Alyeska - Alaska

I am going to just tell stories about our trip instead of reenacting the whole trip since I figure I would get details out of order anyway.

August 1st was my birthday. We stopped in to say hi and bye to Great Mother since we were headed out of Anchorage that day.

I was finally able to answer a strange phone number that turned out to be my friend. My phone had issues while in AK. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. Perry's had even more issues than mine.

Anyway............after consulting with Merriah (who lives in Girdwood) we decided to take the tram up to the top and hike down. In hindsight - that wonderful thing - the reason my throat hurt is because I was sick. Perry was sick. The hike may not have been such a good idea after all.

We started down the path. It was fairly well-groomed and zig-zagged back and forth. When it was safe to do so I would let M and J-Man go down between the zigs and zags, waiting for us to reach them.

We met a really nice woman who was hiking up the mountain who informed them that, "Hey Dudes, if you fall you're going to roll all the way to the bottom and kill yourself." S and I were close enough to her that S, totally oblivious to what Lady said, told her it was my 40th birthday. Lady replied, "Well, I'm sure your mom would like her kids to stay alive on her birthday. Are you all hiking all the way down?"

It was all I could do to paste a fake smile on my face and wish her a nice hike. Really, really thankful she was going the opposite way of us. I mean, seriously, what a great thing to say to kids who clearly have their parents permission to be doing what they are doing. They were not in any more danger than the rest of us. I realize a lot of people use fear-based-parenting as I refer to it. I try not to. Unless, I need to. ;-) But, really, there is no way they would've rolled to the bottom. There were too many trees in the way.

I then explained to the boys that they were fine and could continue doing what they were doing. Reminding them to slide on all fours or their hineys if it felt too steep or to just turn around and crawl down.

We took a wrong turn and hiked a long ways a bit out of our way. It took forever us a bit longer than we anticipated to get down and meet up with my friends.

What a wonderful time we had reminiscing about the past and learning about each other's lives. We talked for hours while S slept and the boys alternately listened and played game systems. They were a bit tired from the long hike.

We left Girdwood around 8:30 p.m., stopping at Summit Lake to have a delicious blackened halibut dinner. We arrived at our campground around 11:30 p.m. Perry's goal was to have me at the ocean on my birthday because he knows how much I like it. He made it. Thanks honey. I know you didn't feel good but you made it a wonderful birthday for me.