Guess Who's In Alaska?? (spoilers: it's me.)

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I have traveled many miles and many hours and many PB&J sandwiches, but I am finally here in Alaska with my hubby!  HOORAY!  It started with three flights.  I got up at 4:00am Eastern time and arrived in Alaska at 4:30pm Alaska (?) time.  The really long flight was the 6-hour Chicago to Anchorage leg.  Thankfully, when I realized I had gone through my reading materials for the entire trip halfway through the flight, I started to see GLACIERS.  I have never really understood glaciers...I get the math and physics behind them, but they're kind of hard to just think about.  From the plane, though, I could almost see them flowing.  Glaciers and mountains (and naps) kept me entertained for the rest of my flight.  Near the end, I actually saw a glory associated with our plane shadow!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures that accurately depicted the glory, so I've included a picture from the omniscient Wikipedia. (Remember to click the pictures in order to magnify them.)

 Top left: mountains and glaciers from the plane.  Bottom left: Anchorage airport.  Center: glory--I saw this but my camera didn't :(  Top right: delta and mountains from the plane.  Bottom right: Cordova airport.

From the plane I could see for miles, and those miles were filled with snow-capped mountains, glaciers, thick forests, fog, and presumably hundreds of species of wildlife.  It's probably the tiny bit of romantic poet in me--the part that will read just about any book I can get my hands on just to learn more, the part that wants to explore every corner of the world and discover all its history--but I fully understand why this far-flung, magnificent, bewitching, unrefined land is called "The Last Frontier".  It's exceedingly difficult to describe, so I'm just going to put up pictures and let your imaginations run wild.

So far, I haven't seen the sun once, and we've had winds gusting up to 45 mph.  I find this weather to be glorious.  Tomorrow, the rain and wind should be less, so we're going to hike to one of Cordova's glaciers.  We're also going to try out a chicken gnocchi soup recipe I found.  The recipe produces "12 servings", so hopefully I'll leave Wil with some tasty home-cooked food by which to remember me :)  I've posted some videos here, and I hope you can view them!

The view off the porch.

Wil, chopping wood like a real outdoorsman!

Some of last night and this morning's wind storm.

If any of you dear readers dream about visiting Alaska, please do it! Alaska contains stunning landscapes and plenty of activities, whether you're in a big city, fishing village, or remote backcountry.  Visit while you can!  Have any of you been to Alaska?  What were your experiences?

Comments

  1. TheoOctober 14, 2013 at 9:37 AM

    SAM.

    Your husband owes me a bear. Inability to stick stamps to fur is no excuse. Shave the bear if you must.

    ReplyDelete

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