After I dropped Chad off at the shipyard this morning, the kids
and I drove to Girdwood which is about 75 miles away. During the hour and a
half drive, there was no radio reception, so I thought I’d sing to my kids. I
got twenty seconds into my first song and Ali interrupted me with, “Is that one
of the songs you used to sing in the sixties with your friends?”
Jackson added, “You mean the tens?”
Then they all belly-laughed at me for an uncomfortably long
time. I spent the rest of the drive telling them embarrassing stories about when they were babies.
We went to Girdwood on a mission. I refuse to leave Alaska
without seeing some wildlife, and so far, I’m not having much luck. There are
two possible outcomes to this situation:
1) I don’t see any wildlife at all and I return home a
shadow of my former self, never fully recovering and perhaps turn to meth or
start watching The Bachelor. (Let me guess, you just thought to yourself, “Meth
is nothing to joke about, Rachel, you have no class, and I love The Bachelor.”)
2) I go into the wilderness to find wildlife on my own and
use my animal-whispering skills to communicate that I come in peace, and I stay
in the forest with them forever and become their mommy.
As you can see, both of these options result in me not
coming home with my children next week, and that won’t work because they need
my credit card to rent Digi Players on the airplane.
So I engineered a new plan: We will go see animals at the
conservation center and pretend they’re
in the wild.
Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center takes in animals that
have been injured or orphaned (Remember Bambi? “Your mother can’t be with you anymore,” nearly killed me as a
little girl). These are animals who could not survive on their own in the wild.
The center is no zoo. And I was happy about that.
We paid the $35 entrance fee and received our map. The route
is a mile and a half long and visitors can drive or walk and experience the
park in whatever order they want. We drove, parking along the way to get out
and up close to whatever animals we could find.
I am delighted to tell you that all the animals were out and
highly visible today. Not only did we get to see a couple of bull moose from three
feet away, but we stuck our hand through the fence and pet the antlers of one
of them. Listen, I know they don’t want you touching the animals, but when are
we ever going to get to pet a moose that won’t rear up and stomp us to death?
Besides, everyone else was doing it. (And yes I WOULD jump off a bridge if all
my friends were doing it.) That velvet was a marvelous thing to touch, and I strongly
recommend the experience.
 |
| Nelson and Teddy (I did not make up those names) |
Two moose calves, Richter and Tectonic, were both orphaned
and brought to the wildlife center in June. They were put on “display” only four
weeks ago and are still being bottle fed. We sort of “fell in” with a VIP,
Behind the Scenes tour and I “accidentally” heard all of the guide’s
information that otherwise would’ve cost the kids and me $400. The VIPs got to
pet the baby moose, but the baby moose ran from them and it was awesome in a
jealousy-makes-me-ugly sort of way.
When we arrived at the bear enclosure, I heard the guide telling
the rich, important snobs that it’s actually abnormal for the bears to be out
this early. They usually come out around 5 PM. He said we were lucky to have
such a close view because the bears have eighteen acres (soon to be twenty-one
when the remodel is complete). Deep down, I knew it wasn’t luck. I think they detected
my longing to be close to them and they came out to appease me. Hugo the grizzly
basked in the sun while the two brown bears, Patron and JB, swam and wrestled
in the water. Hugo was found by some guys on snow machines with porcupine
quills in his paws, unable to walk, dehydrated and malnourished. Patron and JB are
orphans because their mama was shot by a man when she was in his backyard. She
had killed a baby moose and he was afraid she’d kill his dog. The man later
found the little cubs in a tree and they were brought here. I am going to stop
telling you the depressing but inspiring rescue stories now because my heart
can’t take it.
 |
| Don't let the fence depress you, he has eighteen acres |
Instead, let me tell you about the musk ox that tried to
kill me. I was taking pictures of this musk ox’s enormous dingle berries
because my kids asked me to. They were huge, and the poor thing must’ve been embarrassed.
Suddenly, we made eye contact and I shifted my camera from his butt to his
face. His eyes got huge and I thought, “We’re connecti…” and that’s all I had
time to think because he charged full force at me, head down, ready to ram me.
Thank God for the metal fence, and the other fence that I was sticking my arms
through to take the picture. When he realized he wasn’t going to get me, he
turned around and charged a smaller, nerdy looking musk ox. I think that little
guy is the one who endures the bully musk ox’s violent outbursts. Anyway, I
learned that I don’t necessarily possess musk ox-whispering skills. I’ll have
to work on that.
 |
| Minutes after the first charge. Moments before the second. |
After three hours of wildlife wonderment, we drove back to
Seward. The kids napped and without the radio I was left to enjoy the scenery.
It’s hard to stay focused on the road when everything around you is so
magnificent. If I lived here, I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t last long.
What I’m saying is, I’d probably drive off the road into a river because the trees were pretty. It’s never
funny when you have to explain what you mean.
We went straight to Vigor and let Chad know we made it home
safely. He had a few things to finish up so we walked to the beach and waited. At the area
where the bay meets a glacier stream, the colors are so incredible that it honestly
stopped me in my tracks. It was one of those moments that don’t come as often
as I'd like them to. Every single cell in my body was fully aware that this was God’s
creation, and the reverence that came from that left me speechless. When Chad
finally arrived, I tried to tell him what I was experiencing when out of
nowhere this huge bald eagle came swooping out of a tree-covered hill right over
the kids’ heads. Then the jokes began about how all we were missing
were porpoises jumping and spiraling out of the water and unicorns leaping from
the clouds. It’s was pretty glorious and I hope you are able to experience that
kind of awe in life.
We came home and ate chicken fajitas. The kids are at the skate park and Chad and I are alone. So... Bye.
Alaska Fact #7:
Admiralty Island, Alaska supports North America’s largest concentration of grizzly bears. An estimated 6,000 grizzly bears inhabit the Alaskan island, outnumbering Admiralty’s human inhabitants nearly three to one.
The Niemeyers
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