Blogs from Anchorage, Alaska, United States, North America - page 16

Wednesday 20/06/12 – We woke up to the sound of rain this morning, a sound that remained with us until well after lunch. During the winter months, most parts of the Denali National Park are inaccessible by vehicles (including helicopters) due to heavy snows or unfavourable weather. There are also many parts of the park where motorised vehicles are not allowed. For this reason, the park rangers have a working dog sled team that allows them access to these areas for transporting rangers and equipment around the park, or even the odd rescue of hikers. The dogs are rarely used for these purposes in the summer months but are instead used to educate and entertain any tourists that are willing to stand in the mud and pouring rain for 45 minutes ‘ooohing’ and ‘aaahing’ every time ... read more

I got up fairly early and was treated to fog wisping about on the surface of the lake. It was quite beautiful. I felt lucky, even though it wasn't what I had thought it would be when the guy in the state park the day before had told me about it. Nevertheless I felt quite well-rested, all things considered. My back was rather unforgiving though. I got up and went into town to try to find some place that would have breakfast. I couldn't find anything obvious. I was really wanting to just get out of town. So I started out. Then I saw a Safeway. I went in to see if they had anything breakfast-like. They didn't have much, not even muffins. I was disappointed, but I got some apples and chocolate, to call breakfast. ... read more

Travel is travel, regardless of where it begins, right? I took a short trip down to Homer for a short stay at a dear friend's cabin over the weekend. I needed a little break from the school year before seriously packing up for the summer and the trip to Thailand and then back to Southeast. It was a great drive, with some welcome rain. The beach in Homer and the sights along the Turnagain Arm and Kenai river region are some of the most beautiful in Alaska. Today is officially "less than two weeks" before heading out to Thailand! I'm in a "packing crisis". Just how much is too much or too little?!?! Rick Steves or Samantha Brown - I could use a little help if you happen upon this blog :-)... read more

Greetings to all our merry followers! Many of us left Toronto this morning at the 'crack of stupid' :) And, after a fabulous flight on Air Canada, arrived in Vancouver to catch up with the folks from the West who were joining us on the wonderful adventure. We moved on over to a private terminal where our aircraft from Flair Air joined us. A great time was had by all on the flight - a great crew - and we are all getting ready to travel, eat, laugh, get to know each other and create memories. We kicked things off with orange juice/mimosa/champagne - not a bad way to start this wonderful trip! We are all enjoying the luxury of executive seating - lots of leg room (not that I, personally need much of that!) - ... read more

This was our last solid full day in Alaska for our Honeymoon trip. That was a bittersweet feeling as was evident on how we were not launched from a cannon when getting out of bed. We were clearly exhausted from nearly 2400 miles of touring and exploring Alaska. After breakfast and getting ready, we decided to explore Anchorage. We wanted to walk on a glacier and were told in Seward that Anchorage may still have seasonal availability. We decided since we walked to Exit Glacier in Seward and saw it pretty close so that was good enough. We decided to go to the area of the Anchorage Airport to explore the Anchorage Aviation Museum. We saw some video and explored the exhibits. It again was visual overload. We enjoyed the museum fully, but got to a ... read more