Kudos to Linsey’s parents, Paula and Bill. They made our Alaskan adventure possible. Along with their weekend, they shared with us their home and a car. This morning we were invited to come early to the airport and enjoy breakfast in the Boardroom, Alaska Airlines’s suite for their high-level travelers. Because that’s where Paula works the early-morning shift.

She greeted us warmly and handed us our boarding passes (remember, we’re flying standby) for exit-row seats!

This is a mere speck of Alaska from the air. Have you looked at a map lately to see just how big it actually is?

These are our travel companions, Linsey and Pete. Without Linsey’s persistance (and connections), I’d still be dreaming of Alaska. Truth is, I could never have dreamed up such a perfect adventure on my own.

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I have these few pictures from our third of three days together. We drove down to Seward (pronounced like steward without the t), a popular fishing spot. We had a few more critter sightings along the way.

I’ll get this one out of the way. Do you see Mauri’s camera?

He likes to take pictures of me taking pictures.

And how interesting would it be for you to see picture after picture of us seeing the Alaskan landscape?

And do you really want to see yet another picture of us staring at our computers in a coffee shop?

Or visiting yet another cousin who happened to not be home for the big surprise?

But then—THEN—we went back out tonight to shop for snacks for our road trip to Seward tomorrow and decided to drive a little out of our way to look for a moose, which had thus far eluded us. When out of the corner of Pete’s eye, he saw one!

We startled him, and he took off—right in front of our car!

And then off into the unknown on the other side of the street.

We were totally geeked, I’m telling you. We were already resigned to heading home without a moose sighting, and now we have this fun story to tell for now and forevermore.

Just think of all the times you’ve been asked, “Have you ever seen a moose?” Lots, right? Me too. And now I can say for reals—yes! I saw one that time we flew to Alaska on the spur of the moment.

Five years ago we flew to Rhode Island and rented a car for a road trip through New England so I could add all of those states to my life list, which brought me to the near-complete number of 49.

Meanwhile, I continued to live a 3.5-hour flight from state number 50. I figured soon enough we’d have enough time for another road trip, this time through British Columbia to Alaska.

But then we were at the beach, and Linsey heard Dusty tell me he would have the opportunity to visit his 50th state—Maine—when he started his new job with a New Hampshire company the following week. Linsey, knowing my 50th state was Alaska, quickly chose up sides and started cogitating on a plan to get her mother-in-law to Alaska first. She grew up (from age 9) in Anchorage; her parents still live here and her mom works for Alaska Airlines.

Fast forward a week to 9 p.m. Thursday (two evenings ago). I got an e-mail from Lins saying she checked and her mom has enough standby tickets that would cost a fraction of the regular fare. So if we want to go, she and Pete might like to come too, to show us around. So I walked to the other room and asked Mauri what he thought of the idea of changing our plans from riding the Bridge Pedal again (like last year) to flying to Alaska. After all, he had already arranged for others to lead worship on Sunday morning.

“Wanna go tomorrow?” I wrote back to Linsey.

I took a video of us landing in Anchorage but I’ll spare you that. You’re welcome.

I posted “50!” on facebook, and several friends wished me a happy birthday. They were just being kind.

It stays light way into the night up here. In the summer, that is.

After a night of sleep in our lovely accommodations (thanks to Linsey’s parents) we set out for a day of sights and fun.

“Flat Top” refers to the landscape, no one in the picture.

The other direction gave us this view of Anchorage.

We learned that “roaming” data on our phones cost us dearly in this state, so we were happy to stop at a coffee shop to check e-mail on their wifi.

Dear cousin Hannah saw on facebook that we were in Anchorage and quickly issued an invitation to her home in Wasilla, a 45 minute drive north. My co-travelers were up for it!

We endured this scenery all the way there and back.

It happened to be Lilly’s 2nd birthday! That’s her daddy, Mike.

She and Pete made friends.

I can’t resist including so many cute pictures for Hannah’s sister, who will probably see this post. (Hi, Lydia!)

And this fun shot from Mauri’s vantage.

Bear with me now, I had to take and include this picture to use with the following retro picture:

…a picture I took of Hannah as a pup, being entertained while her mama baked. You can see the resemblance to Lilly, can’t you?

We met Linsey’s family (mom, dad, brother, sis-in-law, their sweet two-week-old daughter) for dinner. I got to hold two babies in one day!

After dinner, a drive to a scenic ocean overview for some family pictures.

The Inschos.

Did I mention we’re in Alaska?!?!

Turned out “the pond” was so much more than a pond. It’s part of the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and created as a botanical garden. The shade surrounding the biopond was a welcome relief from this hot day.

The turtles felt just the opposite.

Oscar felt right at home here.

He was patient with my need to hold his hand.

But would much rather run on his own.

It was hard to leave this peaceful setting. But we had another destination.

We needed to go check out “our” store in downtown Philly.

Its impressive entrance is only fitting for a Macy’s, don’t you think?

He’s thinking we should have been a little nicer to our ancestors.

From the third floor we had a good view of the Wanamaker organ pipes.

The 15-minute organ (concert) helped us work up an appetite for Philly cheesesteaks. The line was its usual out the door and around the corner.

And worth the wait! We were actually hungry, a rare sensation these days.

This meeting is exactly 200 years older than Newberg Friends, which is considered old on the other side of the country. According to Wikipedia: Quakers have always reserved the word church to mean the body of people who make up the worshiping community: Quakers do not use the word church to refer to the bricks and mortar of a worshiping community. George Fox, an early Quaker, spoke of places of worship that have steeples as steeple houses, and those that do not as meeting houses. That would make Newberg Friends a steeple house. Or more accurately, a bell tower house.

At 10:50, we entered the meeting house, where five people welcomed us.

I took this picture after everyone left, but this will set the stage for my description of the morning. As we found a bench, one of the women told us they’d just decided to “try singing something.” Someone suggested “For the Beauty of the Earth” and found it in their nice new Friends hymnbook. The designated piano player chose an appropriate key on the electronic piano and wondered aloud whether it was about right. “This would be your highest note.” (plunk, plunking the note) Once everyone was satisfied with the key, he played the intro. After we’d sung all four verses, a woman on the front pew said, “Well, that wasn’t too bad.”

As we neared the startup time—11 a.m.—a young family of four came in, and they talked a little about their new baby, seven weeks old and how the adjustment was going. An older couple sat in front of us. At this point we numbered eleven. At exactly 11, one man and one woman left their seats to sit on the facing bench.

It looks like a choir loft, but in the Quaker meeting house the facing bench is where the “ministers” sit. We follow their lead, which was to close our eyes and sit very still. In the stillness we are to give God our full attention. His message may be for us personally
or for us to share with others in the room.

Ten minutes into the silence the door opened and in two women with two children entered. One of the children was dressed as Batman, mask and all. It was impossible to not look and smile. None of the children made a single sound. For a good five minutes! But then without fanfare, they all left with at least two of the parents. They had obviously learned it wasn’t okay to make noise in the meeting house, but there were no noise restrictions on the other side of the door.

I was happy for the distraction, because an hour of silence in a very warm room with only the appearance of air movement (ceiling fans moved but barely) can make me ever so slightly antsy.

At the stroke of noon, the “minister” stood up and shook hands with each person with a “Good morning!” A bit of business was shared and we were asked to tell where we are from.

We told them we were from Newberg Friends Church in Newberg, Oregon, home of George Fox University. This picture of George hangs in their meeting house, so we had an instant connection. Even without Facebook.

But I especially like one he sent this afternoon. It gives a pretty good idea of what a walk on the beach was like.

Makes me want to curl up in a heavy blanket and read my book.

I didn’t know what lay ahead when I snapped this snowless pic of the Aspen Glen sign.

Before long, this was the general scene.

Anyone want to guess how thankful we were for the built-in DVD player in the Andersons’ car?

We stopped for lunch in Frisco, and literally hours later traffic was diverted at Silverthorne, a mere four miles farther.

The next morning at the condo we gratefully enjoyed, some blue sky appeared, and the drive down to Denver was delightfully uneventful. This might be standard fare for Coloradans, but for us sea-level livers, the road home offered true adventure.

It wasn’t to be. Four cars ahead of us the road-closed gate crossed the highway, and we were forced to exit at Keystone. Along with multiple thousands of other travelers. On the busiest travel night of the year.

I’m not sure at this point how our adventure will end. It’s snowing heavily, but get this. We have the blessing of a three-bedroom condo here in Keystone, made available to us by a simple phone call to Quinn and Dusty’s friends. So we have a place to be until travel opens up. Our flight back to Portland isn’t until around 9 tomorrow night. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

The travelers have returned! Two full days on planes and in airports made the vision of our PDX transporters, Pete and Linsey, even more sweet. We feel successful, in that we accomplished the goal of experiencing The Iona Community to the full and broadening our world view. We were blessed with good health, good weather, reasonable walking ability (given my continuing ankle issues and Mauri’s recent knee surgery), and traveling mercies. A bonus result of sharing the adventure in the nearly continuous company of each other is the list of triggers, such a a double thumbs up with the word “fantastic” or “brilliant,” that acknowledge mutual understanding. We hope it lasts a long time.

So to milk the togetherness time for all it’s worth, we put the Bob on the E-bike and did our favorite Saturday morning thing: garage sales!

With our limited luggage capacity, we did very little souvenir shopping. So it seemed appropriate to purchase a couple of souvenirs when they appeared at a couple of sales.

One souvenir I purchased in London out of necessity; I had solved all the sudoku puzzles I took with me…

(note my strategically placed thumb covering the level of difficulty—beginner)

And here’s the one I’ll keep for posterity…

Any other temptation to purchase a memory was satisfied with pixels.

Toast is part of every British breakfast and served (cold) on a metal rack.

It seems rather incongruous.

As we went along I posted the majority of favorite pictures, but, begging your indulgence, I will add these “few” more, out of any context or order.

Sanford, a fellow Iona attender, sent us these two shots.

He caught this reminder of the “guest concert,” where Mauri and I sang “If Pigs Had Wings” and “Sing a Different Song,” an Iona tune we learned a bunch of years back.

There we are dining with new friends Jane, Sue, and Chris in the refectory.

I like Mauri’s telephoto shot of Big Ben.

A rare picture of me not taking a picture. Waiting for a bus, hardly rare!

Scotland’s version of a Goodwill store.

Mauri, ever the critter observer, kept looking (and listening) until he found a thrush feasting on a snail. Enjoy his series:

Mailing a postcard to my sister resulted in this great “please mind your head” shot.

Mauri had to nearly stand on his head to get this one.

Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” I’m forever watching people and sometimes observe a lot more than I want to see!

Old churches dot the British landscape, all with connecting graveyards.

We observed more than one defunct umbrella, and could understand, given the windstorm we drove through.

Didn’t I say that a man’s work is never done?

This picture might make my favorites collection.

Ridgely, this one’s for you.

I’ve wanted to tell you about Ines, an Iona volunteer from Germany. She is in charge of housekeeping but also works in the kitchen and also leads worship and various other tasks. It’s definitely a community effort and each volunteer is trained in all aspects to keeps things running smoothly.

Mauri did what was necessary to keep our gadgets charged and operational.

I think this shot would make a good puzzle. See the sheep camouflaged in the rocks?

And that about does it. Thanks to all who journeyed with us through this blog and for your comments as well. It added an element of joy we can’t explain but will always appreciate.

Sherry, the blond under the green arrow, looked at our card, puzzled, as it was rejected. She was so nice to try to help us figure out what to do, even letting us use her cell phone for assistance. That only led to an automated message. Keeping our cool, we tried to think about what to do. The BlackBerry turned out to be our hero. And my dear man’s thumbs that got us to the Chase Bank website, where he found the international number, which dialed automatically with another click. Disaster averted (again) and we caught the next train out of Northampton. Whew.

Getting to our hotel was no small feat. The London tube system offers newbies like us considerable challenges, but we found that people are more than ready to help us figure things out. One businessman went way out of his way to help us find the right connector. A woman offered to help me carry my luggage up a flight of stairs. (I declined, with cheers.) Here we are in the tube.

Regrouping.

We could hardly believe we ended up with another third-floor hotel room (and of course these places have no elevators).

Here’s the view from our window, which we think is very cool.

We settled in, cleaned up a bit, then headed toward the bus line to see what we could see. Our day in Edinburgh taught us a lot about getting around a big city, so we quickly had our route strategized, beginning with bus 390. Here’s a little travelogue of our day.

The London Eye, snapped through a bus window.

London Tower Bridge, next to the London tower (of all things).

You’ve seen one monstrous abbey, you’ve seen ‘em all? This one’s Westminster. We missed attending an evensong by 40 minutes.

We’ve found some pretty good food on this trip. Oops, it looks like I haven’t climbed back on the wagon yet.

I waited until the plane had passed the tower to snap this picture. Some images never fade from our memories.

You might think this is all I do. You might be right.

This one photo represents the many auto pics my dear man took. He’s a guy, what more do I need to say? He was quite impressed when he saw two Bentleys in the span of one minute while we waited for a bus.

I’m sure you’ll want to see that we did ride on one of London’s icons—this double-decker relic.

Once again a video I wanted to post didn’t upload in time. You might have to imagine instead the sound of Big Ben striking six. It was really cool.

We both love the movie “Notting Hill,” so we couldn’t pass this opportunity to get a look at it. From the bus window I snapped this pic, even though the book store in the movie is a travel book shop. Close enough!

And after another delicious meal, we stopped to buy, no, not alcohol, even though this picture looks like that was our purchase. The reason I include this wonderful shot is because that other customer was helping Mauri figure out what coins he needed to pay for it. People are so good!

And now it’s time to repack our steadily expanding luggage to get ready to fly back to our own beloved USA.