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This column has talked about riding the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS), and that it is an experience many Alaskans revel in and more should try. It will be especially so in 2018, when AMHS hopes to roll out its two Alaska class ferries, now being constructed at Vigor Alaska in Ketchikan, that will serve as day boats. At 280 feet long, they can seat up to 300 passengers and stow 53 standard vehicles on their car decks. For speedy loading and unloading, they will have bow and stern doors,...
As the centennial year for the National Park Service comes to a close, I want to share some of my favorite parks in Alaska because this state has the most parks, the largest park and the most varied geologically. With its 54 million acres in the state's eight national parklands, add on top of that national historic areas. Alaska has 15 prehistoric landmarks that are archaeological sites dating back to pre-European (also called pre-contact) time and 34 historic landmarks detailing the state's pas...
Thanks to the inherent isolationism of Brits, Americans can benefit this winter from the country's vote to leave the European Union. The pound has fallen to levels not seen since the mid-1960s - now at $1.30 as of the last week of September. If you're an Alaska Airlines frequent flier, do go with British Airlines for a mere 65,000 miles for coach. The spaciousness of BA's seating will leave you to forever grumble. The play's the thing I was lucky enough to have spent 1997 to 1998 in London...
This year the National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday. Help them celebrate with a visit to one of their parks and/or monuments. There is bound to be one near your home. America owes a big thank you to John Muir, whose writings convinced the U. S. government to protect Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon and Mt. Rainier as national parks. Think what would have happened if they were not protected or fell into the hands of private promoters. Another thank you goes to Theodore Roosevelt...
I'm not watching the Olympics in Rio this summer. And yes, I know that these athletes have trained and competed since childhood to be able to represent their country and gain lasting glory. I understand this because as a child I wanted to be the next Sonja Henie. That is, until I understood what her sympathies with Hitler and Nazi ideology meant. I still have routines and costume designs playing in my head. Recent Olympics have caused massive inequities in host countries that have affected...
In railroad parlay, "foamers" are those who literally foam at the mouth at the sight of a steam engine. If you are one, take the 18-hour road trip to Skagway in Southeast and take a ride on one of White Pass & Yukon Route Railroads' steam engines. The 3,000-foot climb over the historic White Pass and into a sliver of Canada's British Columbia is filled with great vistas from mountaintops to deep valleys with rushing rapids and places where a ledge for the narrow-gauge tracks has been blasted so...
We've all had them, those that hit the road for long stretches. And naturally in Alaska, where drives can stretch for days, scary road trip experiences are something we all share. Like that night at 2 a.m. in a blizzard traveling the windswept road across Kluane Lake in the Yukon, and through frighteningly named Destruction Bay in British Columbia, where my night was spent at a motel with no proprietor, just an envelope and keys to the rooms (chair up and under the door knob for security, thank...
When you travel to Anchorage, yes, you can stay downtown at the Sheraton, Hilton or Captain Cook, but why not try something with more of an Alaskan flavor? This year the Historic Anchorage Hotel turns 100 - that's a big deal in a state that's only 57 years old, although Anchorage did celebrate its centennial last year. Like the state and the city, the hotel has a colorful past. The original hotel building was built in 1916 but torn down some years later. The current hotel, an annex to the older...
Go south-way south, to Alaska's little visited Dutch Harbor on the Aleutian Chain. The Aleutian Chain, including Unalaska and Amaknak Islands, began about 40 million years ago when the volcanic action and movement of tectonic plates thrust up the jagged mountains to form part of the "Ring of Fire" of volcanic activity that spans the Pacific. As recently as this March, Pavlof Volcano, 166 miles north of Dutch Harbor, erupted and sent ash 20,000 feet into the air. Dutch Harbor refers to the...
Native corporations, cruise lines and state ferry bargains bring Alaska to you on the cheap this season. First off, get a Puffin Pass through Cook Inlet Region, Inc.'s travel subsidiary CIRI Alaska Tourism by applying for it online at www.ciritourism.com/puffin-pass. I know, many of you may not have access to a computer, and although they used to mail a Puffin Pass card out, it's paperless now, with newsletters sent to your email. The good thing about the pass is you can use it for visitors and...
I remember the morning of 9/11 when I woke out of a deep dream that my truck was in the emergency room for repair but it was so full of people I had to abandon it, then there was a long stairway that dropped to nothingness so I popped into a bar on one of the floors and the bartender said, "Last call," as the ceiling began to lower. Really, no fooling. That day changed America, but it was in Alaska and the small town of Skagway where it seemed most apparent. Pre-9/11, you could cross the border...
The currency exchange with Canada has gotten even better – now it's 72 cents on the U.S. dollar. Oops, that was a couple of weeks ago when I first started on this column, but as of Jan. 20 it was 69 cents on the US dollar. Reminds me of the time in 1999 I bought a 24 x 28-foot timber frame package, complete with structural insulated panes and windows for $18,000. At that time in 1999, the Canadian dollar was 75 cents. With the exchange rate this low, there are bargains to be had! When I lived in...
When I was about 10 years old, my dad took my sister and me on a camping trip up the New England coast from Massachusetts to Quebec. It was memorable to me for what we ate all along the way: Chef Boyardee ravioli and corn on the cob. I cannot look at a can of Chef Boyardee to this day. However, the memory of the crepe breakfast on the wide stone plaza across the street from the Hotel Frontenac delights me still. "Quebec City, So Europe. So close" is the apropos motto of this city with Old World...
One of the favored spots of Alaskans looking to avoid winter and live on $30 a day, Chiang Mai, the capital of Northern Thailand, offers great food, warm, welcoming people and cultural sites. It's Asia without the huge crowds - and Alaskans are not used to large groups of people except at the state fair in Palmer. My cousin Tom, who's in Chiang Mai, now advises Americans to keep a cool head. Thai people are relaxed, polite and non-confrontational. Remain calm and never resort to the pushy,...
I like to find places that have an Alaska connection, and Portland, Oregon is one. A favorite old dead guy of mine, Charles Erskine Scott Wood, spent some of his early years in Alaska, but left behind a mighty legacy in Portland. In early 1877, when an infantry officer, he joined an expedition that had requested a military escort to climb Mount St. Elias, but after the group left Sitka, and without approval from superiors, Wood set off for Alaska. Ranging along the Southeast coast, he stayed in...
I have traveled with my mother when she was sighted and then not, and I wish this book, "Planes, Canes and Automobiles," had been available to me after she was hit with temporal arteritis, a rare autoimmune disease where the temporal arteries are destroyed, often causing blindness. The author, Valerie M. Grubb, first started traveling with her mother when she was 64 and continued for the next 20 years. It's true that as we age we become more set in our ways, so making travel plans with someone...
Yes, the termination dust is telling us that it's time to think winter and how to avoid it. You could go to Hawaii and blend in with all the other Alaskans wearing the same swim suit from Eddie Bauer. Or you can put on your winter gear and head off to London. You will be treated like a celebrity there because you're from such a romantic place, as the Brits think – who forget their oh so many ill-fated forays into the arctic, complete with cannibalism, useless overland treks, and the peculiar B...
Located in the northwestern corner of the state, Shreveport-Bossier is the third-largest community in Louisiana. Home to a thriving nightlife and entertainment scene, a year-round calendar of festivals and cultural events, a burgeoning culinary scene and opportunities to explore the great outdoors, Shreveport-Bossier is a destination where there's always something new to experience. Culturally, Shreveport-Bossier serves as a crossroads where the Cajun and Creole traditions of Louisiana blend...
On a 6-hour layover in Seattle, we took the train into downtown. I've wanted to see the historic Arctic Hotel for a long time. And in my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants traveling style, I didn't look up to see what stop that might be or the actual address. So I looked at the city map, remembered it was Cherry Street and maybe, Third, and took a stab at Pioneer Square. As the escalator rose to street level, I looked up and there were the extraordinary walrus heads, once terra cotta now fiberglass,...
Summertime means road trips, and no Alaskan can call themselves a true Alaskan if they haven't done the Haul Road. Yes, you may have done the Alaska Highway to the Lower 48, but it's not so gnarly now as it once was, no longer gravel and mostly paved. But the Haul Road, also known as the Dalton Highway, is a gravel road - another animal entirely. Gravel roadways have a decidedly different impact on your vehicle, most notably rocks and huge, thick clouds of dust. So if your windshield sports a...
San Francisco, where the city's port ships out hundreds of thousands of tourists north to Alaska on cruise ships, has another Alaska connection nearby, a literary one – Jack London Square in Oakland just across the bay. Jack London was the author of such Klondike Gold Rush-era literary sensations, "Call of the Wild," "White Fang" and "The Sea-Wolf." The site has London's relocated Klondike cabin, and it's open all the time for people to visit. It will remind you of the first dry cabin you ever r...
In winter, although I hanker for Hawaii and know it's the cure for cabin fever, I usually obsess with a location farther north and farther away. This winter it's Mont Saint-Michel on the Normandy Coast of France. I kind of feel like Richard Dreyfuss in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." In my quiet moment, I want to build a gingerbread house of that magnificent monastery on an island. Trip of fools I have been there twice, once with a boyfriend, who, by the time we got to Athens, I wanted to...
Many Alaskans I know say that Chicago is a great city and they love to visit. Traveling there in April for my son's wedding, I had a hard time adjusting to the fact that this is a city with a capital "C." It's really big. Think of it this way: Anchorage has a little over 300,000 people. Chicago? Close to 3 million – more than the entire state of Alaska. Unlike New York, with its landmarks of Central Park and the Empire State Building, I grasped for a sense of direction, some guide post, some f...
Alaskans will find the terrain of New Orleans definitely alien - flat with no mountains, with a whiff of sulfur in the muggy air off the Bayou. But in February, it's worth a visit when temperatures are lower than summertime and the city offers up its annual Dionysian fest, Mardi Gras. Unlike Alaska, you can consume liquor publicly in New Orleans, and during festivals or during Saints football games, you can pull off into a parking lot and have a tailgate party. But you might want to defer your...
Cruising to and around Alaska is nothing new. From the cruises of the Treasury Department's Revenue Cutters to today's floating cities, people have come to Alaska for furs, gold and the scenery. They still do. Just say to a stranger in the Lower 48 that you're from Alaska, and their eyes get misty and they breathe out a sigh of "I've always dreamed about going to Alaska." Ever heard anyone say, "I've always dreamed of going to Bermuda?" No. Steamers and cruisers Reading a copy of "Steaming to th...
