Alaska
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ALASKA - Page 3
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I'll go quickly over Anchorage because I much prefer the next part - Denali. Anchorage was neat because we noted how bright it was staying for so late. It didn't get dark until 11:00PM. That was cool. Also, there were 2 great museums in Anchorage. The first was the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Here we learned about the 5 different cultural groups that were originally in Alaska. They had wonderful exhibits of their typical village dwellings, art work, dances and foods. I'd highly recommend this stop even though its about 20 minutes from downtown. Outside in the parking lot, a fox came up to pay me a visit (kinda skinny ain't she?). Another great museum was the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. They had historical exhibits that began with the native Alaskans then brought us up to the present day Alaskan oil pipeline. They have art of Alaska too and while we were there, a lady played jazz piano and a fella played the bass fiddle alng with her. So the whole time we browsed, we were accompanied by fabulous music. Thats about it for Anchorage. We did tour another glacier but the best part of that was Kevin, the bus driver who drove us out there. He was a school teacher most of the year and drove buses during tourist season. He had incredible knowledge of the history and wildlife of Alaska. One of the things he taught us was how to remember the five types of salmon using your fingers as a teaching aid. Can you name them? [Chum, Sockeye, King, Silver and Pink] We boarded the Holland America train ( can you believe it!! They have train cars too!). This was a long awaited trip up to Denali National Park. Okay, here's the scoop on Denali. It means 'Great One'. It is what the natives originally called Mt McKinley, and for that matter, they still do. Only tourists seem to still call it Mt. McKinley. Everyone else calls it Denali. The government finally changed the name of the park to Denali, but left the mountain named McKinley. You might as well have had a check list of things you might see in Alaska, because I think we saw it all! We saw moose, carribou/raindeer, eagles, falcons, marmots, owls, rabbits, ptarmigan, porquipine, and grizzly bears!! My brother and I still have differing opinions on what kind of bear the dark one is. According to our information, its a brown/grizzly bear because of the muscle hump between his shoulders, but Bill says you can only be sure by examining its paw print. Well, after being that close to a bear, I'd rather just debate the issue rather than get any closer to it. Since this is my page, I'll call it a grizzly. Anyway, Denali was fabulous. I'm still trying to list all the things we saw. On top of that, we had blue skies and clear views of Denali mountain, the highest peak in North America. Our guide told us how rare it was to get such great weather, so I clicked away with both cameras. We took an extra trip while we were in Denali. It was a wilderness trip up a river on a jet boat to a trapper's camp. Several men ran the camp where they still hunt and trap and sell the hides they catch. They taught us about their lifestyle and how they make their living. They also showed us how to pan for gold, which was a real treat. You swish all that river gravel around and let is wash away, until you finally are left with gold.... and I got some!!! See them nine little specks? Hah! Maybe after a month of panning for gold, I'll get a whole ounce! Still, it was fun doing it. Our trip came to a close with a long bus trip back to Anchorage. We had dinner up in the hotel restaurant and went to bed with full tummies. We were up at 4:30 AM to go to the airport and catch our flight back to Houston. Rocio and I had to spend the next few days catching up on sleep and shedding a few pounds too. We look back on all we did in 9 days and all the ground we covered. We loved our new discoveries and we loved sharing it together. Twenty six years together and our love still grows. One of the great writters from the area is Robert Service (1874-1958) who wrote about the gold rush and the Klondike. Here's a paragraph from one of his most famous poems from the book Rocio bought for me: There's a land where the mountains are nameless, And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless And deaths that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still; There's a land -- oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back -- and I will. Return Home |