Travel to Alaska, Anchorage.

We ate a delicious dinner and got stuff put away for the night. We were just finishing dinner and one of the other people in camp came running in scared because there was a bear taking a leisurely stroll right through camp. So we all stepped out and watched him for a while, but I didn’t have my camera with me.
After dinner, I went out with our guide and another worker here at camp and we were able to land a few fish each. The other worker has an unbelievable cast and he was able to look at my fly casting and gave me two tips and within a cast I was able to really start throwing the fly out there a long ways (for a rookie). We came back around 10pm and headed to bed. Supposedly another bear was in camp around 11pm. But it really sounds worse then it actually is. I have never once felt nervous or scared up here (maybe I’m an idiot though).

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Travel to United States, Alaska, Ketchikan.

After nearly a week of fantastic weather, we arrived in Ketchikan and could see that the weather was foul. We made our way to the Lido for breakfast, and again, French Toast seemed to be the preferred choice. Sharon’s blight of chocolate croissants finally came to an end; although there was just one when she first checked the pastry section, I came back with another two after I had finished eating. Sharon’s mom had said she didn’t want one, but after eyeing that one left on the plate, she finally couldn’t resist. She did complain that there was only a paltry amount of chocolate in hers; while, Sharon shrewdly chose the one with the double dose.

We were a bit early getting off the Oosterdam for our tour. Before the gangway, they were making sure everyone had their jackets on and umbrellas ready. It was raining and the gangway had a steep descent which caused my mom to hold on with both hands because of the potential slipperiness. So one of the attendants came by and escorted her the rest of the way down. We couldn’t spot our bus, or anyone holding a “Totem Bight and Lumberjack Show” placard for us to spot. When we got to the assembly area, we were in a light drizzle, enough that my umbrella came in handy and those without umbrellas sought some sort of overhanging shelter. Sharon and her mom decided to explore the Christmas Store just across the street, but they came back rather quickly. We were really wondering about those on the “Flightseeing Tours” because this weather didn’t seem to be ideal for that; but, they weren’t being cancelled. One of the guys selling independent flight tours said he had live cameras showing the weather was great in Misty Fjords. After some busses pulled away, a burly young guy in red and black plaid lumberjack garb appeared holding the placard we were looking for; and, the reason we didn’t see our bus is that the lumberjack show was down one small block and over one block from where we were waiting.

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Travel to United States, Alaska, Anchorage.

On my mission to eventually go to every State in the USA and every province in Canada (except Nunavut), I eventually decided itwas time to go to Alaska, The Last Frontier.

Coincidentally, and conveniently, Shannan’s family lives in a little town a couple of hours from Anchorage, so we all decided to go visit!

I have mentioned Shannan’s family briefly, off and on, over my blog-times, because they moved to our little town of Eureka, once upon a time, while we were in high school, and stayed about…a year, I think. But they were like a comet coming through – only there for a short time but made a lasting impression!)

I practically lived at their house and Shannan’s parents were my parents and her sisters were my sisters, and when we weren’t living at her house, we lived at mine… I’m not sure if Shannan considers my parents her parents, but I know that we both got grounded and banished to the laundry room to fold clothes for an entire day, so I’m assuming that she did. (She, at least, did the chores they told us to do…well, actually… from what I can remember, we spent the
Glacierentire day in that room and didn’t fold a single thing – but that’s just because we got distracted with visiting.)

I hadn’t seen Dale & Ruby (Shannan’s parents) or her sister, Stacey, since they moved away from Columbia Falls, so this would be a long over-due reunion!

We decided SUMMER was the smart time to go to Alaska. The coldest day on record, in Alaska, was -80° Fahrenheit (-62° Celsius), January 23, 1971. This was, of course, the record coldest day for any place in the United States. Of course, this is a long, long, long way (20 miles North of the Arctic Circle) from where we would be, but still – we didn’t want to risk it!!

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