{"id":2031,"date":"2025-08-13T08:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2025-08-13T08:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:07:13","slug":"alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/13\/alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When I first arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1973, I thought I\u2019d landed on Mars. The trees were all stunted. The city was on the ocean, but the sea was gray. There was no beach to speak of, only mud flats and bluffs. Even the hotel was unlike any other I\u2019d stayed at. Whoever heard of a hotel without a swimming pool? Yet, the Anchorage Westward was absolutely luxurious compared with the unfurnished two-bedroom apartment on Elmendorf Air Force Base we moved into a week later. Thankfully, my brother discovered Ship Creek with salmon and trout not far away. Alaska didn\u2019t seem so bad then, and it only got better and better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fishing ended when school began. Summer was over. Winter quickly settled over the city, the days became short and sharp. There was nothing to do but stay indoors. All that was soon to change when we moved into a house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now had my own bedroom complete with furniture and toys and models from Maryland. We retrieved our dog Tiger from the kennel where he\u2019d been staying all this time. School was a brisk walk if I was up for the challenge, or a half-hour meandering bus ride on slippery iced-over roads. And, despite the sub-zero temperatures, fun was easily had. Often, I would hike back to the school after dinner and meet up with friends and ice skate. My brother took up downhill skiing, something I wished I had done, too. I was chicken of going too fast or breaking my leg. Despite being just shy of four years older than me, with his own friends and distractions, he made time for me. While my friends talked with dread about their older brothers, Roger so often made time for me. Sometimes we had an adventure, and sometimes it was corrupting, but it was always fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1973, I thought I\u2019d landed on Mars. The trees were all stunted. The city was on the ocean, but the sea was gray. There was no beach to speak of, only mud … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[12,14,26,11],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoir","category-the-troubles","tag-memoir-2","tag-platform","tag-the-troubles","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2034,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}