As you saw a week ago, we ended up getting stuck in Minneapolis on our way out to Anchorage. It was annoying since the plane left early, and there were at least 4 of us on the plane who were continuing on the flight. It is the second time this has happened to us this year. While we were taxiing on the runway, they announced that people who did not have connections should stay seated to let others rush off and try to make their flights. Suddenly all of these people got up while the plane was moving and rushed the aisle. I have never seen that one before. Everyone was yelling to sit down, and later they announced that 140 people out of 180 had connections! So why bother even announcing in the first place I say. So we spent our first night of vacation buying underwear at the Mall of America.

We arrived on Sat afternoon, and then we went back to the airport to pick up A+K. KC did not expect us at all, and he was surprised. I was worried he may have figured it out a few weeks ago, but he was not suspicious. A told him by mistake he was going a few days before the trip, but it was still a surprise that we were there. It was light to about 10:30-11 every night, so it made the days long. Our first B+B was run by a really nice family, and they gave us smoked salmon that they caught this year (it was the best smoked fish I have ever had!). We stayed in Anchorage for the first few days and used is as a base. That worked out great since Anchorage is nestled in mountains and surrounded by ocean. There is a ton of outdoors nearby while still having stores and places to eat.

The first day of exploring, we went to Whittier. It is a little town that used to be a secret military base (it was not accessible by roads and nearly always covered by clouds). We lucked out and got a clear day there. The town is weird and features abandoned barracks and a huge building where most of the residents in town live. A few years ago, they made a 2 mile tunnel (engineering marvel) to the town that is shared by cars and trains. So every 1/2 an hour traffic from one direction or another cross the tunnel. It was not as claustrophobic as I expected. We took a hike in the town and got a fantastic view of the Portage Glacier. We passed a ranger on the way up, and she told us it was 1/2 mile wide. That did not make an impression until we saw a huge tour boat being dwarfed by the glacier! (click on the picture of the glacier and you will get it!).

The salmon were spawning, so we went to an area were you could see this (and hopefully some bears). It was really cool to see the fish at work. No bears unfortunately. We followed this by another hike to a glacier with a closer view. We scrambled on the moraine for a while, but it is hard to get far on the rocks. We also got to see Beluga whales on the way to the glaciers. Belugas in the water and Dall sheep in the cliffs above.

The first pics are random from our first day, and the last five correspond with the story more.