They Pay People to Live Here

Yes they do. It's the oil money. Any person over the age of 1 who lives in Alaska from January to January receives a monetary award. 2008 was a banner year with each resident receiving $3K. They expect considerably less for 2009 because of the dismal state of the economy. I do understand the reward for living in Alaska. It's an extreme environment not particularly friendly to 2-legged creatures. Let's take Fairbanks, the interesting place only 150 miles from the Arctic Circle. That really made me want to hire the airplane to fly there. Wouldn't that have been so cool? Perhaps if I ever go back, it will be to and from Fairbanks so that I could go to the Arctic Circle and drive to Denali, maybe staying there until the peak reveales itself and certainly driving the full length of the park's single road. This would obviously have to be done during the summer months so that car travel is possible and to have all of that lovely daylight. Then there's the near 24 hours of daylight as the summer solstice approaches. And you know what happens in dark December. The flip side results in basically no light for many weeks. That would be the very hardest. You won't be surprised to learn that the state is always looking for teachers for the small towns in the northern parts of the state. Who could do it, I ask you? It's often in the 80's in Fairbanks in the summer. That would be fairly okay (the humidity is high) but with the warm weather, you get mosquitos that are truly the largest I've ever seen. They literally appeared on the scene overnight but, luckily, not until the last day we were in Alaska. I killed several in our room that night and came home with a few bites. In winter, it can plunge to 60 below zero. A local explained that the kids cannot make snowballs because there is no moisture in the air AT ALL so the snow never sticks together. So, rough to live there but it is a place that everyone should see. So wild, so beautiful, such magnificant animals, the mountains, the snow, the ocean. You've got it all. Just sure sure you travel between May and September.

The Reluctant Tourists

Our last day in Alaska and had we but known.... We queue for our bus mid-morning and drive out of town for a view of the Alaskan pipeline. What an endeavor - it's pretty interesting. Then off to pan for gold. We pull into a parking lot and count 11 other tour buses. Be still my heart, it's going to be rough. We all board a little train with a singing conductor who's shown on a small TV in the front of each train car. The good news? It's rather mild and sunny. A good day to be out-of-doors. More herding when we get to the sluice area where Yukon (that's what I called her since I could never remember her name and still can't) demonstrates the correct panning technique. She is wearing gold pieces too numerous to count with nuggets that have been made into necklaces, rings, you name it. She tells us she loves gold. Doh. Next, we receive our bag of dirt and start to sluice. We all get into it. You don't know what you'll find! Ron is very proficient and I can't get rid of any of my dirt for fear I'll toss out the gold along with it. Ron helps and soon enough my treasure is revealed. Jackie and Larry must get new dirt since their first allottment contains only one or two gold - what shall I call them? - flecks. When the reckoning arrives, Ron and I have $6 each (which they announce but for which they do not pay you) and Jackie and Larry score with almost $30. She gets a pretty locket containing their flakes but I have enough gold for one locket only and, with 2 daughters, I take my flakes and leave. Our bus takes us to downtown Fairbanks for lunch. The staff suggest some eateries, but Larry's spotted a place en route to our stop where the parking lot is full of locals. We walk over there for lunch and amuse ourselves for too long until the bus reappears. Hard to find parking for all the tour buses so they have to move off once we've been unloaded. The afternoon activity is a trip downriver on a paddle boat. If possible, this parking lot contains EVEN MORE tour buses than did the last place. There are 2 gangways onto the boat and literally hundreds of tourists that plan to get on and get a good seat. We have lost heart and let everyone else on first. Still we manage to secure a spot standing outside, and we're off. The boat owners have set up the landing and take off of a sea plane and a stop where we see a sled dog demonstration. If you're on the wrong side of the boat (we were) there's always the TV monitors. Futher down river, they announce that we'll be debarking into a native village for demonstrations by young native women. I can hardly believe that 2,000 people (the boat's capacity) will be getting off and on again. Ron and Larry stay on the boat but Jackie and I brave it. Jackie rebels after the first lecture so we strike out on our own, look around, check out the book store and return, laughing, to the boat. The book store was just that. It contained several copies of one book by the sled dog owner. We were glad to get back to our lodging where we had dinner and went early to our cabins to prepare for departure. Almost unbelievably, we had to present ourselves at the lodge at 4 A.M. for our trip to the airport since our plane was leaving at 6.

Denali

We stay at McKinley Village Lodge which is new and quite lovely. All the staff are new and, as it turns out, untrained. This becomes a problem at breakfast when our waiter does not really speak English so simply agrees to everything we say. Hence he must return to the table periodically to tell us that they are out of something. We finally get our meals but without the extra beverages we'd ordered. Jackie had ordered tea. From three different people. This includes the manager. I decided to go to the snack counter where the manager was filling in for absent staff, explain the no tea situation. She says, "I've had a hard time getting them to understand 'tea'." I have a hard time understanding that. I ask her for the tea (again). She fills the cup to the very brim with hot water. I look at the cup and then to our table across the dining room. We stand there. I say, "I won't be able to carry it because the cup's too full." I feel like I'm in an alternate universe. We eat our breakfasts but Ron never gets his milk and we are without toast. At one point we'd been offered a variety of bread including "roe" which we decided must be "rye". We'd have settled for any toast but got nothing for a long while. Finally, toast comes but not for Ron, who's ordered roe. He's having bad luck. I ask about Ron's toast and wonder at the same time what's happened to the jelly. Now we are all done eating when the waiter comes with Ron's toast white toast - no roe - and 4 little ramekins of jelly for which we have no use and of which the waiter seems so proud. Larry gently tells the manager that the breakfast had been problematic and that it was obvious the waiter needed help and training. She seems distressed but is without any substantive response. The whole outfit needs a couple of kick-ass County managers to get the staff together and set the place up. We could do a nice job. Putting our frustrations aside, we get on our school bus for a trip into the park proper and a natural history tour that will take 4 to 5 hours. We gear up for large animal sightings and excellent photo ops. Our guide is a laid-back, aging hippy with a great sense of humor who has us all laughing our asses off before we leave the parking lot. En route to the first stop, he begins to talk about the park ecosystem, our obligations to the land, and the culture of Alaska. Fascinating. Among other things, he's a biologist and one who thinks nothing of sacrificing a bit of break pad anytime someone announces an animal sighting. Several, but not all of us, see a caribou aside the road, moose and Dall sheep in the distance and hares (not rabbits) scampering all over the place. It's pretty cool. He keeps us a little on edge with predictions about seeing the mountain - Denali itself. First, it's not very likely, then with some blue sky in the distance, it improves to 50%. In the end, the mountain reamins shrouded behind the clouds, but the 6 million acres of the park more than console us. We have an excellent talk by an older Athabaskan Native and in this area we see a moose and her baby apparently being stalked by a bear. Mercifully, it's at a distance so we cannot really see what is transpiring. Harsh, that. It be great to be on our own in Denali. If you go, I recommend renting a car and driving there yourself. There is basically one road through the park that is 91 miles long. You go to the end, turn around, and come back. In the winter, this is done on snow machines (for some reason they don't call them snow mobiles) or dog sleds. Alas, we leave with only the briefest view of the park since we must board the Wilderness Express car of the Alaskan Railroad for our trip to Fairbanks. Ah, luxury. A wonderful dome car with 2 spacious leather seats (reclining) on each side, a full bar for alcohol and coffee, and a pleasant guide to explain the train as well as the terrain. Wonderful views as we move steadily through the moutains. Most of our car has gone below to the dining area while we lucky ones remain up top. When we go to dinner, we've moved out of the mountains a little and so there is quite a bit less to see. I am sad when we start going through towns and are back on the flat. We arrive at our digs in Fairbanks where we'll be for the last 2 nights of the trip and when we are not thrilled with our room, we get a cabin adjacent to the main lodge. Jackie and Larry get to move, as well. SCORE! We have our own little place with bedroom, front and back porch, little kitchen area and a bathroom. We rock!

Land Ho

We dock at Seward (remember his folly - purchasing Alaska?)after a night at sea. When we started in Vancouver, the sun rose around 5:30 A.M. and set at 9 P.M. Here is Seward it's up at 4:30 A.M. and not down until after 10:30 P.M. I love it and since there are black out curtains, sleep is not disrupted. We debark rather smoothly and head for the tour bus that will be our home for the next 3 days. This is the time that you want to minimize any feelings of annoyance and to make friends with as many people as possible because you'll be spending all of your time with this group. Most are very fine as are the driver and tour guide. Both young, one reared here and the other a transplant, working the tourist season. All these places are boom towns from May through September after which they literally board up the stores and either get the hell out of here or hunker down for a long and arduous winter. It's one long ass day on the bus. We go through Anchorage where we have lunch. The towns are all starting to look the same since we are always steered to the shopping areas and restaurants patronized by the cruise lines. Still, it's great to stretch our legs. We do drive through Wasilla and yes, Alaskans are very proud of Sara Palin. I saw one sign touting her and Obama. Didn't quite know what to make of it. At last, we arrive at Mc Kinley Village, a new complex just outside the National Park where we happily exit the bus and get into our room. Jackie and Larry opted for a trip to a show featuring Jeff King, Iditarod champion, and his Alaskan Huskies. I am not so much a dog lover and voted, instead, for a hike. We got a map from the front desk and proceded on the Triple Lakes Trail - 5 miles round trip. It felt great to be moving and out in those mountains. Almost 2 miles into it, I started to have a sense of unease that grew with each step. I finally admitted to Ron that I was overcome by the feeling that we were going to encounter a bear if we continued. We discussed our strategy and went on for a bit. We got to a clearing and the choice was either to go on to where we'd see the next bit, or turn around and go back. Part of me really regretted not being able to see those lakes and the beaver dam and possible animals, but majority rules and we high tailed it out of there. Had we been with a group, I would have been fine, but I guess I simply felt too vulnerable with the 2 of us. We had dinner in the lodge and went to bed. Big day tomorrow in Denali.

Hubbard Glacier

This place is fabulous! The glaciers and Icy Straight Point were the highlights of the cruise for us, I think. Even I was amazed with the number of pictures I took of ice. Fascinating. The totally fabulous blue color, the chunks of ice floating near the glacier, the sheer walls of ice in front of you, and the loud thunder CRACKS when the ice calves: all is fascinating. The captain was confronted with an ice field as we approached the glacier (again, only one ship at a time may enter the Yakutat Bay) very slowly, pushing a lot of ice out of our way as we went along. It was quite interesting. We got very close to the glacier and spent several minutes with each side of the ship facing the glacier. This allowed us, on the starboard side, to go out onto our little private balconies to marvel and take pictures to our heart's content. Ron ran around to another area and got great pictures of the glacier calving. We were all awestruck and very bummed when the captain turned the ship around, like it was on a dime, and we headed back to the Gulf of Alaska. It was a day at sea and we had a good time. Jackie's luck continued to hold in the casino, and I thought that surely since I found - I am telling the truth - a slot machine called Miss Kitty, I would be on a roll myself! Alas, it was not to be, but I certainly had a good time losing. We did purchase a very neat native piece - wood - that looks great in our living room. Fun to collect things on our travels. We also broke down and uncharacteristically purchased a photo of the four of us taken at dinner one night. We have lots of photos, but none where we're all together. Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Seward and debark for the land portion of our trip. Au revoir to Radiance of the Seas.

Icy Straight Point

One of our travel challenges was to figure out where we were on the planet. I have no small need to know the lay of the land when I travel, and it would have been really good to have purchased a decent map before leaving. I did have the good sense to bring along a book called Alaska's Inside Passage, but the book did not contain a map of the state or its relationship to Canada. I figured out all of the above once we got home. "Yeah, now!" as the old family saying goes. One of the best descriptions I heard about the state was to ball up your right hand into a fist and extend your thumb. That is the basic shape of the state but then you must add on the inside passage which would run along from your elbow toward your shoulder at a nice arc. It's so odd to me that Alaska is not part of Canada and that it's comprised of the main land mass as well as the inside passage that is clearly more reasonably Canadian. Our luck it's in the US, I tell you. Also, when we were on the railroad in Skagway, we could have continued past the White Pass Summit to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. At one point, we were very near the juncture of Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. One of the huge side benefits of travel for me is getting to know the geography of our wonderful world. I wonder why I find it so compelling when I didn't care much as a young student. I do like getting the picture. Our ship left Skagway via the Lynn Canal and headed toward the open ocean, technically the Golf of Alaska. That was the only time that I noticed much movement on the ship, a slight to and fro, but not enought to cause problems. Icy Straight Point is basically a stopping point for the cruise ships which allows a look into the Glacier Bay National Park which is 22 miles north. Ships into the park are extremely limited (I am happy to say) and I don't think the Royal Carribean line is allowed. Only one ship at a time comes in to Icy Straight Point which is also excellent. Five years ago, the cruise line and the Huna Totem Corporation built this little complex at Icy Straight Point which is assessible only by tenders going routinely between ship and shore. The area is home to the village of Hoonah, a Tglingit community of 800. Factoid: The majority of Alaska's natives (comprising 16% of the population) are Indian, Eskimo and Aleut. In this area, most natives are Tglingit Indian. The four of us took a tender to shore to meet our guide for a 2 1/2 hour kayak trip. Our guide was knowledgeable, kind and a total pleasure. His mother is Tglingit (pronounced Klingit) and his father European. He's developed this and several other businesses to keep his family going. The kayaks were above average with a rudder operated by the guy in the back of the two-person kayak and our gear designed to keep any water out of the kayak. Alas, no one said anything about dangling sweatshirt sleeves that acted like a wick for poor Jackie who had to keep routinely wringing out out her sleeves. The guide said the tide must have been going out but then said, "Oops! It's only Jackie's shirt sleeves!" She was a trooper and never complained, even though it must have been pretty darned uncomfortable. The sea was smooth as glass, and, except for a few sprinkles, we had a good go of it. We took off for a small island across the bay and were rewarded with the delightful sight of a bear and her cubs having a romp on the beach. The previous kayaking group followed the bears over as they swam from one island to another. All of us kept a respectful distance because, as you know, bears are very good swimmers and we did not want a race. It was wonderful being outside, working a little bit (oh my - all those extra cruise food calories), seeing bears, enjoying the ocean, and learning about his culture and life from our guide. We'd also gotten to spend a little time hiking around the point of the island, seeing a whale, spotting starfish on the beach waiting for high tide, finding eagles' nests in the tall tress, and seeing them swoop betwen the sea and their nests. A really fine day!

Skagway and a Tiny Tragedy

I am gearing up to write this as I had completed drafts of my entire travelog only to leave it on the plane on the way home. Not only have I lost a clever turn of phrase or two, but also details of the days that I fear may now be LONG GONE from my pea brain. So here is my recollection of our day in Skagway. First a correction: Alaska has a population of around 800,000, not 400,000. Still, it's puny. Today we spent over 3 hours on the White Pass Scenic Railway, turning around on top of a mountain on the border of Alaska and British Columbia, a stone's throw from the Yukon Territory. Couldn't help but think of Preston Foster in his Mountie uniform. The snow cover, ice, and brilliant blue water made me wonder what in the world those gold miners were thinking when they set off to make their claims. Those dreams of gold dust and wealth must have been pretty powerful to propel them into a place that can be so very harsh. Also, they had to have been in possession of some pretty incredible physicality. We had fun being in the caboose on the way up and taking pictures of the front of the train along some pretty awesome curves. Little did we know about the switcheroo at the top when the last became first. Can you say, "Choking on diesel fuel?" We bundled up for the trip. Good thing. Damn cold when the wind blew. Ship antecdote: One day before the trip, Ron caught me in a pose, staring into space with my neck slightly outstretched. He said I looked just like a cat. One thing led to another and I became "Miss Kitty". The story, as well as my new name, was shared with Jackie and Larry who thought it a good one for our cruise. Each night, we had a lovely dinner in the formal dining room. Our waiter, Benedict, was a personable young man from the Phillipines and his assistant,Roman, was a Russian man who was as reserved and proper as Benedict was animated. We all became fond of each other and enjoyed our nightly dinners. One night, Benedict was taking our orders and when he came around to me, he said, "And what can I get for you, Miss Kitty?" I did a big ass double take wondering if I could really have heard that! Of course Ron had put him up to it. Before he agreed to it, he asked Ron if it was "bad", but Ron assured him I'd like it. Welllll... It was pretty funny!