H is for Hot Springs: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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H is for Hot Springs (Chena Hot Springs)

My first full time teaching job was in Kenny Lake, Alaska, right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere :-)  It's a really small school, 100 kids K-12. We worked hard for those kids, though, giving them the best experience we could despite an isolated location. 

I'm full of fond memories of the place and the people, even though I was only there one year. 

I taught about eight different subjects that year, chaperoned a bunch of hockey trips, put on a formal dance, and adopted my first dog, a German Shepherd Husky mix called Häagendog because he was the color of my favorite kind of Häagendaz ice cream: chocolate peanut butter. 

I also chaperoned the big eighth grade trip to Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs. I visited it a couple of times during that year because it was just so wonderful. 

A natural hot springs is something special. The earth bubbling out its heat through the water. Sitting in one, you can understand why people have sought them out throughout history, believing the minerals and air could heal a myriad of woes. 

Chena Hot Springs is even more amazing because its in such a cold place. There's nothing like sitting in hot water while you're surrounded by snow, able to see your breath while you stare up at the night sky filled with Aurora Borealis. It's a distinctly Alaskan experience, and a highlight of my life to have been there. 

G is for Going-to-the-Sun Road: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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G is for Going-to-the-Sun Road

When I was 24 years old, my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It took him a year later. 

All my life, he'd told me stories about Montana. As a young man, he'd been sent to Montana as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and it was the adventure of his lifetime. My favorite story was a tall tale (I think) about getting chased up a tree by a bear, and throwing down a peanut butter sandwich to appease the creature. 

He always wanted to go back and see Montana again. 

And my parents made that happen for him. 

They bought a van and took my grandfather, my grandmother, my cousin who was basically being raised by my grandparents, and themselves across the country, picking me up in Billings, Montana. I'm so grateful to have been there when Grandpa Ray got to revisit his youth and show it to all of us. 

Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park was one of the highlights. It's dramatic vista after dramatic vista. Terrifying to drive, especially since your jaw is hanging open half the time from the beauty. 

I love the place three times. For the amazing place itself, for my grandfather's memories of it, and for my last adventure with him. 

F is for Ft. Abercrombie: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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F is for Ft. Abercrombie

Right after I graduated from college, I loaded up the truck and moved to Alaska. It had been on my mind since third or fourth grade when a teacher showed our class her slides from a visit she'd made. For some reason, my parents wouldn't move, so after graduation, when my then-husband and I were talking about where to go, I said, "What about Alaska?" 

We threw resumes at the state and one of his landed in Kodiak, Alaska, so that became my first Alaskan home. I eventually had three. 

Kodiak is an island in the south of the state. Neither part of the Aleutians nor part of the chain of islands known as Southeast, but it's own thing. And it's one of my favorite places on the planet. 

It's green and lush, but never hot. It rains a lot, but I don't mind that. It was my first time living by the sea, and I *loved* it. Walking beaches and forests, looking for beach glass, tide-pooling, sitting clifftop watching puffins, and regularly seeing bears, sea lions, and bald eagles . . . it was heaven on earth. And Ft. Abercrombie State Park, with its cliffs, flowers, wildlife, and sea was my favorite part. 

I've been putting all my writing money towards someday going back, taking my family with me. They've got to see this place!

E is for Elmo's Diner: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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E is for Elmo's Diner

Elmo's is our family breakfast place. Initially, it was an us-two breakfast place. It's where we shared our first breakfast as a couple. It's a diner in Carrboro, NC (they have one in Durham, too, but that one's not "ours"). 

Besides lovely aromatic coffee and delicious breakfast offerings, Elmo's also offers friendly staff who know us after all these years and beautiful sunlight through tall windows in old brick walls (the building used to be a mill). The quality of light has always really affected my mood, so it might be the windows as much as anything that won me over to the joys of Elmo's. 

We've all got our regular food choices there. The youngest has her chocolate chip pancake, the eldest her chicken caesar salad, the husband has his southwest salad with chicken, and I have my open face turkey sandwich or salmon cake. And always, of course, the coffee. I love the coffee there so much, my husband bought me a mug from there to use at home. 

Elmo's has memories of many happy meals. It's that rare place that really pleases all four of us. No one is just tolerating it for the sake of others. It's earned its place in my heart. 

D is for Duke Gardens: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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D is for Duke Gardens

I got married in Duke Gardens, so obviously this is a special place for us. 

The first weekend my husband and I ever spent together, we had a picnic there, sitting near the lake. Throughout our long distance courtship, while he was in grad school at UNC Chapel Hill, I'd come visit him, and we'd keep coming back to Duke Gardens for long walks and talks in a beautiful setting. So, when it was time to marry, it made sense to do so in a place that had been such a part of our relationship. 

Since we ended up settling in the Triangle of North Carolina, we still get to visit Duke Gardens regularly. We have a relationship with the ducks, who spotted us a mile away as suckers who will buy multiple bags of duck feed. We named the Heron in the lake (Harry, of course). We have a particular bench inside a magnolia tree where we like to sit and people and bird watch.  It's beautiful in different ways throughout the year. 

It's both cultivated and wild, organized and chaotic. Just like us. 

C is for Carolina Theatre: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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C is for Carolina Theatre

The Carolina Theatre is a lovely old dame in downtown Durham, North Carolina. We discovered her some time shortly after moving to this area and are now regulars for many of their events.

We spend the most time enjoying their Friday night retro film series, which plays both classics and cult classics and everything in between. It's a favorite date night for the husband and me, and sometimes we take the kids, too, especially when we feel their pop culture education is at stake! Recently played films I've enjoyed include: The Princess Bride, Bladerunner, Cowboy Bebop, The Secret of NIMH, The Evil Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Gaslight.

The theater itself is beautiful, designed in the 1920s in the Beaux Arts style. There are several different performance spaces inside, for movies or stage events. Besides the retro series, we've enjoyed multicultural performances like Japanese drumming, musical performances by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Madeline Peyroux, and presentations of various sorts.

Between the events, the lovely people who run the place, the gorgeous venue, and the yummy snacks, the Carolina Theatre is definitely my kind of place.

B is for Big Bend, West Virginia: AtoZ Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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B is for Big Bend, West Virginia

From our neck of the woods, in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, our vacations are usually a choice between "head for the sea" or "head for the mountains." When we choose mountains, we've ended up in West Virginia a few times in the past decade or so. 

Big Bend is a state park day use area full of running water and large rocks to climb on, and a variety of hiking opportunities. I've been here with just my husband and also with my children and once with my mother, too. It's been wonderful every time in all sets of company.

My youngest daughter is a creek-dobber, like me, delighted with hard flowing water and small fish and the sparkle of light through trees and on water. So this is our kind of place.

There's something about the sound and smell of the water that clears my head of all pollution (external and internal). I only wish there was a place like this in my own town.