Would you like Coffee or Tea?

There are things that probably should not be discussed while walking from a Museum to a State office building. One of them is probably funeral and last rite's arrangements that include taking the cremains of the deceased and adding them to the tea and coffee of those who are attending the festivities.

Well that is just what happened as the three merry travelers were walking briskly on one cold Alaska day in October. The story goes that I (Ray) had suggested to Sheila that when she passes we should have a grand wake and of course every grand wake must have a grand tribute.

So we would have a recount of her life and a showing of her great masterpieces that she painted and of course I would come up and say that Sheila was such a part of each of us that she wanted to continue to be a part of us even after she passed on. So we have mixed her remains in with the tea and coffee that you have been drinking. So now there is a little piece of Sheila in each of you.

So the three of us are having this wonderful conversation. And adding to its uniqueness. Like Rogers suggestion of having a Bunt cake with addings in it. And Sheila thinking that a each person should get a little vile of Sheila to take home with them as a souvenir of the occasion. And of course there should be Sheila coffee grounds and tea bags to go.

All the while walking in front of us was this person of color who at the first opportunity darted up a side walk to get away from these crazed people who were talking about cremain coffee and tea. He glanced at us as we passed with this look of horror that we would even consider such a thing, much less be discussing it while walking along on a rather cold and brisk day in Anchorage.

So there you have it. Would you like Coffee or Tea?

Lessons learned

As we were finishing up our adventure people were saying, you didn't see this or that or you didn't visit a jade shop etc... I sort of felt bad for a second. But then remembered that not only were we on an adventure, but you were along for the ride. Anyone can open up a book and see the traditional tourist type of things.

Adventures are not about cramming in as much as you can into a given amount of time. Adventures are about experiencing the moment and finding the uniqueness in what is encountered. It is also easier to have adventures when the traveling partners travel well together. Roger, Sheila and I traveled very well together.

The Great Alaska Adventure had around 3 dozen people take advantage of the Post card/painting offer that Sheila Wedegis offered up from as far away as Australia and Germany. And everyone who read the posts on this site and on Sheila's site. Obviously, there were a number of people who followed the blogs who lived in the USA but also a number who followed from Japan, Korea, Iraq, Indonesia, and a number of other countries.

We hope that each of you enjoyed coming along for the adventure. We will be going on future adventures and will be inviting you along on those as well. Through options to get wonderful paintings of the trip or through just following the blogs.

While we were in Alaska we were privileged to encounter the 8th coldest October in recorded history of the state. We were also fortunate to be in Anchorage while the Alaska Federation of Natives were having their conference.

Things that I will remember most is the Alaska Federation on Natives conference. The part that I particularly enjoyed was hearing people speaking to each other in their native languages. And sadly in languages that are fastly becoming extinct, January 2008 the last native speaker of Eyak died.

As we wandered around the trade show part of the AFN I will remember the pride in listening to people tell us that the wonderful piece of art that we were looking at was made by their Grandson or Grandmother, etc... The pride that was so obvious. That is what I will remember and that is adventure.

Making use of the Alaska State Marine Highway to travel from Whittier to Valdez and being able to see glaciers, mountains, ice bergs, etc... And driving back to Anchorage from Valdez with one of my best friends Matt Pauli playing tour guide. He was obviously having a good time pointing out things and explaining things as we went.

We went to out of the way places like Hatchers Pass, where I spent many years doing early season training for my Nordic skiing career. Stopping at the Iditarod headquarters and seeing all the pictures of the various winners.

So the Great Alaska Adventure was a success in our eyes.

So the next time you go out traveling. Look for the uniqueness in your surroundings, don't overly stress out when plans do not come about exactly as you envisioned. When you take a wrong turn don't look at it as a wrong turn, look at it as an opportunity to see something that you had not planned on seeing.