The first trip was work, I was hired by AARP to present a training on elder abuse at the University of Alaska one May. I flew into Anchorage late in the evening, arriving at the hotel at about 11:00 PM. There was a note from the training coordinator to call her when I got in, to let her know I had arrived. The front desk connected me to her room, she answered the phone, looked at the time and flew into a panic. She had a meeting at 11:30 and she was going to late. I assured her the meeting was 12 hours from now, and she insisted it was daylight outside and I was wrong. It took me a minute to calm her down and assure her the sun sets very late at that time of the year that far north.
I had arranged a partial rest day, before the training. I booked a float plane tour, from Anchorage to Denali National Park, with a landing on a glacial melt lake. It was an amazing experience. The training went well.
The second visit to Alaska was an inside passage cruise from Seattle in the fall of 2008. It was my first cruise and it was great fun. We had four port stops, and a day of cruising glacier bay. The cruise was selected to allow us to ride the White Pass and Yukon Railway. If you enjoy trains, and mountains, and amazing scenery, go ride this one.
I would gladly go back to Alaska, maybe 2026?
Ray always regretted that we did not take the Alaskan inside passage ship cruise when we visited western Canada. It would have meant we would have missed Toronto, Niagara Falls and New York.
ReplyDeleteAn impossible choice between the two options.
DeleteI love the training coordinator story. A 24-hour clock would help. The view from the plane is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe plane landed on a glacial melt lake on the slopes of Mt. Denali, a lake that is only flyable a few weeks out of the year, and is a couple of days climb from the nearest starting point.
DeleteMy sister lived in Alaska for several years in the 90s and I regret not being able to get up there for a visit.
ReplyDeleteGo when you get a chance, my grandmother went in her early 80's on a cruise with a group from her church.
DeleteWow...the plane landing on the glacial melt lake...what an experience!
ReplyDeleteThe float plane was amazing, and we flew up a canyon over a glacier with granite cliffs soaring above on both side.
Deletemaybe 2026? Hey, fine by me!
ReplyDeleteWe will find something to do in 2026.
DeleteMy SiL and her family lived in Bethel, Alaska for many years. Several years back they moved across country to Bar Harbor, Maine. She has had an amazing and exciting life.
ReplyDeleteBethel is really out there. My late brother in-law worked in Nome for several years before he married my sister.
DeleteFriends in Hawaii won plane tix to anywhere in the USA. So they went to Alaska in January to experience snow and cold. True adventure tourists!
ReplyDeleteThat is one place I have never been but, I have a friend who says exactly the same thing. She would go back again and again.
ReplyDeleteI sat next to a guy from Phoenix on the return flight that first trip. He had driven a motor home from Phoenix to Alaska and took it in for service. He commented to service manager that while it was a pretty drive, he was not looking forward to the long drive back. The guy offered him more than he had paid for the motorhome in Phoenix (it was new when he left) and he flew home.
DeleteNow a cruise to Alaska would be amazing, But not those big cruise liners...that isn't me.
ReplyDeleteWhen my uncle was in the service, it took him to Alaska, and my aunt went, where they were secretly married, and they conceived their first child. They lived in a huge Airstream. I recall my aunt saying she was cooking once at the stove, looked up, and their looking in the window at her was a king of Moose. Even though she would put vegetables cuttings out for them...Alaska wasn't for her. Once she was done with nursing school and his turn with the military they moved back to the mainland.
I must have went into spam jail again.
ReplyDeleteI would love to visit Alaska, and an Alaskan Cruise is on our “to do” list.
ReplyDeleteSassybear
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