Our Trip to Alaska

We had a fantastic trip to Alaska. Benjamin had not gotten to see his Auntie Cortni since he was a day or two old.

BTW, a lot of people have asked us about the weather up there. Not a whole lot different than Corvallis in the winter time. It was about 60 degrees every day, getting much colder at night (below freezing). The boat in Seward was quite a bit cooler, but still absolutely lovely! And we were there for the entire week of fall! The leaves were already clanging colors when we arrived, but completely changed and dropped off by the time we left. But everywhere you go, you are surrounded by beautiful snow-capped peaks. They just emerge out of the flat valley floor with no foothills or anything. In Alaska, 7,000 foot peaks are foothills! :o)

Benjamin helping me pack. I feel like it was "Where's Waldo?" trying to find him on our bed! We packed almost all day on Saturday and left on Sunday, 9/23, at 6 am and headed south to my dad's house in Cheshire. There we picked up him and Carol and headed to the Eugene airport. The man slept most of the way down but perked up when we got to the airport. We traveled through the airport with with his stroller and car seat (the base hanging from the handle), his diaper bag, a little bag for Paul and I, and a little bag of toys. Everything had a place on the stroller, which made walking around easy, but security wasn't so fun. My dad travels a lot so he gave us lots of tips like emptying your water bottle ahead of time and taking your belt and shoes off and tucking them in your carry on ahead of time. It made getting through A LOT smoother but unfortunately the security checkpoint in Eugene still allowed Dad and Carol to watch us and laugh, but we made it.

Benjamin was an easy traveler. He nursed on take-off and he was asleep when we landed, having spent most of his time playing or sleeping on Paul's chest. He often picked out a gentleman several rows behind us and made faces and tried to get his attention. He always picks guys with facial hair. For our first flight from Eugene to Seattle, it was an older gray haired and full bearded gentleman who played right back. Benjamin thought it was fantastic. It couldn't have been better, if if the flights weren't jammed packed like they were.When we arrived, we stopped by Fred Meyer for a few supplies and then headed to the Bookman's house. Bruce and Mary Bookman are parents of one of Cortni's friends and she stays there quite often and they have become close. They have a gorgeous house with plenty of rooms for us and Cortni's entourage. We made Cortni a birthday cake while we were there and surprised her with it later that night. The Bookmans gave Cortni a swell fur hat - now that she is staying a winter, the joke/truth is that she will need it. It was pretty cool.
The next morning we got up fairly early as Cortni scored us some severely discounted passes to a fabulous huge catamaran in Seward on the Kenai peninsula, about 2.5 hours away. The boat trip is a six hour tour of some glaciers, basic scenery, and includes a lunch. We rushed like crazy to get there, only to find out it takes off a half hour later than we thought, so we were okay. Extra time for hot chocolate! We saw a sea otter, several bald eagles, and two black bears, digging for roots on some islands! I got queasy about 2/3 of the way through and so Cortni took over the camera and got (A LOT) of great shots.

Glaciers come right down to the ocean's edge! For those of you who may not know what a glacier is, it is basically snow that is packed down and turned into solid ice - something like 15 feet of powder can make a foot of ice. Anyway, what doesn't melt in the warm months gets packed down and remains. It piles up over the years, new stuff pushing out the old. Some glaciers move a foot a day! They are spoken of like they are alive. Since the early 1900's, they have declined significantly in Alaska as global warming and ozone depletion has occurred.Alan and Collin - Alan is Cortni's friend and roommate and Collin worked in Talkeetna with them the last three years and came up for a visit the same week we did.Along with guys with facial hair, Benjamin thought the gentleman with the colored warmer over his mouth was amazing and hilarious!

A quick video (~0:20) of a glacier caught "calving" (breaking off chunks into the ocean). The calving happens quick and is right about in the middle of the shot. The clip is edited to include a quick clip of B-Man looking at Cortni with the camera. Yes, he looks cold, but I assure you he was fine and we spent most of our time in the heated indoors.

The day we actually got to Talkeetna (9/25) was the day of Cortni's big b-day bash. Her roommate, Elie, had her birthday on the 24th, so they decided to celebrate together on the 25th. In the true spirit of her birthday, Cortni had a keg of Pabst, beer pong, and a campfire in her backyard.At this point, the days start blending together a bit (and NOT because of the keg!), but one day we spent wandering around the town. Talkeetna is about 2.5 hours north of Anchorage in the middle of nowhere. It's year-round population is about 700. It is the closest town to Mt McKinley, so it is the last stop for the 1200 climbers who choose to try their luck every year. Talkeetna has a beautiful cemetery with a tribute to the mountain. They have a lost climbers wall with the peak, name, age, and year of every person lost on one of the peaks. Mt McKinley itself is apparently not the hardest to climb, just the tallest in the world. (Mt Everest takes off from a plateau, so the vertical climb is less than that of McKinley.)

The view from downtown over the Talkeetna River to beautiful Mt McKinley (aka Denali).Dodge is Cortni's Anatolian/German Shepard mix (he is ginormous!). He will play fetch in the rushing waters for hours, ending up 1/4 mi down the bank.Thursday, we took a drive over Hatcher pass outside of Wasilla. Our little Ford Taurus took care of us over a long and windy gravel road. We saw some beautiful scenery but were only above snow level for about 500 feet. It was amazing. People were driving up there, parking, and then hiking around with their snowboards.On Friday, Cortni's friend, Margaret, got us on a free flight over Mt McKinley. Thank you Margaret! All we had to do was tip our pilot who happened to be the owner and her father. I love knowing someone who works in the tourism industry!

The plane was small and sat about 10. I was paranoid about getting sick again, so I took Dramamine and was okay will we took our time on the way back dipping back and forth looking for wildlife. We got to land on the Pika glacier. I believe this was the Ruth glacier - one of the biggest in the park. Scientists measured it a while back and calculated it to be over 3200 feet thick of ice!Just before we land on the glacier.It looks like the glacier melts off and leaves a trail of sediment, but on the contrary, the ice is under it. The glacier picks up dirt and rocks as it moves down the hill and carries it with the glacier. You can see vertical lines in the glacier which shows each time a different glacier has merged into the path. There are even pools of water on top of the ice in places!Can you find the 5 black bear that are in this picture? :o)On the flight home from anchorage to Seattle, we had an empty seat between us. This worked out great because on the trip, Benjamin learned to sit up all by himself! Although we still use pillows as guards, he was doing it. He also learned to eat cheerios and give bananas another try. I think our eating troubles may be behind us! He is squealing with delight in the picture below, despite what it may look like. :o)