Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Hot, hotter, ...Alaska?

Seattle is steaming. The past week's temperature readings have gone from a comfortable 20°C on Wednesday, via 23°C on Thursday up to 27°C on Friday. And then? 29, 31, 30, and 29°C from Saturday until today. (For the locals: from 68, via 73 to 81°F; and then 84, 88, 86, and 84°F.)

If you know me, then you know that I get a little 'stressed out' in this kind of weather. So what did I do today?

Well.

I booked plane tickets to Alaska, that's what I did.

Fine, okayit's been at the top of that bucket list of mine since I started organizing my must-sees and want-to-dos, but I'm not sure if I ever thought that I was actually going to do it. Especially not after seeing how expensive the cruises are—at least the more adventurous ones that I'm interested in. If I wanted to have cocktails, play shuffleboard, and doze off in a deck chair for days on end (albeit with a gorgeous backdrop) I could easily have done that, but that's not my style.

After bumping into my next-door neighbor at a cafe the other day, I found out that he happens to be a walking encyclopedia of Alaskan adventures. Apparently, he worked as a tour guide there for a while and I did not have to ask him twice for advice; this morning, a handwritten two-page guide was attached to my front door.

Later in the afternoon, I was just going to do a quick search for airfare and then I don't quite know what happened and suddenly I found really cheap tickets and oh my the dates actually matched my summer schedule quite well but there were only a handful of seats left and somehow my Visa card simply materialized in my hand and click-click-click type-type-type an email appeared in my inbox politely letting me know that I will be flying to Anchorage on July 19... If all goes well, I will steer my little rental car back to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport ten days later, with lots of memorable hiking tales to share.


The weather forecast predicts dry, warm weather throughout the weekend, after which the temperature will gradually lower to around 20°C again. Let's hope the meteorologists are right, otherwise who knows what I'll do next—join the crew of an expedition to Antarctica? Apparently, I do those things.

1 comment:

  1. Wow! just: Wow! That sounds like an amazing trip. I can see you now, climbing breathtaking mountains, sailing the inside passage, rescuing stranded polar bears, swimming with the orcas... ok, maybe not those last two, but still I'm sure it will be a brilliant time.

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