Not Thinking About It

I did not want to spend the day brooding over my new employment status, so thankfully Cheryl and Louis stepped up to the plate and helped me out.

They came over to my house at around 9:15 or so and picked me up to head over to the zoo. I got to take them around to meet all “my kids” there for a few hours. The weather was perfect with only a few sprinkles now and then. The bear cubs are still there, so they got to see them. In fact, all the bears were still awake even. It’s not that chilly yet! Best of all, we got to watch Lyutyik, our male polar bear, as he played with a bucket in the pool. What a beautiful creature he is! He made that 5-gallon bucket look like a sewing thimble…

Once we finally ambled our way out of the zoo, we decided to drive out to Girdwood for lunch. The drive out there is always a beautiful one, but right now the fall colors are out in full force – it was absolutely spectacular!

The Bake Shop was – as always – packed. The food really is good, so of course everybody in Girdwood eats there. We shared a table with another couple for the first half of our meal, until a different table cleared out – the other couple moved over, and we both had our own space.

The hike up Winner Creek Trail was breathtaking. The fall colors and smells are delightful – although Louis didn’t quite agree with me on the smell part. Not everybody thinks the smell of cranberries is a good thing, apparently. The cranberries were ripe, however, and just begging to be picked – so of course I obliged by picking and eating as we went along.

We weren’t on any sort of a schedule, so the timing of it all wasn’t really that important. But it did seem to take longer than I remembered it taking. I kept telling them “It's just around the corner!” and it kept not appearing. I’m referring to the gorge, of course, and we did finally make it there. There is an awful lot of water coming thru that gorge! I’m not sure exactly which creek feeds it, but I just love to stand there and get lost in the sound.

Both Cheryl and I have bad backs and by the time we got back to the car both of us were SO ready to sit down for a while. In fact, my back is still complaining a little bit this morning. The joys of getting older… but I am so glad we went up there.

Back in Anchorage, we attempted to stop in at The Moose’s Tooth for pizza, but their parking lot was crammed full of cars. I can only imagine how crowded the restaurant was! So, we headed over to The Bear’s Tooth (their sister establishment) instead, and somehow managed to snag a spot right in front. The wait to be seated was only 15 minutes, so in no time at all we were happily munching away on our dinners.

I spent the entire 12 hours not thinking about having just lost my job.

Well, not much at least.