Remaking the Routine

Things look a whole lot different than they did a week ago. Instead of having to drive into town in order to find the Internet required to post my blog, I get to type this from the office upstairs while watching people drink beer at the bar across the street. Tiny European cars drive by, but just as common on the street are cyclists. I have about 4 kilos of ground beef sitting on the counter downstairs (the freezer needs to be filled with delicious burgers) so I shouldn't type too much.

The end of our time in Escanaba went well. Naomi left one day before me, and we headed over to the house of some friends on our last night together. Naomi had tried and failed to check into her flight earlier that day, but we figured it was no big deal. One of our friends said it was. So we called the airline, and sure enough, the flight was changed to two hours earlier without any notification. As it left from Marquette, an hour away, this would have been a major bummer. To make the new time we would have had to get up at 4:30 in the morning. Ouch.

When I asked the lady if there was a later flight, the answer was no. Then I asked if we could switch airports. It would be an extra hour each way of driving time, but at least we could sleep until a normal time. This all turned out to be possible, and Naomi ended up making it back smoothly - without her checked bag. Fortunately a courier service brought it to our house a few hours after she arrived.

I ended up buying a ticket to and from Brussels because it was cheaper. I did manage to get a layover in Amsterdam though, in hopes that I would have to pick up my checked bag for customs, and then instead of getting on my connection to Brussels, just hop on a short train home. No such luck. I had to follow my bag to Brussels (at least the view was nice), and when I got on a train at the airport, I happened to be sitting next to an American who was also on his way to Rotterdam. Turns out he had even been to Escanaba before. Strange.

My luggage made it on time, but not in one piece. It took many hours to clean up some shattered/powdered glass along with food powder. So much for returning without dirty laundry.

Work went well on Friday (I missed the first day, Thursday, as we were informed of the schedule long after tickets had been purchased), it was good to spend a bit more time with the new colleagues and and see the old ones again.

This weekend has been one of settling in and relaxing. We had planned for about 6 days of this, but I guess we will make do. It has been most enjoyable. Hopefully we will get some energy back soon...

Door County, WI.

Sleeping Bear Dunes? Anyone know?

Detroit.

Amsterdam.

Wrapping Up

The past two weeks or so since we have returned from Alaska have been full. I can’t think of a better word to describe them. There were lots of things that we did, errands that needed to be run, special American goods to acquire, messes to clean up, and even a bit of relaxation. All in all, a very nice time.

Last weekend we had a little mountain biking adventure at the nearby Days River trail. Finally, we would get to use the bikes for what they were designed! Naomi, of course, had no idea what was coming. She did not know that people used bikes on anything other than a hard, flat surface. Needless to say, she had a little trouble.

I had a blast and the bikes preformed admirably. The two of us needed to part ways though, because I was covering twice as much ground as she did. Her overly cautious nature took over, but after a few times out, I am confident that she will get the hang of it. My parents hiked while we biked, and afterwards we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Jack’s EAT. Friday night fish fry…with amazing pie for dessert.

After a garden and canning oriented weekend, Naomi and I drove off to the cabin at Pike Lake – our supposed honeymoon spot. Naomi was so looking forward to spending some time there that we did it anyway. We even got some good results at the mall in Green Bay on our way down.

Dinners with Family were enjoyable, but mostly we did nothing but relax at the cabin. I read a whole book and we made some nice food. The Thank You’s from the wedding were even written there, at the table, overlooking the lake. The only annoying thing was the five new dogs that the neighbors just got. Stupid.

After returning, we knocked out some errands and such along with some extra relaxation time. Saturday was a great day. The four of us ventured up to Munising with high hopes of boarding a ferry heading out to Grand Island. Upon our arrival to the visitor’s center, we discovered a boat had left just 10 minutes before, and the next ride wasn’t scheduled for another three hours!

We were pretty bummed, but decided to head down to the ferry dock anyway just to see if we might get lucky. And get lucky we did. The Capitan had to run over someone’s lunch, so we were able to grab our biked out of the van and hop on just in time.

After a nice lunch on the Island, Mom and Dad started walking and we set off on bikes. We were both feeling sick but determined to enjoy the island anyway. Enjoy we did. It was a lot of hard work – we biked 23 miles – but had a blast doing it. The views were incredible and it didn’t rain until the very end.

Dinner at the Dog Patch was, of course, most enjoyable and Claire was able to meet us there. She was in the middle of a big crisis and work so it was great that she could still come up to see us. The break was also very good for her. We were able to offer some advice and she got some much overdue rest. After listening to her problems, we no longer felt tired and our originally worrisome job outlook began to appear quite positive after all!

Tonight, Sunday, will be a delicious dinner with filet mignon wrapped in bacon, twice baked potatoes, salad, and Singapore Sling’s out of ice goblets. We are looking forward to it! Tomorrow we will finish up some odds and ends, pack up, and enjoy dinner at the Jacobs. Then Naomi leaves early in the morning. I leave the next day. School starts before I get there – staff meetings any way. This is coming just a bit too soon! This vacation, as similar to the year in general, has been very good, but packed way too full. We are looking forward to a bit more structure and balance in the coming school year…

Writing "Thank You's" at the Cabin.

Edge of the Cliff.

Our old campsite.

North(?) Beach.

Surprise!

My story starts with a hidden envelope. I tucked it away deep inside my carry on bag and wrote: "Naomi - DO NOT OPEN!" on the front. A few weeks ago she was rifling through my bag looking for a missing piece of her wedding dress even though I told her it was not there. She did not find what she was looking for...but came across the envelope instead. She showed it to me and I had to think fast. Seamlessly, I told her that it was a romantic letter I had written which she could only open during our honeymoon in Central Wisconsin. Perfect.

Fast forward about a week. Our nearly perfect wedding has passed and we are driving toward Green Bay's airport. We had to drop my sister Kalia off on our way to the honeymoon cabin. I pulled into the long term parking lot because the price was cheaper and we wanted to bring Kalia right to security to make sure nothing was wrong with her baggage or the flight. Due to recent gang activity, I told Naomi we should bring in our well-packed bags as well. They were on wheels so it wouldn't take much effort.

Just before entering the terminal, we paused in a shady spot. I took my 'romantic letter' out of my bag and handed it to Naomi. "Now you can open it," I said. Her whole world stopped in that moment. In a frozen tension she barely gripped the paper while her mouth opened slightly in shock. In that instant her mind pieced together many of the little oddities that had happened recently. It took her over a minute to get the printed and stapled sheet of paper out of that envelope. After about another minute of searching (while Kalia and I were trying hard to limit ourselves to smiles) she finally discovered our final destination. We were flying with Kalia to Alaska!

It took Naomi about 12 hours to recover from the shock. I still think she is a bit slow to understand that we just spent a week in Alaska. It was a beautiful week. We arrived late Tuesday night and Kalia had to work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I had made arrangements for a quiet little B&B and a dinner cruise about 3 hours South of Anchorage.

So on Wednesday after dropping Kalia off at work, we took her truck down the coast. The drive was spectacular and we stopped to pan for gold along the way. Even though it was a bit rainy, the low hanging clouds gave the constant mountains a constantly changing and peaceful appearance. After a bite to eat (some delicous rock-fish and chips while watching the Olympics) we grabbed a bottle of Coke to enjoy the rum with that I brought back from Haiti 7 years ago for my future honeymoon. We took it to this exclusive outbuilding at the B&B which contained a wood-fired sauna and a hot tub that overlooked a fast-moving creek and nothing but forest. On the other side of the B&B was a raging mountain river that soothed us to sleep that night.

We took the next day nice and slow, waking up to breakfast by the fire. The rain continued for awhile and once it stopped we were ready for some light exploration. The area was beautiful, surrounded by mountains, forests, streams, and a few scattered houses. After some time in the hot tub we got ready for the dinner cruise.

The boat picked up speed quickly as we departed from the harbor of Seward. We headed up the bay, but not too far, as we spotted a sleeping sea otter. After motoring on past more mountains and glaciers, somebody saw a whale spout. The boat turned around and headed in the supposed direction, and we saw two more spouts along with the back and fluke of a humpback whale. I was thrilled! For me, one of the main reasons for taking this cruise was to see a whale. I was hoping for killer whales, but I suppose you can't win 'em all.

We continued in the direction of Fox Island where the boat anchored and we stepped ashore for dinner. We were offered an unlimited amount of Alaskan Salmon and Prime Rib. It was delicous. I ate more meat during that meal than over the course of a week in the Netherlands.

The ride back to the harbor was relaxing (unfortunately we couldn't make it out to the Gulf of Alaska due to stormy weather), but we did manage to find a bald eagle. We picked up a few things at the gift shop and grabbed another bottle of Coke on our way to the hot tub.

After another night of deep sleep we had another slow, relaxing start by the fire as the sun came out! We packed up our things and drove to the nearby Exit Glacier. At the ranger station we saw Moose antlers and nearby there were Moose turds - it seemed we were closing in on Naomi's dream of spotting the elusive creature.

It was a perfect morning for a hike and we were able to walk right up to the massive flow of ice. Even though it looked huge, it is tiny in comparison to its former size. 100-150 years ago it stretched to fill most of the valley we drove through and now it is confined to the narrow sloped of the mountain. Just 10 years ago it was twice the size. Global warming is real in Alaska.

After returning to Anchorage, we rested well, and headed out to the artisan market on Saturday. The things they sold there were quite unique and interesting. Baleen from whales, carved walrus jaws, fossilized mammoth ivory, and the list goes on. We found a beautiful cribbage board carved out of a Moose antler that we could not pass up. Kalia picked up some stone goblets.

On Sunday we took the morning slow, and then headed down to Girdwood – a ski resort area about 30 minutes south of Anchorage. We went for a beautiful hike on a piece of the Iditarod trail which took us over a whitewater gorge in a suspended hand-pull cable car. It was quite exciting. Then we got to a waterfall and took a rest there.

After the hike we had reservations for a fancy dinner. We entered an upscale resort hotel and wound our way though the back to the gondolas. We rode up the mountain and arrived at an amazing restaurant. The view was unsurpassable – 7 glaciers was the name because we could see 7 glaciers from where we sat. Paragliders provided additional entertainment as the flew crazily down the slopes, flipping upside-down and seeming to brush the treetops with their feet. The food was excellent as well.

Monday morning we got up a little early and drove to Flat Top Mountain just outside of Anchorage. The temperatures started off quite chilly, but as we began to climb we noticed that what we thought were low-hanging clouds in the distance were actually mountains. As we reached the top the mountain the temperatures soared under the bright sunshine. We could see the Aleutian range and even Mount Denali towering in the distance. Denali was about 200 miles away but we could still see it clearly. This has not happened since Kalia has lived there for the past 4 months!

After some lunch Kalia went to work and Naomi and I took a long nap before heading to the Alaska Zoo. She had so desperately wanted to see a Moose during our time in Alaska that we could not leave without proving that they were, in fact, real creatures. We also saw some other interesting animals at the zoo, but were a little surprised about the inequity between the Bald Eagle and the Golden Eagle. One bird was given a magnificent cage with lots of space to fly around. The other was in a tiny, circus-like cage. Perhaps it was due to an injury or something, but the Golden Eagle sure seemed to be a second-class citizen at the Alaska Zoo.

That night we went to the airport and said our goodbyes. It would have been nice to stay longer! After buying a few gifts, we really began the rough trip back. We had three flights and a two-hour drive to get back to Escanaba. Needless to say, we are still recovering from a beautiful wedding and honeymoon, not to mention a crazy year. It would be nice to have more time to relax, but that has been the theme of this past year. Maybe some day things will slow down a bit.

Panning for Gold.

Fox Island - Our dinner spot.

Breakfast at the B&B.

Bald Eagle.

Seward's Harbor.

Relaxation at the B&B.

Exit Glacier.

Anchorage Artisan Market.

A piece of the Iditarod Trail.

Cable Crossing.

A long way down.

The Gorge.

An amazing dinner - too fancy for the likes of us!

The outside view of our dinner table.

View from Kalia's deck.

Made it to the top of Flat Top Mountain!

Anchorage and Denali in the Background.

Climbing down.

The Aleutian Range.

The Fabled Moose.

Our Wedding: The Sequel

The wedding could not have been more perfect. Friday night most of the guests were coming into town and we had a nice barbecue. Afterwards we played some horseshoes, corn hole, and blew up some fireworks. Andrew and I even smoked the special wedding cigars that I brought from the Netherlands.

Saturday morning started off with a whole lot of stress from the Lady. After our 6am discussion and the administration of some mild drugs, we were able to sleep for a few more hours. The start of the day was slow and Naomi was quoted saying "how could any bride look forward to such a day?" Then she went for a bike ride, my sisters took good care of her, and the rest of the day was perfect for her. I got rather stressed out, but everything got set up in time and if it weren't for 1 or 2 girls who were still putting on makeup and such, we would have started on time. Being late wasn't a problem though.

The ceremony was beautiful and the weather was perfect. High 70s without a cloud to be seen. Brian gave a nice message, my dad made it though his reading, and Kalia and Chris played some beautiful music. Afterwards we served everyone a drink and gave them a gift as they congratulated us. Then we took pictures until dinner time.

The food turned out perfectly, the music was enjoyed, and the desserts were incredible. Before cutting out cake though, we took a few pictures as the sun was going down. The candles were soon lit and the trees began to sparkle. The effect was a bit magical.

The next morning we woke up to quite a number of people cleaning up. It was a group effort and the work was done in no time. I am so glad we were just waking up when things were finishing. I wasn't looking forward to that part of the weekend.

After some extensive goodbyes (many of the guests came back) including a nice lunch, folks started to head home and we got some rest. This whole day we felt as if we had a serious hangover.

Monday we enjoyed ourselves. Andrew and I took a ride up to Marquette and hung out at Presque Isle. The ladies went down to the Lake Michigan shoreline. As the heat gave way to some intense thunderstorms, the pizzas came out of the oven and we had a tasty dinner. The last night together was enjoyable and we ended it with the best of Chris Farley.

Tuesday we were up at 6. Andrew took off and we brought Naomi's mom to the airport. On our way home we ran out of gas, but were able to restart the car and make it to the gas station that was just down the road. Perfect timing!

After some careful packing we hopped in the car on our way to drop Kalia off at Green Bay's airport. Naomi and I were headed to a week long honeymoon at Pike Lake's cabin...but things were not as they seemed...

30 July 2012

I am upset. I went to update my blog this morning and the piece that I wrote last week is gone. Somebody used my computer and closed it without saving. I feel like I have lost a little part of myself – something I created – a documentation of a very important time that I could look back on in 50 years from now.

In reality, it was written about the wedding preparations. I wrote it a few days late because things were so busy. We were making so many decisions and doing so many things that we were tiring ourselves out. There was definitely enjoyment and a little rest, but the stress got to us from time to time. Naomi’s Dad and Edith came in and couldn’t find a rental car in town for a week, so that didn’t help. On the other side, they did help with wedding prep so that was nice.

Sort of like the way the Starship Enterprise goes into warp speed, the stars began to blur faster and faster as we approached the big day. Many things were done. Once people started to arrive the event took shape. It was beautiful because I simply asked people to do things that they enjoyed doing and each part was done beautifully. I did not need to micromanage or oversee much at all. It was simply taken care of. Extensive planning was not necessary. Everything just fell into place. Being surrounded by good, competent people is a wonderful thing.