Anchorage Away

Well, the Mrs. is gone to Alaska. There's a business trip for a friend of hers in Anchorage, and this friend kindly offered to bring Lope along, and I naturally said something along the lines of:

- Lope, you'd be crazy for not taking her up on this
- You stink; I wish I could go too.

But I am happy for her. I was put in charge of finding things for her to do while she's there -- I'm usually the itinerator, which isn't a word as far as I know -- and I did find a few interesting attractions, even though my heart wasn't completely in it.

For instance, she can go see the official start point of the Iditarod sled dog race, which is on 4th Avenue. And I bet there's some interesting Russian history there, which you don't so much find here in SC or in Indiana, where we came from.

My main advice to her was to head south at her first opportunity, and check out the Kenai peninsula. From what I can tell, they've got the rugged mountainous scenery you generally associate with the 49th state, along with a good portion of Alaska's 3.5 million lakes. She's armed with both of our cameras.

The main thing there, though, is fishing, and I'm pleased to note she'll be doing that too. With three million lakes and a bunch of rivers besides, she'd be crazy not to. (Which she already proved she wasn't, if you remember, by going on the trip.)

So with any luck, she'll come back safe and inspired on Thursday, with some grand sightseeing and fishing behind her. And when people ask what brought her to Alaska, she can say, "I went for the halibut."