The last time I was in Alaska (seven years ago), we took a drive up to Chugach State Park, parked in the parking lot and hiked up to Thunderbird Falls. It is a beautiful 1 mile trail and the falls are so pretty. However, when we got back to the parking lot, we found the car had been broken into and my purse stolen. That put a real damper on the rest of my trip because in addition to $220 in cash, I was also carrying my identification, credit cards, Social Security card, airline ticket and various personal items. It was quite a hassle canceling all my credit cards, bank account, reporting the theft, and THEN trying to get cash from my bank account (that I had cancelled and had no ID to prove I owned the account). After repurchasing my airline ticket, I was subjected to a physical search to board the plane (because again, I had no ID.)
Today Robin and I decided to drive back up to the Falls with Megan and the baby, and try to dispel the old bad memories. We packed all of our valuables into the stroller, locked the car and set the alarm and headed out up the trail. When we got back, everything was intact, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Robin put Steven in the carseat while I folded up the stroller and packed it into the back of their Yukon. We were rejoicing that now we had a good memory of Thunderbird Falls to displace the first trip and we headed out of the park. About a mile down the road, Robin asked me if I had gotten her cell phone out of the stroller. I had not, so we pulled over to make sure it was still there. It was not. We turned around and drove back to the parking lot and saw it on the ground right where it had fallen. As we got closer, we could see it had fallen out of the stroller right behind the wheel and had been run over. When Robin picked it up, we knew it had made its last call.
We have decided not to go to Thunderbird Falls again.