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Alaska, The Last Frontier, is an amazing place. My first trip to Alaska was in July of 1990 and the temperature was in the 90’s upon my arrival. My company booked rooms at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage and as I was getting settled in, there was a lady from the housekeeping department that brought a Captain Cook Gift Basket as a welcome gift. She also fluffed the pillows and asked if there’s anything else she could do to make my stay more pleasant. The air was very sultry, so I asked where the controls were for the air conditioner. She promptly went over and opened the window. Gulp! That’s when the realization hit me that THAT was the only air conditioning. Luckily, during the rest of my stay, the temperature dropped into the 70’s. (You’d think I was spoiled or something.)

The following day, my boss took a group of us on a salmon fishing excursion on the Kenai River. (Alaska offers a wonderful variety of seafood : salmon,shrimp, halibut, scallops, crab and more.) Some very large salmon were reeled in that day, but the only thing I caught was a glimpse of a moose swimming in the river, which I found to be just as exciting. (Where’s my camera when I need it?)

One of the hardest things to get used to was the long periods of daylight. We asked some of the Alaskan people we met how they sleep when it’s so light at night. We were told that they have lined, darkening curtains that make the room dark by blocking the daylight. They told us that the long periods of daylight run from May to the first part of September. During the Alaska’s winter, there are longer nights. These periods of long nights and long days have to do with the way the earth tilts during those months.

My second trip to Alaska was in 2004 for a Vacation Bible School mission trip that was planned for a group from my church. We flew into Anchorage, the air crossroads of the world, and discovered why it is called the hanging basket capital of the world as well. The most beautiful baskets of flowers I’ve ever seen were hanging everywhere in downtown Anchorage. It was breathtaking.

If you visit Alaska, there are some delicacies you may want to try, like smoked salmon lox, Alaskan caviar, reindeer meat sausage and their wonderful jams and jellies that are made from the wild Alaskan berries.

We stayed a few extra days and went to Denali National Park, Talkeenta, and were thrilled to see Mt. McKinley off in the distance. We didn’t get to see a moose while at Denali, but one nearly walked in front of our SUV when we were touring. We stopped and took a closeup photo. Now THAT was exciting. I highly recommend a trip to Alaska. You probably can’t go just once . . .there’s so much to see and it’s worth the trip.