Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

I’ve been home for three days now, and I’m still recuperating. In fact, I haven’t even unpacked my bag yet - although I plan to get to it today.

The trip home was long, but uneventful. I left for the airport at 6:15am (CT) and discovered my flight out of Madison was delayed an hour due to ‘maintenance issues’. I was glad to have a long layover in Minneapolis so I wouldn’t miss my connecting flight. Quite a few people had to be re-booked or re-routed.

Brandon drove with me to the airport in the rental car. The original plan was for me to take myself to the airport, but the night before he worked it out that he could drive with me and then have his friend John pick him up later.  I’m so glad he went, as I would have certainly missed the last turn for the airport! We shared a bagel and coffee, before I had to say goodbye to him and make my way to my gate. It’s so hard to say goodbye to my kids, knowing it could be a year or more before I see them again.

My flight out of Seattle was also a little late, so I didn’t get into Fairbanks until 9:30pm. It was so good to see Steve waiting for me when I came down the stairs. It was also snowing - big, fat, fluffy flakes.  It was quite beautiful as the flakes slowly drifted downward; much different than the sideways-blowing snow of Madison. While it was only 1F above zero, it felt much warmer than WI because there was no wind.  I wish my kids lived in Alaska with me.

Here are a few photos I took from the plane:

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When I arrived in Madison, Chris and Brandon were waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me. Their friend John had driven them to the airport, which we were all so thankful for - considering it was after midnight when I finally arrived. I picked up my rental car - a tiny red Chevy Aveo which was quite small, but also comfortable - and we drove back to the kids’ place.

When we got home, Becky was still up and waiting for us, even though she had to get up for work a few hours later.  We all stayed up for another hour chatting before heading to bed.

The next day, while Becky was at work, I took the boys to the grocery store and filled their fridge and cupboards with food. I planned out meals for them while I was in town, and looked forward to cooking for them. (This is not something I want Steve to know about - as I rarely do the cooking at home! *laughs*) The funny thing is that the kids told me they usually graze and aren’t usually very hungry, but everytime I prepared a meal, they sure enjoyed it! I think the issue is that they don’t like to cook, and therefore grab the easiest thing to prepare.

Since Becky has Friday’s off, we decided to just hang close to home for the first couple of days. On Friday, we took to the road and drove down to New Glarus, which is about 28 miles south of Madison. New Glarus is known as “America’s Little Switzerland”, and I was looking forward to exploring the quaint little town. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much open, as it’s off season, so the trip ended up not being as exciting as I hoped. It was also quite cold and the wind was blowing, so getting out of the car and exploring on foot wasn’t very pleasant either. Nevertheless, the drive was gorgeous! We passed acres and acres of farmland, dotted with beautiful farms and barns and silos. And cows! Lots of cows!

This photo was taken in New Glarus at one of the shops.  From L to R: Chris, Becky, Brandon, Santa.

Here are some more photos that were taken in the New Glarus area, as well as on our way to and from:

	Known as “America’s Dairyland,” Wisconsin produces more milk than any other state in the nation except California. Many of the dairy farms located in the southeastern part of the state provide fresh milk to nearby Chicago.

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On Saturday, we had a filling breakfast of french toast or omelets, and then drove to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens and Bolz Conservancy to see the miniature trains and gingerbread houses, and visit the indoor gardens. What a nice way to warm up on a cold, wintry day! I was under the impression that there’d be more trains to see, so I was a bit disappointed in that aspect of the event, however the conservancy - with its warm humid air, and greenery - was well worth the visit. I did have some issues with my camera lens fogging up, but still managed to take a bunch of photos of the plants and the kids.

After our visit to the gardens, we drove across the street to Olbrich Park to watch the kids sledding on the big hill. They were having so much fun, and it made me want to join in!

From there, we drove to Olin Park so I could get a photograph of the Wisconsin Capitol from across Lake Monona. There were also Christmas lights up at Olin Park, but since it wasn’t yet dark, the lights didn’t show up as nicely as they would have a few hours later.

The wind was really whipping, and the lake was very choppy, so there weren’t any good reflections in the water. One thing I really liked about the parks in Madison, were the trees. It was nice to see large, “gnarly” looking oak trees, rather than tall, thin pines and birch trees.

Brandon and Becky:

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One night, after it got dark, Brandon drove me through the neighborhood across the street from their condo complex. The houses there were large and beautiful, and most were decorated with pretty lights for the holidays. It was quite festive!

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Of course, I took a bunch of photos of the kids and their furkids too:

	Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. ~ Jane Howard ~

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One of the things the kids taught me, was how to play the XBox game called Guitar Hero. You follow the notes on TV and play along with the songs. I used to play guitar quite a bit when I was younger, and still have my acoustic guitar - which is unfortunately collecting dust. It took me a few tries to get the hang of playing, but once I did, we had so much fun! I played both alone, and with Chris. I started out on the easy setting and got totally through it. Next time I go to visit, I’ll try playing on the medium setting.

I took some video footage of the kids playing, and then Becky took some of me and Chris playing together. Chris was playing on expert level, so his fingers were really going over the fretboard. I only had simple notes to play so it was easy to keep up with him.  Here’s the video I created from the footage:

It is so good to be home to my family, but I miss the energy of the kids’ house and their company. I had such a good time, but the time went by much too quickly. I would love to go back again in the spring or in the fall, to take more photos of the barns and farms, and to explore some more areas. I never made it to Mt Horeb with my friend Kerry, so that will definitely be a stop the next time I’m visiting Wisconsin.

Today, I plan to go to Christmas in Ice here in North Pole. There’s free admission today with a canned good for the Food Bank. I’m waiting until it gets dark, as I want photos of the sculptures with the lights on them.

It’s snowing lightly here, and Steve just used his new ‘toy’ on the driveway. He waited for me to leave town and then bought himself a snow-blower. It seems it’s not safe to leave him unattended for long periods of time or he gets in the ‘man toy’ mode and buys something expensive. The snow blower is his Christmas present (and birthday present) for the next five years… that’s what I told him anyway! *laughs* In actuality, it did get the driveway cleared very quickly and with a lot less exertion than hand-shoveling. We’re not exactly spring chickens, and I certainly don’t want my husband having a heart attack trying to keep our driveway clear.

Tomorrow is my birthday. We don’t have any plans yet, but whatever we decide to do - it will be to celebrate both our birthdays. Maybe we’ll go see a movie and have dinner at Lavelle’s… or maybe we’ll just stay in and cook a nice dinner here and dine by candlelight. We’ll see…

Until next time…