From the monthly archives:

August 2006

When a Road Closes in Alaska…

by Eric on August 26, 2006

in Travels

… the workaround can be mighty long.

Detour Map We were getting set to leave our lodge just outside Denali National Park on Saturday morning when we got word from the hotel office that the main highway from Fairbanks to Anchorage had washed out to the south of us. (The Anchorage paper that I’m linking ran a great aerial photograph of the washout in their Sunday paper, but unfortunately, I can’t find it on the web.)

Now, Alaska is not known for the breadth of its road system, so this meant that what would have been a 240-mile drive back to Anchorage became longer. Much, much longer. 550 files to be precise. The next nearest route was to go north 120 miles to Fairbanks, then east 100 miles to Delta Junction, then start heading south. (See map.)

We did make it into Anchorage, but it wasn’t until midnight.

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Back from Alaska … Final Few Pictures

August 26, 2006

We have been back from Alaska now for a few days. Getting caught up on the various household responsibilities took priority for most of this week, so I’m just now getting caught up on pictures and blogging. I’ve posted a few new pictures on my Flickr account, including one of my personal favorites that I [...]

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From Denali

August 17, 2006

Yesterday, we drove halfway up to Denali National Park and stayed at the beautiful McKinley Princess Lodge at Trapper Creek. Today, we finished the drive and are staying at the also-beautiful Denali Princess Lodge. Sadly, we have no stunning images of the mountain to share yet. She has been hiding behind a veil of clouds [...]

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A Day at the Zoo

August 17, 2006

While back in Anchorage yesterday, we took a little time to go visit the Alaska Zoo. This was mostly for fun, but we did manage to capture a few interesting images along the way. I experimented a bit with split-tone processing in Lightroom with these two images. I’d love to hear what you think of [...]

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Things We Would Have Done in Seward

August 15, 2006

Anyone who travels much knows that anytime you leave a place, you leave behind a list of things you would have liked to have done there if you had had more time, or known about them earlier.
Having just left Seward, I figured I’d share my list:

Stayed at the cabins on Resurrection Bay.
Visited the Alaska SeaLife [...]

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Seward Sightseeing Tour

August 14, 2006

Yesterday, we went on a wildlife sightseeing tour conducted by Alaska Saltwater Adventures. We were fortunate to have great weather and great guides. We were out of season for whales, but we did get a chance to see some other wildlife and scenery.
Barely out of harbor, we were graced with the presence of a bald [...]

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Seward Bear Creek Cabins

August 14, 2006

We are just now back from a couple of days in Seward, Alaska, where we mostly kept to ourselves, did some sightseeing, and had a wonderful time.
We stayed at the Seward Bear Creek Cabins, which we highly recommend. This small resort just opened this year, and they’re off to a very good start. They’ve built [...]

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Security Was Easy

August 11, 2006

Last night’s news was full of stories about how security lines had became much worse with yesterday’s terrorist scares. The TV news showed lines of people stretching as far as the eye could see.
Dutifully, we heeded the advice to show up three hours ahead of our flight time — and breezed through security in about [...]

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Off to Alaska

August 9, 2006

Tara and I are about to embark on a week-long trip through south-central Alaska. Our first port of call will be Anchorage Airport on Friday. We’ll spend the night in Anchorage, then off to Seward for a couple of days.

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