Alaska !!!!!

Hooley dooley – can you believe that on our return from NZ, John was assigned work in Alaska – so we repacked the bags and headed off for a 10 day getaway in Anchorage (of course John had to work – but I didn’t!!) Alaksa has always been on my visionboard - I was just so excited and John was pretty happy too!!

What an amazingly beautiful place – we met so many wonderful people, saw some magnificent sights and just had the best time. The weather was fantastic - bright sunshine each day and an average temp of 60F (16C). We had one overcast rainy day but that didn’t keep us inside – we just donned the jackets and off we went…. We rarely saw darkness as the sun didn’t set until very late each night (way past our bed time!) – it felt quite strange going to bed in broad daylight – we had to draw the curtains.

Alaska is huge – it’s 1/5 the size of the whole of the US. It’s filled with snow covered mountains, icy lakes and rivers – absolute picture postcard stuff. We arrived very early Spring so all the plant life was starting to ‘green’ up – everything looked so fresh and crisp and beautiful – the colours of green against the white snow was just spectacular.

Highlights –

We did a ‘trolley’ tour of downtown and Lake Hood. We were surprised to see so many seaplanes. In NZ just about everybody owns a boat, seems that here in Alaska just about everybody owns their own plane! We rented a car and drove north where we walked on the Matanuska Glacier (the largest glacier accessible by car in Alaska), saw Musk Ox grazing and a very old Russian cemetery that had little houses built over each burial plot.

We went to dinner at Clyde & Denise’s house along with Dave & Wendy, John & Margaret and Lance (mostly Nabors Drilling staff – EDN clients). We had a fabulous time getting to know each other around a ‘fire’ on their balcony – great food and certainly great company.

Dell & Betty (and their 2 beautiful Russian Aliute dogs, Raucous & Chaos, both with absolutely bright blue transparent eyes), drove us south to the Portage Railway Station where we hopped on a train to Whittier and then jumped on a boat and cruised Prince William Sound – so, so beautiful – the glaciers are just stunning. The boat crunched its way through cracking ice on the flat blue water – just indescribable.

We saw so much wildlife - a bear, some moose, dall sheep, musk ox, bald eagles, Kittiwake birds and the cutest little otters – just extraordinary.

We spent a day driving south to Seward – a quaint picturesque little fishing town where the cruise ships come and go. Also a great place to watch the whales but unfortunately they were busy elsewhere during our visit. It was the only rainy overcast day we experienced so we figured they were waiting for the sun to shine before they came out to play.

Denise took me out for an airing one day! We enjoyed lunch and then drove down to Mt. Alyeska Resort – wow! Lots of sightseeing on the journey including stopping at Bird Point where we looked for Beluga Whales but only found cement ones! It was a great day.

Attended the Fin Feather Fur Food Festival with Wendy & Dave, Clyde & Denise, Cleve & Karyn – similar to Houston’s Rodeo Cook Off!!!! Aligator & moose were just a couple of things on the menu. Luckily we found a stand offering fresh strawberries for dessert so we ate them – yum!

We drove up to Flattop lookout and saw the city of Anchorage from above. Also saw more walking trails – there are so many walking trails in Alaska. Of course there is the possibility of a surprise visit from the local bears while out walking so warning signs are all over. Not to mention the signs warning everyone about the possibility of an avalanche, the danger of walking on the mud flats (apparently it’s similar to quicksand!), signs showing the evacuation route in case of a tsunami, as well as information re what to do during an earthquake!!! Sounds like a fun place eh!! We actually watched some movies re the 1964 earthquake which devasted several towns in Alaska on Good Friday – lots of damage caused by subsequent tsunami’s – 131 lives lost, towns obliterated and some never rebuilt, deep fissures in the ground, collapsed buildings and homes that were just washed away. It lasted nearly 5 minutes and was the most powerful earthquake in the US and North American history and measured 9.2 on the richter scale – a real big’n!

I surprised John with George Strait concert tickets – they came on sale while we were away and I managed to purchase some on the net while he was working. George is his favourite country singer so he’s rapt – concert isn’t until August though so time for his excitement to really build…...

........................................Opening day of the summer Anchorage Market was the day of our departure so we were lucky enough to find time to attend, eat some beautiful organic cherries, strawberries and apricots, listen to a group of local school children sing and do some last minute shopping! A great way to end a great 10 days.

Well another amazing experience - they just keep coming and coming.........