Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the perfect photograph of the lights, and a couple from Juneau who probably never get a
chance to see the aurora through all that rain, and another couple from Minnesota, and Big
Al himself, who waits patiently for all of us to get our fill, or frozen, whichever comes
first.
At about 1:45 a.m. Rhonda goes around soliciting votes for going back down the hill.
At the bottom of the hill we pass many people in parkas sitting on lawn chairs on the
snow-packed airstrip, still looking up.
The next morning we slept late and get up just in time to skinny into our swimsuits and
take a dip in Rock Lake, a rounded rectangle surrounded by a ring of granite boulders
topped with snow, steaming gently in the morning sun. We shower and run on tiptoe out-
side through the ten-degree temperature down the I-brick ramp into the pool. It's like wad-
ing into warm silk, and it doesn't smell as sulfury as I had feared. The heat of the water
meets the cold of the air and creates a drift of fog skittering between Rhonda and me. I
kept my hat on. I don't know if it's the minerals in the water or the contrasting heat and
cold, but it is exhilarating and invigorating.
“I didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to,” I tell Joe as he carries my bag
to the van.
He smiles. “Everybody says that.”
