Why Alaska made me appreciate winter by Paty Jager

 

After my recent trip to Alaska for a graduation and wedding, I have to say I do not envy the long summer days up there. 

We were so messed up time-wise just because the sun didn't set until after 11 pm. Seven at night felt like four in the afternoon. We were eating much later than normal due to being so busy driving around sightseeing because, well, we could see everything. 

One of the many moose we saw.

I know I wouldn't be able to live with so much dark in the winter and so much light in the summer. I like where I'm at. 

A Glacier as you come out of Whittier

We had a wonderful time. My hubby, our oldest daughter, and my mother-in-law all traveled up together and stayed in the same house. Hubby had a couple of places he had yet to see from our other trips to the state. Normally, we traveled to Alaska in October when farming was finished or early in the year before farming started. This wasn't my first time being in Alaska in the summer, but when I was there before, I was inside mostly with blackout curtains and didn't find the light so bothersome. 

Ice along a river still.

The trip was a week long. The days we didn't have family obligations we traveled to Fairbanks, North Pole, Glenallen, and Whittier. 

Here are a few photos.

Santa Land North Pole, Alaska.

We purchased some Christmas items here. 

Boats at Whittier

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 54 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

Website: https://www.patyjager.net

Blog: https://writingintothesunset.net/

Oh the Places You'll Go, by Eleri Grace

After spending such an extended period of time foregoing travel (or limiting to outdoor locations that were within driving distance OR were necessary for whatever reason), I'm particularly grateful to feel free to travel more again. 

This spring I traveled to Washington, DC to visit my daughter during the Cherry Blossom Festival (a bucket list item). She's a student at George Washington University, and this was my first opportunity to experience the wonder of our nation's capital abloom with these gorgeous flowers. Despite the unseasonably cold and wet weather, we had a memorable weekend, enjoying the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin and throughout the National Mall and taking in a few museums and great restaurants. 

For summer, I have several trips planned with my son, who is a rising senior and needs to visit college campuses. He wants to major in professional flight and air traffic management, which has narrowed our list quite a bit. So far, we have traveled to Oklahoma to visit OU in Norman and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. In August, we will fly to Chicago to visit Lewis University in IL and Purdue University in Indiana. 

We are likely making a repeat visit to the aviation mecca that is the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks -- we saw it late last summer, but we may need to see it again (preferably in more typical winter weather conditions so he can really judge for himself how he'll fare in that climate!).

As this posts, we are in Alaska! The trip is primarily to see the University of Alaska at Anchorage, as my son believes Alaska is more temperate than North Dakota (!), but we are also anxious to spend some time land-based in Alaska (we did a cruise many years ago). We are doing a flight bear-sighting tour to Katmai National Park, a day cruise to Kenai Fjords National Park, and will also work in some hiking and kayaking. I also plan to visit some of the WWII heritage sites in and around Anchorage and Seward as two of my planned Arctic novelettes are set in that region -- one in Alaska and one in the Aleutian Islands. If technology and time allows, I will add some photos from our trip so far to the comments section. 

I have many places still on my bucket list -- some of the top international contenders include Wales (I have quite a bit of Welsh ancestry), Italy, Croatia, Norway, Spain, and Portugal. Though I've been to London many times, I haven't been back in nearly 5 years and would love to combine a London and Wales trip soon. Closer to home, I would like to see more of our national parks, especially Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, and Arcadia. 

I hope you too are seeing some new and fun places this summer -- happy travels to all!

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