Joleen at work asked last week what I miss about Alabama. I said grass or really just greenness. Most things here are some shade of grey or tan most of the year. Things are starting to turn green right now, and a couple of flowers are blooming. But, it’s nothing like the way Alabama EXPLODES with color, and pollen, in March. Joleen responded to my comment on the lack of grass with, “We have tundra.”
Tundra
I was like, “Yeah, but that’s not grass; it’s like low growth.”
“It’s better than grass, it’s squishy.” I was then told that because it is untouched earth and things just grow and die on it each year and the snow melts to make a water underlayer, the tundra is like walking in Moon Shoes. Until then, I had not veered off the path of the loop, due to the intensity of my Alaskan exercise regime.
Btw, exercise is a word I have to think about every time I spell it. I want to spell it excersize. How come some words are “ex” and some are “exc”? How am I suppose to know which is which? And why do we say the “s” in the word like a “z” if it’s not a “z”? We should say exerci-ss-e, kind of like precise.
So, Saturday morning, I decided to take off into the tundra. I packed a PB&J Roll-up, a Pear, and a little bit of toilet tissue figuring that hunger and a latrine could be the only things in my way of exploring to my heart’s content. Tyler said that it sounded like the beginning of an episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive. I told him, those people would have only packed the Roll-up and neglected the Pear and the T.P. elevating me from, “I shouldn’t have survived it,” to, “Of course I survived; those guys are amateurs.” I also had my iPod. Tundra exploration music = The Pool Boys and Lady Antebellum. Please do not hate on my music selection. I am well aware that I like music that a lot of other people hate on. And, I don’t care, because I like it.
The tundra was just as squishy as Joleen promised. In fact, it was kind of a challenge to traverse. I definitely had to pick my feet up and choose where I stepped. I walked along the coast for a little ways then turned inland to walk up a hill to see the lake on the other side. At first, I was dodging these little Horton Hears a Who balls that were growing everywhere.
They grow out of a little mound of grass that is not completely stable on the ground. Many of you know of my world-renowned grace and poise and will not be surprised that there were many a close call that would have been answered by a face-plant. It was like trying to walk on those Lilly pad things at the water park.
Then, all of a sudden, I found myself in a patch of low-lying ground that seemed to collect all of the water from the surrounding hills. If I even paused, my feet started to sink in the mud, and in some spots just stepping would cause sinkage. This is when the Horton Hears a Who balls became a hot commodity. I followed a path that they created uphill until I reached much more solid ground.
By this time, I was pretty tired from all of this high stepping and Lilly pad hopping. So, I found a nice spot on top of a hill where I could see the lake on one side and the sound on the other and ate my provisions. I tried to take pictures in a 180 view from where I sat, but you just can’t see how overwhelmingly beautiful it is unless you are sitting in the grass eating a PB&J roll-up.
The lake
Tundra
The Sound (Ocean)
Mountains
Anyone who would like to experience this, I will be happy to escort you.
After my lunch, I made my way through some bushes that I somehow found myself surrounded by, then back to the path from which I came.
On my way back I saw a duck, but I could not get a picture of him because as soon as I would come around the bush where he was hiding he would quack-quack-quack and scuddle behind the next bush. I did, however, snap a pick of a little baby bird of some variety that was tripping and running down the path.
Chickadee
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