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It was a very big trip in almost every way. It included a week on land, up into the interior of Alaska and Denali National Park, and then another week on a grand cruise ship that took us from the Gulf of Alaska south to Vancouver. We didn't miss too much. Wanna hear about it?
We left the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 12 noon on Mon-day, July 21st, and landed in Anchorage after a 5-hour 45-minute flight.
Anchorage is located in the very southern part of the state, about halfway between the two slivers of Alaska that extend east toward Japan and west into Canada. Anchorage is not directly on the Gulf of Alaska, but it's on the Cook Inlet that leads to the Gulf.
Our stomachs told us it was supper- time when we landed in this 49th State of the Union, but it was only mid afternoon. I was sort of amazed how soon we became acclimated to this three-hour time difference between Minnesota and Alaska. It helps to reset my watch imme-diately so it becomes matter over mind until mind can regain control.
Did we see polar bears? No. We saw "Alaska: The Great Land" on a huge omni-theater screen that stretched above and around us. In similar manner we were also introduced to "The Great Earth-quake of 1964," the greatest earthquake ever on the North American continent. We learned that the ensuing tsunami along the Gulf of Alaska took 110 lives; the earthquake took 15 lives.
Our travel friends consist of people we came to know over 20 years ago through the American Public Works Association. All the guys are civil engi-neers from the metro area. Together we have visited almost every major city in the USA. We have also vacationed together outside of the professional organization, this time up north to Alaska.
After an overnight at the Millennium Alaskan Hotel at Anchorage, we traveled in a luxurious and comfortable motor coach east to Copper Center. "Motor coach" is a fancy name for "bus," a fancy bus. It was near empty so we spread out wherever and whenever we wanted in order to catch the best views of the Matanuska River.
We were impressed and awed by the mountainous scenery and abundant fire-weed, so called because after a forest fire, this colorful plant is the first to grow and propagate. It's purple-pink spikes decorated many ditches and other areas that seem to have been irritated or touched in a sizeable way by man or nature.
We drove through the Matanuska Valley and explored inland Alaska with the variegated Wrangell-St. Elias Moun-tain Range in the background. The peaks were stone-brown and the steep edges were covered in growing green. It's where I first took out my camera.
One of our first stops was next to a tiny Russian Orthodox Church that was surrounded by a white picket fence and was not open to the public. Next to the church was a little showy cemetery filled with brightly painted "spirit houses" at each grave. We learned that the spirit houses were not catering to showiness, but to a belief that a person's spirit lives on after death. The tiny houses of many hues provided a place for those spirits to live on.
Our tour guide for these first several days was Colleen Easley, a very know-ledgeable person and expert driver as well. She could maneuver the huge motor coach in an out of small parking lots, through narrow mountain passes, in traffic on the Alaskan Highway, and yet talk and answer questions simultaneously, continu-ously, patiently.
At the Sheep Mountain Lodge we enjoyed delicious homemade soups and burgers. Everywhere in Alaska, people planted lots of flowers to enhance their short three months of summer. They included daisies, geraniums, petunias, marigolds, black-eyed Susans and other annuals common to Minnesota.
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