Alaska (Part I)

I'm back! Alaska was absolutely beautiful! The weather wasn't great, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Temps were in the upper 50's to low 60's each day dropping into the 40's at night. Most days it was cloudy, except for the day we went fishing, there was an on-again, off-again, light rain.

Day 1 - Sunday, after an unscheduled stop in Edmonton, CAN for a medical emergency and a 2 hour delay, we finally arrived in Anchorage. Checked into hotel, walked up to local store for beer, relaxed a bit then walked up to resturant for dinner. Good food and HUGE portions. Rental car was delivered at 8 but we were all pretty exhausted, so went to bed fairly early. Hard to go to sleep at 11 when it's still light out.

Day 2 - Monday. Great continental breakfast at hotel. First stop, Walmart for a few last minute things and a styrofoam cooler (personal joke, we have to get one of these for every trip we take with these friends). Then off to the military base for more beer. Upon getting to the gate, it is brought to my husbands attention that his military ID is going to expire the next day. Well, we can't let that happen. Have you ever been to a military/government facility to have something done? Takes FOREVER! So while we (kids and I and our two friends who went with us) sat in the car, hub goes in to get ID done. This takes 2 1/2 hours out of our morning. We head to Class VI to get the beer then to downtown Anchorage to see some sites. We went to a IMAX type place to see a presentation on Alaska, which was kinda cool, then watched a film on the 1964 earthquake. This earthquake measured a 9.2 on the richter scale and was the largest in North America and the 2nd largest in the world. Swallowed towns whole. There was also an exhibit to walk around to read about it and see pictures. It really was quite interesting. Walked around town viewing other things that I won't go into detail about, but it made for a nice afternoon. Ate lunch then headed to Earthquake park. This is a park where you can walk a trail and see much of the damage that was done. Well, we didn't get very far. No sooner did we get out of the car and head down the trail when we were swarmed with mosquito's, and I mean SWARMED! I've never seen anything like it. We literally ran back to the car. So much for that. We headed out and saw a few more sites. Ever see a 26' chocolate water fall? That was a lot of chocolate! Headed back to motel, sat around for a while then everyone called it a night. Party poopers. Light weights. Wooses. Seems the time change got the better of them. Suppose I might as well go to bed too.

Day 3 - Tuesday. Ate breakfast then headed on our way to Homer, 200+ miles to the south. Saw some beautiful sites. Even on a cloudy day the mountains were spectacular. I could have taken pictures of those all day long! Saw some Dall Sheep up in the cliffs, but couldn't stop to get pic's. We stopped at Portage Lake and took a boat cruise out to Portage glacier. That was really cool. Glacier was blue. Seems they are so dense only the blue light rays can be reflected back and this makes them blue in color. Visited the gift shop then on our way again. Drove through a Conservation Center where there are wild animals being rehabilitated then continued to Homer. On the way we saw a Moose grazing by the side of the road. A fairly common site for those that live there but we were excited!

(To be continued....)