Alaska....Land of the Midnight Sun

 

This was one of our first views of Alaska

at 11:30 p.m. no less!

My husband Rick and I traveled

to Anchorage AK to visit

our son Andrew and his wife Caitlin.

Andrew is stationed in Anchorage

with the Air Force.

We spent 11 wonderful, awe-filled and fun days in AK

This view is after we had landed and were

on our way to the base where we 

would meet Andrew & Caitlin.

Seeing it so light out at so late an hour was very surreal,

and I don't think I ever quite got used to it!

Alaska truly is the land of the midnight sun!!

 

Rick and I took part in our

first-ever-road race.

We ran, I mean jogged/walked the 6k

and it was a blast!!!

Sunday evening we had tickets

to see Mary Poppins.

Before the show we did a bit

of sight-seeing in downtown Anchorage.

 

Balto

 

Andrew being the "tourist" for me.

 

There are lots of murals in AK

On Monday, Rick and I drove south to Seward.

We drove along the Seward Highway,

which is a National Scenic Byway and........gorgeous!!!

This pipe was on the side of the highway.

It was good, clean water! :)

We stopped at every turnoff that we could

This was Beluga Point.

We didn't see any Beluga

but the views were worth the stop!

 

This part of the Seward Highway is called

Turnagain Arm

named after Captain Cook.

It's a stretch of road that meanders

by Cook inlet.

It is called Turnagain Arm because Captain Cook

had to turn again after he realized that

the body of water was an inlet and

not a passage to the Atlantic

 

 

At the end of Turnagain Arm

is the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

 The safe way to take a moose's pic

 They have a huge herd of 

wood buffalo they intend to

release into the wild in 2015

 One of my favorite places

was Exit Glacier in Seward

 It was cool to walk right up to the glacier and touch it

or

catch a drip. :)

This trip was such a blessing 

to both Rick and I.

I felt God's hand over the entire trip!

Rick and I didn't think we were going to do the 

Sea Life Center. It didn't sound interesting

from the description we read.

But Caitlin had a coupon (if there's a coupon we're in!)

so we decided to try it.

We were so glad we did!

It was lots of fun

and we enjoyed everything we saw.

 

This was across the street...

another AK mural.

 More on the Seward Highway

on the way back to 

Anchorage

At Potter Marsh

Another blessing of this trip

was getting to spend lots of time

with Andrew & Caitlin

The bike trail in Anchorage......gorgeous!

On Wed. Rick and I took 

a short hike

 the birch trees are beautiful

drove through Wasilla,

but didn't see Sarah :(

   

And then drove thru Hatcher Pass

where the views are stunning!

We were looking for:

But it's still covered in snow and not accessible! :(

 

Thurs. we did the seven and a half hour

drive up to Fairbanks

 

 On the way we stopped and

saw the north side of

Mt. McKinley

 The views along this road

were amazing too!

Friday was another favorite spot:

This was another blessing.

Our intention was to just drive as far

as private cars were allowed:15 miles.

But when we looked into the shuttle bus ride

we knew this was something we should do!

We are so glad we did!

We saw so much!

Four Grizzly Bears, one wolf,

a fox, lots of Dall sheep and lots

of caribou.

Sadly, my camera only zooms in so far....

I was only able to get photos of

the sheep and fox that turned out well.

The views here were amazing!

 So majestic

God is so awesome!

One of Andrew's nicknames

is Buck

 A quilt on display

in the visitors' center

 the antlers from two moose

that locked antlers

and died that way!

we did not see any moose in the park

but saw this one on the way

back to Anchorage

 We saw the Alaska train

quite a bit in our travels.

It even passes through the base

 This was on base

 

It was a wonderful trip!

And full of memories we will treasure!