Special Shoes for a Special Birthday
Friday, May 7th, 2010
Salomon Exit Aero Hiking Shoe
Today I am wearing a really special pair of shoes. They’re not strappy sandals or brightly colored peep toes or even Tall Girl shoes. No. These shoes are a completely foreign concept…they’re comfortable and supportive and built for wear and tear. These shoes are what I plan to wear when I turn 30! next month, when I first step foot in Alaska!
Oh, by the way, I’m going to Alaska.
In a matter of weeks, my boyfriend and I are flying to Seattle to spend a day bumbling about (restaurant recommendations anyone?), then cruising the Inside Passage for a week. We’re going to Juneau, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, Ketichikan, and then Victoria, B.C. We’re going to go whale watching and glacier hiking and mountain biking and ohmygodIcannotwait!
I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska, always wanted to smell the pine trees and the rain, always wanted to measure the blue streaks of the ice against the blue sky, always always always wanted to see a whale. A whale! I will literally cry if I see a whale. They’re miraculous to me. I don’t know why, but they are.
So, for my thirtieth birthday, I’ll be celebrating the best way I know how- doing one of the things I want to do in life now rather than waiting until “someday” or until I “retire.” I don’t want to wait because…well, what if? I want to do it all, see it all, now.
At 10, I went to Disney World. At 16, I backpacked Glacier National Park in Montana. At 27, I went to London and Derbyshire (and a part of me never left). Now, at 30, there’s Alaska- where I’ll wear these shoes to run and jump and hike and bike and…knock down all the old geezers who’ll be on the cruise with us (you better believe I’ll be the first one off that boat in each port- look out Mildred and Herb! I’m spry and swift like a cheetah!).
Alaska. Even just whispering its name feels like an adventure. A mere word, but it instantly brings to mind all that is still wild and beautiful and untamed…and seemingly so far away from my little world here in the Midwest where there are no such things as oceans or whales or glaciers. A world away, finally within reach in four weeks time.
that’s so fucking exciting! im very happy for you! what an awesome way to ring in your 30th!
AMAZING!
I wish I’d known when you were in London and Derbyshire… the Dales are one of my fave places
Derbyshire WAS beautiful! I spent only a day and a half roaming about the hills and streets of Castleton and the Sheffield cathedral, but have always planned to go back and see Chatsworth House.