Archive

[Note to self: Chance encounters with the elusive Alaskan male species are not unlike chance encounters with Alaskan moose—both are equally enchanting and unpredictable.] Newsy-news: My 23-minute [...]

Uh. Okay. So, she just kind of showed up. I was drinking water at the pond, you know, a late-evening kind of thing. And then I saw her. And she saw me. She was cute and all, if you could overlook [...]

They all warned me. KB told me, Lila told me, Compton told me, Jeremy told me. Between last year and this year’s visit, I must have been told a dozen times: “Alaska is a small state.” Of course, [...]

It’s beautiful here. No other way to say it. Tonight I saw a red fox and a moose. There are juncos that flit through the underbrush around the pond. Canada geese honk in flight overhead. Other [...]

AK 2010, Day 7: Why Here, Why Now [Rockwell Kent, “Twilight”] When I told people I was going to Alaska to write, and in particular to Fairbanks to write about war, they naturally [...]

Long-time readers will remember my explorations of Alaska last summer, as recorded on this blog and full of references from Home Ground, an anthology of landscape terminology edited by Barry [...]

Here’s where KB and I will write, read, relax, yoga, wine, and dine for the next two weeks… The cabin! (Solar powered, drain sink but no running water, funky but functional bedding, pots and [...]

AK 2010, Day 3: Driving into the Night KB and I headed to Fairbanks today, 350 miles north of Anchorage. We’ve got her sister’s 8-cylinder Chevy pickup, a cooler full of salmon, bulk dry goods, a [...]

I wake up early and it is sunny. I do not know it yet but this is the 28th day. All the Alaskans say it. The 28th day. I walk to New Sagaya’s city market and pick up the paper to solve the [...]

AK 2010, Day 1: It begins with bags that are too heavy, some fees, some shuffling around. It is followed by a delay on the tarmac; further delay on different tarmac. Hello, Detroit. Then there [...]