Irrelevant Cheetah

I am ashamed to say that, despite having lived here in Alaska for nigh on fifteen years, I had never been to Fairbanks. This was a situation my wife was determined to change, and this past weekend, she finally succeeded.

In the closest thing either of us has had to a vacation in more than two years, we made the six-hour drive up to Fairbanks to see an old friend of hers. On the way we passed Denali - Mt. McKinley to you all from the lower 48 – another sight that I am ashamed that I had never seen.

The rankings? There were several. Her friends were awesome and generous and I would visit them again. Four stars. Fairbanks is a nice, small town. I even got to see what they laughably call “downtown”: two four-story buildings. Three stars. The mini-vacation was much-needed and left me feeling less likely to hose down the office with a fire extinguisher while laughing and cursing in Klingon. Four stars.

On the way to Fairbanks, Denali was completely shrouded in clouds and mists, such that we didn’t even know which way to look for it, much less be able to be awed by its presence. On the way back it was slightly better, but only by a tad, and any pictures I would have taken of it would have left you wondering why I had taken snapshots of a particularly large hill. And after we left Denali, it emerged majestically from the clouds when we were about fifty miles away – not close enough for any spectacular photos. One star.

What good is it to live within hours of the highest mountain on the continent when you can’t even see it?

On another note: I hope you all accept this excuse for me not responding to comments, posting, commenting, etc. I had 103 unread posts to read this morning and I had to go back to work. I’ll get back to reading/commenting/procrastinating soon – I promise.