Alaska next week (11/23-11/30)

CJones

CJones

Final Approach
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uHaveNoIdea
My wife and I will be in Anchorage next week (11/23-11/30) visiting her brother and his family for Thanksgiving. He is based at Ft. Richardson.

I'm sure they will have stuff planned for us to do, but if I get a 'free' afternoon, is there anything in particular I should be on the lookout for doing or seeing while up there?
 
Flying? :)
 
elmetal said:
that's a dream right there. Flying in Alaska is something i would hope to do before I die
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Me too. Although I love flying in Canada, and want to explore the northern provinces more someday. Maybe on a flight en route to Alaska... :)
 
I think you should rent a plane and fly up to the park and say howdy! ;)

Anchorage Museum / Rasmusen Center is definitely worth an afternoon.

The aviation heritage museum at Lake Hood is ok.

There are a couple of outfits which continue their Alaska Range flightseeing into winter, weather allowing.
 
The train goes up to Denali on Saturday (actually all the way to Fairbanks) and back on Sunday. Pretty scenery, a few hardy souls to keep you company.
Also it makes a round trip to Seward maybe each day?
 
Talk to Kath, she's based there. Haven't seen her on here in quite a while, though.
 
alaskaflyer said:
She's doing well, I run into her occasionally. She doesn't have much time for flying these days. I think she still lurks on here :)
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She hasn't logged in since Feb, but, as you say, she may still lurk without logging in. Say "Hi!" for me! (Even better, I should call her and do it myself! :idea:)
 
Do NOT waste your time driving the Dalton Hwy to the polar circle sign at the side of the road.
 
sba55 said:
Do NOT waste your time driving the Dalton Hwy to the polar circle sign at the side of the road.
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I think I hear the voice of experience talking.....:D
 
flyersfan31 said:
In other words, not much to do in Anchorage. I spent a week there one night.
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Well, as Tim said, there is Anchorage, and then there is Alaska.

Anchorage is an OK city. There are plenty of city-type things to do in Anchorage, most of which I find not particularly interesting for visitors because they are the same as any metro area...though I personally enjoy my city-time when I can get it, living the mostly rural life as I do. There is also dining out but the restaurant list is too exhausting to post and besides, his family will know the good choices.
 
Thanks for the input folks.

I like the train to Denali idea. Don't know what is on the agenda for Saturday, though. If we can swing a trip up that way, I'll be in touch for a 'behind the scenes' look at Denali. :D

We were hoping to get up there this summer so I could get some fishing in, but I've seen too many episodes of "Deadliest Catch" to want to be out on the water this time of year. ;)

I would LOVE to be able to do some flying while up there, but I'm pretty sure that will be cost-prohibitive this trip. I still plan on flying myself up there someday, so I guess I'll have to wait until then to get my Alaska-Air fix. (I'll still bring my logbook with me... you know.. just in case...)
 
Drive up to Talkeetna and go flight seeing. You might get some right seat time. There's a nice restaurant in Anchorage that I would highly recommend but I don't remember the name. One end of the bar area was all windows and looked out over the Cook Inlet. I know that description is pretty vague but maybe if you ask some locals they may be able to put a name to the description.

We could probably plan a group trip to AK. We're going to do it in the next couple of years. Ed wants to make the trip as well.
 
pilot117 said:
We could probably plan a group trip to AK. We're going to do it in the next couple of years. Ed wants to make the trip as well.
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Now that would be fun! As I mentioned before, we were planning to fly there a couple years ago.
 
I plan to visit Alaska too, but it is going to be during a season that has some daylight!
 
I hope to make the trip, when I do, in mid to late June to catch the peak of King season on the Kenai.
 
pilot117 said:
There's a nice restaurant in Anchorage that I would highly recommend but I don't remember the name. One end of the bar area was all windows and looked out over the Cook Inlet. I know that description is pretty vague but maybe if you ask some locals they may be able to put a name to the description.
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http://www.simonandseaforts.com/page/location, no doubt. Great seafood.
 
pilot117 said:
We could probably plan a group trip to AK. We're going to do it in the next couple of years. Ed wants to make the trip as well.
Click to expand...

Definitely plan on making the flight up there myself someday. I told Rachel that we could do it this time - it's ONLY 20 hrs of flying in the RV - that's JUST 2-10hr days of flying! She just gave me 'the look', and I knew we were going to be airline-ing it this time. ;)
 
PABR 190253Z 27006KT 9SM -SN OVC034 M07/M09
PABE 190253Z 14005KT 10SM CLR M07/M13 A3050
PAFA 190253Z 00000KT 6SM -SN BR FEW020 BKN040 OVC050 M10/M12 A3050
PAKT 190253Z 30005KT 10SM CLR M01/M12 A3014
PAOM 190253Z 14007KT 10SM OVC009 M02/M03 A3035
PATK 190253Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR M17/M19 A3051

Brrr!



yikes! gives new meaning to "he gets up at the crack of noon"!
PAOM
Sunrise 10:46
Sunset 16:48
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
PABR 190253Z 27006KT 9SM -SN OVC034 M07/M09
PABE 190253Z 14005KT 10SM CLR M07/M13 A3050
PAFA 190253Z 00000KT 6SM -SN BR FEW020 BKN040 OVC050 M10/M12 A3050
PAKT 190253Z 30005KT 10SM CLR M01/M12 A3014
PAOM 190253Z 14007KT 10SM OVC009 M02/M03 A3035
PATK 190253Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR M17/M19 A3051

Brrr!



yikes! gives new meaning to "he gets up at the crack of noon"!
PAOM
Sunrise 10:46
Sunset 16:48
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My bro-in-law called earlier this week on his way to work to inform me that it was a whopping 3*F there that morning so that I "would know what to look forward to". I told him "Well, it's still in the 70's here, and I'll only be up there for a week. You'll be there until the the spring (sort of) thaw next year." I think I won that battle. :D

I think it's supposed to 'warm up' to the 30's earlier next week which probably means it will be warm enough to snow like a sonuva....
 
Well, we are back from the 'Final Frontier', and ALMOST un-jetlagged.

It was a really good trip. Unfortunately, we didn't venture too far outside of Anchorage while there. My bro-in-law has a 4 y/o and a 5 month-old, so road trips were pretty much not going to happen. I'm also under the impression that they haven't explored much since they have been there either. We did make it down the Seward Highway to see some glaciers before they were too snow-covered to see.

Considering that we didn't even get into 'real' Alaska, I can only imagine how beautiful it can be away from the city. My wife and I both have said that we want to go back in the summer and do some more exploring. A friend of hers drives campers to Alaska every summer in return for super low rental rates, so that is a possibility, but I still want to fly up there and do some flight-seeing. It was interesting to see the aviation forecast (complete with vis, freezing levels, and cloud cover) for the local passes on the local weather report on TV. I'm afraid I would be shunned in a nose-wheel RV, since the VAST majority of planes up there are high-wing taildraggers. ha

All-in-all, it was a great trip. We didn't do nearly as much exploring as I had hoped, but even the small section we saw was really cool. We definitely plan to go back. I have 200+ pics that I took from the trip. I'll cull them and get them uploaded and post a link when done.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions!
 
If your looking for fishing you can visit Tower Rock Lodge for an inclusive fishing vacation visit their website at towerrocklodge.com
 
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