North To Alaska

My daughter, Karen, became a flight attendant last year. That gave her mother and me privileges for flying almost free on the airlines that have partnered with her airline, Colgan Air (we just have to pay the tax on the ticket). That's how I made trips to New York, Virginia, Florida and Hawaii. That's also how I got trapped in Chicago and had to take a bus back home to Arizona; it doesn't always work out because "non-revenue" fliers go standby and anyone with a paid ticket can unseat us if there are no additional seats left. In all those trips I'd made, I'd only had one misstep. So I was pretty confident that this trip would work out perfectly.

I was wrong.

Northern Exposure

Some years ago, I visited Cicely, Alaska, the fictional town featured in the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure. I was able to do this without actually going to Alaska, because "Cicely" was actually a side street in the town of Roslyn, Washington. The TV series, however, had renewed my interest in visiting Alaska, which had become a state in 1959 when I was in 3rd grade. My visit to "Cicely" only strengthened my desire to visit the 49th state someday. Now I was here, not only in Alaska but over 300 miles from Anchorage in the little town of McCarthy, which could have served as the template for fictional Cicely. Remote, quaint, set amid pristine wilderness and populated by quirky yet friendly characters, I couldn't help but draw comparisons even as my husband, Michael, and our friend, Frank, and I prepared to go rafting down the Nizina River.

License To Fly

I didn't want to spoil what had been a terrific trip for Michael and Frank by openly freaking out, but I was freaking out, quietly, nevertheless. I had no wallet and therefore no identification and therefore would surely not be allowed through security at the airport and so wouldn't be able to go home at all. I might have to stay in Anchorage, but only as a homeless person as I wouldn't have the money for shelter and without an ID I wouldn't even be able to get a job.

Alaska Digital Art

Most Americans never even get to see Alaska, much less raft its whitewater! My 2009 trip provided numerous exquisite photos, a few of which I turned into digital art. Enjoy!