Alaska Bound!

I just got off the phone with Northwest Airlines and finally got around to purchasing my plane tickets for my trip to Alaska with my 90-year-old Aunt Ruth. I will leave Virginia on June 2nd and return from Vancouver on June 20th. Aunt Ruth will come out for the official portion of the trip is from June 5th to June 17th and I will spend a couple extra days in Anchorage beforehand and a couple extra days in Vancouver afterwards to do some extra sight-seeing and have some extra fun.



During the “official trip”, we will have a six-day land tour which starts of in Anchorage and drive in a motorcoach to Fairbanks, seeing many sights along the way. We will spend a couple nights in Fairbanks and then go to Denali National Park. After a tour of the park, we will then ride the Alaska Railroad back to Anchorage and board a cruise ship for the next seven days.



The cruise will go by Hubbard Glacier, the largest glacier in North America, into Juneau (Alaska’s capital which is only accessible by sea or air), and go whale-watching on the Icy Straits. We’ll also go by Ketchikan and finish in Vancouver, Canada.

Alaska will be the 45th state I will have visited and Aunt Ruth’s 49th. (She’ll just have Hawaii left.) After this trip, I will just have New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire left. Hope to visit them later this summer or fall (one week on the road should do it for me). After hitting my 7th continent last year, my next goal is to see all 50 states. Getting very close…

I could have gotten my plane ticket for free if I would have called a month or so ago. I was so caught up with school, I haven’t had the energy to think or plan much else until recently. As it was, the ticket only cost me $235 – I had to buy some extra frequent flyer miles to add to my account with Northwest. Still not bad for a flight to Alaska. Looks like all my trips to Japan are still paying dividends!



I am very much looking forward to the trip in all aspects. It will be a welcome break from school, great to spend time with Aunt Ruth, an exciting adventure, and a chance to see some breathtaking sights. A winner all the way around!