Alaska Day 2 - Drive to Denali National Park

Okay Blogger is giving me drama, so i've only uploaded 4 pictures for this post. i've posted more pictures on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2524804&id=6007285&l=ece321ab45

In the morning we headed to church with the Sims. After an encouraging morning of worship and a message from Acts, Michael and I headed off toward Denali. On the way we stopped to get groceries at this store called Fred Meyer. It's such a great store! It's like a super Wal-Mart in that it has EVERYTHING (groceries, clothes, electronics, etc.), but the quality of all the stuff is a lot better, plus they have a really nice health/organic food section. Not like we eat that stuff all the time, but it was nice to have the option since Houston gets a D+ for grocery options that carry anything beyond the basics. Anyway we hit the road and made the 4 hour trek from Anchorage to our motel 13 miles south of the Denali National Park entrance. The drive was beautiful. The weather was amazing and we saw a pretty clear view of Mount McKinley along the way. Sadly we both were stupid and didn't stop to get better pictures. In the back of my mind I knew it was a really rare thing to see Mount McKinley (usually it's covered by clouds), but for some reason I thought, “We'll see it later.” Too bad we didn't see it the rest of the time. Anyway like I said the drive was amazing. Here are some pictures from along the way.

Mount Denali/Mount McKinley This was taken from the car and you can only barely see it. It looks like a cloud but you can see the peak.

i love this photo, it turned out really good. We pulled off the road for a bit to walk around. These tracks were near where we pulled off the main road.

Taken from the car.

We arrived at McKinley Creekside Cabins (13 miles south of the Denali National Park entrance) in the late afternoon. The accomodations were very spartan, but the place was clean. There was also a nice creek running next to our cabins. We took a walk along the creek and took some pictures.

At McKinley Creekside Cabins

The rest of the evening we just chilled and finished watching Syriana. Still a bit confused by some things, but I have a higher opinion of it then I did before.

Alaska Day 1 - Arriving in Anchorage

Well since i'm sitting here in the airport i thought i'd start my blog entries for the trip. i accidentally deleted the only picture i have from Day 1, so this will be all text. i'll have pictures up for the other entries though.

We were up early and left from Houston Interncontinental on Saturday morning. We had a layover in Seattle and started watching "Syriana". I'd seen it before but didn't really remember it. It was still a bit confusing the second time around. Moving on, we got into Anchorage in the afternoon. The rental car agency we used turned out to be a little ghetto, but we ended up getting a discount and free upgrade to a truck because they didn't have any economy cars. It worked out because the truck got really good gas mileage all things considered. After a quick stop at Wally World, we headed to meet the Sims. They are friends of friends who graciously offered to let us stay with them at their home in Anchorage. We had a lovely evening getting to know them. After dinner, part of the family took us on a driving tour around Anchorage. It's a really beautiful city, one of those rare ones with both ocean and mountains. We learned a lot about Alaska, Anchorage, and how they're different than “the lower 48.” We also searched for some “moosen” but only saw one real fast in the brush. We also experienced our first night of extra daylight. There's about 21 hours of daylight in Alaska right now, and it was so strange to be going to sleep around 11 with the sun out like it's early evening. All in all, a great first day!

Alaska Itinerary

Well i thought i'd revive this thing with posts about our Alaska trip. Some people have asked about what we'll be doing so here's our tentative itinerary.

Day 1
-Fly into Anchorage and explore a bit
-Stay the night with some friends of friends. Thanks to the wonderful Sims family who is graciously hosting us for the night!

Day 2
-Church with the Sims
-Leisurely drive up to Denali National Park

Day 3
-Explore Denali

Day 4
-Leisurely drive back down to Anchorage
-More Anchorage exploring and another stay at the Sims house

Day 5
-Leisurely drive to Valdez, AK

Days 6 & 7
-Spend time in Valdez with Michael's friend Leonard
-Glacier day cruise or kayaking

Day 8
-Leisurely drive back to Anchorage
-Depart on red eye back to Texas

i'm REALLY excited for this trip! Alaska has always looked so beautiful in pictures, and Michael and i would usually rather see gorgeous nature than city stuff for vacation.

Everything ended up happening really fast. i had mapped out and researched this trip weeks ago when we first thought of going to Alaska, but things were uncertain with Michael's job situation. We decided to wait until he got a job offer to take the trip. Then by God's grace, he was offered a driving job yesterday. We're unsure as to how the job will work out and whether the schedule will be decent (i.e. not taking him away from home and church stuff too often) but for now, we're grateful to God for His amazing provision!

More pictures and blog entries to come!*

*if i make an effort to not be lazy...

p.s. Any of you photographers out there have any last minute photography advice? Right about now i'm wishing i knew more about photography and my Rebel. Hopefully i'll get some good shots anyway...