*2000-08-05 - 12:52:05*

I am back from Alaska!

Yes, for the past 2 weeks I have been in Alaka on a cruise and land tour. I got back yesterday, and I am finally getting around to writing about it.

The Short, Trite Story: Alaska was not only beautiful and scenic, but an amazing experience!

The Long Story:

After a really long time flying, my family landed in Vancouver. We got on a bus, and the drive drove us around to see the city. The city reminded me of Philly. I swear, if you had knocked me out, flew me there, woken me up and told me that I was in Philly, I might have believed you. The only differences were the Petro-Canada gas stations (at 73.5 cents per liter), and the fact that they spelled favorite, center, and neighbor strangely :-)

The bus driver was hilarous. He talked about everything and anything. And, yes, he did say "eh" after pretty much every phrase. Some topics of conversation were:

• The Temperature (both Celcius and Ferengheit)

• His Dog (and how he was suffering the heat)

We got to the boat, and it was a big boat. It was called the Ocean Princess. It was a wonderful cruise. For 7 days we sailed from Vancouver up to Seward, stopping at Kechikan, Juenau, Skagway, etc. We also saw Glacier Bay and College Fjord. Both we beautiful. We saw harbor seals, whales, and dolphins. And, of course, glaciers. It was spectacular. Huge masses of ice, hundreds of years old, just glimmering a turquoise blue under the sun that never set. And it was silent. The was no noise but the sound of ice separating from the glacier and crashing into the ocean. Absolutely fantastic. As soon as I get my pictures developed and scanned, I'll post a link. At Juneau, we took a helicopter up to a glacier and landed. We got to walk on the ice and drink the water that was melting on the surface and turning into tiny streams. Very good water.

After the boat ride, we did a couple land tours that took us to Anchorage and Fairbanks. During the land tours we went on two train rides which totalled 12 hours. While traveling along we saw a lot of things.

First off, there were waterfalls on the side of the road. The runoff from the mountains would create these minescule waterfalls that would gush by the side of road into a small stream.

While touring a park we encountered two caribou that ran right onto the raod and stayed there. The began walking, but right down the middle of the road. We couldn't pass them, for fear that they would charge or something. And the only way we got rid of them was that, in a fork in the road, they went left, and we went right. We saw them later, still blocking the road before going back into the... I guess it would be meadow.

A couple other things about Alaska:

• The sun did not set until at least 11:30pm.

• The song Rocks and Trees was very revelent to the scenery.

• The Road Kill List is real.

All in all, a very neat trip that is definitely worth taking.

Opinion of the moment:

"Fire Alarm: Sounds like "Whoop" Looks like strobe light."

This was on an emergency exit sign in one of the hotels in Fairbanks. Why? What is the point? Obviously so that a person can identify a fire alarm, but what need would a person have? If an alarm sounds, what else could it be but fire? Bear or Moose warning? Air raid? Maybe I'm being thick, but it doesn't really make sense to me.