Dad's face when I drove away from Rucker Johns (speaking of which holy crap i miss those honey drizzled croissants)
saying goodbye after eating at 42nd street with the fellas (speaking of which holy crap i miss that seafood bisque and softshells)
When i said bye to Mom the morning I left
Standing with Cameron outside the terminal neither of us willing to really walk away and make it final
But I was in good spirits throughout the flight. The funny part came when we started to descend into Anchorage itself. Save for a light here or there throughout the flight from Seattle to ANC there were no real cities to speak of. Then you start to descend and see this little speck of civilization nestled between the mountains and Cook Inlet. At that moment, looking at how isolated the city was, I had a mini panic attack. I'm talking legitimate panic attack.
In hindsight it's pretty funny. There's plenty of city here. Plenty of people, plenty of traffic. Plenty of stores and restaurants (save Bojangles, Chick-fil-A, Trader Joes to my utter dismay).
The deception of the distance comes after being here for almost three months already (where does the time go?). That plane ride seems so far away in my memory. I think it's a saving grace for me. With the internet and cell phones, everyone seems like they're just out of reach. I had a video chat with Cameron before work last night (and Megan and Merit). It's crazy... i'm sitting there in real time talking to my best bud who's 3500 miles away.
The distance got me to thinking...exactly how far away is 3500 miles? Physically, it's hard to truly understand. So the following is a list of places that are closer to Anchorage than eastern North Carolina... as well as a list of places closer to eastern North Carolina than to Anchorage.
Note: some of these aren't exact... but when you start talking 3500 miles whats a hundred miles?
So without further ado... places I'm closer to than y'all:
Russia (somewhere around 700 miles. That's closer than RDU to Chicago)
North Korea
South Korea
Japan
Bejing, China
Mongolia
Finland
Norway
Sweden
Iceland
Places y'all are closer to than ANC:
Portugal
Spain
Africa (very close at least)
Ireland
Brazil
Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru
Greenland
Those are some "faraway" places. If there's anything that's true, now more than ever, it's that the world is a small place though. I was fishing a couple of weeks ago and happened to start talking to an older gentleman. Of all places, he was from Goldsboro. I told him I appreciated hearing his accent. Just as I would expect, he said "I don't have an accent". Amen.
Since I don't have any sweet pictures I took myself to post, I'll post one Sam took yesterday morning from up on the Hillside (mountainside as far as I'm concerned). There has been freezing fog around for days, and this is what it looks like from 2500 ft. with the taller buildings downtown peaking through:
1 comment:
Wow, A sudden burst of blog entries. I guess the moon was full last week! I'm eager to see all the fantastic sites in Anchorage- shrews, hoar frost, Nate, especially Nate, the tamer of the shrew.
I am wondering how my face looked as you left Rucker's. I know how my heart felt.
I left Rucker John's and took an afternoon-long walk in the woods. Something I hadn't done in quite a while. I remembered some great times in those woods.
One day specifically came to mind. It was a very cold morning, the coldest morning we had experienced so far that fall. Veteran's Day, you were out of school and I took a vacation day so we could deer hunt. We watched a group of five bucks walk out of the woods about two hundred yards away. The first one was a little cow horn, the last one was a nice little eight pointer and the other three were sized between these two. They were too far for you to shoot with the 20 gauge. A while later a little cow horn walked right towards us, getting about 60-70 yards away before he started heading away from us. We were in a ladder stand that was leaning against an old, large, dead tree. The "dead tree stand". You were shaking. I remember whispering to you, "Are you shaking because you're cold or because you're excited?" Your response was a simple word "both".
A walk through the woods is good medicine for your soul! Observing the beauty of God's world with one's young child creates a memory that doesn't leave with the passage of years nor does it dim from a distance of a measley 3500 miles!
Post a Comment