Thank Goodness

The past week has been packed full with activity. After Denali, we had to get right back to working 8 to 6 Tuesday through Friday. Then, on Saturday morning, Aunt Lyn invited Mk and I to come with her to the little town of Hope for a bike race that she was helping run. We got up to leave at 7:15 in the morning and headed over to watch the teams race off. After sitting in the cold and seeing the expert men racers come back to the starting point only to turn back around and do the 25 mile loop over again, Mk and I decided it was time for some action. So we jumped in Aunt Lyn's car and drove into the crazy, raging party that was Hope, Alaska.
According to the 2000 census, Hope has the staggering population of 137, so we were a bit nervous of being swept away by the crowds. Hope was just beginning what they call "1st Saturdays," which is an art festival that they hold every, well, first Saturday of the summer months. Mk and I were lucky enough to stumble upon the very first one. We saw numerous types of paintings, jewelry, hats, sculptures and psychedelic tie-die Ts. Everyone in the town seemed to have made something. Literally.
It also just so happened that it was their Library's 25th Birthday and we got to mingle with the locals and help them celebrate. We got really excited when we saw the big cake and were told, "Go grab a piece!" We weren't so excited when the cake they chose had globs of strawberry goo in the center for...taste? appearance? Who knows, but to put it bluntly, it was a bad idea. Even so, we enjoyed carrying around our pieces of half-eaten cake and prentending like we knew what was going on while sifting through the book sale: $1 for paperbacks and $2 for  hardcover. If you know me at all, you know I couldn't pass up something like that. So of course I bought a book (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, for those of you who are wondering) and have been enjoying it so far. We ended the day in the big city by having a conversation with a local about her house which used to be a barn for mules that they renovated and added to. That's pretty cool I guess.
Mk and I then drove back to the beginning of the race and picked up Aunt Lyn. The three of us grabbed some soup at The Bake Shop in Girdwood and hit the trail. But this was no ordinary trail. Oh no. This was a trail to a super special hand-tram. With this super special hand-tram, one can pull himself across a rushing gorge that runs 80 feet below. Chilling, I know. When you're in a situation in which you can easily imagine your death, I think your heart blows itself up just a little bit as if to say, "Not me, not now, look how big and powerful I am!" My heart definitely did this the first time we pulled ourselves across. But we made it to the other side and my heart stopped pretending to be bigger than it was and all things were back to normal size. Thank goodness.