Day03 == Walking sucks

I just woke up pretty early (7:30 is early, right?) and got a head start on the day by reading in bed for 45 minutes. Now I'm waiting around while my mp3 player charges up, because I am stupid and left it on Repeat Mode before I went to bed, so while I slept, it looped Vivaldi and Venetian Snares all night. I'm pretty hungry right now, and I am going to go to a place called Alaska Bagel Cafe, or something, but I'm going to tough it out and wait so that I can have some music on my walk today. I'm going to Earthquake Park.mornin, world

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(continued from above post, 12 hours later)

Today I walked so much that I don’t think I’m ever going to walk again. I walked so much. I’m so stupid. But it was worth it. If only my (Jay’s) stupid camera worked better, I’d have more than two amazing pictures to show for it, but at least I have them, and the experience of where my walk took me.

But first I want to thank Sara, my sister, to helping lead me from the wilderness of the 400 block of downtown Anchorage to the Canaan of the 100 block, i.e. home of the Alaskan Bagel Restaurant. I probably wasted a full half hour of wandering around in circles just down the street from the place I wanted to eat. But that was worth it, too, because I’ve definitely found my breakfast place here in Anchorage. The Alaskan Bagel Restaurant is awesome, and the woman I can only assume is the manager is commensurately awesome. She possessed such a boisterously good mood that she’s either the most content person in this whole city, or she’s neurotic and really good at overcompensating. Pursuant my stupid extended walk, I was quite thirsty upon arrival, and when she saw that I’d drained the first glass of water she’d served me, and was halfway done with the second by the time she took my order, she said “Well I’ll just get you the whole pitcher, young man!” Though my thirst was slaked before I could finish the whole pitcher, it was a gesture that endears me to the place. Also the bagel was damn good.

After finishing up (and being mildly disappointed that my mp3 player, which I had gone to pains to charge up before I left, was still dead), I decided to head on over to Earthquake Park. This is cause for jocularity, as I did anything but “head on over.” I started walking, and walked, for forever. Here’s how far I walked.

I saw some pretty cool stuff on the way there, like an icon of happiness drawn in the snow (snow, that most temporary of media, perhaps chosen by some shrewd artists’ collective specifically to capitalize on the transience of all humanly happiness? Bravo, my anonymous public artist), some gorgeous crystalline trees, the ever-present mountains:

and Gaylon.

Gaylon was awesome, and homeless, though I don’t think they two are related. He walked up to me as I was waiting to cross the street, and I immediately hailed him for conversation. He told me, above all things, that he was very hungry. I asked him what was on his sign, and he showed me. As you can read yourself, it says,

“I WILL TALK BAD

TO YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW

FOR A LITTLE DINERO!

NO JOKING THOUGH—

I NEED YOUR HELP!

MERRY CHRISTMAS J

TO YOU”

When he told me what his name was, I said, “Jaylon?”

“No, Gaylon,” he said. “Like Waylon Jennings, except Gaylon. So like Gaylon Jennings, except my last name ain’t Jennings.” That cleared things up pretty well. He also presumed that I was reaching for a cardboard sign of my own when I was pulling my camera out of my pocket, which I find poignantly innocent. He also apologized for not smiling in the picture, as a group of people were walking by right when my camera decided to follow orders. I wish I hadn’t just eaten breakfast (as good as it was though – I will get more tomorrow) because I would have liked to have taken Gaylon somewhere to eat, but I just gave him $5 instead. I asked him where he wanted to eat, and he said his favorite place to eat in Anchorage was Carrs (the main big-box grocer; I’ve already seen two that rival Wal-Mart) but that unfortunately he was going to have to eat at Taco Bell to stretch out his money. I told him that he could probably get a filling portion of macaroni and cheese from Carrs for $5, which was information that interested him. I bid Gaylon farewell, and crossed to my destiny (of sore feet).

Before long, I came across the Bonnie Cusack Outdoor Ice Rink, which of course I couldn’t resist:

I saw this cool bird in the parking lot:

(my favorite part is when he bursts out from behind the truck)

And then I found another left-hand glove in the snow:

I didn’t take it, though. If I ever lose the one I found yesterday, I’ll know where to look for a replacement!

The rink itself was all covered in snow, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying myself there:

That lasted for a little bit, and then I started walking west on Northern Lights Boulevard again, onwards toward the coast.

It took so long that I am still depressed thinking about it. I basically walked through two miles of residential neighborhood, which is not at all fun because all you get is barked at by dogs. Eventually (and by eventually, I mean like an hour later), I saw this, which caused my heart to leap with relief:

I had been thinking about turning around minutes before, but I’m glad I didn’t. I took a path off to the right immediately after the sign, and shortly thereafter found myself in complete woods-y isolation. It was beautiful. It was like a scene from a movie where nothing happens and you admire the director for having the balls to hold a shot of some trees for so long. My camera was starting to act up right around that point, so I don’t have many pictures, but it was a vista most serene:

I lay around on the hill for a bit, atop of which were piled some dozen or two long sticks, obviously by some human, but of no obvious purpose. I was afraid of running into a bear. Little did I know that the wildlife would come to me, later.

I didn’t get bored so much as prudent, knowing that it would get dark soon and I needed to start walking. So I backtracked to the road, but instead of turning left like a smart person, I turned back right in the same direction I had been heading. This lead me to what I realized was Earthquake Park proper, marked with signs and trails and such. I mostly ignored these, except for when they pointed to the coast, which was my goal. I trekked for 15 minutes or so more, and then I came upon this scene:

I don’t know if you can tell what that is, but it’s the place where the hills slope drastically down to a flat ice shelf that eventually breaks up into individual ice floes in the sound. I walked out there. It was superlatively cool. I don’t think I’ll ever forget being out there and kicking the snow out from under me to expose solid ice.

I walked to within 300 feet or so of the place where I saw the ice moving, but was too scared to go any farther. If I had fallen into that water, I would have been stone cold dead in under ten minutes. It was so beautiful though, I wish I had been able to approach the moving ice. It’s basically what I saw from the plane as I came in from over the sea, but I doubt I’ll ever get any closer than that :/

Then I turned to the right, and saw this:

I think it may just be me at this point, but these mountains are more gorgeous than every hot girl I’ve ever seen. This place is amazing.

After several quiet moments of expansive privacy, I started the arduous return journey. This would have made me laugh at the time, had my spirits not been completely waterlogged with misery:

The walk as awful. It took so long, and my feet hurt so much. I have neglected to mention until now that I had my backpack with me, full of books and my laptop. This is why I am stupid. I had to stop a dozen times to rest. I am so stupid.

I took a long rest at Kaladi Brothers again, where I read some (THIS BOOK IS RLY GOOD: and my roommate read it, I found out tonight!) and rested by a fire. Then I had occasion to start walking home so I could talk on the phone outside.

Minutes after my phone call ended, I saw this:

wtf? Does no one else realize how crazy that is? THEY ARE HUGE AND THEY ARE REAL IN REAL LIFE.

I had an extended and enjoyable conversation in mostly broken English with my roommate, Julio, about the merits of Adobe Photoshop versus Macromedia Fireworks. He also told me not to get too close to the moose, because, as he said it with attendant rolling hand gestures, “They, eh….they will box? Eh…they will box you and kill?” Good thing no one rang any starter bells when I saw them, I guess.

So that’s what I did today. It was worth it, but I’ve never been more tired by 6 p.m. before in my life. Goodnight~