Trip to CA

After Ashley and Gabe's wedding, Lea and I continued our whirlwind trip. We flew to Oakland. There we met my parents and had lunch. My parents were kind enough to loan us their car for the week.

We first dropped off our stuff at Lea's friend's apartment in Oakland. Heather and Lea went to Boalt together. Heather is also pregnant and her kid is due about a month before ours.

That night Lea and I saw The Flight of the Conchords perform in Berkeley. They were fantastic. We met up with Jeannie Lee and her fiance Brian after the show. (Jeannie and I worked together in Sacramento.) We also saw my former coworker Scarlett. It's a small world.

The next morning Lea and I made a quick run by Moe's and Amoeba in Berkeley. Then we drove to Santa Barbara.

Lea grew up in Santa Barbara. Her mom, Joan, and her stepdad, Bob, still live there. Their house is lovely. Their dog Bojo is great, too. He's a very energetic poodle. Joan and I took him for a walk to play in the park. I got to see where Lea went to grade school. That night we had a wonderful dinner.

The next day we spent around Santa Barbara. Joan, Lea and I checked out the chalk drawings at the Mission. Lea and I took Bojo to the beach. Some of Lea's relatives came by for dinner.

Overall we spent Tuesday through Friday morning in Santa Barbara and had an amazing time.

Friday we headed north to Sacramento. There we met up with my aunts and cousins for pizza. It was nice to introduce Lea to my family. (I'd already gotten the mass-introduction to Lea's family at the prior thanksgiving.) We spent that night in Woodland with my cousin Brian.

Saturday we headed to SF. We met up with Michelle, Lea's sister, and Cosmo, Michelle's fiance. Michelle is also pregnant and due only a few weeks after Lea. Matthew, Lea's brother joined up with us soon.

We spent most of the day at the Maker Faire in Mountain View. It was a bit like a tech show meeting burning man. Very fun.

That night we made a supply run to Trader Joe's. Then we ate Indian food at Pakwan in the Mission. Lea and I spent the night at our friend Liz's house.

Sunday we had planned a brunch/baby shower at Julia Kahn playground in Golden Gate Park. My parents came up and we put our bagels, fruit, coffee and other tasty treats. Friends and family showed up. We had a wonderful time. (Also, it was Scott's birthday.)

Unfortunately we had to catch a plane back to AK that afternoon in Oakland. My parents continued their generosity and gave us a ride to the airport. We'd had a wonderful trip.

PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/TripToNMAndCA

Ashley and Gabe's Wedding

I'd been in Alaska for two weeks. So obviously I was feeling the need to get out of the state.

First we headed to New Mexico. Lea's friends Ashley and Gabe were getting married in Santa Fe. Ashley was Lea's roommate up here a few years back. She and Gabe met while working for the Alaska Public Radio Network. They now live in Chicago and work for the public radio station there.

Lea and I flew to Albuquerque. There we rented a car and drove through the desert and cloudburst rain storms to Santa Fe. Santa Fe is gorgeous. Amazing.

We met up with Bill and Jeannette (more Alaska folk who now live in DC) and went for Mexican food. While eating our fantastic meal, we realized we were seated next to Sam Elliott. After our meal (he was done, too) I said hi and told him we were big fans. I even got him to say, "The Dude abides." He was a real gentleman -- very friendly and seemed truly interested in talking to us. Post lunch we wandered the downtown area. It's cute, but heavy on art dealers and tourist shops. Kind of like downtown Carmel.

After that we headed to the rehearsal dinner. There we caught up with friends and I finally got to meet Ashley, Gabe and their wonderful 9 month old son Ezra.

The next day was the wedding. The site was out at the Audubon Society: an old mansion with gardens and trails. It was gorgeous. The weather was mixed, with thunderstorms threatening. The wedding site was on a grass lawn. (Bill Richardson was present. We spotted the security detail first and then had to suss out who the bigwig was.) Just as the ceremony began, the sun came out. The ceremony was presided over by Gabe's dad, who is a Rabbi. It was wonderful -- truly heartfelt with wisdom and humor.

The meal afterwards was great. And just as everyone got under the tent, the heavens opened up. It rained and hailed. But the wedding went on undeterred.

Lea and I headed back to the motel to get some rest. That night we met up with the other guests downtown for pizza and drinks.

Unfortunately we didn't get to stay around Santa Fe the next day. We had to fly out for California. But Santa Fe was fantastic, and I'd love to go back.


PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/TripToNMAndCA

Chickaloon Olympics

It was my first weekend back in Alaska. Fortunately for me, Butch and Maria were hosting the CHICKALOON OLYMPICS. It's an annual event out at their cabin in Chickaloon. The events are wacky. The competitors are even wackier.

So Saturday I dropped my dear father off at the airport and then Lea and I headed up the Glen Highway with Lila and Phil. Chickaloon is a few hours north of Anchorage. The cabin sits on a hill looking down on Fish Lake. The neighbors own the land over which the driveway passes and are currently being difficult -- they won't let Butch and Maria use the driveway because Butch and Maria sold the land to some other friends of ours instead of the neighbors. (Side note 1 - Butch and Maria are moving to New Zealand; we are very sad. Side note 2 - I'm unsure of the history, but when the land got subdivided, I would have thought that Butch and Maria would have received an easement by necessity. But hey, I'm only a lawyer in CA, not AK.) So we had to carry our gear up some muddy switchbacks to the cabin.

As folks arrived, we prepped the events and played with the obligatory kids and dogs. Turnout was somewhere around 40-50 folks. There was a giant potluck. Life was good.

The first event was the axe-toss. The target was a large stump attached to a large sheet of plywood. You could choose to toss a double-headed axe, single-headed axe, or a hatchet. Points were awarded thusly: 5 points for sticking the axe in the target stump, 3 for hitting the stump, one for hitting the board and none for miss. Most people went with testosterone and threw the big axes. I went for points and used the hatchet. I won by sticking the target two out of three times. First weekend in Alaska, and I'm off winning axe-throwing competitions. Yeah, I'm all that.

The next event was target shooting with a BB Gun. I didn't win. (Not that this is all about me and being competitive.)

The third event was the Jandall Races. (Spelling?) Jandalls are two 2x4s with pairs of shoes screwed to them -- four in all. You and three close friends put on the shoes so that you are stuck together and have to walk in unison. Two teams race. Hilarity ensues. The hard part is turning around. It's a down and back race.



The fifth event was the partner carry. Alex and Brendan employed a strikingly clever stratagem in one of their heats. They noticed the large groups of dogs roaming and attempted to trip up the other team by tossing sausage into the other team's path. They hoped the other team would get entangled in the feeding frenzy. It didn't work out. Video of Alex and Brendan's Gambit is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPGr7apWtGk
(For more on the Keyboard Cat, go here: http://playhimoffkeyboardcat.com/)

The last event was the obstacle course. Teams of five competed. Cheating was rampant and largely ignored. Rules? Why bother with them when fun is the objective.

After the obstacle races, people settled in by the fire pit. People eventually trickled off to their tents.


The next morning we enjoyed pancakes. It was a fantastic welcome back to Alaska.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/ChickaloonOlympics02

Return to Alaska

My dad and I just finished our drive to Alaska. We left Sacramento on May 6 and arrived (ahead of schedule) on May 11.

Our first day started with a marathon packing session. It took a lot longer to pack the last of my belongings than I'd expected. But we eventually got everything in the truck. We dropped off the keys to my apartment, quickly swung by my cousin Shelby's place to say bye and hit the road.

Shasta was visible through the clouds as we passed through California's northern mountains. Our first stop was in Ashland.

The next day we made it to Olympia where we stopped to have dinner with Rob and Katey.

Friday we started driving in earnest. We made it across the border and swung north through British Columbia's interior. The lush area around Vancouver gave way to the dry Fraser River valley. The landscape became dry in the rain shadow behind the mountains. We each had a DQ cone in Cache Creek, dinner in Watson Lake (log cabin capitol of the world), and spent the night in Prince George. In all, we'd done over 600 miles that day.

The next day we continued north after grabbing coffee. The landscape really opened up. Snow began to appear amongst the brush and trees on the roadside. We didn't cross any major ranges. The day was mostly spent crossing a vast area made up of low hills, creeks, rivers and ponds. We got to Fort Nelson that night. We checked into a hotel and ate dinner while watching Pittsburgh play Washington in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sunday we got into some really great landscape. Between Fort Nelson and Whitehorse (our goal for the day) lay the Rockies. Soon after leaving Fort Nelson we began to climb. For the rest of that day we climbed over passes past alpine lakes and descended into valleys dominated by braided, glacier-fed rivers. We also began to spot wildlife in abundance. Caribou and Big Horn Sheep became a common sight on the roadside. A few moose wandered about. Several large Bison herds were munching on the roadside grass on the western side of the mountains. The day was largely clear with decorative clouds in the distance. Eventually we made it to Whitehorse and had dinner at the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ.

Monday morning our goal was to make it to Tok, Alaska. The day was sunny in Whitehorse, but clouds hung in the distance. The day's drive would take us around the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains.

The road headed west to Haines Junction where it headed north-west. Snow flurries began to fall. We saw some moose and a solitary, but curious, black bear. The road was just about empty. Destruction Bay, the south-west arm of Kluane Lake, was completely socked in with snow. But the road was clear. This was the day of the frost heave. (Frost heaves are areas where the roadbed has sunk after water froze over the winter, expanded and then shrunk, leaving a suspension killing depression.)

We crossed the border and continued on to Tok. We arrived in Tok well ahead of schedule. We had a choice: stay in Tok (a small junction town) or push on Anchorage. It wasn't a hard decision. We now headed south-west around the Wrangell mountains. Mount Sanford and Mount Drum dominated our view. We ate dinner in Glenallen.

Our final push came as we headed down the Glenn Highway. The Chugach Mountains were still capped with snow. Trees were just starting to bud out with fresh, green leaves. The clouds began to part, and the late light slanted in to light the mountains. With the sun just beginning to set, we arrived in Anchorage at 10:30pm. It was a long drive, but my dad and I had loved our trip.

PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/ReturnToAK