2010 Trip to Alaska

Unfortunately I don't have a good zoom lens for my Pentax K-x camera, so I wasn't able to get any great Alaska lunar eclipse photos last night. But, I did manage to eek out this small photo, and if you click on it, you'll see a much larger (4.4 MB) photo of the very clear Wasilla, Alaska sky last night:

I was reading an Alaska travel book recently, and they make Haines, Alaska sound really wonderful. I don't know if I'll be able to get there this fall (er, winter), but if not, I am definitely going to try to get there next spring.

Here are a couple of quotes from the Alaska travel book:

Haines is casual, happy, and slightly odd.

If you're looking for the mythical town of Cicely from the television show Northern Exposure, you'll get closer in Haines than any other place I know.

And Haines has bald eagles -- always plenty of bald eagles.

When most people refer to the Alaska Permanent Fund, they're probably referring the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend checks that are distributed to Alaska citizens in October of each year. Citizens receive the dividend checks just for living in Alaska. These checks average about $1,200 per citizen per year, so a family of four will receive a check for approximately $4,800 every October.

However, there are differences between the Alaska Permanent Fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, and several other "Permanent Fund" entities, and I'll try to weed those out here.

A friend (who I'm told likes sled dogs) celebrated his birthday yesterday, so in honor of his birthday, here's a series of Alaska sled dog photos, taken when I went on a sled dog ride with the Seavey family in Seward, Alaska. As you can see from that link, these are all real Iditarod sled dogs.

This first photo was taken right as we were getting ready to start the ride:

I wish I had taken a picture at noon today -- I'll try to remember tomorrow -- but the sun is staying very low in the sky these days. I was out and about at noon, and the sun was constantly in my eyes, probably about 10 o'clock high at best. I haven't worn sunglasses in many years, but I can see where a daily commuter here would really need them.

As I mentioned earlier this spring, I landed here in Wasilla because it was basically the only place available. When I first moved here I looked at areas like Kenai and Soldotna, but didn't like them much. I love Homer and Seward, but couldn't find a place to live I could afford. I lived in Talkeetna in 2007, and while I still love that little town, I don't know I could live there during the winter. So this spring the choices came down to Anchorage and Wasilla.

This blog post is quite a bit out of sequence, but earlier today I was reminded of my drive to Alaska this spring, including a one-night stop in Watson Lake, British Columbia, Canada.

On the evening of March 24, 2010, while I was laying in my toasty warm hotel room, I suddenly heard a pack of dogs howling and barking. Peering out the window, I saw a team of sled dogs being fed their dinner. "What were they doing here?", I thought, and then I realized the Iditarod was ending, and maybe, just maybe, these were actual Iditarod sled dogs.

While cleaning out my car the last two days, I found two empty cereal boxes, neatly folded, and squeezed between the passenger seat and center console, with some scraps of paper tucked in with them. Anyone else cleaning my car would find those items, look at them curiously, and throw them in the garbage without giving them any further thought.

I'm not sure why yet, but Cooper tires seem to be the preferred brand here in Alaska. For instance, as I've been traveling along, I've seen ads for several tire businesses that claim to have the "lowest prices on Cooper tires" in town.

April 7, 2010, Wasilla, Alaska: At 8:18 a.m. local time, I'm standing in my motel room here in Wasilla, when I hear a rumbling sound, and then the floor starts shaking under my feet, and the walls make cracking sounds -- an earthquake! By the time I think to get under a doorway, it is over.

Here's a link to some initial information about this Alaska earthquake. I'll add more information here as I learn it (or feel it).