journal

Fairbanks, Alaska had a lot in store for us.  Once we got to the town center we had a few hours before the incredible paddle wheel trip on the Chena River.  So we found a great sculpture of the Native Alaskans.  But what was waiting on the river cruise was something special.  This river is home to Susan Butcher’s husband and the sled dogs in training for the Iditarod.  Susan won the famed sled dog race three times in a row and four times in her life.  Unfortunately, she died of cancer several years ago.  Her legacy lives on with her family, her husband, future female Iditarod racers and a book about the incredible lead dog that made all her wins possible.  That lead dog was named Granite.  The book tells the story of how Granite began life as the runt of the litter.  Susan attached herself to him immediately as she saw a true leader.  She nutured him when he fell ill and was deemed incapable of ever being a part of the team and certainly not leading it.  But Susan proved all pronouncements to be untrue and once he became strong she selected him to lead her team.  We saw some of the young sled dogs picking up the skills necessary to work on the team and hopefully a future Iditarod winner.  This young woman is being mentored by David Monson (Susan’s husband who has also been a winner of the race).  We got to see all this up close on the cruise and at the Athabascian Chena Village on the river.  At the village we saw how the Athabascian people lived, what they wore, how they cooked and the animals in their habitat.  But at the village got to have our books about Granite signed by David Monson.  What an incredible experience.  Other photos of Fairbanks show a city that has adapted to the vast temperature variations from summer in the 90’s to winter at minus 40 degrees or more.  Believe it or not – this is a great winter destination.  The aurora borealis is there in winter and they also have an ice hotel and hot springs an hour away.  I’d certainly go back.

The interior of Alaska is amazing.  On the way to Denali National Park we encountered some interesting sights that require some explanation.

• The largest igloo was the brainchild of some guys with too much time on their hands.  They build this as a stopover for tourists on their way to Denali.  But they left out the fire escapes so it sits vacant since it couldn’t pass inspection. 
• Hurricane Gulch is named so since the winds whip by so strongly that they are at hurricane speed (over 100 mph)
• The divide is the Continental Divide that separates how rivers flow; either west to the Pacific or east to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.  It stretches from Alaska to Argentina.
• The beautiful wild flowers are call fireweed and they caused my sinuses such despair that I missed the tour of Denali National Park.  I guess I’ll just have to go back.

I did however have time to enjoy the great lodge in Denali.  Hope you do as well.

Leaving Anchorage on the Alaska Railroad was spectacular.  We were seated in the dome car with great views.  Of course when we passed Wasilla we were able to see Russia…  After a few hours on the train we arrived at the absolutely charming town of Talkeetna.  This is where they filmed one of my favorite TV shows – “Northern Exposure”.  They filmed here for about four years but the cameras kept freezing so they moved to the lower 48.  We left Talkeetna in a jet boat that took us to the lodge via three of Alaska’s rivers that converge at several places.  The river cruise gave us great views of the eagles and a peek at Mount McKinley.  Leaving the boat was interesting as we pulled up to the shore underneath a highway overpass.  The lodge was a nice wilderness place to stay.  Ain’t Alaska grand?

So the ship landed in Whittier, Alaska.  This is a charming and unusual town.  There are only about 800 people living in the city and almost all of them live in one building.  The city became quite important during WWII so soldiers could protect the USA from the Japanese.  Because Whittier is raining all the time there is great cloud cover so the military installations wouldn’t be detected.  There is also a very long tunnel going through the mountain and it happens to be the second longest in the US.  But enough tourist information… we were on the bus tour because the outing we had planned was cancelled.  So instead we got to see a fabulous animal preserve and the Native Heritage Center.

If I were opening this page on a website I wouldn’t believe it was real.  But alas, I was there, took this photo and reveled in the incredible beauty of something so rare in my lifetime.  It’s really hard to comprehend the magnitude of the glaciers.  The size of the icebergs are also hard to understand from the deck of a huge cruise ship.  The only photos that represent this are those of the smaller ship moving closer to the ice.  There are two days of glacier glory.  The first day was sunny and warm in Glacier Bay.  The second day was cold and foggy in College Fjord.  But on the second day there were seals.  Many seals resting on the ice at the foot of the glaciers.  Both days illicited a mantra that I repeated to myself over and over – I am close to heaven, what a lucky girl I am.