Based on correspondence from his post-college years, Dan Hopson chronicles his move to Alaska in the early 1970s and the adventures that followed. Adopting the simple lifestyle of dwelling in a yurt, he explored careers in marine biology, elementary school teaching, visual arts and music. His progress as a classical guitarist resulted in music tours around Alaska and out to Pacific islands, while the biological work included coastal surveys in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. He also spent years devoted to further education for him and his wife, Martha, in Montana and in his home state of New York. Maps and color photographs enhance this memoir of two lively decades in the author's early life. He celebrates 50 years as an Alaskan resident as this memoir is published.