North to Alaska

Sarah's family moved to Alaska for the month of September so Sarah could be closer for some work projects there.  I thought this would be great, she would be on the west coast and it would be easy to zip up and visit her for a weekend.  Geography has never been a strong point of mine.  It turns out that the trip to Anchorage from Reno takes just about as long as the trip to Alexandria from Reno.  Nonetheless, we zipped up to Anchorage last weekend for a wonderful quick visit.  Sarah and Toby rented a 2 bedroom condo on the waterfront with gorgeous views and a short walk to work for Sarah.  They have adjusted very well to living with what came in the condo and what they could pack in a suitcase.

As usual Sarah planned a fun weekend for us.  Friday we drove to Whittier where we caught the Klondike Express for a 26 glacier tour.

It was rainy almost all day but we put on our rain jackets and enjoyed the cruise. Calvin and Clare did a lot of exploring around the boat and the rest of us joined them from time to time.

Garrett stayed out of the rain a little bit more than Clare

We saw some spectacular glaciers and even saw one calve. 

 Like all of the other 200 passengers on board we rushed to get pictures taken in front of the glaciers.

After the cruise we spent the night at Alyeska ski resort, and took a tram ride to the top on Saturday morning.

Everything in Alaska seems to be on a scale that just can't be captured in photographs.  The resort is on a hill that rises from 200 feet to 2000 feet and has spectacular views.

So we took pictures of ourselves again.  You can see glaciers across the valley behind us in this one.

Saturday evening we returned to Anchorage, after stopping along the side of the road by Cook inlet to view some beluga whales, for a little swimming in the hotel pool, a birthday celebration for Garrett, and a long lingering Alaska sunset. What a great place.