Kelly's Visit

After being gone for three weeks, I can't tell you how excited I was to see Kelly. She arrived Thursday afternoon after a LONG flight. It was the first time she had ever traveled alone and Stone and I were both proud of her; changing planes in Minneapolis, getting through security, finding her way all by herself. We went to the Moose's Tooth for dinner Thursday night - - the best pizza in the world, according to some, and I have to say, it was REALLY good.

I tried to explain to Kelly how small Anchorage is. Atlanta has over 5 million people and Anchorage has about 250,000, but this didn't seem to mean much to her. What hit home is when she saw the telephone number on the pizza box from the Moose's Tooth..."you mean this town is so small you can dial the telephone number without the area code????"

Friday we went to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. Kelly didn't think reindeer were real. I told her FLYING reindeer weren't real, but reindeer do exist. She didn't believe me...until she saw a reindeer at the fair, along with cows, pigs and goats. We ate funnel cake and shopped (of course we shopped...this is Kelly we're talking about). On the way home, we actually saw a moose - running across the tundra chasing after a girl moose.

The one thing Kelly really wanted to do while she was here she didn't get to do - paraglide off a cliff at Alyeska. The weather just didn't cooperate - either it was too rainy, or too fogged in, or too windy. So on Saturday we drove to Seward, a quaint little seaside village about two and half hours away from Anchorage. The drive to Seward was beautiful, and the rainy weather seemed to clear as we got to town, complete with fabulous rainbows.

Sunday still proved to be crappy weather, and we could have taken a Glacier Cruise, or gone Flight-seeing over Mt. McKinley...but instead we took that money and went to a spa...and all I could think was how much Liz Pyatte would have approved of the decision. Kelly had her first facial and we left GLOWING.

Monday we just hung out. She had homework to do and we watched stupid movies on TV and went swimming at the hotel and stayed in our pajamas. I loved being with her and putting her on the plane this morning was very sad for me...although I don't think she realized that.

She left thinking that GOD had done a fabulous job with Alaska; the mountains were unbelievable. And she didn't understand why anyone would ever live here! It is very remote (at home I can get to Florida or Alabama or the beach) and unless you are in to the great outdoors (hunting, fishing, skiing, biking, hiking, paragliding, flight-seeing, whale-watching), there's nothing to do here.