Alaska-ho!
Last weekend, Christine and I took a 5-day vacation with my parents to Alaska! Mom and dad had first gone on a 7-day cruise through Alaska, and we met up with them on a Friday morning in Anchorage. We explored the Anchorage area Friday and Saturday, then took the Alaska Railroad up to Denali National Park for a few days. We trained back down to Anchorage Tuesday afternoon, caught the red-eye flight back to Minneapolis that night, and was at work by 9:30 AM on Wednesday.
Of course, I took a lot of pictures. I’ve posted them on my picasaweb site, and also here below. Christine will be posting her pictures separately on her picasaweb site. Also, I had my GPS with me for the entire trip, and have geotagged the pictures and posted the log here. I personally think it’s cool to see the pictures on a map, so be sure to check that out, too.
Instead of posting a blow-by-blow account of the entire five days, I’ll make a list of my favorite (or least favorite) things about Alaska. When I get bored, I’ll stop:
- The train. Trains are cool. They hall my stuff while I sleep, and they haul me. And they make cool sounds. And they are way more comfortable than a plane. The 8 hour train right each direction to Denali National Park was quick and fun.
- Wildlife. We saw a ton of it. Salmon, moose, bears, caribou, sheep, squirrels, tourists. We saw them all.
- The bus. The only way you can get into the park is by riding one of their busses; the park road is closed to private vehicles. We got a pass for the 11-hour round trip ride. Sounds like a long time to spend in a school bus driving through beauty. However, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to experience the entire park in only one day. If I had been there longer and my ankle had been healthier, then hiking would have been more fun, of course. However, given the circumstances, the bus was great.
- Nancy, our bus driver. She was awesome. And patient. And happy.
- The daylight. Sucked. I went 5 days without seeing anything close to what you would call “darkness”. Sun was up at 4AM and down at midnight. And and hour before/after that was twilight.
- My ankle. Damn you softball. Luckily, I had done a lot of icing and it got better every day. I was able to do the activities that we choose very easily, but I would have enjoyed more hiking.
- Glaciers. They’re really awesome. I want one.
Okay, I think that’s it for now. Look at the pictures.
