take me home, country road

Just to clarify: I don't hate flying THAT much. But I really, really despise long flights. By the time I got off the plane last night, I had been so fidgety and restless I thought I was going to claw my own eyes out, from sheer frustration.
Anyway.
I thought I was going to have some alone time with the rents, but two of my mom's friends, and two of my dad's friends flew in yesterday as well. So yeah...but it's fine. My mom's friend is this tiny little woman from California who seems so demure...and then yesterday at dinner she starts telling stories about the roadtrips she took back in the 60's or 70's or whatever, and how she saw Elvis in concert and chilled in greenwich village, etc. Totally unexpected coming from this woman, but that made it even funnier.

Today, went with my dad and guests to sight-see and whatnot...and I've seen all of these places countless times before, but it's just so refreshing to be back here. I mean, I love the city like nothing else, but I'm beginning to really appreciate the fact that I can call Alaska "home"...and the time spent away from this place makes me realize how much the annual/bi-annual pilgrimage back here means to me. I took this picture on the drive to Anchorage this morning; it's drizzling and chilly here, so the clouds hanging low were nice.

I thought this was funny; driving through this slummish area in the city, really unglamorous (i.e - any part of "urban" alaska, really. Nothing about Anchorage is glamorous. But this part of town was a little more disheveled)-- I look up and see that I'm on Hollywood Drive. Nice. (I especially like the fact that there's a beat-up RV right behind the sign)

We went to a "Potter's Marsh," a little boardwalk that runs over, well, a marsh. Today we saw a ginormous salmon swim up...the biggest I've ever seen, over 3 ft long...they swim up there to die or something. I dont' know. It looked like it could have swallowed me whole. And yeah there weren't many fish in general, but there were ducklings, and those are always cute to see, aren't they?
It was kind of a miserable day, weather-wise, so we did a lot of driving and pointing and "ooh"-ing at the scenery. Went to the museum in Anchorange, where they had some impressionist paintings on loan from the Met, hah. That was a weird moment of bridging the two worlds. Saw some really incredible Native-American art though (and Mike, I took some pictures of some installations I thought you might like, I'll email them to you) And also watched some half-hour long, cracked out Russian documentary in the auditorium. Part of me was thinking that art/film kids would really love it because it was so fucking abstract and bizarre, and then the other part of me was thinking it was probably just a cracked out documentary. (Mike, everything about that museum made me think of you; I'm definitely taking you there when you visit.)
Taking pictures from the car, as it speeds and bumps its way along the road at a relatively fast speed, is not that fun. But I managed to snag a few shots on the drive back home, including this one:

And speaking of home, I'll conclude this handy dandy picture tour of Alaska with some shots from around the exterior of the house:





















So that's all I got, bishes. For now, at least. But right now, the karaoke machine downstairs beckons. P.S, a lot of effort went into this entry, with all of those goddamn pictures. I'm feeling pretty winded. So leave some love, or else you don't get a souvenir (And my souvenir, I mean one of those moose turd lollipops that Alaskans are famous for).
Adios, muchachos.

Miss Everyone But Am Jumping For Fucking Joy For Being Away From Humidity,