alaska v1.1 – anchorage and the trip north

August 3rd, 2007 | alaska, not impressed, road trip, vacation | chris | 0 comments

after two short days in anchorage just hanging out and waiting for time to pass, we met up with ren at our hostel and packed up for our trip.  once he was there we had all of our gear, clothes, and food for the trip, so now it was time to pack.  we did our fair share of packing and repacking back home just to be sure it would work out when we were ready to go, so this went fairly smoothly.  when that was ready we packed all the things that were staying in a suitcase and got a few hours of sleep before we had to get up and to the bus stop in morning.

joe, our host at the hostel, said he would drive us to the bus stop in the morning which was very nice of him.  we packed all our stuff in his truck and just as our luck would have it, his truck wouldn’t start.  so we quickly call a cab, which got us there in no time.  it dropped us off at a bus stop where shuttles of all sorts line-up to bring people to and from denali.  our shuttle company was alaska yukon trails.  this portion of our trip could very well have been the most frightening time during our stay in alaska.  we through our gear in their trailer and hop in the 15-passenger van.  knowing that the trip to denali was around 4-5 hour drive, we hunker down for the long-haul.  our driver jumps in and tells us that he is a fill-in for the normal guy and that we should bear with him.  ok, how bad could it be.  we proceed to drive through the streets of anchorage for the next hour-and-a-half looking for certain people at certain hostels and hotels.  now the 4-5 hour trip is looking more like a 5-6 hour trip.  ok, fine.  just get us there.  well, about two hours into our trip it starts raining and the conditions driving on a mountain highway get kind of tense.  to add to the tension in the vehicle, deeann, ren and i watch in the rear-view mirror as our driver doses in and out of sleep.  clutching our seats and hoping for the best we almost make it to denali.  we reach the park entrance at the same time as the driver receives a phone call.  he argues for a short minute and proceeds to turn the van around and starts heading in the direction we came from.  he says we have to pick up one more person!  we were 5 minutes from finally being there and the man turns the van around.  thankfully he only drives about 15-20 minutes back on the road and picks someone up.

as soon as we can get out of this van, the three of us jump out, grab our gear and get as far away from this loony as possible.

more stories to come. check out pictures here.

alaska v1.0 – anchorage

August 3rd, 2007 | alaska, good food, not impressed, things that make me say "yum", vacation | chris | 0 comments

the first part of our trip to alaska was our short stay at the arctic adventure hostel in anchorage. we met some amazing people from around the world that i hope we run into again sometime down the road. the stay at the hostel was great. joe was a very helpful host and the rooms were clean and welcoming. anchorage itself was a serious let down. i’m not sure what i was expected exactly, but overall that experience fell flat on its face. first of all, the parts of town we visited, which included the downtown area, were actually really dirty. there was trash all over the place. in addition, not only were there cars everywhere but the planning of the city and it’s traffic was horrible.

Hog Brother's Cafe.....yumwe walked 90% of the time up there only taking a cab when we really needed to. downtown was 2 miles from our hostel and after going a few times we finally found a route that went through a nice little residential part of town that made the walk much easier. when we first got there we knew that we wanted to visit REI which was just about 1 mile from the hostel. on our way there our noses were caught by a restaurant across the street called Hog Brother’s Cafe. Just a complete dive. Exactly what we were looking for. We went on a Sunday at around lunch time and the place was completely packed, wall to wall. People standing in the doorway waiting for seats to open and staff running every which way. Even though the staff was completely swamped, every single one of the was smiling and laughing the entire time. not a single person didn’t want to be there. in addition to the staff was the crazy, hot-off-the-greasy-griddle food. it hit the spot.

more stories to come. check out pictures here.

we’re back.

July 30th, 2007 | alaska, beauty, birthday, family, friends, fun, good food, good stuff, life, vacation | chris | 0 comments

i know its a few days late, but this is the first picture i could load.

we’re now back in anchorage. bears did not eat us. mountains were climbed, pictures were taken, tents were slept in….i think i’ve realized that reality is not working 9 to 5 and that reality is out there somewhere, that most of us don’t often experience it.

more to come. :)

thanks joe.

July 23rd, 2007 | alaska, beauty, friends, fun, morning, vacation | chris | 0 comments

it’s 6am here and we are just waking up with some oatmeal and granola.  in 30 minutes the owner of the hostel (joe.  he’s an extremely nice guy who is as strange as he is nice) is going to drive the three of us downtown anchorage so we can catch our bus to denali.

it will be around 5 hours on this bus, but i’m sure we won’t be short of things to see.

here we go!

the midnight sun

July 22nd, 2007 | alaska, beauty, crazy, midnight sun, morning, vacation | chris | 1 comment

we made it. we are currently staying at arctic adventure hostel in anchorage, alaska. we flew in at about 11:15pm local time (2:15am central) and the sun was still around. the flight was so crazy because we left chicago around 7:30 as the sun was going down and the entire way we chased the sun as it tried to set. it finally went down around 1:30am local time and rises two hours later at around 3:30am. crazy. eating breakfast this morning we have already met some amazing people. a couple from chicago, via romania and toronto, and a young women from north carolina. very interesting and down to earth people, all with something similar about them. i’ll come back to that when i have a better idea of what i’m talking about.

anyway, today we are unpacking our gear (which thankfully made it with us as it was checked into our flight) and getting ready to leave early tomorrow morning for denali. we are going to find our bus stop, visit a local market, eat some seafood, and visit an REI. anchorage seems to be a very dull dull place. hopefully we’re wrong about that assumption.

i’ll try and post once more before we take off tomorrow, if not, it will be about a week from now. stay tuned for pictures and stories. i’m sure we will have a few to share.

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