Alaska - June 2004

We got up early and went down to the Breeze Hotel for breakfast (they were the only thing open at 8am, Alaska seems to get a late start...). Then we drove about 10 miles out of town to the Exit Glacier. We parked and hiked about half a mile to an overlook area where you could see the glacier as it sprawled down a mountainside.

We were the only ones there, which was pretty cool. The pale blue of the glacier is so cool to see in the morning sun!


Back on the road we stopped about half way to Anchorage for lunch near the Portage Glacier. They had a boat cruise that went out to see it, but we didn't have enough time (just as well, we were kind of glaciered out!). We got to the restaurant just in time, as we were sitting down to eat, a busload of highschoolers piled in and took over a big chunk of tables. We had about an hour drive back to the airport where we dropped the car and headed inside. Apparently a new portion of the airport was just opening up, which for some reason caused the security line in our terminal to be extra long. It ended up taking close to an hour to get through. Some day the TSA will figure out what they are doing... The flight back was uneventful, Rick napped while Randy worked on some pictures and the beginnings of the website.

What a fantastic trip it had been! Chuck had done a fantastic job of showing us a never ending stream of new sights and experiences. Alaska is amazingly vast, with huge expanses of untouched wilderness. Flying in a small plane is really the only way to see it, the ability to set down on any beach or small chunk of gravel means that you can go almost anywhere, totally on your own schedule. We really got a great taste of things in a very short period of time. Something we'll remember for a long time to come.