Dearest Rachel –
There must be something about Mondays; yesterday morning, before I cracked open my eyes, I was having to deal with paying for a four-day hotel stay in Stillwater, OK where I was at a training session with Mohinder, of all people. Even as I was doing so, I was wondering how I would get home from there, and began planning elaborate walking directions to get back to the Chicago area at first, and then to get to Wichita in order to pick up a train. And then suddenly, I realized that I couldn’t be here in Oklahoma when I was already in Alaska. Moreover, what was I doing there with Mohinder? I’d quit that job nearly seven years ago.
It was at that moment I woke up.
I wasn’t quite free of the cares of the world, though; in my email feed was a reminder about getting income tax installments paid by next week – and while I’m pretty sure about the feds, I think either Daniel or I still have some business with the state to concern ourselves with. Moreover, I got a call from our broker about an IPO about to drop on Friday afternoon that I need to free up funds to get in on. Such are the situations that invade one’s vacation on a Monday. Still, it’s better than having to deal with Mohinder ever again, thanks so much.
But anyway, now I can get on with telling you about our day in Seward.
Anyway, by the time we went ashore – and we did so before we were assigned to, since the cruise line had been somewhat lax about timing at previous ports of call – we’d been able to forget about it being Monday. And why not? We’re on vacation, after all.
Now since we weren’t about to get extravagant by taking a helicopter ride over the fjords or a whale-spotting boat charter, our excursion took us, as with Homer, to a museum on the opposite end of town as where our ship was docked. Fortunately, the place was a lot more interactive and kid-friendly (granted, the latter wasn’t absolutely necessary to make it palatable for Daniel, but honestly, it didn’t hurt). We even had the good fortune to watch a ‘training’ session – more of a feeding session, but they did wave to the audience – for the sea lions.
The selfie stick came in handy, too, as the crowd was several people deep at points, but I could hold the phone well above my head – although that meant that some of the time, the camera wasn’t always pointed where it needed to be. I had to cut out a lot of footage that had one of the trainers’ explaining things about the sea lions as a voiceover of sorts, but the camera was directed at various members of the audience. Still and all, I got enough for it to be interesting and maybe even somewhat memorable.
Once we had gone through the SeaLife Center to our satisfaction, we decided to make our way back on foot, rather than taking one of the regular shuttles from the ship to the Center and back. After all, it may be a smaller town than either of the two cities we previously visited, but there are points of interest along the way. Nothing big or special; just stuff that would catch my attention or Daniel’s. As usual, whenever Daniel wanted to point something out, he would wait until the camera was off to say anything, prompting me to make another clip to talk about what he had seen.
Our walk from the Center wasn’t just for our health, either (although a mile or two on foot couldn’t hurt, let’s be honest). We’d learned about a place that supposedly sold reindeer sausage – which is something that couldn’t be found back at home – and wanted to check it out. Much to our surprise, it turned out to be a tiny food truck (although that certainly doesn’t preclude it from getting excellent ratings on Yelp). Much to our disappointment, it was closed. This was a reminder that we were out and about on a Monday; even back home, this is a common thing for restaurants to use Sunday and Monday as their “weekends.”
But after all, we were only here for the day, and by now, we’d had our hearts set on something exotic to eat (other than seafood, of course; I might enjoy it, sure, but having something like that in front of Daniel, when he couldn’t enjoy anything would be rather cruel, to say the least). We turned back up the main drag on 4th Avenue, and found – by dint of the fact that restaurants here generally post their menus outside their establishments for passers-by like ourselves to peruse – a place selling sliders featuring elk, caribou, bison and venison. Not individually – that would have been too much to ask – but combined together. We decided that it would be a worthy substitute for the time being.
And really, that was all there was to the day, honey; an hour or so spent at the aquarium/zoo/museum, followed by a walk all the way through town. Only a slight disappointment in the one place being closed, thanks to having built up expectations; otherwise, we hadn’t for anything from here at all. It was a pleasant place to visit – and we all know someone who would want to do the run up Mount Marathon next month – but we can say we’ve been here, and move on from Monday.
And with that said, we’ve got another day and another port to come tomorrow. Keep an eye on us, if you please, honey, and wish us well; we’re going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 