Alaska 2026: Fred Meyer and Leaving Anchorage
I started the day anxious – was this horrid hotel room an omen? Today we were to drive to Denali, what if something went wrong??
We packed, we joked around and we went to breakfast. The breakfast was simple, but well prepared and had choices we like. In addition, we met a man from Houston and his wife, of Indian descent, who was later joined by his daughter and her friend, and we learned they, too, were headed to Denali. We had a great conversation, chatting away, and by the end of breakfast we were feeling much more positive.
As we headed out, I saw a giant stuffed polar bear and AdventureMan wanted to take my picture with it, so we had a lot of fun. We spent a few minutes taking photos for other people who wanted the same photo with the bear.
It’s a little dark and drizzly as we start. Across the street is the Puffin In, and if anything, it looks worse than the place we stayed. On the road to leave Anchorage, AdventureMan spots this and it brightens our spirits:
We had decided we wanted to pick up a few things for the road, small things, snacks, bananas for our breakfast cereals, and water. AdventureMan said, “Hey! A Fred Meyer!” and we were elated.
Fred Meyer is a West Coast grocery/department store we love. I was able to grab a coffee – and couldn’t resist a Starbucks Alaska mug for our son. We were in and out in minutes, found everything we needed, and were back on the road. The road was straightforward, only a turn here and there, and we were on our way out of Anchorage to Denali, and the road was smooth with very low traffic.
Corn in Pensacola is under 50 cents a cob
Alaska 2026: Have I Made a Big Mistake?
There’s a certain amount of anxiety when you do your own trip – like how bad can it be if you make a bad choice?
For the first time, our grandson picked us up to take us to the airport for this trip. He’s working for his second summer, two jobs, maybe three, so we hired him to pick us up and drop us at the airport. He showed up on time, helped with the bags and was courteous and professional – and a lot of fun. What a great way to start a trip.
We slipped in between the early-departure crowd and the mid-morning departure crowd, and, because we are not going overseas and we are doing only carry-ons, we were able to go straight to the gate.
For the first time ever, we didn’t see a single person we know at the Pensacola Airport. The Pensacola Airport is intimate – lots of people making quick trips here and there, sometimes to Atlanta or Houston and back for work in the same day. We always see people we know! Not this time.
Our plane boarded quickly, even though it was a full flight, it was efficient, departed on time and arrived on time. We had a good layover in Dallas/Fort Worth and wanted some Texas BBQ. We went to a BBQ restaurant in the airport, and it turned out to be nothing special so I won’t even share the name. It was just a disappointing place to eat. Nothing memorable.
On our next flight, something interesting happened. I was just about to nap when I heard a voice say “Go Back! This is a national security issue. Go back!”
That will wake you up in a hurry.
One of the female cabin attendants was standing at the front of the cabin, barring access to the forward lavatory, while the captain and co-pilot took brief comfort breaks. She was formidable and serious. She was protected from the back by a barrier and two other attendants. She later told us it was a procedure in effect since 9-11. I had never experienced it before.
And then we started seeing mountains. Blue sky and snow-topped mountains. Exhilarating.
We landed ahead of schedule in Anchorage, our car, exactly the one we wanted but with new technology we had to figure out, was waiting for us. We were totally fried, so tired, but the rental agency had a task for us – to photograph the car and send them eight photos.
Our hotel was nearby and we got there easily.
I really do my research. This hotel was nothing special, but the Marriott where we stayed the last time was $658 per night, and I was shocked at how expensive Alaska hotel rooms had become. I was shocked again when we reached the hotel I had reserved. It was unkempt, with trash in the parking lot and on the property. I found a surly desk attendant at the check-in desk.
She was dealing with an unhappy guest who found no shampoo, conditioner or body wash supplies in her room, and no hair dryer. As I wait, I am thinking I have made a big mistake. She agreed, or maybe she was put out by the previous guest; she gave us the worst room in the hotel, on the hotel sub-floor, right by the elevator and fitness room, and right across from the swimming pool. From the time we arrived until late in the night, it was full of squealing children, lots of children.
I had asked for a higher room and she told me she had groups coming in who got the higher floors. True, the flight we came in on was full of cruisers, and AdventureMan and I were tired. AdventureMan is philosophical, he figured we could manage the one night. I didn’t want to try to find another hotel; we were really tired. And I still had to connect to the internet and send the car photos to Budget.
The room was tired too, but the bathroom was clean and well supplied. While AdventureMan showered, I got the photos sent, listening to the shrieks and laughter from across the hall where the pool was in full party mode. While I bathed, AdventureMan went sound asleep, and to my great surprise, once I hit the bed, I did too. It was only for one night.
Map of Alaska 2026
AdventureMan first started talking about going back to Alaska in mid-winter. He found a very expensive, exclusive six-people tour. As a frugal Alaskan, I objected. “Let me see what I can do,” I said, “I’ll try to put together something where we can choose our own adventure, but include the places you would like to see.”
This is what we came up with:
The drawback – we did the driving ourselves, but the longest drive was six hours. We won’t do that again, but we had some wonderful breaks and was not a bad day.
There were hazards:
By the grace of God, we managed, amidst this glorious beauty, to stay on the road.
Alaska 2026: Still the Last Frontier
For a welcome shift in pace and point of view, I am about to take you with AdventureMan and me as we escape “the lower 48” and the current murky political situation and escape, as so many have before us, to Alaska, The Last Frontier.
I’m a born Alaskan. I lived there until I was 11. I still know all the words to the State Song, although Alaska was not a state when I was born; it was still a territory, and became a state while I lived there.
Eight stars of gold on a field of blue
Alaska’s flag. May it mean to you
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes, and the flow’rsnearby;
The gold of the early sourdough’s dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams;
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The “Bear,” the “Dipper,” and, shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
O’er land and sea a beacon bright.
Alaska’s flag to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.
Marie Drake
I am still moved by the song.
Happy Anniversary, AdventureMan
Today I received this.
At first, I thought it was some friend reminding me and wondered who it was, but I think it is a WordPress function, giving me material to post.
Truly, it’s the whole reason I started this blog, twenty years ago. We are human. We forget. As I read, I was back in that earlier time, early COVID, and I forgot how restricting it was. I had a wonderful, brave real estate friend who showed us houses, and then my sweet daughter-in-law called and said “Are you still interested in THIS house?” It was the house we had sold to them ten years before, but now, with a growing family, they wanted something larger and were happy to sell the house back to us, with one condition – that they inherit the house when we move on. We happily agreed.
And here we are, 6 years later, doing what we love to do – travel, see new things and talk with people. We have had the most amazing adventure, back to Alaska. We love stories, we love to hear how people came here, how people live. Yesterday, we had the joy of finding ourselves on board a small ship with just four passengers, one of whom was a Jordanian man, almost our exact age, and we had so many friends in common, and we had so much fun together.
As he introduced himself to us, he said “You will notice I have an accent, I am from Jordan.”
AdventureMan, always quick, responded in Jordanian Arabic, asking which part of Jordan. The look on the doctor’s face cracked us all up, and from that moment, we were not fellow passengers, but family. We ended up having lunch together after the excursion; we couldn’t stop talking.
Tomorrow, we have dinner with a man I graduated from high school with, lo, those many years ago, and who is, in my eyes, a hero. He is a doctor with his own airplane, and he spent his career flying to outlying Alaskan villages and providing medical services to those who otherwise would not have access.
Life is sweet.
Once I get the photos organized and the trip written up, I will share with you. Meanwhile, thank you, WordPress, for the prompt.
My Problem With ICE
I have a long history with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I’ve been in and out of the USA since I was a little girl. We have filled out countless forms for passports, and many times more those forms telling what we are bringing back into the country. The only time I ever had a problem with ICE was on returning from one of our African trips when I was bringing in wildebeest jerky from South Africa. I laugh now, it was me and a lot of African nationals shunted off. They were opening suitcases full of vegetables they were bringing back for family, and I was told my package of jerky was illegal in the United States. AdventureMan was annoyed with me, and I was ashamed I didn’t know. But they let me off with a mild scolding about infecting disease free animal life in the USA. I’ve never forgotten.
I’ve never minded the tiresome lines for immigration, always manned by sturdy, polite young people wanting to know where we’ve been and how did we like our trip; they were doing their job and they had been trained how to deal with people. In all my times going through those lines, I never saw any kind of incident.
They had a mission.
With the new administration, that mission changed, enlarged. They were given different, even SECRET orders, orders that encouraged them to commit the sorts of acts we saw in Minnesota. It always looked to me like those acts, committed on US Citizens, committed on resident citizens, smacked of incitement to violence. Why else would these customs and immigration officers be asked to violate the US Constitution in pursuing their mission?
I applaud those stoic and humor-filled Minnesotans who protested with restraint, who did not invite violent responses. Even if the Department of Justice will not cooperate in the investigations you are conducting into the murders of Minneapolis citizens, you are gathering witness from street cameras and witnesses against the illegal actions, and the lies and accusations, unjust, of the ICE officials and the Department of Justice. I applaud the restraint that forestalled any illusion of reason for a “national emergency” and activation of a military presence. The militaristic costumes of the immigration and customs officials did not fool nor intimadate you. Your patient, evidence based investigations will be embarrassment enough to those who thought to prevail by intimidation and brutality.
So we have to look at why the ICE men and women sent by our leader to Democratic states felt so empowered to misbehave?
Many ICE hirees have law enforcement backgrounds. Many of them have served in the armed forces. They know the basics. They know the law. They must have had second thoughts, many of them, while conducting these unrestrained acts of violence characterized as arrests of “rapists, thieves and the mentally ill,” as they arrested family men, women – and children, with no criminal records.
As well as knowing the law, and the legal use of power, those who are Christian would know Christ’s admonition to love our neighbor as ourself. Those who are Jewish would know the Old Testament verses about welcoming the stranger. Those who were raised without religion might be familiar with Spiderman, who teaches us that with great power comes great responsibility.
These $50K hires are as expendable as Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem. Once they have served their purpose, they can be scapegoated for excessive zeal in pursuit of the mission, or charged with murder while their superiors, who put the secret policies into effect, escape blame and punishment.
Again, I applaud the Minnesotans, who with restraint, humor, and humanity, protected the weakest, the families and children, while EFFECTIVELY resisting the provocation they faced. Well done, Minnesota!
And lets take a minute to grieve the effects of the violence upon those who inflicted it, mere pawns in a greater game of thrones.
British Isles: Farewell to Bergen, Jupiter and Good Friends
The alarm goes off too early, the bags outside our door are gone and we quickly dress and head to the lounge for departure. It is raining! This is the only real rain we saw the entire trip, and our guide says “Welcome to the REAL Bergen!” We had the special-day sunny Bergen for our previous day, and were doubly thankful for it.
Our route back takes us to Copenhagen, then Atlanta, then Pensacola, and all flights departed and arrived as scheduled. The flight out of Bergen, however, was hilarious. There were 32 rows on the flight. The first 18 rows were Business Class. The last 14 rows were economy. They were labeled. They looked exactly the same. Business class boarded and debarked through the front. Economy boarded and debarked through the rear of the plane. I’ve never seen this before!
I would have liked more time in Copenhagen, but it was a rush through the facial recognition machines, a rush to customs and baggage searches, and a walk to our gate, where we were soon boarded.
The SAS flight into Atlanta was delightful. Good movies, a little off the beaten track, and good meals. We had cheerful, polite service with a genuine feeling of goodwill.
It’s good to be home, to have our family and sweet kitties all together. And our brains are scrambled. There are so many cities, my brain can’t always keep it straight. I keep confusing the Orkney Island experiences with the Shetland experiences, and confuse the capitals as well. I am thankful I kept the journal, but even the journal is confused from time to time. And the missing photos jarred my thinking, and my confidence.
Thank you to my life long partner, AdventureMan, in adventure and marriage, for sharing these great times, for reading and correcting my mistakes and for contributing so many great photos of Scara Brae to fill in where I had deleted my photos. And thank you, readers, for going along on this great long cruise with us and being patient with my endless photos.
British Isles: Sunny Bergen and a Delightful End
Bergen was a treat. We docked earlier than expected, and I wasn’t even awake. We ate a leisurely breakfast, a light breakfast because we were meeting up with friends at an old Bergen restaurant where we had reservations for lunch.
The trip is ending, and we are not ready. We decide to forego packing and head into Bergen (we are docked in the city) to explore a little before lunch. It is a bright sunny day, and a warm day in Bergen. It is still early, so not yet crowded as we walk into the downtown area to explore the fish market and surrounds, and take some documentary photos.
Strange experience with Starbucks restroom. Had coffee, saw signs for restrooms – through the next door empty bar, and up two flights of stairs. A man coming out held the door for me, and I found the restroom flooded and needing repair. Back downstairs, AdventureMan asked how I had gotten in when I didn’t have “the code” and I said I hadn’t needed one, and then remembered the man who had held the door open a I headed up. I had not realized there was a code, and I hadn’t needed it. Others were flummoxed at having climbed all those stairs only to realize they needed to ask for the code before heading up.
Our friends caught up with us at Starbucks and we headed over to the restaurant. There was a long line! All Chinese! They were shown upstairs. We said we had reservations and they showed us upstairs, too, where we were seated next to the large group.
We think this might be the best trip ever because of all the conversations with our good friends:
We ordered drinks and appetizers, and the group next to us was served soup, and lavish shrimp open-faced sandwiches, and then dessert, and we never saw our original waitress again. Finally we had waited politely long enough, AdventureMan stopped another waitress and asked where the rest of our meals were – it had been about 40 minutes. Evidently there had been a communication problem among the staff, but once it was brought to their attention that were waiting for the rest of our order, it showed up almost immediately.
AdventureMan had the fish soup and a huge platter of crab claws, and I had the venison in wine sauce. There was so much I needed the others to help me out. They didn’t mind – it was really delicious.
We walked slowly back to the ship. It was time to pack and we didn’t want to pack. Our suitcases had to be organized, packed, and outside in the hall for pick-up to get us to the airport early the next morning. They warn us to clean out our safes, keep aside medications, and pack travel clothes separately in our carryon bags. We laughed, but we also imagined that these are things that have caused problems in the past. Packing wasn’t that hard, and we head for one last visit to the spa.
Meeting up with our friends for dinner, we work some on the problems of the world, and then on our more immediate problems – family, travel plans, things we have to deal with in the real world. It’s still light outside after our long (also light) dinner, so AdventureMan and I take a last walk into downtown Bergen and back to settle ourselves. We actually sleep well.
Sun setting over Bergen:
British Isles: Lerwick, Shetland and Jarlshof
We are finally here! Were were excited about visiting the Shetland Islands back when we did The Wake of the Vikings, but the weather made the water too tough to dock or tender in, and we had to skip the Shetland Islands. It was particularly disappointing to AdventureMan, as he had watched every episode of Shetland, a mystery series on Netflix.
As it turns out, he wasn’t alone – one of the first things the guide mentions is that everyone wants to see where the murders were committed (and through the trip, she showed us!) but that the show made The Shetlands look like the murder capitol of the world, when in truth, daily life tends to be very routine, and crime of any kind is limited. And everybody knows everybody.
Probably half of our bus had watched the show, or read Ann Cleeves addictive books about Shetland, and there was a lot of enthusiasm and appreciation from the people on the bus when the guide pointed out the places where the crimes really did not take place.
On our way this morning, this cracked me up. The local ferry, the North Link, with a big Viking on it passes the huge Viking ship as if we were barely moving, LOL. I guess it just struck me as funny. Maybe he’s pointing the way, thinking we are lost.
Today, it is cloudy, but they are high clouds, and foggy, the kind that burns off by late morning, and AdventureMan spots a seal sporting in the Viking Jupiter wake as we are docking.
I was wearing a skirt, but I change into Levi’s because it is chill, this is Juneau, Alaska, where I grew up kind of August. I wear a shirt under a sweater, and carry a windbreaker, which I later don when we hit Jarlshof, our destination today.
En route, we pass gorgeous bays, fields full of fat, happy sheep, contented cows and frisky Shetland ponies. We stop for a break in Hoswick where I find a gorgeous handmade coffee cup, and love the old crafts demonstrations set up there. It was still very early – barely 8:30, so they had gone to some trouble to be open when we passed through.
In this village I see something that blows my mind, an entire hedge which is a fuchsia shrub. Fuchsias are special to me; I used to buy one for my Mother for Mother’s Day. I have tried to keep hanging fuchsia’s almost everywhere we have lived, but they are very particular – don’t like heat at all, and need just the right amount of water. The guide tells me this is a hardy fuchsia, and they are grown all over the Shetlands because they love it there. What luxury!
We see a tall ship out in the adjoining bay. Our guide is smart, and a good story-teller. She tells us not much really grown in the Shetlands to support life; the trees are mostly gone, some grow potatoes and vegetables in family plots, but the main industry, until the oil fields came, has been fishing, particularly herring. There are herring stations near where our boat is docked, and she tells us there were women called the “gutting girls” who would flay and salt the herring and put them in barrels to ship around the world.
We learned the Shetlands have only been a part of Scotland for the last 500 years; before that they were largely settled by Danes and Norwegians. The streets are named after Norwegian kings, and their language is a marvelous combination of Norwegian language patterns coupled with Scottish vocabulary.
We reach Jarlshof, literally the house of the Earl, and there is a ruin of a medium sized stone house with more-or-less modern dimensions. The treat, though, is that (like Scara Brae in the Orkneys) a large storm uncovered ruins of dwellings dating back more than 4,000 years, built partly underground but covered by sand over the years.
The people who lived here were smart, and inventive. They created archways and strong tunneled wheel-houses, for living, for storage, or so the anthropologists and archaeologists surmise. The truth is, no one knows how or why, or even who made these dwellings. No one really knows whether they died out, or were driven away when the Northmen invaded, or if they assimilated – most of the Orkneys and Shetland Islands have a large portion of Nordic blood running in their veins.
Seeing these early dwellings is a thrill, and it is further thrilling knowing that there may be even earlier dwellings underneath these ones. No one wants to destroy what they have found so far to search for earlier peoples.
Equally thrilling is that while we are touring Jarlshof, the sun breaks through and the landscape looks different, no longer shades of grey and diffuse with fog, now it is bright and shines with energetic colors.
You never know when suddenly you will find a treasure, and today, as I was exiting through the Visitor Center, I saw some truly gorgeous scarves, in classic colors with classic patterns, created by a Scottish Heritage foundation. I couldn’t resist. Sometimes you see something special and you know it. This scarf thrills my heart.
Leaving Jarlhof, we are stopped by a gate across the road and a red light. The road crosses the airport landing strip, and a plane is landing, stopping all traffic in both directions until the gates are lifted once again. We watch the plane land, and then we proceed. I’ve since learned from Ann Cleeves that this is Sumburgh Airport, into which investigators and medical examiners fly from Aberdeen when there are all these murders in Shetland.
Our ride home is beautiful, again the hills with sheep and cows and ponies, even a few goats. We see small farms, we reach Lerwick where the Viking Jupiter is docked and see granite and sandstone buildings, a high street for shopping and modern supermarkets. Our guide is very proud to tell us that most of the shops in the Shetlands are privately owned, with very few chain stores. Shopping is more personal. Mail order through the internet is iffy – because everything has to come in by air or by sea, weather plays a big role, particularly the wind and rain, and no one guarantees “next-day” delivery.
Back on board, we both choose Malabar beef curry with roasted carrots and are delighted. Afterwards, we go down to the main lounge for coffee, then to the spa to exercise and to recover from our morning.
I try to carve a time each day when I can write this journal while our memories are still fresh, but there is so much! I wake up in the middle of the night remembering new things I need to tell you about!
We are starting to think about packing. Every time we think about it, we put it off. Our ship just departed Shetland for Bergen, Norway, where we will spend the day tomorrow, then depart on Monday for home. We can pack tomorrow.
Leaving Shetland – even the skies and seas are the Shetland colors of my scarf!
Maybe this was the best day of our trip?
British Isles: Aberdeen Exceeds Expectations
We had low expectations for Aberdeen, but thanks to a truly great guide on our Aberdeen historical and architectural tour, we now see Aberdeen in a whole new light.
Our first impression as we drive around, is how very clean Aberdeen is. Our guide, Andy, told us that when COVID struck, and tourism dwindled to nearly nothing, the city took a very preemptive move to ask the oil and gas companies for funds to pressure wash and clean all the granite buildings. The difference is astonishing. The grey granite of Aberdeen sparkles!
The Historic Aberdeen tour started with a drive through the area with the private schools, leading to a visit at two universities where they had recently cleaned everything, and it was stunningly beautiful. We were able to visit the old library, classroom and chapel.
Continuing on, we go to Fitbee/Footee, a picturesque fishing village tired of all the tour buses coming through and taking photos into their windows (!). My great favorite at the beach in Fittee is the mobile sauna booths. Such creative enterprise!
We hit the high points of downtown, the shopping streets, and the architectural highlights.
Then we stop at Union Terraces, surrounded by the King’s Theatre, St. Mark’s Cathedral, The Andrew Carnegie Library, and a modern apartment complex built around an old church tower. We visit an impressive statue of William Wallace; Andy tells us to be sure to read the inscription and narrative at the bottom of the statue:
“Go back to your masters, and tell them that we came not to treat, but to fight and set Scotland free.”
(Answer of Wallace to the English Friars sent to negotiate a pacific treaty with him before the battle of Stirling Bridge.)
We end the day with our old friends, having dinner in Manfredi’s. AdventureMan and I had the Brodetto, an Italian seafood stew, tasty – some might call it spicy, but it was not hot spicy, just tasty spicy. We shared stories, talked about our time in Saudi Arabia and in Germany, talked about common family issues and advice columns, and we laughed a lot. It was a delightful way to end a wonderful day. Below is our sunset en route to Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands!
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