Rob's March Visit Part I

OK, my apologies that this post is about 2 months overdue - but you try to finish a Ph.D., teach a class, prepare to move across the world, maintain your sanity, AND keep up-to-date on your blog.

   So, the boy who never intended to go to America finally visited Alaska…  In the coldest month of March since about 1922… And he still managed to smile, but I think he must really like the girl who was taking his photo…

   In spite of my best efforts to mentally prepare Rob for the cold, there just wasn't much I could do to ease the shock of arriving to -35C, short days and piles of snow from +40C and beautiful, sunny

 Australian summer.  He was also wholly unprepared for the massive jet lag and coming to a 'city' seriously lacking for public transport, anything to walk around and see, or just things to do in general.  It was sort of a mixed blessing that we both went down hard with a terrible bug for the first week he was here - what a perfect excuse to stay in bed for a week!

     

Once we finally surfaced, our schedule was packed.  I had heaps of work to do and was still fighting that brutal bug, but we still managed to get in a pile of Alaskan adventures.  The ice park was a must-see.  I haven't made it for years and I was psyched to see Lars's kinetic ice sculpture.

  We managed to get over to Belfair to have dinner with the whole gang, plus Mike and Lena, hiked up to the top of Moose Mt., and generally had a little show and tell time around my favorite stomping grounds.  We also got to have some friends over for some über spicy borscht Rob made (I believe it was Russian-Vietnamese fusion he was going for…), house/pet-sat for Jen and Dan, saw some moose, and ate enough fatty foods for Rob to pack on 5 kilos in a few weeks.