Alaska revisited

I love to travel throughout the country and there are so many beautiful places that you can go right here in the United States. From the lush vineyards of California to the forests of Colorado, tropical scenery of Florida, and the stark beauty of the mountains in Alaska, there are many, many places to see and enjoy all over the country. I plan on sharing some of my experiences and photos with you as I go. I more recently went to Hollywood, California, to take pictures of Hollywood Boulevard and to Alaska, Texas, Kansas, and other places where I have taken photos. As I continue to write in my blog, I will post pictures from my trips.

This particular piece is dedicated to my trip to Alaska. Sarah Palin just now retired from being Alaska's governor. The media's attention on Alaska has brought back fond memories of the trip that we took to that state not too long ago. I would like to now share some of my impressions of that trip with you.

We traveled by air to Anchorage, Alaska and rented a car for the rest of our trip in Anchorage. Anchorage is a colorful city, with lots of stores that sell clothing, jewelry, and sporting goods. There are furriers that have interesting jackets in seal, raccoon, mink and more.

Our first day was spent shopping in Anchorage. On our second day, we drove to the Kenai peninsula and decided to take an all day boat excursion that traveled through glacial waters and the Kenai Fjord National Park. We started out in Seward, to board the boat for the trip, the Kenai Star. We saw whales in the water, and a large glacier. It got chilly when we got near this glacier, and extremely windy. We had to bundle up even though we took our trip at the end of May.

We also took a trip up to Fairbanks, Alaska. We noted that the trees are thinner, and pointed, looking like needles that go up into the sky. We also went to Denali National Park, and that could be another entire entry, since there is a lot to see there. While we were in Denali National Park, we took a tour of the entire park via a large bus. I remember that it happened to be particularly dusty on that day, and the wind blew debris across the bus, making it harder to see. Also, we did see some mountain goats that were perched elusively up on the higher mounds and hills.

My family likes to watch Ice Road Truckers, which is a show centered around truck drivers that have the special skill of driving up the Dalton highway in Alaska up to the uppermost part of the state, and also on ice. I personally would hate to have to drive a large semi on trecherous ice but there is a certain amount of respect, awe and fascination in watching truck drivers that have the guts to travel on the stark Dalton highway and then on to ice! During our trip, we wanted to travel the Dalton highway, but we did not travel past Fairbanks, and if you are looking to get gas, you need to do it before starting on the highway. We wanted to go up to the Arctic Circle, but that is being saved for another trip, in which we plan to go and view the Aurora Borealis winter lights near the Arctic Circle. We also would like to see the polar bears, and there are places in northern Alaska that we are looking to visit.