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I’m sorry for not writing sooner. The aftermath of vacation has been one fiasco after another and I needed to be better rested and feel more in control of things before I wrote things.
Alaska: I’ve been to Alaska a few times before, but there is still much to see. Here’s a brief summary:
The trip started off inauspiciously. Because I had a very early flight (to Seattle and then on to Anchorage), I stayed at an airport hotel overnight. The hotel van driver managed to hit a car at the airport in the morning. To be fair, the car driver was parked in between the second and third lanes from the curb and had his lights off. Everyone was able to just climb into the front passenger seat to get out, so it didn’t really impact me, but sheesh!
Understanding public transit is my super power. So I was able to take a bus directly from the Anchorage airport to downtown (about 2 blocks from my hotel). Even better - the bus was free for people over 60 on Wednesdays!
As for Anchorage, I walked around the city, revisiting places I’d been to before. There are still belugas swimming in Cook Inlet, under the watchful eye of Captain Cook. The best tourist activity I did was a craft brew tour (company is called Big Swig Tours), which was excellent. We went to three breweries in a part of the city our guide called “the Brewmuda Triangle” and tasted about 15 beers. My favorites were Squeeze (a wheat beer with grapefruit flavor) at King City, the Panty Peeler (a Belgian style triple) at Midnight Sun (where we also got charcuterie plates), and a black lager at Cynosure. Overall, it was an excellent tour and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes beer.
I took the train from Anchorage to Seward. After leaving my bag at my hotel, I walked around town some, then took a shuttle to Exit Glacier (part of Kenai Fjords National Park). There are several easy walks from the visitor center to view the glacier, as well as informative exhibits at the visitor center. The depressing part is that there are signs along the way telling you where the toe of the glacier was in various years.
The next day, I did a cruise around Kenai Fjords, including the Aialik Glacier. We saw humpback whales, Dall’s porpoise, orcas,Northern fur seals, stellar sea lions, and a couple of sei whales (which are rare in Alaska). Unlike my previous experience here, we did not see any puffins. Also the weather was crappy.
I took the Park Connection Bus from Seward to Denali, which is good value and reasonably comfortable. I had two days to tour the park. The sled dogs were one highlight. I didn’t see as much wildlife as I’d hoped for, but there were some caribou and all sheep and distant moose. Muttering “here moosey, moosey” does not appear to help. No bears either. (I had previously taken the train through Denali and seen a bear eating lunch while I was eating my lunch in the dining car.)
I took the train from Denali to Fairbanks. Part of the point of he trip had been going to the Midnight Sun Baseball Game in Fairbanks. I was so exhausted by the time I got there, that I only lasted a couple of innings. I don’t think I should count it and will have to try again another year. (Aside from which, there are another 6 national parks in Alaska to go to.)
Still to come: The best laid plans of moose and Miriam … Also, quarterly update and monthly prompts and all sorts of other exciting things.
Alaska: I’ve been to Alaska a few times before, but there is still much to see. Here’s a brief summary:
The trip started off inauspiciously. Because I had a very early flight (to Seattle and then on to Anchorage), I stayed at an airport hotel overnight. The hotel van driver managed to hit a car at the airport in the morning. To be fair, the car driver was parked in between the second and third lanes from the curb and had his lights off. Everyone was able to just climb into the front passenger seat to get out, so it didn’t really impact me, but sheesh!
Understanding public transit is my super power. So I was able to take a bus directly from the Anchorage airport to downtown (about 2 blocks from my hotel). Even better - the bus was free for people over 60 on Wednesdays!
As for Anchorage, I walked around the city, revisiting places I’d been to before. There are still belugas swimming in Cook Inlet, under the watchful eye of Captain Cook. The best tourist activity I did was a craft brew tour (company is called Big Swig Tours), which was excellent. We went to three breweries in a part of the city our guide called “the Brewmuda Triangle” and tasted about 15 beers. My favorites were Squeeze (a wheat beer with grapefruit flavor) at King City, the Panty Peeler (a Belgian style triple) at Midnight Sun (where we also got charcuterie plates), and a black lager at Cynosure. Overall, it was an excellent tour and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes beer.
I took the train from Anchorage to Seward. After leaving my bag at my hotel, I walked around town some, then took a shuttle to Exit Glacier (part of Kenai Fjords National Park). There are several easy walks from the visitor center to view the glacier, as well as informative exhibits at the visitor center. The depressing part is that there are signs along the way telling you where the toe of the glacier was in various years.
The next day, I did a cruise around Kenai Fjords, including the Aialik Glacier. We saw humpback whales, Dall’s porpoise, orcas,Northern fur seals, stellar sea lions, and a couple of sei whales (which are rare in Alaska). Unlike my previous experience here, we did not see any puffins. Also the weather was crappy.
I took the Park Connection Bus from Seward to Denali, which is good value and reasonably comfortable. I had two days to tour the park. The sled dogs were one highlight. I didn’t see as much wildlife as I’d hoped for, but there were some caribou and all sheep and distant moose. Muttering “here moosey, moosey” does not appear to help. No bears either. (I had previously taken the train through Denali and seen a bear eating lunch while I was eating my lunch in the dining car.)
I took the train from Denali to Fairbanks. Part of the point of he trip had been going to the Midnight Sun Baseball Game in Fairbanks. I was so exhausted by the time I got there, that I only lasted a couple of innings. I don’t think I should count it and will have to try again another year. (Aside from which, there are another 6 national parks in Alaska to go to.)
Still to come: The best laid plans of moose and Miriam … Also, quarterly update and monthly prompts and all sorts of other exciting things.
