Arrivederci Alaska

Hey. Well, the past few days have been fantastic, mother nature must have heard my pleas and has made the weather much more to my liking. After leaving Denali a few days ago, we headed up to Fairbanks for two days, but before we left the weather cleared up so me and my cousin went rafting, me for me it was my first time and the second for him. It was awesome! The weather was cooperating and the recent torrential rains made the river run high and faster than normal. There were about 10 or so series of rapids we paddled through and I got drenched on pretty much all of them. The adrenaline rush was worth it though.

The drive to Fairbanks took about two hours, most of which I slept through. It’s a pretty small city. The hotel we stayed at had two parts, an old section and a new building. We originally got two rooms in the old section but the rooms were crap. They were small, smelled bad, one of the lamps didn’t work and the bathroom was a hideous pink tile disaster dating sometime to the Reagan administration. My dad went to see if we could get a room in the new building which they eventually did. There was such a discrepancy between the two rooms it’s kinda crazy. They were so much nicer, cleaner, bigger and updated.

Fairbanks was even quieter than Anchorage but also pretty easy to navigate so we mostly wandered around the city. The sun doesn’t set until 2AM there and then it rises again at like 4, that really messed with my head. The weather has been fantastic though, sun and mild temps for the past few days does wonders for my mood. While there, we went to see a virtual aurora show (tourist trap), the Alaskan pipeline (pretty much a giant pipe), and the Santa Claus House in North Pole, AK (LOL). The Santa Claus House was essentially a giant Christmas gift shop but it did have a few reindeer, very sad looking reindeer, but reindeer nonetheless. One great surprise we found in Fairbanks though was some o f the best Korean food we’ve ever had. We found it on accident really, me and my cousin went bowling in this really industrial looking building complex, and next to the alley was a small Korean place. Well, we were hungry and decided to eat there and my god it was delicious. The Galbi (Barbeque Shortrib), Bi Bim Bap (Rice dish with a bunch of toppings), and 14 different kimchi and other tasty tidbits were amazing. The lady even gave us a free appetizer for eating there. Best place ever.

Fairbanks was our last stop so today was mostly a driving day back to Anchorage so we could catch our flight home tomorrow. We passed back through Denali during the whole 6 ½ hour ride (my butt hurt like crap from sitting still for so long) and stopped a few times to see the mountains and scenery. Tomorrow we have one last day so we might go visit the outdoor market again or something, nothing has been planned.

These past two weeks have been quite an interesting experience. I’ve gotten closer to nature and have met some great people. Regardless, I can’t wait to get back home. Two weeks is a long time to not see close friends, sleep in my own bed or play with my hyperactive terrier, and while I might not miss going back to the scorching heat, it’s something I have gotten used to…and after two weeks of mostly cloud cover and rain, 95 degrees and being poolside doesn’t sound half bad.

All the best,

JP

Cold Weather, Hot Guys

It continues to rain on and on and on here; what I would do for some sunshine and heat right now. Funny thing is, back at home I was about ready to start punching baby foxes if we had another 90+ degree day but now I really miss it.

I’m in Denali National Park now, literally hours away from any major city but nevertheless, it’s pretty (sorry I keep using that tired description, I’m not feeling the urge to consult a thesaurus). But there is good news on the horizon. Tomorrow my boredom streak will hopefully come to an end. I’m going white water rafting for the first time. Maybe choosing a category III and IV run might not be the wisest decision in the world for my first time but hey, it definitely beats having to spend another day sitting in bed watching reruns of CSI and House Hunters. There’s even a part during the two hour ride where you can jump into the river…we’ll see about that. I have no idea what to wear though, especially since I'll probably be soaked by the end of this.

**awesome transition, yes?**

Before I set out on this trip I had my own idea of what the North was made up of, moose, mountains, stuff like that. Well, now I think there’s something else that can be added to that list, smokin hot guys. Since I arrived on shore, hot guys seem to be on parade. Okay, maybe I could just be really…excitable at the moment but there is an unusually high number eye candy here. Day one, we couldn’t find anyplace open to eat except for a TGI Fridays so we went there. All the waiters were guys and the majority were ripped, gorgeous ones at that. I hadn’t seen that many toned biceps and well filled t-shirts since I went to the beach in the Caribbean last summer. Maybe as the temperature falls, the hotter the guys become, hmmm, new science experiment? I think so.

Things got even better today. Hot waiters abound at today’s dinner spot as well. One was a tall, swimmer looking guy, slightly scruffy with some shadow on his face. He was so damn cute, he had a little baby faced look to him, innocent but with a smile that made you question just how innocent he was. I sneaked looks at him throughout dinner whenever he passed by which was quite often. Damn, what I would do to see him in a different setting if you know what I mean. Why the fuck am I so horny recently!?

I need more sleep, maybe that’s it.

Ugh, well, the internet here in the lobby of the hotel is absolute rubbish so I’ll wrap this up.

Hope the weather is better wherever you are is better than it is here,

JP

P.S. – Oliver, I sure hope you’re not going to do anything dastardly with such confidential and guarded information. Anyways, I cannot confirm nor deny whatever your guess is. :P

Ice Ice Baby

Whoa, it’s been a while. The cruise portion is now over and now begins seven days of road tripping across Alaska.

So, an overview of the last few days…

I ate like a pig. Damn, I seriously inhaled food as if the world was going to end tomorrow and I decided on day one to throw my guilt overboard. Buffet breakfasts, long lunches and four course dinners every freaking night, ugh, pass the Tums.

Everybody was old, Japanese, or a combination thereof. There was a Japanese tour group on board and there were well over 300 of them. They were really nice though and many of the ladies wore kimonos on the formal nights which was really cool. Some of them started to talk to me in Japanese and I just stood there, blank stare and all, most of them figured out I’m not “one of them” lol. There weren’t many hot guys…Actually, the only ones that actually stood out was this tall swimmer looking guy and these Portuguese brothers who I saw everywhere I went. The older one (or at least I think he was the older one) was straight up hot as hell while the younger one was cute as anything, almost in the same way Southern Charm is boyish cute.

I did the teen program for the last time. Only about a dozen people showed up in total, (usually about 50 show up to give you an idea) but that let us become a pretty close group. They were mostly 15 or 14, only two were 16. Cool people though. There was no “Ben” for this cruise though. Given the really small size of the group we didn’t really follow our supposed daily “program” and we ended up just hanging out and playing Rock Band or swimming. On the second to last night we did karaoke and I sang “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC and “Tearin Up my Heart” by the Backstreet Boys, fuck, how did they now know I was gay lol. One thing I found really annoying though was that many of the guys kept saying “That’s so gay” or just using gay in all its inappropriate forms. I wanted to tell them off on so many occasions but I bit my tongue.

Alaska is actually rather boring, very pretty, but boring. It’s cold, rainy, mountainous and full of gift shops trying to sell you overpriced stuffed huskies and stuff like that. I mean, maybe if I were more outdoorsy and went legit hiking it would be pretty cool but I’m not that kind of guy…The sight of snow capped mountains in summer kinda freaks me out though, especially considering since I left DC, it hadn’t dropped below 90 degrees there. We did go see a bunch of glaciers and saw one “calf” a baby iceberg which is actually one of the coolest things I saw this whole trip.

Actually, this was one of the less memorable cruises I’ve been on but nevertheless, it was fun. Maybe I should stick to warm weather destinations.

Well, I’m back on land and am not paying 75 cents/min for the internet so hopefully I’ll catch up on all the missed posts, by the looks of it, I missed quite a lot. I did see that Jason Carwin has returned which is exciting for me and sure for many of you as well. He was actually one of the first blogs I followed and his blog was one of the things that had really helped my own coming out progress. So a belated “welcome back” to him.

After leaving the ship, we rented a SUV and set off driving. Today we did some exploring and we found a mall with an indoor ice skating rink, bowling alley and the biggest Forever 21 I’ve ever seen. It was department store big. Did anyone else know they had a men’s clothing section? We also found a weekend farmers market. There was an electric violinist performing there who played a bunch of pop music like “Speed of Sound” by Coldplay and “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga. It sounds so different when performed in such an unconventional way but it was brilliant. We also found a stand selling South American food which was delicious beyond reason, never expected to find that up here.

Finally, update on the college front, I’ve pre-registered for my classes for next year but I’m not holding my breath when it comes to getting all the ones I’ve requested, even less so when it comes to the time slots I requested. That’s the thing that sucks about being a freshman, you always end up with the leftovers after the upperclassmen have had their fill. I also got my first bill for the first semester’s dues….oh man lol.

Okay, so this is getting really long and I apologize so as a way to thank you for your attention, I give you the gift of asking me anything you’d like to know about me, within reason of course. I’ll answer them in a future post.

All the best,

JP