I grew up in Alaska.
My first 19 years were spent on a lake shore in the vast Arctic National Wildlife refuge.
Where my parents, 4 siblings and I lived, there was no other people, no running water, and no electricity.
It was a tough and arduous life, we trapped and processed fur animals for a meager income, hunted moose and caribou for meat, and hides, cut firewood, drilled through lake ice for water, yes life was hard in the Alaska wilderness.
Travel was primitive on snowshoes and dogsled pulled by malamutes and wolf hybrid dogs.
We did have two engine powered conveniences, a small chainsaw, and a snowmobile, but these were used little, as chartering an airplane to bring in gasoline was expensive.
I learned a lot in those 19 years, the very art of survival, but I also learned another, something just as important.
How to have fun in this lifestyle.
The sled dogs were our playmates, we learned to swim in the lake, there was no such thing as texting, we communicated by pencil and paper, waiting for months before getting a response as mail came only once or twice a year by airplane.
To visit the city was a treat for us, especially when my family would journey to Minnesota to visit my dads mom, my grandmother.
This was in 1981, and for a 9 year old boy, to fly on a jetliner, ride in a SUV on a freeway, eat out in a restaurant, drink soda was quite a huge adventure.
I left this life in 1991, at the age of 19.
I live a different lifestyle now, I drive a car, work, I text on my cell phone, and travel.
I love to travel.
But I still remember my life in the Alaska back country, of growing up.
My parents are gone, victims of disease, but what they taught me, I will never forget.
I own a small airplane now, and every chance I get, I travel back, and fix up our little old cabin, and relive the experiences I grew up with.
I will never forget the beautiful country, the freedom, of hiking through the country side, of sneaking out of the house on a fall night and bedding down with one of the wolf dogs to look at the stars.
This is truly experiencing and living Alaska.
And I will never forget the majesty and grace of this beautiful state.