It's a long drive from Denali to Sewart.....

Today, we headed out of Denali National park, toward Sewart, where we will embark for our cruise tomorrow.  We are spending the night about 2 hours North of Sewart, in the ski resort of Girdwood, right above Cooks inlet.  It's a long drive!  But, at the end of the day, we got to take the gondola to the top of Alyeska resort.  I think a few ooohhh's and aaahhh's would be appropriate......




While we spend a lot of time on the road, we also got to have some fun and learn about the sport of mushing (dog sledding) from the very best - Martin Buzer- 4 times Iditerod winner and breeder of champion mushing dogs. 

I was expecting a kennel full of Siberian huskies, but the Alaskan husky has been mixed with a lot of other breeds (Martin referred to them as mongrels), and it shows.  A lot of them still have the thick fur and blue eyes of their Siberian ancestors, but they have longer legs - and very different features.  These are working dogs, not pets- which is why they live outside, in kennels.  But they are very well taken care off, and very friendly to humans:  after all, over the centuries, humans and dogs have learn to rely for each other for survival during brutal winters, and it is not unusual during the Iditerod for the humans and dogs to just all sleep together for warmth. 

These dogs LOVE to run!  They have running wheels but if the weather is too warm, they move them away from them, because they like it so much that they would overheat. 

They go nuts with excitement when they put the harnesses on (we had a short demo, pulling a 4 wheeler instead of a sled) - they just love to run.

 Apparently they don't make great pets when young, because they just have too much energy, but once they retired, they make great house pets. It's too bad, because i really wanted to smuggle this one back with me......

 We continued on our way south, playing silly games with our fellows travelers (one involved drawing a moose one little bit at a time, and then passing the drawing to your neighbors, sort of a pictorial equivalent of playing telephone).  It was completely silly, and had me crying with laughter..... Here are both my and Joe's "moose".....

We drove back through Anchorage, learning some history along the way:  about the impact of WWII  on Alaska's growth (the US was worried about a Japanese invasion of Alaska, and indeed, Japan did occupy 2 of the Western-most Alusian islands), so there was a huge military build-up that completely transformed the state, and about the 9.2 Richter scale earthquake in 1964 that destroyed most of of the city.

Continuing South, we passed Cooks inlet and it's famous mudflats- supposed to be extremely dangerous as they will suck you in and then the tide comes....  sounds bad, i won't try to walk on it....  Although these kite surfers seemed to have  things under control.

We finally made it to the very beautiful Alyeska resort, and had some well deserved drinks at the bar at the top of the Gondola.

 An we even took a picture of the 2 of us, because once in a while, it's good to show that Joe is indeed still around......

 Since the days are very long (sun sets past 11pm), that gave me plenty of time for a lovely hike at the base of the mountain.  It is so lush it almost looks tropical:  The season is short here, so once things thaw out and it rains a bit, everything grows and blooms at the same time - it is very beautiful.  Also, it's a great way to get a work out, because the mosquitoes also all come out at the same time, so one has to walk very fast to out pace them!

Tomorrow - helicopter ride along Prince William sound!!!!!!