First, let me thank Jesse & Marsha for inviting us along. Huge thanks to Chris for the great accommodations and "tour guide" service. Thanks to Tony for the wonderful BBQ. It was great meeting Pops, Mary Jane and Ue.
Andrea, Lindley, Alexa and I had a wonderful trip!
If you want to skip right to the pictures click here.
To see how vast Alaska is, click here.
Keep reading for trip details...
We were on time and ready to roll. And the plane even pulled away from the concourse in good time. Looked as if our Great Alaska Summer Vacation was going to start off on a good note. Not so fast my friend.
Storms in Denver forced us to divert towards Pueblo to refuel. Apparently they put just enough fuel on the jet to get us to Denver without any detours. Since the storms were raging Denver asked us to come around from the West approach. But we didn't have enough fuel, so off towards Pueblo for more fuel (note: it was at this point that Andrea and I looked at each other silently with that "oh crap, we are screwed" look only parents know).
Our detour quickly turned into a return trip back to Omaha. Apparently Denver had an "all-stop" order, or something like that. No planes coming or going. When we hit the ground in Omaha we quickly dialed up United's customer service to see how we could get to Anchorage.
That was pretty much useless. We basically had two options. Fly our current plane to Denver, wait in the airport and catch the next available to Alaska...which would probably be the next evening! (24 hours in an airport with kiddos...NOPE!) Or get the heck off this plane and see if we could hop another flight the next morning and hopefully make Anchorage a day late. Either way our luggage was going to take the original route.
Well, we got there twenty-four hours later than originally planned. And we beat our luggage to Anchorage to boot. Oh well, we were now in Alaska!
Trips are all about the stories we tell and accompanying pictures. Here are a few:
Arrival: Chris and Jesse were kind enough to meet us at the airport and help us get the rental (sorry folks, all they had was a Ford Explorer. I know it's hard to imagine ol Doug driving a Ford. But the wife's professional association got us a deal on that thing). We trekked to Vito's bachelor pad and hung out with the Fortney's. Fun.
Zoo: Now it is very hard to compare any zoo with Omaha's Henry Dorley Zoo, but the Anchorage Zoo was pretty darn cool. Bald eagles, wolves, moose and all kinds of cool brown and polar bears! Kiddos enjoyed.
Flat Top: Our next destination was Flat Top, a state park just outside of Anchorage. Pretty neat place to hike around and check out the scenery.
Moose: We were enjoying a wonderful dinner in Anchorage when Vito walked in the restaurant and said, "hey, want to see a moose...there is one right in the parking lot." Sure enough a moose had wandered in to town and was feasting on a bush. Only in Anchorage.
Denali: The next day it was off to Denali National Park and Preserve. Five hour drive from Anchorage and the kiddos did really well. Fuel in Denali was a bit higher -- Anchorage = $4.44, Denali - $5.37. This was for 87 octane! Wow.
Our rooms were a little on the tight side, but at least we had running water, a bath, shower and TV. The other rooms were just a bed, and you had to walk down to the community bath.
The bus/shuttle trip into the park was amazing! Got to see the following: moose, Dall's sheep, Brown bear and cubs, caribou and little arctic ground squirrels that the guide called "arctic hot-dogs." Apparently brown bears like to eat them...and they are packed with 2,000 calories each. Yummy!
Our guide was very informative, although a little on the preachy side. Very into "saving the planet" type stuff.
In all the bus ride into and out of the park too just over six hours. You would think that would be way too long for kiddos, especially 16 mo. old Lanie, but they all did really well.
Got to see a sled dog kennel and demonstration the next morning. Very informative and fun to see. It was a little rainy and cold, but we held up well.
Seward, Alaska: After the drive back to Anchorage we did some laundry, repacked and headed towards Seward the next morning. Beautiful weather and great scenery. Andrea and I drove that same highway 12 years ago but I don't remember it being that scenic.
In Seward we got to visit a wildlife zoo slash aquarium type thing. Lots of marine life and birds on display. Kiddos enjoyed the touch-tank where they could feel starfish and the like. Had wonderful dinner then walked around the docks checking out the boats.
The next morning we boarded a large boat and did the glacier cruise. Wonderful time! Got to see Bald Eagles, Killer Wales, Dall's porpoise, sea lions and a huge gray wale that was showing off for us! And of course glaciers.
Dinner on Fox Island -- salmon! And we got to skip rocks on the very site where the Alaska state rock-skipping championships are held. Imagine an entire beach full of flat, round rocks just perfect for skipping. Guide told us last year's champ, a little boy, managed 36 from one rock!
Fishing, Alaska style!: We lined up a Halibut charter for the adults and kiddos! Fun time. Braden boated the first fish, a nice Silver Salmon. From there it was chicken after chicken (that's what the captain and deck hand call small halibut). Kiddos had a blast, as did the adults. Very strange fishing for this old bass fisherman. And I thought my "heavy" bait caster was a strong rod. No way when compared to the stuff you fish with for halibut. I'm talking two POUND jigs! Wow.
Alaska tradition -- you have to kiss your first fish caught in Alaska. Andrea and Lindley held up the tradition...Alexa, not so much.
The trip back to Anchorage was a speedy one. Rolled back into town and met up with Tommy for dinner. Yummy crab legs!
Tommy "Tunes": After dinner Tunes grabbed his guitar and put on a great show. He played a wide range of songs, from J. Giles Band "8-6-7-5-3-0-9" to Nickelback's "Rockstar." Lindley impressed Tunes with her knowledge of the old-school lyrics (thanks to her Xbox and Guitar Hero). Fun times.
I was really hoping we got all our bad travel karma out of our systems with the flight in to Anchorage -- but I was wrong! Our flight was originally scheduled to depart @ 8:15 PM AK time. The plane was delayed getting in to Anchorage, meaning we would not be able to make our connecting flight from Chicago to Omaha. Looked like we would be spending another night in Alaska but a wise and savvy ticket counter person helped us out. She managed to get us on another Chicago to Omaha flight arriving home around 10:30 AM.
The kiddos did really well on the red-eye flight and actually slept a bit here and there. Mom and Dad...not so much.
Wonderful trip! The weather was great, by Doug standards that is. Cool and rainy with lows in the mid 40's & highs in the mid 50's. When the sun did shine it warmed up into the 60's! We returned home to 100+ heat index. ICK!
Got to do pretty much everything we set out to do in Alaska. Well, there was one thing we missed...breakfast at Jackie's Place.
Again, huge thanks to Jesse & Marsha, Chris, Tony, Butch & Mary Jane, Ue, Tunes, Janice...I know I'm missing somebody.
View pictures click here.