Lessons Learned

Thinking about my times in Alaska, made me remember some other crazy things I learned there, like...

- It's scary making new friends, but well worth the effort.

- You lose absolutely nothing by just making conversation with someone. Everyone has a story to tell, listen to as many as can.

- There are two kinds of assholes - good ones and bad ones.

- Alaska girls rock, Alaska girls rule cuz they know how to kick it old school!
You have to YouTube that song, it's hysterical! Especially when blared from a scratchy CD in a raggedy old Mazda Protege stick shift, with roll down handles on the windows!

- You have to always be nurturing as a mother, no matter how young or old your kids may be.

- Going places as an adult, that you were always told not to as a child, is just as exciting no matter how old you are. That stuff my mom used to tell me about quicksand was a crock!

- I could spend a lifetime collecting, sanding and carving driftwood. Every touch of the tool, opens up and shows you another time in that tree's life.

- Age is just a number.

- No one has air conditioning in Alaska.

- Chihuahuas don't fair well in Alaska, even in June.

- There is something scarier than the huge and abundant Alaskan mosquito - the red ones!

- It's possible to meet someone at 65mph.

- You can buy a haircut in Alaska for a sack of coins. Granted, the stylist may be shot out, middle aged and under the influence of God knows what.

- 10 donuts a day will make you fat.
- Switching to cinnamon rolls instead of donuts doesn't help matters.

- Don't tell your mother when you go twice the speed limit in the 2-mile tunnel into town because you figured jail in Whittier couldn't possibly be too bad.

- There are ways around those pesky bootlegging laws.

- When you love someone, tell them. If they don't love you back, leave them alone.

- The landscape looks completely different when you recognize a few of the things growing or living there.

- 70-something Polka dancers make great lunch mates when dining cafeteria style.

- Standing on the edge of a creek, at the base of a glacier, makes having to bathe there not quite so bad.

- Bears smell really bad. They smell even worse when you're standing naked, creek side with shampoo in your hair! My "shower" was cut a little short this very way.

- Camp fire on the beach + cast iron skillet + Alaskan Amber beer + roast beef = pure D heaven on a hoagie bun!