I just bought a (used) DVD of the entire first season of Northern Exposure. It will be “a must see” as we head up the Inside Passage to Alaska. I’ve been thinking about Northern Exposure a great deal over the last few months. The key quirk of the show that keeps filtering back into my overfilled brain is the whole slow-and-easy lifestyle. The island time. The manana attitude.
In the planning of this Grand Tour, I’ve had my share of Northern Exposure moments. Let me give you an example of one, I have been calling and emailing one B&B in Alaska for many, many weeks, trying to book four rooms in their six room establishment. Maybe I’m being a bit “big-city-uptight” about this whole thing, but I’d think that if a person could fill 2/3 of their B&B for three nights, they might be, well, responsive. Not to say that the proprietor wasn’t responsive; it is actually that the responses just weren’t always all that helpful.
Let me explain, I got a recommendation from a local about this particular B&B. So, I went and checked out their website (I was very impressed that they had a website). It looked very cute. I could see the rooms. The prices were listed and were right in line with my budget. All was good and right in my little OCD world. They had a place to request a reservation, but it was only set up to allow one room request at a time. Since I needed four rooms, I found the phone number on their site, and I called. I got voicemail and left a detailed message. I understand that many Alaskans head out of town for weeks or months at a time, so I decided to also send an email in case the owners were out of town and couldn’t check the phone but were checking email (see OCD, gotta cover all the basis). In my messages, I explained the dates I was interested in, how many people, gave my contact info, and asked a question -- How close was the B&B to the marina (because it is important that folks in the B&B could easily get to the area where all the boats will be moored).
A week later, I got an email back. Not info about the rooms being available at my requested time, but a helpful tidbit about the fact that they were just a few blocks from downtown. Hmm… downtown. Not being from that small town in Alaska, I wasn’t familiar with the proximity of the downtown area to the marina. And, as I near my fortieth year, I have learned that it is not a good idea to make assumptions – they hardly ever work in your favor. So, not wanting to assume that being near downtown meant being near the marina, I emailed (and telephoned) and in my messages requested their distance to the marina, and explained that I was not familiar with the town, so it really would be helpful to know the distance to the marina.
A week later, I got a very nice email explaining that the town was pretty darned small and downtown and the marina were practically one in the same. Still no info about the availability of the rooms for the dates I requested.
So, I emailed (and telephoned) again and explained that I would very much like to book four rooms at her lovely B&B that was conveniently located within walking distance of downtown AND the marina. I explained that I was not comfortable sending my credit card number via email, but that if she could please call me at my number, I’d be very happy to give her the credit card over the phone so that she could hold the rooms for me.
So, today (it had been about three days since I sent my last email and I'd had no word) so I called and low and behold, the proprietress answered! I was thrilled! I explained that I was so happy to reach her and I'd like to go ahead and book those rooms now. I held on while she went and got her reservation book. I told her the dates and she stopped me there. “I’ve only got one room free on those dates” she explained.
“Really?!” I said.
“Yeah she said, it’s strange. I’m all booked up. It’s not really the season. There’s this one strange group that’s got most of the rooms.”
Hmmm…… I thought. Maybe that’s my strange group. I explained that I’d been trying to call and email her for oh, three weeks, and that perhaps the strange group was my strange group, Grand Banks.
“Wouldn’t that be nice” she said “if you were to call and find that your rooms had already been booked for you.”
I said “Is the group you have Grand Banks?”.
“I’m trying to think of someplace else you could go. No, well, no. OH! There’s a real nice place, so-and-sos, they are just up the road.”
“How close are they to the Marina I asked.”
“Oh, not far at all, just two miles or so.”
“Yeah, that won’t really work out for us because we won’t have cars while we are there, but thanks very much for all your help.” I hung up thinking, I bet you anything that strange group is my strange group. She never really did say WHO the strange group was.
So, here I am, 10 days from departure and still in search of four rooms in my small Alaskan town.
In the coming days, I’ll share other charming Northern Exposure moments I’ve experienced. These are the kind of thing that makes this OCD’s stomach twist in knots!
