Away From It All (Alaska)

Hello friends, Evi and I just returned home from a 10 day excursion in America's largest state, Alaska. Starting from Fairbanks we worked our way south for 3 days through Denali, the nation's largest national park, towards Anchorage and eventually our ship in Whittier.

Alaska is truly the land of wide open spaces. Few paved roads, automobiles, noise, urban stress. Beaucoup bears, moose, eagles, mountain sheep, and tourists (thank goodness - keeps the economy going). Miles of human-free landscape; if you drive the main highway from Fairbanks to Anchorage, about 350 miles, you'll pass rivers, lakes, mountain vistas, few cars, fewer traffic lights, and millions of spruce and hemlock trees. One town has population two, both living in the same house; husband mayor, wife chairman of city council. Talkeetna was the cutest hippie town I've ever seen (scenes from Northern Exposure were set here). In the city of Whittier, southeast of Anchorage where the big ships dock, most of the 180 inhabitants live in one high-rise apartment building!

Most family homes are not competing for a spread in Home and Garden magazine. They are painted bright colors and often seem in need of some repair. The northern and western exposures of the state, mostly inhabited by native peoples, have few paved roads; the best way to get around is by small airplane. If you live in Alaska you must be self sufficient, able to live with sub-zero temperatures and 5 hours of daily light for months in the winter, and temps in the 60's with over 20 hours of daily light in the summer!

For the next 7 days we suffered through 24 hour activities: shows, eating, dancing, drinking, trivia contests (our team won 5/8), midnight snacks, food, movies, casino (voluntary taxes on the mathematically impaired), and of course meeting nice people from all over. Most Americans on our trip seemed from Wisconsin, and most foreigners from Asian countries.

Evi, now an accomplished photographer, and I took about 1000 photos, threw away all but about 300, and here are some favorites to share with you.

Here's a trivia question: The smallest US state, Rhode Island, could fit how about many times into the largest state, Alaska? About 100, 300, or 500? *** See answer below...
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(485 times; Rhode Island has 1,213 square miles; Alaska covers 587,878 square miles)

That's it for now... until next time, love, Howard and Evi

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