August 30: Alaska!

The dream: A friend and I took a trip to Alaska. I'm not sure by what means we traveled there, but I remember stepping onto the shore and looking at the majestic mountains towering in the distance and the land all around covered by lush pinewood forests. We were there in a season where the sun never set; as is the way in dreams, this was highly exaggerated by the fact that throughout the dream, the sun only moved in a small circular pattern high in the sky, never veering far from a noonday position.

My friend and I made our way to where we were staying: a quaint bed and breakfast that was actually a houseboat - and I mean literally a house that was also a boat: constructed like a boxy, two-story cabin with windows, a porch, and slanted roof, the house was docked on the edge of a large lake. We entered the house, made introductions, and checked in.

Shortly after check-in, the houseboat disembarked and began cruising across the lake and then up a wide river at motorboat speeds. While we were racing up the river, my friend and I sat on the back porch and began fishing, our lines trailing out into the rapid wake of our large water vessel. Almost immediately we began catching fish, struggling to reel them in against not only their own fight but the strength of the water rapidly receding behind us as well.

After a while, the river passed through the middle of a small town, houses and roads lining either side of the river and family yards running right to the shore. My friend's fishing line snagged suddenly on something large and threatened to pull her in. Together we reeled in what turned out to be a child's Big Wheels tricycle that she had somehow caught from the yard of a nearby residence. I quickly released the plastic bike and tossed it back into the river, hoping we weren't so far upstream that the owners couldn't eventually find it.

After a while of traveling, I found myself suddenly no longer in the houseboat and on the water, but standing on a small hill far up from the river. I was looking about for pieces of paper that were scattered about what was essentially a landfill of tires and other large garbage. The last thing I remember is knowing that I was a middle-aged businessman looking for important documents that had been lost, while my family waited for me down the hill in a station wagon.

***

My thoughts: Um... I'm not sure what to say about this dream. The glaring discrepancies of Alaska's geography and basic Earth science notwithstanding... that was literally just a house -- not simply floating on the water, but cruising across it! And I'm no fishing expert, but I can't imagine that our method would work so well...