grief and the alaska option

I've always wanted to go to Alaska...someday. A few days ago I was at a coffee shop sitting at the bar talking with a friend. I was talking briefly about my breakup. The barista chimed in and asked me if I had tried rearranging the furniture in my apartment. I said I had and that it wasn't working anymore. Then he said a series of things that shocked me. If you know me you know that I am not shocked easily.

He suggested that I could go to Alaska. In response I said that I had heard once you go to Alaska you never come back. Then he told me that a girl broke his heart in five years ago and he finally had to leave town. He said he was so depressed he went to Alaska and worked on a fishing boat for two years nonstop. He said that after that the idea of coming back home didn't bother him anymore, he was so happy to be off the damn boat and out of the miserable cold.

So. I guess there's the Alaska option. I wonder what the "Alaska option" would be for me. For now though, Fiona Apple, red wine, workaholic-ism, prayer and the occasional cigarette will have to do. What would intense grief make you do? .....Is it REALLY always true that wherever you go there you are?