More Alaska

Here are some fun facts about Alaska:
There are 7 caribou for every Alaska citizen.
Every Alaskan citizen can use a dipnet (think of a long handled landing net) to harvest 25 salmon every year.
If you would put a map of Alaska on top of a map of the "Lower 48," it would stretch from the East Coast to West Coast.
During the summer solstice in Fairbanks the sun never sets, it just approaches the horizon, gets a little dusky, but not dark, so golfers tee off at midnight, because they can! The nickname "Land of the Midnight Sun" is quite apt.These are harbor seals by the Aialik Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. So cute! We took a day glacier cruise into the park and saw all kinds of wildlife, along with some incredible glaciers.
On our way to Aialik Glacier, we saw these two humpback whales, a mother with her calf! Boat captains are not allowed to maneuver the boat within 100 yards of whales. We cut the engine and drifted as the whales swam right towards the boat! This was absolutely incredible, and VERY rare. I will never forget hearing them exhale through their blowholes as they surface, witnessing their quiet and majestic swim, and standing with our mouths open as we saw their smooth dive into the waters below.
On our drive across the Kenai Peninsula from Seward to Soldotna, we passed by Tern Lake. It was such a clear, beautiful morning. We stopped by this lake, admiring the almost perfect reflection and the birds flying about and calling to each other. This was one of the most serene and gorgeous sights of the trip.
This "fence" of rods was on our halibut boat out of Homer. The mountains set against the water were beautiful. And the seas were not as rough as we had expected, which was very nice. If you look closely at the roads, you can see the large two pound weights and the oversized hooks baited with hunks of herring. The fishing grounds were 19 miles out, and the waters were 250 feet deep. The simple act of hauling up the line to check the bait was a chore, but luckily most of the time we would have a halibut on the other end! Halibut are probably among the most ugly fish on the earth, but they sure taste good!
Across the peninsula from Homer was this beautiful mountain range, including several volcanoes. We believe that this one is Mt. Redoubt. We loved seeing so many snow-capped peaks every day, especially against dense evergreens and deep blue waters.

Darkness is......dark!

My mom and I flew back to good ol' Minnesota from Anchorage on June 28th. That night, we were amazed how dark darkness was! We had forgotten how black the sky could get. In Alaska, we had gotten somewhat used to going to sleep with the sun still in the sky (think of the sun's intensity in later afternoon, that was what it was like at 10 PM!). Dad and Joyce got back on July 3rd, so now we have all of our pictures from our month-long trek. Here is the beginning of a sampling:

This is a bentwood box, crafted by an apprentice (I think that's pretty good for an apprentice!). The boxes are made from one piece of wood, the corners are made by cutting out a wedge and then steaming and bending the wood. Then the entire box is carved with the desired design which is then painted. The apprentice has spent about one month working on this box and it will go to a dentist for approximately $4,000.
Shortly after our shuttle bus crawled its way through twisty Polychrome Pass, we enjoyed this magnificent view of snow capped mountains. The mix of colors from rock and tundra were incredible! Unfortunately, the clouds were too dense for us to see Denali.
Bald eagles are everywhere in Alaska! This magnificent specimen was soaring around Sitka (the Inside Passage). It was fantastic to see such majestic creatures every day.
Another ubiquitous sight is the lupine. This beautiful blue variety lined nearly every road and cropped up in beautiful clumps in parks.
Grizzly!!! While on our shuttle bus in Denali National Park, we had to make a sudden stop because this young grizzly was in the middle of the road! We got to watch as he walked along the side of our bus, munched on grass by the roadside, and generally wasn't bothered by the pack of overjoyed wildlife paparazzi in our bus. What an awe-inspiring sight!