Beth
01 / 19
What Beth has to Say about Alaska
The first thing you have to know about Alaska is that it is huge. Over twice the land area of Texas. The second thing you have to know about Alaska is that it is, for me, the most beautiful state in the U.S. Oh, and if you are there for more than a day, you will probably hear (more than once) these five things:
02 / 19
1. Watch out for bears 2. A 13 year old boy designed the state flag 3. Mt. McKinley is more properly referred to as Denali -- "The Great One" 4. Watch out for bears (yes, I know, but apparently it needs repeating -- over and over again) 5. How, when and what fish are running
03 / 19
Marie and I were not in luck when it came to wildlife watching. We saw a slug on an ice floe that turned out to be a seal. We saw bowling pins on posts that turned out to be snowy owls. We saw golf balls in trees that turned out to be bald eagles. We saw a rock that looked like a Dall sheep, but was actually a rock. We saw an occasional moose and a few caribou out of the window of moving trains and buses.
04 / 19
Our best sighting was when they had the "reindeer roundup" in Fairbanks - someone chased about five caribou into a fenced-in area to show off to the tourists on the paddleboat. We saw lots and lots of sled dogs.
05 / 19
We were, however, in luck when it came to weather. It was clear and beautiful, blue and green. The weather in Barrow (the northern-most point in the U.S. -- 340 miles north of the Arctic Circle and roughly 1,300 miles south of the North Pole -- was in the 40's with daylight 24 hours of the day. The rest of Alaska was in the 60's, 70's and even 80's. The only "rain" we encountered was in Ketchikan, where they average 13 feet of rain a year.
06 / 19
We arrived in the middle of what was, at most, a light mist. The highlights of the trip for me were: 1. The trip to Barrow -- unpretentious, not touristy, amazingly long stretches of tundra and ice and wonderfully friendly people. It took me quite a while to appreciate this.
07 / 19
Being from New York City, I am not used to the kind of openness I encountered from people all over the state. Cynicism was in short supply and milk cost $7 a bottle. When I was planning this trip, I made myself a promise that I would go to the beach at midnight and take a picture of my feet in the Arctic Ocean. I never made it to midnight, but I did get in up to my ankles -- twice. I didn't like the way the pictures came out the first time, so I did it again.
08 / 19
The second time Marie had to help me on with my shoes. I couldn't feel my feet for about 10 minutes. Maybe that sounds insane, but I wasn't going to travel over 3,000 miles to get to the Arctic Circle just to take bad pictures of my feet in the water. I was going to travel over 3,000 miles to get to the Arctic Circle to take GOOD pictures of my feet in the water! 2. Denali -- Marie teased me when I took pictures of the mountain every time a cloud changed shape.
09 / 19
I must have close to 100 pictures of the mountain and surrounding area. Denali is 20,320 feet above sea level and is the highest point in North America. We saw what only 19% of travelers to that part of Alaska see -- Denali at her finest. There was little cloud cover, the sky was intensely blue and visibility seemed endless. 3. Getting on a helicopter to hike around a glacier just outside of Skagway - the only way I can describe the experience of being…
10 / 19
…on a glacier is to say it was like being surrounded by a Georgia O'Keefe painting, albeit a rather dirty one. Glaciers are like huge (although very slow moving) rivers of ice that grind down whole mountains over eons of time. As a glacier slowly moves it breaks off and grinds up rock and dirt which finds its way into and onto the body of the glacier. This gives a glacier the appearance of being dirty, especially on its edges where it has the most physical contact with the mountains.
11 / 19
Still, the colors were stunning and when it hits 98 degrees in NYC, I think I could live in a glacial crevasse forever. The cruise part of the trip was relaxing. After going from motor coach to train to school bus to plane and back to motor coach, not to mention never spending more than one night in any one place (with the exception of the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge in Talkeetna where we spent two nights), I truly appreciated being able to let…
12 / 19
…the ship do the moving for me. I was even convinced to perform on two separate karaoke nights! Definitely NOT something I would usually admit to. Marie performed one night, too (okay, she didn't sing, she signed the words to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" while someone we met on the ship and I sung the actual lyrics). It's amazing how being on a ship full of people you don't know and will never see again will let you behave as though you were drunk every night.
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