We've been to the Great Land several times. The pages below are my love song to this place
which calls me back again and again.
One day soon we will come home to Alaska, never to leave again.

 

 

~~ ALASKA 2007~~

 

In late August 2007, we visited the greatest state of all -- Alaska. We rented an RV and for two weeks,
we drove through this wondrous place. The journey began in Anchorage, and ended there 14 days later.

Here is our trip, in pictures and text. Enjoy!

 

Seward

Eklutna Lake

Chicken

Fairbanks

Denali

Road Trip!!

The Players

See Denali Live -- Talkeetna Air Taxi Denali Web Cam

 

~~ ALASKA 2009 ~~

We returned to Alaska in August of 2009 for another two week journey from Anchorage to Valdez, up the
Richardson and west on the Denali Highway to Cantwell, north to Fairbanks, then south again down
the Parks Highway to Talkeetna, Eklutna, and back to Anchorage.

 

Valdez/Wrangell St. Elias

Denali Highway

Home to Fairbanks -- Wedding Day

Talkeetna

 

~~ ALASKA 2010 ~~

Curious to experience a tiny taste of winter in interior Alaska, in March 2010 we spent a lovely week in Fairbanks.
Although at night temps ranged from -10 to -18F, we had appropriate outerwear and enjoyed many hours
outdoors in the sun. Extreme cold, as is true with extreme heat, does not feel so uncomfortable in a dry
climate as it does in a more humid climate.

Fairbanks: Ice Alaska 2010

Chena Hot Springs

Aurora!

 

~~ ALASKA 2011 ~~

Another year, another trip north -- my fifth visit, Rick's ninth. We visited some familiar places -- Seward, Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Denali Highway --
and enjoyed some new places and experiences. We were very fortunate to have many sunny dry days, especially in the Kenai Peninsula.

Kenai

Glenn Highway

Parks Highway/Eklutna State Park

 

~~ ALASKA 2012 ~~

From Anchorage to Fairbanks and back
Dog sleds! Snow! Aurora! Ice sculptures!

 

 

Copyright 2007 - 2014

All photos on this site, except for the Alaskan flag and Denali Cam thumbnails, above, were taken by the
authors.

Some of our other web pages:

The Aurora Page

Annoying Parrots, and their Enablers

 

Songs of Alaska

On the front porch of a little cabin just outside of Fairbanks, there hangs a baritone-voiced wind chime that announces the western wind with tones that remind one of a Tibetan temple. Its sister hangs in a sheltered spot in a backyard in the middle of the lower 48. She sings only when the breeze comes from the north, from Alaska.

We mostly think of places we have known and loved in terms of visual images, rather than of sound. I have memory cards, floppy disks, and boxes of prints with Alaskan vistas, scenes, people, wildlife. Yet it is the sound of my wind chime talking to her twin in Fairbanks that most brings a swell of longing to my heart.

The songs of Alaska are these. Water rushing over stones, endlessly speaking of summer days and of the glaciers left behind. The cry of sea birds following a fishing vessel back to harbor. Prop planes -- large and small. The hiss of falling snow, the grumble of far-off snowmachines. Ravens croak, gurgle, growl, and argue. Winds howling down a mountain pass whistle past your car windows, to remind you who really rules the land. Heavy duty winter zippers zipping up, and down when back inside the warm -- and the plop-plop of sandals in the summer! Sandals everywhere, worn with socks of course. Happy voices (both visitors and sourdoughs) cheering when the Lights dance.

So many sounds that remind me of my home-yet-to-be, my home-someday-to-be. Maybe some day humans will invent a device to record all of memory, not just pictures. Until then, I smile when my wind chime talks to me at dawn, singing of my dear land so far away, but forever near in my spirit.