North to Alaska (again)

We flew into Anchorage and spent the first two days there before renting a car and heading out to the countryside.  One of the perqs of being retired officers is we were able to stay in “Distinguished Visitor Lodging” at Fort Richardson in Anchorage and later on at the Seward Military Resort down south.  We had to pay, of course, but at a much lower rate than at commercial establishments.  At Richardson, we even ate in the Army mess halls.  Been a long . since I got to do that.

In Anchorage, we met up with some of Snapper’s old friends from when they were out teaching in the bush a few years ago and went up to Flattop Mountain which overlooks Anchorage and the Cook Inlet.  Great views of the city and the Sleeping Lady Mountains across the inlet.  We went out to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Museum, then just walked around downtown and did all the other things tourists do

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The trip really started when we got our car and started south to Seward along the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet.  The story goes that when Captain Cook on the HMS Resolution was searching for the Northwest Passage in 1778, he sent his sailing master, Captain Bligh, later of the HMS Bounty, to explore the arm, thinking it was the passage.  Bligh sailed in and finally realized it wasn’t what Cook thought and had to give the order to turn around.  He sarcastically named it “Turnagain Arm” and it has stuck.  The highway runs along the Arm for quite a distance on the Kenai Peninsula before reaching  Seward. The mountains along the way are steep, the water is deep, and people are non-existent.  I hadn’t seen tides rolling in and out before, so that was neat.  Along the road, right on the water, we saw a BBQ place with the name “Turnagain Arm Pit”, so naturally we had to stop there.  Turned out, the owner was from SE Missouri.  Didn’t see another BBQ restaurant in any place we went.  Just outside of Seward, we drove up to Kenai Fjords National Park and hiked up to Exit Glacier, the end of the immense Harding Icefield.  Saw a bear, but he didn’t see us.  Saw moose droppings along the trail, but no moose.

Seward sits at the head of Resurrection Bay, a fjord on the Gulf of Alaska, and is one of the chief ports in Alaska.  Nearly every non-seafood item is shipped in to the state and comes through Seward.  Even as important as it is, the port is a shell of its former self as it was ruined by the 1964 earthquake.  I remember when that happened - it was my first day at basic training. 


We took a day trip on a small boat down the bay to Fox Island in the gulf where we had lunch at a resort and then back to Seward.  Along the way, we saw a lot of marine life and some pretty spectacular scenery.  I understand that the bay was so named after a Russian ship was caught in a storm in the Gulf of Alaska and retreated into the bay for protection, emerging into the peaceful waters on Easter Sunday.  Resurrection Bay was also where the opening scene of The Hunt for Red October was filmed.  If we had continued to sail due south from Fox Island, the next dry land we would have seen would be the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.  

We headed north toward Denali National Park and Mount McKinley.  Along the way, we stopped in Willow where Snapper’s cousin and family lives.  I’m not sure Willow is an actual place, because we drove offroad, across creeks, through the woods, out of cell phone range, with only vague directions before finding his cabin right on the Willow River.  His family was expecting us and fixed us a big breakfast, ending with some small smoked fish of some sort he had caught and smoked the day before.  They convinced Snapper to try it, but not me.  They said eat it, bones and all.  Snapper took one bite and gave it up.  Pretty wild country and we noticed he had a loaded .45 pistol lying on the table and he doesn’t go outside without it.  Even in Anchorage, Snapper’s teaching friend said moose keep coming into her yard and eating her tulips.

From Willow, we drove to Talkeetna, a tiny village serving as the jumping off place for climbing expeditions of Denali.  At 20,320 feet high, Denali is the highest peak in North America and when measured from base to peak, taller than Mount Everest.  The weather was clear the entire time, so we had good views of Denali.  Quite a nice sight.

On the way back, we stopped in Wasilla and located Sarah Palin’s house.  Kind of isolated on Lake Lucille, but we went out on the dock, leaned out as far as we could, looked through the trees, and got a picture of her house.  Getting bolder, we found a back gravel road with No Trespassing signs and drove right to her back yard, but a high fence kept us from seeing much.  She wasn’t home anyway, being on her bus in New Hampshire.

Back in Anchorage, we spent some time at the Alaska Zoo and drove around Lake Hood, the world’s largest seaplane base, before driving down to Girdwood, an alpine-style community where the Beautiful People ski at the Alyeska Resort.  There, we ate at a must-stop restaurant called the Double Musky Inn, once owned, I think, by the late Sen. Ted Stevens.

It was a great trip and the weather was perfect - clear, warm, no rain.  The marine and wildlife were in abundance, lodging was cheap, food and gasoline expensive.  Seafood, I’m told, was excellent.  I stuck with beef.  Or was it moose?  It was bright as noon at 11:30 p.m. and not real dark until about 2:00 a.m.  Daybreak was about 4:30 a.m., so we never saw any dark sky, let alone the Northern Lights.  Glad I got to go and it was clearly a Bucket List trip. 

Enjoyed it greatly, Snapper.

Jerry Sonderegger