that there is no more excitement until then.

2 months of time lost?

Has it really been over two months since I’ve written on this blog?  It can’t be . .  . can it?

I guess it is.  Let’s see if I can reconstruct that time.  If I can, it means this fibro fog challenged brain has pulled off a minor miracle.  What was the date of the last entry?  Hmmm . . . July 3.  It is over two months!  I’d better get started.

July 4 – 11 was the rest of our vacation in Alaska.  We spent 5 glorious days in Homer, AK – a place that actually felt like home to me.  On the shores of Kachemak Bay, across from mountains that drop into the ocean and include volcanoes, Homer sits up on bluffs primarily.  It does include a spit of land that juts about 4.5 miles out into the bay, only 19 feet above sea level.  It is aptly called Homer Spit.  The spit is lined with rocky beaches that include campgrounds – you camp right on the ocean.  It is also lined with small shops and restaurants.  Since the climate in Homer is not very much different from MA, I knew I could live there.  The only fly in the ointment might be the light issue – the Alaskan summers are fine: daylight all but about 5 hours; the winters, of course, are the reverse.  For someone with SAD (seasonal affective disorder), like me, it could spell trouble.  Still, I think I’d move in a heartbeat if someone told me to.

The rest of July was a blur of laundry, catching up on mail and construction.  We had our bathroom redone from the studs out.  Our only bathroom!  You see the problem with that, don’t you?  We did have a portable toilet outside the back door.  It wasn’t too bad except when you woke up in the middle of the night with an urgent urge and had to get dressed before you went outside.  I doubt the neighbors would have been looking for a half-naked woman streaking to the porta-potty, but the neighborhood skunk might have.  That wouldn’t have been pretty.  It took nearly three weeks to complete the estimated ten day job.  The joys of construction.  Now that it is done, we love it and that has made the “patience” we exhibited worthwhile.

July 31 saw us attending a Gordon Lightfoot concert at the Twin River facility in Lincoln, RI.  The concert was good, but we thought that he looked old and not really well.  It turns out that, two years before Lightfoot had suffered a burst abdominal aneurism and spent a week or so in a coma.  Put in that light, he looked really good for someone who nearly died!

We took a day trip to Maine.  We went to Perkins Cove and walked the Marginal Way.  I had never walked the whole way before, so I was proud of myself.  My husband started having palpitations this same weekend.  He was so unnerved by them that I had him call the doctor on a Saturday while I drove home from Maine.  He had them during the week for three weeks, with exacerbations each weekend.  Finally, the third weekend, the doctor told him to go to the emergency room to be checked out.  They actually kept him overnight that Saturday and had told him they would do a certain test the next day.  Great, except that the cardiologist had not shown up by 3 PM.  They told my husband they didn’t see anything to worry about, so he decided to check himself out and do any follow-up testing on an outpatient basis.  The “hospitalist” (new term for an attending physician who takes care of you for your doctor) must have been offended by the idea of this man deciding to take matters into his own hands and leave.  He told my husband that he could be fine OR he could have a blockage, drop dead and die.  That latter part was in direct contradiction to everything we had been previously told.  Needless to say, we left anyway.  Since even after testing, they told my husband they did not know the cause but the palpitations were completely benign.  No treatment was necessary. 

My husband would not have stayed in the hospital another night unless they’s told him he was dying.  Why not?  We had another concert to go to – the Moody Blues at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino.  What a great concert they gave!!  They sounded and looked as good as ever!!

I have a lot more to say and not much time left for it right now, so I’ll stop here with the concert and pick up tomorrow (I hope) with the rest of the catching up.  Right now I have to catch my breath and let my fingers rest!

Exit Glacier

Today I felt good enough to hike to the edge of Exit Glacier.  That’s really the name of the glacier – but it sounds like it ought to be the punch line for a joke or a stage direction in some play.

Exit Glacier is part of the Kenai Fjords National Park, just minutes north of Seward.  It is in the northeast corner of the Harding Icefield.  The area has three different trails you can take:  a half-mile hike (one way) takes you just below the glacier’s terminus (aptly named the Toe Trail); a 1.25 mile hike (one way) over somewhat more difficult terrain brings you to the glacier’s edge; a 3.9 mi (one way) hike brings you to the top of the glacier at the Harding Icefield. 

We opted for the 1.25 mile hike.  The first part follows the same paved trail as the smaller hike to the toe.  After that, the terrain became uneven and rather steep.  At about the 1 mile point, I was ready to give up.  The steep climbing was making my lungs ache.  But I couldn’t give up.  I had worked too hard to get to that point.  So I rested for a few minutes, then started anew.  One foot, then the next, and the next  . . . until I was on my way again.  I was very proud of myself for that decision.  Almost as proud as I was that I hadn’t caved in yesterday and got a big dish of ice cream. 

When we reached the top, I couldn’t believe the view of the valley as well as the glacier.  I sat on the rock and contemplated the glacier.  10,000 year old ice.  Just imagine the history that has occurred while that ice was sitting there, covering huge areas of land.  And the land that we were on – just a few short years ago it had been under all that ice.  In a sense we were standing on new soil – at least new to the effects of modern life. 

Looking at a glacier from the valley or another mountaintop, it appears to be white and clean.  But up close, glaciers can be very dirty.  They are moving and they grind soil into the ice as they do.  So there are streaks of brown in them.  There are also areas that glow with an eerie kind of blue ice – areas where there are cracks and holes in the ice.  The glacier we saw on our cruise, Holgate Glacier, made a considerable amount of noise.  Exit Glacier did not make any significant noise.  The only sound besides the wind was the rushing of water flowing from beneath the glacier.

The return hike was a bit easier because, as the saying goes, it was all down hill from there.  I felt so exhilarated that I had completed the 2.5 mile round trip and got to experience for myself the beauty of the glacier and the view.  All that treadmill walking had definitely paid off.

Driving out of the glacier access area, we were treated to a visit by a young coyote.  He was wary but not fearful as he trotted down the road next to the car.  The only time he felt the need to move into the undergrowth was when a vehicle came along going a bit too fast.  He was a treat.

We drove north a bit to a scenic overlook and were treated to a bald eagle soaring on the thermal currents above us. 

We stopped at the market on the way back to our room and picked up some beverages.  Tomorrow we check out here in Seward and drive over to Homer for the remainder of our vacation.  I’m looking forward to that.  As incredible as the view is from this room, I just have a good feeling about staying in Homer.  We’ll see how this intuition pans out.

Hit by a Whale?

I was afraid I would pay for the 6 hour cruise we took yesterday.  Don’t get me wrong.  The tour was great and I had a good time.  But those of us who live with fibromyalgia know that we often pay for the things we most enjoy.  I was right!

I woke this morning about 7 AM with some of the worst pain that I’ve had in the past year.  It was primarily left-sided  -  back, shoulder, neck and head.  The headache in my left forehead and face made it almost impossible to get up.  But staying in a prone position was causing more pain by the minute.  I felt like I’d been hit by one of those mega-ton whales we saw yesterday!!

My day is something of a blur from that point until now.  I took pain medicine and muscle relaxants.  I put on a Thermacare heat wrap (felt like I could have used half a dozen!)  I have been eating and sleeping all day.  No trip to the Exit Glacier as planned.  No walking.  Nothing but this room – from the chair to the bed.  My husband has been good about it but noticeably frustrated – and I don’t blame him.  I feel bad not being able to do anything with him today.  Gratefully, he has learned enough about fibromyalgia and me to know that I like it even less than he does.  You just have to do what you can and let time do the rest.

I’m starting to come out of the fog, so hopefully the rest of the vacation will be better than today.  Time for some fresh air on the balcony.

Kenai Fjords National Park — Whales, Birds and Sea Lions

I’d have posted this yesterday, but we didn’t get back to our room until 9:30 PM and I was really exhausted.

We took a tour yesterday – a 6 hour cruise into the Kenai Fjords National Park.  It was done by a company called Kenai Fjords Tours and left from the small boat harbor, perhaps a block from our hotel.  Our tour, called the National Park Cruise, left port at  3 PM.  It included dinner and was to last 6 hours.

The captain was also our tour guide.  The boat was far from full since we were going out on the Wednesday before the July 4th holiday weekend.  From our perspective, that was a good thing.  As we sailed out of the harbor, the captain gave us some historical information on Seward, Alaska.  We had not known about the strategic part played by Seward in WW II or about the fort built above it.  We sailed through Resurrection Bay, heading for for the Harding Gateway – the entrance to the Bay from the Gulf of Alaska in the North Pacific Ocean.  The scenery was stunning and the captain pointed out places of interest as we passed.

Then we found him/her!  A northern Pacific Humpback Whale.  We have seen humpbacks in New England waters when we have taken whale watch tours, but they are always amazing.  Such huge animals.  In the Pacific, as we learned, they spend the summer in the north, feeding almost non-stop.  They winter in the waters that surround the Hawaiian Islands or Baja California.  When they are in the south, they have their calves.  They fast the whole time they are in southern waters because there is so little food for them in those waters.  No wonder they gorge themselves when they come north, where food is abundant!

We made a stop at Fox Island in Resurrection Bay to pick up our food.  No – not nuts and berries.  The cruise company owns property on the island and runs a little resort there, complete with chefs who cook all the meals.  So we put into dock to pick up our dinners, then sailed away – the stop took perhaps 2 minutes. 

Back in the Bay, we passed Rugged Island and made our way into the Gulf of Alaska.  As we moved out of the Bay, we encountered clouds that made it gray but were high enough that they didn’t interfere with wildlife viewing.  (It had been sunny in the harbor.)  It was very cold outside the cabin, but since it’s also very difficult to use the camera with gloves on, I ended up with REALLY cold hands.  I took so many pictures, I wore down the camera batteries! 

Dinner was served in the upper and lower cabins.  Salad (iceburg lettuce, really), rice pilaf, half an ear of corn, a piece of tender, well-cooked prime rib (had to be with the plastic knife and fork), 2 small slices of salmon filet, roll with butter and lemonade or ice water.  You could purchase wine or beer.  My husband added an Alaska Beer Amber, which was quite good.

While cruising, we saw many birds, sea lions and whales.  I’ll give you a list of everything I recall at the end of this post.  The end of our journey away from Seward was the Holgate Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.  The captain told us he would shut down a quarter mile out from the glacier, but it seemed closer to us.  As we drifted there, we listened to the noise coming from the glacier.  Because the glacier moves, you hear it as it creeps forward and overcomes snags.  It isn’t just a bit of crackling, like your bowl of Rice Krispies.  The sounds are more like cracks of thunder or the report of guns.  Loud.  Sudden and unexpected.  Occasionally pieces of glacier would come loose and fall into the water.  This ancient piece of ice silenced all on board in wonder.

We hated to leave, but we were running late – not that anyone really cared.  We got in about 9:15 PM although the sun was still high enough to be seen over the mountains.  The fresh air and cold had been envigorating, the wildlife plentiful and the food was good. 

So — what did we see?  Birds included (but weren’t limited to) Double Crested Cormorants, Bald Eagles, Black Oystercatchers, Common Murres, Horned Puffins, Sooty Shearwaters, Surf Scoters and Glaucous-Winged Gulls.  Animals included Stellar Sea Lions, Humpback Whales and Dall Porpoises.  Sadly for me, no Orcas.  I really had hoped to see one.

A word or two about the porpoises and whales.  Dall Porpoises look like mini-Orcas and are actually related to them.  They are some of the fastest animals in the water and like to play in the boat wake.  They were a lot of fun. 

We didn’t just see a few whales.  We actually saw 19 humpbacks!!!  Some were feeding, others playing.  It was astounding.

What a great tour!  We highly recommend it if you are ever in Seward.

Alaskan Rest Day

When we’re on a long vacation, we try to build in a rest day or two.  These are days when we don’t run around very much, so we can enjoy the days when we do more.

Today was one of those days.  I got a really good sleep last night.  The mattress was firm and my body cooperated.  I awoke about 6 AM with a few aches but nothing like the previous day.  That’s really helpful on a day when we’re not doing much.  I find that when we are doing a lot, I can ignore the pain better.  When we’re mostly relaxing, it’s a lot more difficult. 

My husband went down for breakfast, but I wasn’t hungry so I decided not to eat “just because.”  I went online while trying to see through the fog that blanketed the marina and mountains.  The whole landscape was covered by a gray shroud.  The meteorologists had said today would be like yesterday, but so far I was not convinced.

When my husband came back, I gave him the computer and sat in the armchair, feet up on the ottoman.  I could not see the snow capped mountains yet.  So I pulled out a novel and read for a while. 

By about 10 AM the fog had thinned a bit.  I could now see across the bay.  We decided to take a short drive along the coastline in Seward.  As we left town, the road we were on turned into hard packed dirt - a bit like a washboard, too.  We came upon a beach access at Lowell Point, part of a state recreation area.  We walked the short distance to the beach – perhaps 5 minutes.  We found a black sand beach covered with small rocks, some of which seemed to be from cliffs that had been blasted for roads.  It was lovely.  You could just make out the forms of mountains across the bay through the fog.  There were two men – spaced a respectful distance apart – fishing from the beach.  As we walked back to the car, we encountered two women who asked if anyone had caught any fish.  The women appeared to be local Native Americans (Aleuts) and were very pleasant.  We were treated to a visit from a soaring eagle as we approached the car. 

We continued on our way, returning via the same dirt road – the only road – into the area.  We commented on obvious rock slide areas that had damaged some of the small bridges.  Then I spotted something in the water.  It was a sea lion.  We watched for a while.  But since sea lions can swim under water for a considerable length of time, it wasn’t long before he disappeared from sight.

As we traveled further, I spotted something else in the water – but I knew it wasn’t a sea lion.  It was much smaller.  It was a sea otter!  There he was, floating along on his back, rear feet paddling every now and again while he ate some tasty morsel.  When we had almost reached the paved road, I spotted another sea otter and we stopped to watch him.

We returned to our room and I read again while my husband wrote our vacation journal.  I settled back into the armchair to read.  Suddenly, the top of one of the mountains across the bay was shining like it was gold plated.  In a few minutes, the sun was shining.  It was beautiful!  I went out on the balcony to feel the sunshine.  I spotted a sea lion cruising the marina, swimming under the rows of boats, surfacing in the “aisles” between then submerging once again.  My husband joined me and we shared the entertainment.

Eventually we were both hungry.  Instead of going out to eat, my husband ran across the street for take-out and brought it back to the room.  We sat in front of the window watching the sun sparkle on boats, water and mountains while we ate.  We would have eaten on the balcony, but it is a bit on the chilly side today with the breeze that blowing.

While I write this, my husband has taken a walk to a “lagoon” across the street.  Armed with the camera and binoculars, I suspect he out “hunting” for eagles or other wildlife.

I plan to enjoy the view from this room for the rest of the afternoon.  I have never seen anything more beautiful and I want to etch it into my mind so I will never forget it.  Even quiet days here are remarkable.

It Only Gets Better!

I have never gone on any vacation before (and I have been on many) that got better day after day.  I will no longer be able to say that.  Alaska was awesome from day 1 and has only improved with time.

This morning we checked out of the hotel in Anchorage and our destination was Seward.  However, had we simply set out for Seward when we checked out, we’d have been here by 11 AM – a little early for check in.  So before we left Anchorage, we went over to Potter Marsh.  This is a boardwalk set up in a marsh.  It’s quite large and well maintained.  They even have a “volunteer host” who camps out in the parking lot and is available for help or information.  Very user friendly.

When we arrived, it was partly sunny and cool.  There were 2 other people on the boardwalk and they left before we’d gotten very far.  We basically had the place to ourselves.  It was unbelievably quiet and peaceful.  We watched the water birds – many with chicks – as they floated along.  I took photos of both birds and scenery – what an amazing sight to see the mountains reflected in the calm water of the marsh.  As we walked along, we could discern the paths of animals through the grasses and wondered what animals they might have been.

I looked at the trees ringing the marsh and spotted a small white dot in one tree.  Grabbing the binoculars, I discovered it was an eagle.  We finally reached the deck which was at the end of the arm of the boardwalk we had chosen.  In the distance we could see what had to be a beaver pond, based on the dead trees sitting in it.  A careful look revealed the beaver’s lodge.  We watched for a bit but saw no telltale beaver noses plowing through the water.

Then I went to the back edge of the deck and looked at the tall grasses.  I held my breath!  In the grasses I spotted 2 long ears sticking up – on alert!  It was a moose.  At first I thought it was a calf because it seemed so small.  I spoke to it quietly, asking after the mother.  Suddenly, the moose made her way to her feet and I could see that it was a young female, not a calf.  She stood there getting her balance in the uneven footing of the marsh bottom.  Then she began to graze, pulling up tufts of long grass as she slowly moved toward our position.  That’s right, I said toward us.  There was no fear.  She ate quietly as we stood even more quietly.  Occasionally I spoke to her.  After she crossed directly in front of us, she began to move away at a slight angle.  I thanked her for sharing her morning with us and she turned around and looked back at us.  I took one last photo and she did not move away until she heard the shutter.  Then she turned her attention back to the main task at hand – breakfast.  We were grateful to have witnessed this moose waking and rising.

We were walking back to the parking lot when we were again stopped in our tracks.  This time the eagle which I had spotted in the tree came swooping down.  Apparently not to be upstaged, the eagle landed perhaps 100 feet away in the tall grass.  Within seconds it rose again abruptly, taking a path directly in front of us to return to the tree.  I managed to get a couple of photos which I hope won’t be too fuzzy. 

Back at the car, we set off for Seward.  We had spent over an hour at the boardwalk at Potter Marsh.  It was one of the best hours I’ve ever spent.  We now set out on the Seward Highway.

The Seward Highway is one of 13 roads in this country designated as “All-American Roads.”  As far as I am concerned, it could be an “All-World Road.”  The first stretch of the road we traveled was the same stretch we had traveled on our first day.  However, same does not mean there was nothing new.  Last time we saw mountain goats on the cliffs.  This morning we saw Dahl sheep.  There was even a male with huge, curling horns. 

We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  This is a zoo-like facility that rescues injured wildlife that would be unable to survive on their own.  While many of the species were animals we have seen in the wild, we were able to see a small herd of wood bison that we never would have seen without the facility.  The are cousins to the American bison of the Great Plains. 

After our visit to the center, we drove along the Seward Highway again – marveling at the high, jagged peaks of the often snow capped mountains.  Driving in the valley made me think of pictures I’ve seen of Austria or Switzerland.  We stopped at one turnout for a photo.  I noticed a paved walkway that descended even deeper into the valley.  I decided to walk at least part of the way and my husband decided to accompany me.  As we walked along the path, with wildflowers on both sides, we noticed how quiet it got.  You could hardly even hear the cars passing by.  It seemed as if we were the only 2 people in the valley.  I was so grateful that I had started walking on my treadmill again last April.  I was able to walk the entire path down into the valley and, more importantly, back up without any panting or shortness of breath.  I really enjoyed that walk!

We did hit a couple of stoppages caused by highway construction projects.  However, the view was far superior to that we had during the stop in Wasilla and the time seemed to pass more quickly.

Just before getting into Seward, we passed a large turquoise blue lake.  It was stunning.  It was so still that the surrounding mountains were reflected in it as though it was a mirror.  We stopped for a better view.

All told, it took us about seven hours from check out in Anchorage to check in in Seward.  That’s why we never listen to the folks who tell you how long it will take to get from one place.  It will always take us longer since we like to explore along the way.

We checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Seward.  The lobby is lovely.  The room is fine, especially the arm chair with ottoman.  Oh, I forgot – the room overlooks the small boat marina on Resurrection Bay.  That’s right – the hotel is right on the bay.  If we walk out onto the small balcony (or even look out our windows), we have a most incredible view.  Row upon row of boats, mostly white, some with tall white masts; tour boats; charter fishing boats – all bobbing on the bay.  Some have colorful sails furled, some have bright colored flags or buoys attached.  The water sparkles.  Across the bay, snow capped mountains dip their feet into the water – there is no flatland here.  The blue sky is strewn with fluffy white clouds that occasionally kiss the mountains tops as they float past. 

Our only definite plan while in Seward is to take a day cruise up into the Kenai Fjord.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  In the meantime, I plan to sit on the balcony and try to read – though likely the view will be too great a distraction.  There will be some walks, I’m sure and probably a few drives.  But there will be some wonderful time for rest and reflection. 

I don’t know what Alaska can do to top this day, but I have learned never to sell anyone – or anyplace – short.

Alaska rocks!!!