A couple of posts and emails are leading me to believe a bunch of folks have always wanted to go to Alaska but think of it as a sort of fantasy trip. Well, you guys: GO! Continental can take you to Anchorage for under $600 roundtrip from Newark, and it's cheaper from points west: Chicago, San Francisco. Once you get there, rent a car and drive down to Seward, about 2 hours. Get yourself a room at the Edgewater Hotel and you're in business. Don't do this now: wait until spring, when the birds come back, and the whales are chasing the fish... Or summer, when the sun only sets long enough to turn around and come back up again...

Here's the thing about Alaska: it's HUGE. It covers 4 time zones. Going there is like going to Europe. You wouldn't wait on going to Europe until you have time and money to see it "all," would you? Well, Alaska either. You go once to see the Kenai fjords (where I just was), another time to see the frozen north, another time to see the interior. If you don't make more than one trip, at least you've made that.

What was I doing there? Speaking to a retreat put on by the Alaska State Literacy Association. My topic: using mysteries in the classroom. I had one 3-hour workshop to do, and then I was free to hike, take a fjord nature cruise, stroll around town. I had a terrific time. Extremely nice people, very enthusiastic teachers, some of whom work out in tiny villages near nothing at all. None of them native Alaskans, but none of them seeming transient, either. Among Alaskans meeting each other for the first time, a very early topic of conversation seems always to be when they "came up," where they went first and where they are now.

When I got there it was about 50 degrees; the morning I left it was just under 40. People are hoping fall will last through October before turning to winter; sometimes it does. Seward, being right on the water, has a huge view of the fjord and the surrounding mountains. Some of them are snow-capped, some not; the tree line is clear, and the mountainsides look soft and fuzzy above it, though of course they're not. That's all low shrubs and ground cover, which the mountain goats eat. Sea otters float in the bay and sea lions hunt there. You can see them from your hotel window, though the better view is from the rocky shore, where you can walk quite a way. Seward has numerous places where you can get a good cup of coffee (more in season than now, but still, some remain open after the summer ends, when it gets chilly and you really need coffee) and it has 2 Chinese restaurants. What more could you want?