Down time

K, it has been a lonnnnnnnnng four years, and unless someone knows something I don't, we will be doing this together for more years to come.

So, I am taking advantage of a few days for myself.  Call it a mental health break, or a mini vacation ... whatever you like.  Just don't expect me to call you back for a week.

Love ya all, and I will continue to get the journal up after some rest.

PS ... If you try to find me, look north.  Waaaaaaaaay north!

( ;

lj 

***

Okay, so I made it back and am getting back to the grindstone. In case you haven't figured it out, "Waaaaaaaay North" of here, was & is, Alaska.  And it couldn't have been timed any better.

As the the plane took soared, so did the temperatures here at home.  I love the Pacific Northwest, but not as much when the mercury hits the 90's and beyond.

There are a lot of artists living up north, and driving through this region, it was obvious ... as was a great sense of humor.

I had one of the best lattes (outside of Starbucks) that I have ever had, at the Cafe Cups.  You should check this place out, the artwork alone would be great ... But the food really stands out!.

Speaking of Starbucks ... Once again, that old e-mail came up, and it was another opportunity to share how much Starbucks has supported our Troops by donating coffee through their various stores, and great baristas.  Lakewood & Tacoma Starbucks have been outstanding, and continue to donate coffee that we continue to ship.  They also made sure we had great coffee to keep us alert on the national tour, again.  They support our troops, and we support them!

All the food was great, and the choices are more abundant than you might think.  Alaska is not what you might remember from Northern Exposure.  sure, there are a lot of small villages and communities, and things are not as plentiful as we have down here.  But the are not remote and isolated and outdates, by any means.  To name a few, they have Fred Meyers, Safeway's, Gottschalks, Target, the major fast food restaurants we know ... and ... they have halibut tacos, and sushi, and realllllly fresh fish and chips.  They have current movies, even if the movie theater is not what we are used to, there is a small town charm to seeing a movie in Homer, Alaska.  **BTW, Knocked Up is a hysterical movie!  Really wrong, in a right kind of way.

There are beautiful views, and you can get lost in the scenery.  Flowers grow everywhere.  But be aware of what you are smelling, touching, or picking.  There is a photo of a plant with white petals on a long leafed stalk ... avoid this stuff!  It's called Cow Parsnip (or Pushkey), and though it has medicinal uses (& native Americans have been known to eat the stuff), it is a mean plant to play with.  My eyes felt like they were on fire after taking some photos of flowers in a field.  And apparently it can give you more fun than you can have playing with mettles.

And so glaciers, and the beaches (Yes, they have them -- but there sure weren't any bikinis out there!) were a perfect break after the national tour.  And I was not going to do anything but relax & enjoy it all.  This was a wonderful vacation, just too short.  But aren't they all?

I didn't take my computer, and kept my phone off.  But I couldn't turn off the part of me that felt it would be a complete waste of a golden opportunity, to visit our heroes to the north.

The trip took me to the Kenai Peninsula, a beautiful place.  There were eagles overhead, puffins in the water, horses filled many fields, and signs warned that Moose could be crossing the road ... But the only one I saw was in a distant meadow on the way back to the airport.  Guess I'll have to go back.  Oh, dang!  ( ;

The sun never really set, the last pictures are not edited at all, they were taken at nearly midnight.  It stayed like that til about 3:45am.  In one, you can make out the lights along the Homer Spit.

It got down to the 40's, but watching the weather channel reading record high temps back home, forty was good!

I got to visit the Homer Fire & Police Departments, the Alaska State Patrol in Anchor Bay, the (1 day away from opening) Kasilof Fire Department, Soldotna's Central Emergency Services, a Policeman (who is also a firefighter/EMT) at the Anchorage Airport & even ran into more Alaska State Patrol at the airport.  Score!

About a day into the trip I'd set a goal of getting a Bad*ss shot from Fire, Police, EMS, and State Patrol in Alaska ... Mission accomplished!

Thank you to all of the fine first responders who stepped up to represent for their hometowns on this quick trip into our Last Frontier.  

It was asked several times if we will bring the tour to Alaska .. and don't think I'm not trying to figure out how to do just that!

In the meantime, we're counting on you all to spread the word throughout Alaska, so that we get lots of shirts for all of the deployed troops from your hometowns! 

Remember, Shirt Drive kicks off September 11th (Though you can start now) and the deadline for us to get them down here, is Valentine's Day (Feb 14th).

Thank you all!  Guess hearts have to be pretty warm to live in such a cool climate!

( ;

lj

PS ... To the Commissioner: Our mascot, Chief, is proudly wearing your pin. ( ;