mark f goes to Alaska

[mark f]

My family and I will be going to Alaska Tuesday morning, and we'll return on August 16, so just in case you wonder where I am, it's Alaska. We will be in and around Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks. We hope to break through the Arctic Circle and see the Aurora Borealis, but I'm not sure if we'll succeed. If I have any free time and find some internet cafe, I may drop y'all a few lines. Ha!

Sorry if this really isn't worth its own thread. :cool:

[Tacitus]

Have fun. :)

[Mrs. Darcy]

Have a great time, Mark, and take some photos for us poor MoFo's who don't get to go to Alaska.

[Powdered Water]

Have a good time. Don't forget your Bear whistle. I'm sure you'll see me as you fly over Seattle, I'll be down there on the ground waving at you as you fly overhead. I always do that to passing planes, I'm kooky.

[Swedish Chef]

Have a sweet time in Alaska, Marko. Best of luck with the Aurora Borealis and whatnot.

[Caitlyn]

Sounds like an awesome trip... have a great time! We're gonna miss you around here though... :yup:

[meatwadsprite]

Cya later mark !

[Yoda]

You'll be awfully missed, Mark. I hope you have a great time. We expect pictures! :)

[Justin]

Lucky -- I have always wanted to visit Alaska.

Have fun!

[Slug]

Good luck Mark.
How exciting.
Do people in Alaska eat baked Alaska? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baked_alaska)

[mark f]

Thanks for all the kind words. We're actually stopping in Seattle on the trip up to change planes. We'll be taking a 35mm film camera and a video camcorder. We're basically going for the same reason we went to New Zealand three years ago. My wife has a 99s (http://www.ninety-nines.org/) International conference to attend. The conference is only four days, but we use it as an excuse to rent a car and travel around on our own to various places we've researched. We are taking a float plane to land on a lake in Denali National Park and get up close and personal to some wildlife. My wife also has an old high school friend we're going to visit in Fairbanks. Brenda is also the current Orange County Chapter chairperson for the Ninety-Nines. :cool:

[Sedai]

Come back soon! :)

[Lennon]

Best wishes Mark.

[Powdered Water]

We're actually stopping in Seattle on the trip up to change planes.

Well take a look out the window right as you're coming in to land, you'll be flying right over my house. Literally. We are directly under the flight path of the airport and about 5 minutes south of SeaTac airport. That's my stomping grounds for about the last 15 years now. Be sure to gas up on plenty of Seattle's Best coffee while you're here. Notice I said Seattle's Best? Yeah... Starbuck's is from the Devil.

[mark f]

Brenda and Sarah are at a luncheon/fashion show which I passed on, and it's raining, so I stopped by Sourdough, an internet cafe/smoke shop in Anchorage. We've apparently been here for half of the clear days in this part of Alaska. Today is the first day with no sun yet.

We drove southeast from Anchorage down to Seward, stopping at various places along the way where we got out to check the various sites. At our first stop, we saw some huge bird of prey, but we couldn't determine exactly what it was. However, when it extended its wings, we agreed that it had a wing span of at least ten feet. We also drove off to Portage Glacier and had a nice view of about a dozen glaciers and the drowned forest which occurred when Anchorage had its 9.2 earthquake on Good Friday, 1964. What happened was that the ground dropped 10-30 feet due to the quake and all the forests at or near sea level were "drowned" leaving nothing but dead grey trees. When we got to Seward, we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center where we say a Steller sea lion swimming underwater with the biggest, piercing-yet-vulnerable eyes looking right at us through the glass. This big guy weighed in at a ton. We also got some wonderful film of various sea birds acting crazy, showing off and diving for food.

http://www.sailingohana.com/images/Alaska-Life/images/SealionsSealifeCenterSeward.jpg

The next day, we were supposed to take a float plane to the base of Mount McKinley, but the visibility was lousy, so we would have never made it there in a small plane and if we had, we wouldn't have even seen McKinley. Instead, we went the other direction to Prince William Sound, flying over dozens of glaciers, mountains and lakes. We saw hundreds of harbor seals and many mountain goats, seemingly stuck in the middle of nowhere near the top of a mountain. We eventually landed on a lake, where we got out of our Cessna 206 (six passenger plane, but it was just us three and the pilot) and hiked aways into the forest off the rocky beach. The ground felt very soft and almost seemed to give way with every step. We went ahead and tried the blueberries and raspberries (the blues had more taste). Soon, we got back on the plane for the return trip to Anchorage's seaport, the busiest seaplane airport in the world. It was fun having the headset on and talking to each other, but I started to feel like I was in a sci-fi movie from all the rhythmic sounds and beeps which came over the headset. The actual highlight was seeing Columbia Glacier (below) from up close.

http://www.wildnatureimages.com/images%203/060727-169..jpg

That night we had a welcome dinner at a park near the airport where it was sunny. We decided to sit outside away from the crowds, but then it started to sprinkle. It wasn't too bad though, so I stayed outside. I was rewarded with a beautiful double rainbow, and then it cleared up enough so that we could actually see Mount McKinley, even though it's over 125 miles away.

http://www.richardpettinger.com/blog/images7/mckinley.jpg

Yesterday, we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center Museum where we learned about the culture and living quarters of five different Alaskan clan groups. We also saw some traditional dances and Brenda and Sarah bought some handmade earrings.

http://www.alaskatravel.com/photos/native-heritage-center.jpg http://static.flickr.com/99/290197612_1cf3304ef3.jpg

I got these images off the net since I can't post any of mine until I get back home.

[Slug]

Hi mark f!
Sounds like you are having a great time.
Your post is extremely organized.
I like the nice map.

:)

[Ðèstîñy]

Wow! Those are beautiful pictures. I hope you guys have a safe, and fun trip. I'll hardly being traveling anyplace like that, when I do get to get going, but I still hope to get some beautiful shots like that. I hope you guys took your cameras, and bring back many photos to share with us.

[nebbit]

Sounds like you are having a great time,:yup: love to see your pictures when you get back,http://bestsmileys.com/camera/2.gif say hi to your wife and that cute daughter of yours. :D

[Justin]

Envious!

[mark f]

I'm doing laundry in Fairbanks now. We went by car through Denali (up to the 15 mile post) and we got some great photos of McKinley and several other mountains, rivers, creeks and animals. At the 15 Mile Post, we got out and hiked the Savage River Trail which was spectacular. We saw marmets, mountain goats and ptarmigans, but we're still trying to see a breathing moose and caribou in the wild. Denali has six million acres of wilderness.

http://k53.pbase.com/o4/84/49084/1/63684844.YZehLpMe.Ptarmiganwithred.jpg
ptarmigan

We have great accomodations in Fairbanks. We are staying at the Minnie Street Bed and Breakfast. We have our own small two-story, two-bedroom home with a kitchen, dining room and a great set-up for entertainment, so we're going to relax the rest of the day here watching some movies and having dinner here at "home". More later.

[nebbit]

Sounds like you are having a great time :yup: can't wait to see your http://bestsmileys.com/camera/1.gif

[Tatanka]

What a trip. Hope you get to see the aurora borealis.

This is gonna be one massive Personal Pictures post for sure.
At least it better be.;)

[mark f]

Hi all! For those who care, yes, we're all back home behind the Orange Curtain. I still haven't gotten my film developed, but when I do, I plan on posting muchas picturas. One thing I'll say is that we DID NOT see the aurora borealis. I knew it would be a long shot due to a number of factors. The biggest one was that we went in the summer, and that's the time of year Alaska gets the least amount of darkness. There is no way you can see it if it's not completely dark. In the summer, you maybe get 4-6 hours with no sunlight, but dusk and dawn last about 1-2 hours each, so you only have a couple of hours of darkness, and even then, you have to make sure that you are away from any city lights. It's true that many places the Aurora Borealis is visible every day, but if you have too much light or are not at the right place at the right time, you just cannot witness it. Also, we apparently took our trip in between the best YEARS to see the Aurora, but we didn't really have a choice. Brenda's 99s International Convention basically dictated the year we would go.

So, these are examples of what we didn't see.

http://science-education.pppl.gov/SummerInst/aurora%20borealis.jpg
http://www.quietguy.com/goodpics/AuroraBorealis.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJBrMXSn-hU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sU6CpQz-D4&NR=1

We did get to the Arctic Circle, but we didn't really see as many examples of wildlife as we would have wished. We got a good look at a two-year-old moose on the Arctic Circle trip, but we were driving in the car and were unable to get a photo. I also want to reiterate that the trip into Denali with clear sightseeing of Mount McKinley and a spectacular hike at Savage River Trail were both about as spectacular occurences as these old bones have had since they turned 50. I just hope the photos and video turn out as intense as the experience was. I would have sworn that on that narrow, sometimes-rocky, sometimes-muddy-and-slippery trail, that I almost fell in the river's rapids about a half-a-dozen times.

I can also almost shoot myself because I always meant to take photos of the two-story house we stayed at in Fairbanks, both inside and outside. It was much nicer than I expected and it almost made you not want to leave it because it was just so damn comfy and had a collection of VHS(!) tapes of films which we watched when we had time. The ones we watched were The War Lord (3.5), Real Genius (3), and The Lost Continent (1) [that's not the Atlantis movie, Powdered; this one is way lousier.] It all ties into having a plan. I was going to take the photos of the house every day I was there, but there was always something else to do or see. Then, when I was about an hour away from the house, I cussed myself out for forgetting. Harrumph!!

[nebbit]

Nice to have you back :kiss:

I am off to Hong Kong on Friday with 3 girlfriends :yup:

[mark f]

:cool: :up:

[nebbit]

Yes, I am getting quite excited http://bestsmileys.com/excited/2.gif

[Powdered Water]

I think I've seen part of The Lost Continent on the Sci-fi channel. And if it's the one I'm thinking of then yeah it is pretty bad alright. Good to have you back. I can't wait to see some pics.

[Yoda]

Welcome back, Mark. Can't wait to see the pictures. :) Glad you didn't, uh, fall into the rapids. That'd have been, like, bad.

[Powdered Water]

Is That'd a really real word? It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it?

Oh, oops! Back on topic everyone.

[Mrs. Darcy]

Nice to have you back :kiss:

I am off to Hong Kong on Friday with 3 girlfriends :yup:

We'll miss you while you're gone, Nebbs. Have a great time.

[Justin]

Nice to have you back :kiss:

I am off to Hong Kong on Friday with 3 girlfriends :yup:

Have fun!

[nebbit]

Thank you, I am very excited :yup:

[Justin]

So far, I've only been to Paris and London....

Both were a lot of fun -- from what I can remember, anyway.

;)

[mark f]

OK, there are far too many photos to post all at once. I'm going to make my first post about Anchorage and southeast. The second post will be about Denali National Park, and the third post will be about Fairbanks and north to the Arctic Circle. I'm also going to try to get Sarah to post some of her and my videos on YouTube so I can post them, especially the ones at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.

Here goes:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska012.jpg
This is just south of Anchorage. There is a wildlife preserve, but I wanted to post this to make sure that people understand that much of Alaska is green and water

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska013.jpg

This is close to the last photo. I actually see a humongous warm-blooded creature in this photo, even if it's all in my imagination. I didn't post the photo of the bird of prey with a wingspan of at least 10 feet right now because it looks like it's a couple of inches tall in the zoom-lens photo, if you can see it at all.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska011.jpg
Portage Glacier area, about the same place Brenda got a photo with one of her best friends about 25 years ago. It's important to understand that even if the mountain photos look grayish, the ground is really green where there is no snow.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska010.jpg
Brenda and Sarah in front of Portage Glacier. (Sarah is actually taller, so she's standing "funny".) This place is really relaxing. In fact, I have a hard time thinking about the next photo; the one where I look like bright lights are shining in my eyes and I look WAY OLD!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska.jpg
As promised. Yikes! GO, Dodgers!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska001.jpg
This is the front seat of our Cessna 206 with our pilot and Brenda in the right seat as the co-pilot.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska009.jpg
On our way to Prince William Sound (remember Mount McKinley was sucked in), we saw vast expanses of Chugach Mountains. I like 'em.

EMERGENCY EDIT: I have several more photos, but an emergency came up, so if I don't get back soon, please forgive me.

BACK! Whoa!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska002.jpg
This is a little bit closer to Prince William Sound. Yes, Valdez is on the Sound and the Exxon Valdez will forever overshadow the Sound in years to come.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska008.jpg
It's just a coincidence that Sarah's first college of choice is Columbia in NYC, but this is an incredible view of Columbia Glacier. The parts which look like treadmarks are all completely natural and show where the glacier has dragged down to its edge. It's also interesting to note all the 90 degree angle marks which the "treads" make as they "drag".

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska006.jpg
This is also an incredible view of the "borderline" of the Columbia Glacier. It has retreated in the last few years, but its strong borderline is plainly visible here on the right. This "retreating" doesn't actually depict global warming (even if I do personally believe in it.) It basically is still open to interpretation but means that it's "a condition occurring when backward melting at the front of a glacier takes place at a rate exceeding forward motion." Having seen glaciers in both the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand) and far north, I find myself strongly attracted to their most natural outcome and fear that anything I do may change their actual fate.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska007.jpg
When we got closer to the actual sound, we found many "lakes" and inlets which were plainly friendly for our floatplane to take advantage of.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska014.jpg
This is the "lake' we landed at, and you can get an excellent view of our Cessna 206 which carries six passengers, but there were only four of us, so I'm thankful of the extra room.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska003.jpg
Sarah immediately walked away from the pebbly beach and tried to hike away from where we were. I yelled at her just about here, trying to stop her from getting too far away. Even so, I'm very proud of this photo.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska015.jpg
This is the double rainbow in Anchorage that I mentioned earlier when I was outside and it started raining. Hopefully, you can see the fainter rainbow on the left.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska004.jpg
This was the best shot I could get of the entire rainbow, even if it misses a bit of it.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska005.jpg
These are the fossilized bones of an ancient whale which are found at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. I have many more photos shot here which I love, but I'm afraid that most people will find them too esoteric.

Next up: the awesome Denali National Park.

[nebbit]

Nice pictures Marky :yup:

Hope the emergency is not too huge :kiss:

[mark f]

Oh, that emergency is long gone and was involving a friend of mine in El Paso, Texas. When nature calls, I'm there! Ha!

[mark f]

Allrighty there. This does take a lotta work, but I'm gonna think that somebody here will eventually check these photos out and make some comments, so I will at least post my Denali segment. This will help me to decide how soon I need to post the Fairbanks/Arctic Circle crap. :cool:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska019.jpg
Driving into Denali, we weren't sure what we would see, but this immediately proved that we would see something multi-dimensional!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska018.jpg
This is a perfect example of the Alaskan Range. It's everywhere in Denali, and it's mostly spectacular. Then again, Brenda and Sarah aren't bad either, and they may just tell you when something's up.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska021.jpg
We got to the Trailhead of the Savage River Trail, and it was a combo of intense landscape and comforting solitude; at least until we started the actual hike.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska022.jpg
I immediately found the sucka to be trying to kill me. It was beautiful and intense, but I just kept stepping in places which kept having me leaning toward the rapids, and the rapids were one of the main reasons the hike was intense! I never really wanted to get fully drenched and get dragged down toward the Magic Bus!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska020.jpg
This is Alaska's state bird, the ptarmigan. Apparently it's incredibly stupid and the only state bird which the citizens are allowed to hunt, constantly. I'm not sure how stupid the bird actually is, but this one walked out in front of me here in Denali. Of course, there has been NO hunting in Denali for a century, so maybe this particular bird is smart for a ptarmigan.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska023.jpg
Have I mentioned that the Savage River Rapids tried to carry me off the sneaky, icky trails of the Savage River Trail? I slipped and slided all over the place, but I did stay out of the river. Hooray!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska017.jpg
This peekaboo kinda animal is actually a mama marmet who got a little bit scared when Brenda got too close to her kid!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska024.jpg
I actually love this trail, but I was pretty much scared of it, and that's good since it's been a long time that I was scared of anything, except for maybe Sarah whipping around a freeway offramp about 20mph too fast. :cool:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska016.jpg
This is where the Savage River first joins up with some other streams and starts to kick itself into a frenzy. I took this shot just because I thought it was both beautiful and just something which many people don't take the time to notice: the calm before the storm.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska025.jpg
We have more shots of Mount McKinley's twin peaks, but this one is the best. The two tallest peaks in the middle are Mount McKinley's north and south peaks. The north one is on the right and the south one is on the left. Awesome! That's 20,320 feet for Lefty!

REMEMBER! If you guys click on the photos, they will get bigger. Feel free to ask me about anything specific. :)

[Powdered Water]

Great river pictures mark, I love rivers. When we go camping we always try to be within hearing distance or at least walking distance from a river. We love the background nose. Babies don't sleep that good.

Was this a day trip? Or did you guys spend the night?

[mark f]

After the 99s convention in Anchorage, we planned to drive about 230 miles to just outside Denali Park and stay at the Denali Cabins which are right against the ever-present Nenana River. We got there at about 3 PM, unloaded the luggage we needed and drove into the Park to find out what the weather was like and what we could do. Shortly after we got to the Visitor Center, it started raining. We found out that we could drive up to the Savage River trail 15 miles into the Denali Wilderness or we could take a bus to go further in. With the weather the way it was, we couldn't see much of anything because it was completely grey. It was impossible to see the mountains up close, let alone Mount McKinley. So, after picking up some goodies at the gift shop and talking to park rangers about our options, we went back to a place across the street from our cabin and had dinner.

We packed everything up the next morning and went back into Denali. I didn't especially like the idea of the bus trip (unless we were going to stay longer, but we had a reservation at the Bed and Breakfast that night), so we went with our car. We stopped all along the way to get some photos because the weather was quite beautiful. We had several shots of the Alaskan Range on both sides of the road, and Mount McKinley was standing out in all its majesty, so I guess we were lucky. It was another 120 miles to Anchorage, so we probably only stayed about four hours in the Park that day, but as we were driving out, it was obvious that the weather was going to turn dark and cloudy, so yes, we were REALLY lucky in our timing.

[mark f]

This is one of the "esoteric" photos I mentioned above. This was taken in Anchorage from inside a recreation of an Athabascan dwelling. Does anybody see something or someone in this photo?

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/cloudhead-1.jpg

[nebbit]

Great pictures Marky :yup:

[Justin]

Beautiful.

[DeathDealer]

Sounds like fun, glad you had a good time..

[mark f]

I still have some photos in the camera, but I finally decided to post the Fairbanks/Arctic Circle part of our Alaska trip.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska030.jpg
We went to an outdoor park (Pioneer Park) which included a domed air museum so here is Brenda piloting a Vietnam War era helicopter.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaskawing.jpg
Also at the museum is a display about Carl Ben Eielson. He was a teacher famed for being an Alaskan bush pilot in the 1920s. While en route to try to help a Russian ship stranded in ice in 1929, his plane crashed off the coast of Siberia, killing him and his mechanic. This is a section of the wing of Eielson's doomed plane.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska031.jpg
Also at the park is the S.S. Nenena, a National Historic Landmark, which ran Alaska's rivers from 1933 to 1952. Here's what a big paddlewheeler looks like in "dry dock".

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska037.jpg
We went in a comfortable van on our Arctic Circle trip. Since about 80% of the 200 mile trip north was on this mostly-gravelled highway, we couldn't have driven our own car because it would have negated our auto insurance. (This van had four or five cracks in the windshield from being struck by rocks from passing vehicles.)

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska026.jpg
The Mighty Yukon River, taken from the Yukon River Bridge. The Alaska Pipeline also crosses the bridge, running along its side.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska027.jpg
We got out to stretch our legs and walk down toward the river. I took this shot of Sarah because she walked further down through the forested area leading to the river. I liked the bold color separation of Sarah's clothes and her bag.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska036.jpg
We're getting close to the Circle now. Here is Finger Rock atop Finger Mountain. It was extremely windy when we hiked up to the top of a rocky viewing area. I really wish I had a panoramic camera for some of these shots.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska032.jpg
We made it!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska033.jpg
On the way back to Fairbanks, we stopped to give a little support to the Alaska Pipeline.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska028.jpg
We went to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. This 8' 9" brown bear was surprisingly friendly to Sarah. (No flash photos allowed in the museum, so forgive the blur.)

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska029.jpg
This is "Blue Babe", the 36,000-year-old, mummified remains of an Alaskan Steppe Bison (Bison priscus). BB was discovered by gold miners in 1979.


http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska035.jpg
Besides having wonderful exhibits of the history, wildlife, culture, geography, etc. of Alaska, the museum has artwork of native Alaskans upstairs. This totem is by a Southwestern tribe, I believe the Tlingit.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/alaska034.jpg
Upstairs in the art gallery, I took a shot incorporating more than one piece.

The Museum of the North is a very impressive architectural accomplishment. However, the photos of its exterior and an awesome incoming storm haven't been developed yet.

[mark f]

The only person who has commented to me about this last post was somebody who sent me a PM from a different site who came over here to check it out without any prompting. He "stumbled" across it. Then he got mad at me for posting at this site more than the other one. :) It's OK, "and that's the truth, Ruth."

http://www.cinepad.com/images/dtrt.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIk9paXhz4k

[eMilee]

wow.... amazing pictures, mark. these make me want to travel even more!!!

[nebbit]

The only person who has commented to me about this last post was somebody who sent me a PM from a different site
I was sure that I left a comment as I have already seen these great pictures, I love the one of you holding up the pipeline :yup: it looks very cold there Mark and you have shorts on :eek:

[mark f]

I finally got the last roll from Alaska developed. Except for the first, they were all taken outside the Museum of the North in Fairbanks. I became fixated with the clouds moving in, but we had friends to meet for dinner in a few minutes, so I just took some quick shots. About an hour later, it was raining.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/listeningroom-2.jpg
The Place Where You Go To Listen is a small room inside the museum. There, you hear an amplified humming sound which is taken from the environment outside and changes ever so slightly based on what's occurring due to the phases of the moon, seismic vibrations, the effect of the Aurora Borealis, etc. It's a trippy place.

These are all directly outside the museum:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/fairbankdmuseum1.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/fairbanksstormcopy2.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/fairbanksstormcopy1.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/fairbankdmuseum3.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/bejmaf/fairbanksstorm.jpg

[rufnek]

The Place Where You Go To Listen is a small room inside the museum. There, you hear an amplified humming sound which is taken from the environment outside . . .

You can get the same sound effect in most bedrooms here in Houston. It's called "freeway traffic"! :laugh:

Sorry, I've never been able to resist trying to turn a tender moment into a joke. Very nice photos. Alaska is a beautiful state--I made a trip up there years ago all the way to the North Slope and the "zero mile" start of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. I was up there on a junket with several other reporters and four of us stayed over for a couple of day and rented a car to go out to the glacier park from Anchorage. The best picture I got from the trip was when we were driving this narrow road along a steep mountain side with nothing but huge forest all around and for as far as the eye could see stretching out miles below our lofty perch. And then we come around a corner and here's this Century 21 "For Sale" sign attached to a stick by the side of the road. Like the whole landscape was for sale, because there wasn't a structure for miles around. Bet that was the most photographed yard sign ever.