Alaska 2001

Saturday September 8, 2001

We woke up at 4:30am to get started on our long-dreamed of trip to Alaska. Steve and Sherry Panzer slept on Lorre Drive to reduce their travel time from Columbia. We are flying AA 77 from Dulles to Los Angeles. An airport shuttle van came to take us and our baggage to the airport and we were off. We flew first-class, using some of our frequent-flyer mileage. It was a fine flight, well worth the added cost.

At the other end of the flight was a three hour wait before we could catch a flight to Seattle aboard an Alaska airline plane to Anchorage. We used the time visiting with our good friend Christine Broussard who has moved to the LA area.

We finally got to Anchorage around 8:30pm, tired but happy. The flight from Seattle to Anchorage took as long as from LA to Portland – it was a long long distance.

The weather had been perfect all across the country and was expected to be good for 3-4 more days

We spent most of the day recharging our batteries and admiring the gorgeous scenery. Mt McKinley, aka Denali is visible from virtually everywhere when the weather is good – which is rare from September to May. Generally it is drizzling, raining, and overcast much like Portland and Seattle. But it is beautiful here now and I’ve never seen such a blue sky.

The tour group gathered in the evening to meet Courtney, our tour guide, and the rest of our party. Courtney has been doing this for 6 years and is extremely good at it – she tells us the side excursions that are worth while and which are a waste of time and money – and she minced no words.

Our party was mainly 27 or so friends and relatives of Michelle Greer and her husband John. It was a 40th birthday celebration John threw for Michelle.  The Panzers are friends of Mitchelle, and we are friends of the Panzers, and thus the trip.

Monday September 10, 2001

Today we took a train from Anchorage to Talkeena, a small town on the way to Denali.  When we got there in the late afternoon, Courtney arranged for helicopter rides to the mountain and glacier ahead of schedule because the weather was so good and expected to deteriorate.  The ride was spectacular.  Steve and I were among the 18 who went up.