Bezaire’s Ramblings

Thank goodness we finally left Seward - now we can finally catch up on our bloging! We managed to get a front row camping spot on the Seward beach so we’ve been continually entertained by sea otters floating by, fishing boats madly dashing out to sea at 7:00 am, gulls circling the returning boats for fish scraps in the afternoon and eagles soaring overhead all day long. Continue reading ‘Too Busy to Blog in Seward’…

Homer claims to be the fishing capital of Alaska, and I promise you that the Sourdough Express Bakery & Cafe cooks it to perfection! Furthermore, as we write blog entries using their speedy WiFi, our dessert just arrived to underscore the “Bakery” part of their name. My Obscene Brownie smothered in ice cream and chocolate is a work of art and tastes even better. Susi’s raspberry/apple/rhubarb cobbler has her gushing about good eats she enjoyed as a kid. Make Sourdough Express Bakery & Cafe a “must visit” when you come to Homer!

We embarked from Whittier on a lovely boat tour (see the album titled 07-11 Whittier & Portage at right). Although we enjoyed the trip very much, we were rather surprised by the city from which it left. Continue reading ‘Why Is Whittier So Different???’…

When I was planning this journey, I didn’t spend a lot of time learning about Anchorage - I figured a big city is the same pretty much where ever one goes, right? NOT! Of course “big” is all relative - Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska and only has a population of 283,000. Continue reading ‘Anchorage - Not Your Usual City’…

Most people we’ve met in Alaska are from somewhere else, so we’ve heard many stories of people coming to Alaska for a vacation and never leaving. A very unique synergy develops with so many people living in communities because of their intentional commitment to be there - everyone becomes a tour guide. Continue reading ‘Amazing Alaska Ambassadors’…

We were very excited to use our Alaskan Tour Saver coupon to fly in a 1968 Beaver to the base of Mt. McKinley and land at 5500 feet on the Ruth Glacier. What a thrill! Check out more pics on the album titled 07-05 Flightseeing and this video:

Talkeetna is the staging ground for all climbers headed to Mt. McKinley - this year a little over 1000 will attempt the climb - at a personal expense of around $7,000 each and 3 weeks to do it. Only half will succeed and a few will die.  We celebrated the 4th in this 870 person village watching a parade which lasted about 7 minutes. Continue reading ‘Talkeetna - a Climber’s Paradise’…

Throughout our journey we have heard repeatedly about last summer’s weather - only 6 days of sunshine. We’ve been thrilled with the abundance of sunny days. It’s made it easy to get some great photos and pics like this one and more in the album titled 07-03 Mt McKinley at right.

What fun - a great tourist event and warm dry weather! Dave was mumbling about being “lemming tourists” as we followed the line of tour buses  to hop on a 3 1/2 hour cruise. Fortunately, we found that this particular tour was so well done that we didn’t mind being packaged as part of a crowd. The cruise had a fantastic speaker - a radio DJ that had many amusing stories about the people who lived along the river. We stopped at Susan Butcher’s Dog Sled property and saw a demonstration of a racing team as well as visited a First Nation summer camp village. Thanks for all of you who recommended that we do this! Check out the photos in the album titled 07-02 Fairbanks at the right.

Many people in Alaska and the Yukon use sled dogs for transportation during the 7 long months of winter. Although I had heard of the Itiderod race, I wasn’t aware of the number of other races held in Alaska and the Yukon. Anchorage even has a storage shed to keep snow available for 2 of the major races that run through the town! We were able to see demonstrations of the teams used in Denali Park, for hauling supplies for researchers and breaking trail, and Susan Butcher’s 4 time Itiderod champion racing teams.

I was amazed to how much the dogs love to run and work! Here’s a fun video of Denali’s working dogs:

Imagine having only one, 95-mile-long gravel road to cover the entire state of New Hampshire. That’s essentially the status of travel in Denali National Park and Preserve - with major emphasis on the preserve.  Continue reading ‘7 Nights in Denali!!!’…

We practically floated our way from Fairbanks to Denali - the torrential downpour and cool temps made for a dreary morning drive. So I put on one of the CD’s that our daughter Rebecca made for me  titled “Get Moving”. What a difference some music made to our morning! It especially perked up driver Dave, so Beck, this video below  is especially for you! Continue reading ‘Thanks for the Music Rebecca!’…

I just saw him run by. He ran by our camper. He was about fve feet away. He was just a young cub. The golden brown grizzly cub probably weighed about 250 pounds. He trotted slowly out of the trees, crossed our camp site and continued back into the trees on the other side. Grizzly cubs have mommas. I wonder where his momma is now? She is probably a very protective 600 pound grizzly. Yesterday, on our bus ride into the park, we heard a story about how a 600 pound grizzly can pick up a little 300 pound grizzly and shake it like a rag doll. Do you think the momma grizzly ran thru first, and we just didn’t see her??? Or, do you think momma is stll coming, looking for her cub??? Shall we go out and look??? Or shall we sit here and write this post???

We continued on our way to Fairbanks via Tok and an overnight in Delta Junction, a small community at the Northern end of the Alaska Highway. Wonder of wonders - the Smith RV park offered free car washes - and we spent over an hour washing the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of caked mud from the RV and the Scion! Continue reading ‘Akk - 1st Traffic Since Juneau!’…

Anyone, from any country, can stake a claim for $50 through the surveyor’s office to get exclusive mineral rights on that land. As long as they annually demonstrate 200 hours of actual work, they can even renew it up to seven times. Wayne & Linda had chosen a spot about 40 miles up river where they thought the remoteness would have protected their claim from previous prospecting. Continue reading ‘Anyone Can Stake A Gold Claim’…