Was talking to my Mom and Dad last weekend, when their choir director came over to visit. Having met him before Mom wanted him to talk to me. First thing he said was I've been to Alaska. I've seen all the Alaska sites. I've seen Bears, Wolves, Glaciers, Forest, Mountains, Whales, Birds, and the beautiful cities of Wrangle, Sitka, and Juneau. He then repeated, I've seen all the Alaska sites.
I hate hearing people say that, when it is apparent they never got out of Southeastern. I finally replied with my usual response, "Too bad you never left the Seattle Suburbs". "Half the people you met had moved there from Seattle". "And few if any of them have ever been to the other 4/5ths of Alaska". Actually Southeastern is only about 10% of the state. Every time I go to visit friends or family in the lower 48 I get told by someone they have been to Alaska. Then they reiterate the same things this guy did. They just can't comprehend that little section of Alaska has more in common with Washington state than the rest of Alaska. Climate, wet and rainy most of the year. Industry, fishing and logging. Small coastal towns and villages, it's only a narrow strip of land between the coast and Canada. In fact there is one town where they won't accept your dollars, they only want the Canada Loonies. (But that is another story for another time). The man got so insulted by my response he hung up the phone and went outside to calm down. I continued to talk to Dad, Dad knew what I meant, he has been here several times. He finally came back and asked what I meant. I informed him that Alaska has five completely different geographic areas, and none of them has much in common with the small area he saw. If he wants to see the real Alaska, he needs to come to the Interior, Fairbanks. The North Slope, Barrow. The Seward peninsula, and western Alaska, with towns like Nome, Bethal, or Dillingham. The Aleutians, Cold Bay, Unalaska, or Adak. South Central, the Kenai, and Kodiak, with towns and cities like Anchorage, Seward, Valdez, Homer, Kodiak, and Whittier. These areas are so differant from Southeastern, there is almost nothing in common. He hung up again still not comprahending what I was trying to tell him. In his mind he has seen Alaska. He knows all about Alaska, and we should not hurt the Caribou by drilling for oil in ANWAR. He's never seen a real Caribou.
It's ironic, our state capital is in Juneau. The people there really do have more in common with Seattle than the rest of the state. The Seattle Lobbiest have better access to our Legislators than we do. And the people of Juneau don't have a clue as to what is going on in the rest of the state.
By the way: Yall need to come and see Alaska at least once in your life time. Just please see more than Southeastern.