I love Alaska. It is an environment that speaks to my heart. Over the past fifteen years I have taken nine cruses up the inland passage just to see what a true wilderness is and keep the image fresh in the front of my mind.

I did one trip on the ferry from Port Hardy in Canada to Skagway Alaska at the end of the in-land passage, then flew home. I got off at every stop and stayed for two to four days in each town/village. It was a great way to see the culture and meet the true Alaskan.

On another trip we flew to Anchorage and rented an RV. We spent two weeks seeing the inland parts, Fairbanks, Denali, and even flew in a small plane and landed on a glacier area half way up the Denali Mountain.

On another trip we were going to see the Northen light in the winter. We were gone for four days. Flying to Anchorage and having a great train ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks, we stood out at night for over three hours in minus 27-degree weather and think we might have seen some Northen lights. In four days, we only had six hours of sun light. It was winter. I decided not to move there.

My most recent voyage was a nine-day trip from Seattle to Skagway at the end of the inland passage. It is day eight on our way home and we haven’t seen the sun once. It has been raining every day and we could not stop at Icey Striates where I wanted to do the zip line. It is the longest one in the world, over a mile long. I will keep it on my bucket list. Perhaps in the summer of 2024 I will get back, to zip line from the top of the mountain to the town a mile below.

Even with rain every day and fog most days, it was still a great trip. My heart knew where we were and my memory archives, my collection of yesterdays, let me see it all again. One of the advantages of old age is a large archives bank. I can travel to all the continents, whenever I want and never even leave home.