I’d hesitate to say that I’m “enjoying a little downtime” at the moment. The “downtime” part is a bit too literal, and the “enjoying” part has required letting go of some expectations.

Short story is that a little under a week ago something made a quiet little “sproing!” in my lumbar region during my morning exercise routine, and I’ve been spending the preponderance of time since flat on my back on the floor/couch/bed, waiting for the meds/stretches/downtime to get on with the healing.

Yes, I’ve been to the doctor and she’s ordered an MRI to figure out what’s up – run of the mill sciatica? slipped disc? pinched nerve? – but the lab can’t even get me on the schedule for one until the insurance clowns decide whether they’re going to approve the doctor’s “request for service.” (Note: back pain makes it hard to be patient with a minimum wage phone droid who repeatedly calls you “Mr. David” while explaining that they require five business days to evaluate any requests for service, and in the meantime, could he ask me some questions for their Healthy Lifestyle Choices survey? I may have been…terse with him.)

But hey, the downtime is giving me a chance to go through my “To Watch” list and decide whose recommendations I’m never going to trust again. And dang am I eating well – friends keep bringing by fried chicken, grilled sandwiches, soup, pizza, fresh-caught baked cod, chocolate cake (thank you, Laurie!). The “I’ve thrown my back out” diet isn’t particularly healthy, but one might be forgiven for contemplating stretching out one’s suffering just a little longer….

No.

But I should back up a little. When I last left you, my faithful readers here (Hi, mom!), we’d just made port in Seward, and I was tucking myself into my bunk for a last night aboard before…well, I hadn’t told you, I guess.

To be honest, I was still figuring it out myself.

I still didn’t have a return ticket from Alaska when we made landfall, and I hadn’t managed to put the time into figuring out when I’d get one for. Because, well, Alaska. And I’d only ever been anywhere in Alaska midwinter, when it was all frozen solid, I guess I wanted to give myself some leeway to explore.

Once I did get to exploring, I so quickly got in over my head in old friends and stories and new sights and experiences that I kind of gave up trying to put them all into words and – correctly – just surrendered to the moment.

I’m back from those explorations now, obviously, and looking back, I think it would be futile to capture even a plausibly accurate summary of all the who/what/where from Seward up to Anchorage, Talkeetna, Barrow/Utqiagvik and many places in between. So I’m just going to punt and give y’all a photo dump.

(But ask me some time about that Iñupiat granny who buttonholed me to tell me stories about when she and her brother got taken out on their first whale hunt. Or about just stumbling into Mack, a decade and ten thousand miles away from where I’d last heard any trace of her. Yeah, there are some stories…)

Seward

Anchorage

The homelessness in Anchorage was heartbreaking to see, and there was way too much irony for any comfort.

Parks Highway

Talkeetna

Barrow/Utqiagvik

Around town

Iñupiat Cultural Center