Way Up North - July 28th to August 3rd

 

How we do retirement. Sunday.

The alarm went off way too early so we could go to church. There were actual groans, but no expletives. We looked at the below Jesus Picture, remembered why church makes us happy, and got out of bed.

Adult Youth Leaders meeting for me at 7:30am. (Donuts and Hot Cocoa should be mandatory at such early meetings.) My duty there is to make sure the young men in my congregation have four annual, purposeful, fun campouts each year. Our fall campout looks to be a Survival-themed camp along with an Outdoor Skills Olympics Challenge.

I ran back home, got breakfast, then we headed back to town for Sacrament Meeting in Manito Ward to listen to one of my Scouts speak, reporting on his recently-finished two-year mission. We saw lots of friends there (and our three-week-old grandson) and his talk was amazing and inspirational to me.

Rushed back home and took the Sacrament into Hanna's Mom. Then back at home, Frivvy could tell someone was coming for a visit. He's smart that way. And he camped at the front door. Del and Ella arrived a bit later for a dinner of BBQed bacon-wrapped meatloaf, complete with corn on the cob and loaded baked potatoes.

Our dishwasher has been AWOL for about a week now and Hanna was proud of her "stacking the clean dishes" skills, so we included a picture of her stacked clean dishes. (I'm just grateful that her health is well enough to be able to stack them dishes and that she actually wants to do it...)

And guys, guess what showed up in my FB feed tonight? An ad for SUGAR-FREE POPTARTS!! You gotta love how big brother tries to meet your needs based on what you post here. (I'll probably get an ad for stacked clean dishes next!)

Finally, seriously, it was a great experience to, once again, hear one of my former scouts, now grown both physically and spiritually, give a great, meaningful talk. I have spent just over ten years of my life as a Scoutmaster. That job is anything but easy, if you do it right. And if you know me, I try not to do anything just half-way. I go full bore. We camped every single month, including the time it got down below 30 degrees below zero out (we had a cabin though) and the time it got to 0 degrees (no cabin). To be a better Scout Leader, I attended Wood Badge Training not once, but twice. And was on Staff five times. I sacrificed a lot of time from my family, my business, and my spare time to try to have an influence for good. And experiences like today are the pay off. The gratitude I felt and that were expressed to me in several different ways really touched me and made those hundreds of nights sleeping on the ground outdoors worth it.

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17Hanna Stewart-Longhurst, Justin Stewart and 15 others

Retired Life. Monday.

Today I pretended I was a CPA. I paid bills, input transactions, reconciled medical statements and even printed out financials so Hanna could see how cool I am.....errrr...I mean so she could see how much money we spent the past few weeks.

And we placed an on-line order for food and supplies (including bear spray) for a Fred Meyers store in Anchorage.. No one wants to spend time actually IN a store while on vacation. (Did you know it is illegal to bring bear spray on a commercial airliner??)

In the evening, we watched a prerecorded football game. Bowl game between Old Dominion and Western Kentucky. One team got out to a 28-point lead. The other scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to send the game into OT. Fun to watch. W Kentucky was coached by one of Mike Leach's former OCs at both WSU and MSU and ran the air raid. Lots of nice catches.

And since neither of us took any pictures today, I had to use AI to generate a picture of a happy, retired CPA paying bills. There you go.

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20Amanda Smythe, Justin Stewart and 18 others

Retirement. Tuesday.

Great news! We had rented a mid-sized pickup truck for our adventure in Alaska because they were out of JEEPs. Sad. But I checked the company's website last night and it said a Jeep was available. So I contacted them and they cheerfully made the switch! Woo Hoo! Road tripping Alaska in a JEEP! It won't get any better than that! (See actual picture below of what we actually expect Alaska to be like...)

Then bad news. Overnight, Fred Meyers failed to approve our grocery order. Customer Service said it was because we live in another state. I told them we would be traveling. After a long wait for management approval, she called me back and said everything would be OK now. And to press submit again. I did. Same error message. And then she said "sorry, I have no solutions now. You will have to go into the store to buy your goods." Click. Seriously? Click on you! So, first thing this morning, picture me with Freddy's failed order on one screen and Carr's Grocery (aka Safeway/Albertsons) on the other as I clicked the business to another store. Went thru the first try.

Then the bank called and said they were locking up my card because there were weird multiple transactions on it from Fred Meyers. Sigh................... I begged and they unlocked it.

With that drama out of the way, we then went into town for a bunch of things. Worshipped in the temple. Got my back adjusted and also tried out my Chiropractor's new Decompression Table. (See the picture of me walking in to Walk In Chiropractic.) I feel good now! Haircut. (Even my hair feels good!). Dinner at True Legends in Liberty Lake. New place for us. Very good food. And Hanna was happy because they had Gluten Free Cake so we both had dessert!

On the way home, I noticed that the volume of political signs had increased exponentially, which caused my head to explode even more than the voter's pamphlet did. What? Am I supposed to vote for the politician with the largest sign? Catchiest slogan? Coolest colors? Most signs? I'm so confused........

And we saw a real live Cyber Truck on the way home. I think. Maybe. It kinda looked like a Cyber Truck...

+4

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25Amanda Smythe, Hanna Stewart-Longhurst and 23 others

How to do retirement. Wednesday.

Simple day. But a lot of work.

We spent the morning packing up. (This always makes Frivvy incredibly nervous.) After lunch, we drove to Plummer to pick up some dog food because he was about out, then drove to Pullman to drop Frivvy off at Justin's. He immediately and quickly searched the entire house looking for the grandsons, but didn't find them because they are at their mom's. Then he shifted gears and started hunting for Justin's cats so he could terrorize them. (Don't worry, they can hold their own...) He was so excited!

Next was driving to Spokane where we checked in to an AirBnB close to the airport so we are there for tomorrow morning's early flight. And then we grabbed some BBQ at Longhorn.

Finally, have a moose at the Highland's.

Tomorrow we fly to Alaska. So, why, you ask, are we going to Alaska? To be together, site see, because we are retired and can do whatever we want, and because there is a story behind it. Back when we were talking about dating, but not dating yet, Hanna went on an Alaskan Cruise with her siblings. She came home and told me all about it and we put it on our bucket list to go on another one, this time together. As we studied Alaskan Cruises, we realized that we would spend more time on the boat than on land seeing sites. And would only see sites near the ocean. So, we bagged the idea and now are flying in to Anchorage, renting a JEEP, and driving all over the place, hopefully seeing cool views and chasing cool wild animals.

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32Hanna Stewart-Longhurst, Justin Stewart and 30 others

Retired life on vacation. Thursday.

The stupid alarm went off way too early (5:15am to be exact) and it wasn't even Sunday!! After a few groans, and visualizing chasing Grizzly bears in a cool JEEP (should we take the top off???), we happily jumped out of bed.

Our travels are never without it's adventures. Or challenges. Today it was waking up to find there was no water pressure in the AirBnB. That's a new one!! We didn't have time to mess with it and weren't planning on showers and did have drinking water with us, so we made do. The host was mortified.

The trip to Anchorage consisted of 4.5 hours of flying time and 90 minutes in the very crowded Seattle Airport and one time-zone change. Once on the ground, we picked up our rental JEEP, picked up groceries at Carr's, went to Fred Meyers for a few things they didn't have at Carr's (like Bear Spray and Dairy-free Chocolate Bars) and then checked into our AirBnB.

Hanna insisted that I take the window seat so I could be the first to see Alaska. See picture below from the plane. Funny! But once we got beneath the overcast, she made me take another picture of what the Anchorage area looks like as you're coming in. Just to be fair and positive. And it is a beautiful place.

While stuck on the Seattle Tarmac (slight delay because the Blue Angels are in town and they restricted the airspace so they could practice for the air show) I loaded the Geocaches we intend to find into my phone. See cool map below.

The Bear Spray drama continues.... I began to wonder if we even need it. After all, for 99% of the trip, we will be in the JEEP (really, should we take the top off??) standing along side the JEEP gawking at scenery, in a building, or on a boat. So, I asked AI. It told me that there is a significant chance that even just standing by our car we would have a bear encounter. And the bear may or may not charge us, but if it does, it is imperative that we have bear spray. And it kind of, in a friendly high tech sort of way, implied that I was stupid for considering ditching the bear spray. So bear spray it is.

We also noticed we were flying Boeing 737s all the way thru. Which lead to this marital discussion about what is worse? Dieing from a plane crash or from a bear attack? Bear is clearly worse. Plane crash, the last few minutes of my life would be a rush as I, consistent with my nature, try to find a way to survive it. And it would be over quick. Bear attack? No way. The beast would rip your guts out and then leave you there in pain to die with no morphine. That would be horrible. Yes. Must buy bear spray.

And note here, the Moose pictures below are from the Stewart Highlands, not Alaska. Timing is everything.

After we settled in to the AirBnB, we dressed up in our church duds and went to worship in the Alaska Temple. Why, you ask, would we travel all 4.5 hours to Alaska just to worship? Several reasons. First, because we are retired and we can. Second, because we set a goal to worship in the temple every week and we will be on top of some Alaska Tundrous Mountain next week, so this counts for next week. And finally, to express gratitude for the fact that we are even in Alaska, healthy enough to enjoy it, and are still alive. We have been planning this trip since 2011 when Hanna came here. We finally booked it for 2020. Cancelled due to Covid. Rescheduled for 2022. Cancelled due to Hanna being diagnosed with a supposedly deadly "you'll die soon" cancer. And now finally we get to go in 2024. So, we really wanted to start our Alaskan Adventure by expressing gratitude to God for us even being able to be here. Today's free PSA: NEVER EVER GIVE UP!! BE A WARRIOR AND A SURVIVOR, NOT A VICTIM!! FAITH NOT FEAR!!! EXPRESS GRATITUDE!!

No worries, the actual site-seeing will begin tomorrow as we head to the Kenai Peninsula and Seward.

+6

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34Hanna Stewart-Longhurst, Justin Stewart and 32 others

Retired vacation. Friday.

We drove from Anchorage to Seward, enjoying the incredible scenery, stopping to gawk and take pictures every while. We stopped for a picnic lunch by a small lake framed by purple flowers.

Once in Seward, we checked into our hotel. Our room has an Ocean View. (See the selfie from our balcony below). And then we drove over to Exit Glacier and took a hike. And some more pictures. We did not see any bears, but we did see an official notice that someone else had recently seen a sow bear and some cubs. We dutifully carried our bear spray and insect repellent, but didn't use either one.

After the hike, back in Seward, we found a cool little restaurant and ordered some fresh salmon for dinner. Amazing!!

On the way back from dinner, we attempted to find our first Geocache in Alaska, hidden by a waterfall. After a great and diligent search, we deemed it futile and went to our room in shame. It was apparently an Ammocan too. Sad. But the waterfall was very cool!

The only fun adventure is that part-way thru the day, the phone rang several times. A former client was calling us, apparently urgently. Left a message saying they had some tax questions. This particular former client may or may not have been related to us, but they did know we are retired AND on vacation. Hanna texted back and recommended that they call the CPA that now does their taxes and ask her the question, since she is more familiar with their tax situation and the current tax laws. Plus their current CPA is their step-sister...

Retired and done with taxes! Woo Hoo!!

Tomorrow we'll get out on the water.

+16

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40Justin Stewart, Jeremy Stewart and 38 others

Retired vacation. Saturday.

The nasty alarm went off way too early, but we were excited for the day, so getting up wasn't a problem. Checkin for the boat tour was at 7:30am. We signed up for the 8.5 hour cruise which put us way up into the remote far reaches of the Gulf of Alaska and its bays. We saw tons of critters (but no bears) and several cool glaciers. I brought FIVE layers of clothing to stay warm, but still got cold. Thank goodness they had Hot Cocoa on board.

What we saw: Bald Eagle, Blue Herron, Sea Otter, Seal, Sea Gulls, Mountain Goats, Purpoise, Whale, Puffin, Sea Lions. The whales were the best! There was a pod of 10-15 feeding and we saw four of them breach (jump up out of the water!. Very cool! We also saw a ton of other birds. There's a list in one of the pictures.

Back on land, we went out to dinner at the Waterfront. Chowder, fresh Sour Dough Bread and Miso Saberfish (incredibly soft and delicious fish) for me while Hanna had Salmon. Great view from the restaurant.

After dinner, we redeemed ourselves from yesterday's cache fail and found another one. We can now say we found a cache in Alaska. Mission accomplished.

+40

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24Amanda Smythe, Hanna Stewart-Longhurst and 22 others