Alaska (summary 1)

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Greetings from Michigan:
We are home and internet service is both easier to use and less costly. 😊 I will begin to "catch you up" on our trip. In a word--fantastic. But I will elaborate.
As mentioned earlier, we arrived in Fairbanks. (two weeks ago tonight) Since it was only 5 pm we had plenty of time to check into the hotel, then find someplace to eat. The Princess Cruise Line and Hotels do a terrific job of checking in and transfers, so that went smoothly. We found a restaurant next to the Chena River and had dinner. (about 7:30 which was 11:30 in Michigan. When we finally called it quits and went to bed, we had been up and going about 22 hours.
Friday morning came early and we went on a river cruise down (or up) the Chena River. Saw an exibition of dog sled use then onto an exibit of Athabascan Indian life in the late 1900s. It was very interesting to see how these original inhabitants of Alaska lived and survived.
Friday afternoon, we wandered around Fairbanks for a while. Weather was beautiful. It did rain each night, but it didn't affect anything. I just don't see how those people live in near total darkness 3 or 4 months a year. Daylight yes--darkness no.
We left Fairbanks on Saturday to go to Denali National Park via bus. A funny thing happened "in the middle of nowhere". We had stopped for a "leg stretch" and just as I got off the bus, my cell phone rang. I answered and it was my neighbor. What a shock to get a call. AT&T has just purchased the area (however that works in cell phone business) and we had coverage in all major spots and even at sea several times. I even called Scott one day when we were fishing several miles off shore in Juneau.
Anyway, in Denali, we took a 5 hour bus tour into the park. It is incredible the beauty of this place. The thing that impressed me was how it all came about because of 1 man in 1897 or so from the east coast. He came to hunt the Dall Sheep and fell in love with the area and talked the US Government into setting aside 2 million acres. (that's the short version 😊 ) It is now at 6 million acres. I decided to take a plane ride out to Mt. McKinley, so the next morning (Sunday) I awoke to rain, but we took off anyway. (A 7 seat twin engine Cessna) As we climbed above the Alaskan range of mountains on the 70 mile flight, the clouds broke and it became a beautiful morning. We got to see and fly completely around Mt. McKinley in glorious sunshine. It was absolutely awesome. We returned to a rainy landing and I found Shirley, Mike and Linda in time to board the train to Talkeetna.
I will pick up later from Talkeetna, as there is still mail to open, bills to pay, etc.
God bless and I'll be back soon.
Bill

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Comments

[Suzanne McCloskey]

wow!
That DOES sounds fantastic, Bill!