That’s not an exact quote but when my beach urchin and her friend (since middle school) were planning a camping trip to Alaska, she emailed our cousin Uber Kayak Woman for information and advice and that piece of advice was Front and Center. UKW would know. Her dad was stationed up there as an Air Force officer for two multi-year stints when she was a child and she has spent a lot of time up there as an adult, including crewing on a salmon boat.

I have to admit, it was a relief when I received a text message this afternoon: “On bus out of Denali to get the train to Anchorage. All well no 👹” (That devil emoji has entered our lexicon as a representative of that loverly arachnid, the tick. There is no tick emoji but ticks are the devil incarnate in my book, so it works. Take a note 🍀) Cell service in Denali ranges from spotty to non-existent (and I had been warned about that) so I hadn’t heard from her since Sunday while I was kayaking down in the river. Today I texted back: “How ’bout 🐻?” The answer was that they saw lots of bears but all at a great distance and pitchers would come later. Prob’ly *much* later because she took most of them via her digital cam and probably can’t load them up on any kind of internet-able device until she returns to DayTwa because you don’t normally take your laptop camping in Denali.

I wasn’t really worried but can I just say that every time somebody posted a bear article or pic on facebook, I made it go away. I know that grizzly bears are dangerous. I *know* that it’s rare that someone is “eaten” by a bear. If it wasn’t rare, we’d be reading/hearing about it on the news all the time. But I know that it happens. And I am here and she is there and I am a moom… It’s okay, I reeeeaaallly wasn’t stressing out about it. Just glad to get that text message today. The GG? He didn’t seem to be worried about bears. He WAS worried that his “baby” would get cold.

I dunno if even my Quick Green Lizard can keep up with this running stream of blather every single day but she’ll probably read this. I try as hard as I can to STAY OUTTA THE WAY of my [very responsible] adult daughters’ lives. I don’t give them advice (unless they ask for it and *then* I am *very* careful [and often stymied about what to say] 🐗). So. Meet up at SeaTac with your best friend [from middle school] and fly to Alaska? Yes, go for it! I won’t try to help with the planning. Anyway, you do not WANT me to help with the planning because camping for me involves the Lyme Lounge parked next to a bathroom with showers 🐗.

Looking forward to those far-away bear pics. In the meantime, somebody else’s adult daughter maintains webcams in Africa. [The link is to a New Yorker article. I *think* you can look at a few articles if you don’t have a subscription. In case you were wondering, I am waaaaay behind on reading the New Yorker… … … As usual… … …]

All that said, I prefer encounters with wildlife entities like The Admiral there in the photooo. I actually managed not to scare him off today. Isn’t he beautiful? Love y’all, KW.

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