Greetings,

            Our Alaskan Airlines luck has appeared to follow us to Orlando. Our Seattle to Atlanta flight arrived early; we boarded our Orlando flight on time and then sat on the airplane for two hours while they tried to fix a hydraulic problem on the airplane. When that failed we were off loaded and put on a different airplane, however all’s well that ends well and we are now home just a little, actually a lot later than planned. Now that we are home another adventure has been  completed and quite a few more places checked off in Holly’s book “1000 Places to See Before You Die.”  Alaska is an amazing place and one you must see while you are physically capable. We fortunately are in that window of opportunity where we can afford some exotic travel, have the time, and more importantly have the health to do these trips that are physically challenging.  The week we were on the “Sea Lion” we did almost daily wet landings from the Zodiacs and then hiking 2 – 3 miles over uneven terrain in addition to kayaking. At the North Face Lodge in Denali we would hike 3 – 5 miles a day, some of it straight up hill, and all of it over extremely rough terrain.

         Alaska is truly the last frontier, while traveling on the Alaska Railroad from Denali to Anchorage we passed a small town of 800 where 40% of the people have no electricity or indoor running water and all them have outhouses. Alaska is definitely a young man’s state. The average age is 35 and one out of every fifty-two residences have pilot licensees and own their own planes. There are many towns that can only be reached by air or boat, including the capital Juneau which is surrounded by forest.

        Alaska is a beautiful state and one that we are very glad we had the opportunity to experience. A video slide show of the amazing sights seen during this trip should be up on tomjed.com sometime in the next 2 – 3 weeks once I finish sorting thought the thousands of photos taken during this trip Now it is time to start planning our next trip, location to be determined, I think we have done enough serious travel for this year. Today is a full day of normality, cut the lawn, clean the pool and a full complement of piano students. Until then:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

No more to follow on this trip,

Tom & Holly