Exploring The 49th State aka The Last Frontier aka The Land of the Midnight Sun

 

Thursday, July 3rd



Here we go again …Vialula and I, along with Melba Jean and Jet Plane, left our quiet little homes in Franklin.  The places we know well, feel comfortable at, and call home.  Two long plane rides, one to Seattle and then on to Anchorage, and then a bus ride to our hotel, the Captain Cook Hotel, and voila, we are in “The Last Frontier.”  The vastness of Alaska is amazing and a bit daunting.  While we will never see that much of our 49th state, the small parts we will visit are still an impressive display of wildness so foreign to our daily lives that it is hard to capture.


Mt. Ranier as we flew into Seattle

Alaska is only inhabited by 740,133 hardy souls based on the 2024 numbers.  Anchorage is the largest city, by far, and it has 286,075 folks.  So that means 38% of the total population lives in that one city.   When you think of the size of Alaska, which is 665,384 sq miles and you distribute the remaining 454,058 folks into that huge space, that means you only have 1.112 person per square mile.  New Jersey, which is our most-heavily dense state, is 1,259 people per sq mile.   Quite a difference.  To put it further in perspective, if Alaska was a country, it would be the 8th largest country in the world.   It’s big.

 


But anyway, Anchorage has a good feeling about it.  We all got out and did a little walking around and found a couple of nice places to stop and have a cold one at the 49th State Brewery where LeRoy & Jet Plane got their local beer of the day.  We had dinner at the roof-top restaurant attached where fresh salmon and the world-famous Yak Burger were enjoyed.  Mixing with tourists and the home crowd alike was enjoyable. 




The sky is bright, bright blue, and the air is crisp and clean.  Breathing in the cool fresh air is like drinking a cold glass of water on a hot Tennessee day.  Instead of 95 degrees, it is 59 degrees.  It might get up into the 70’s, and to the locals it is a heat wave.  One thing that really takes some getting used to is the number of daylight hours during this time of year.   It never really gets dark.  The sun is out about 21 hours per day, and the other three hours are dusky.  It takes a while to get used to, but it is so much better than the winter hours which means it is dark almost the entire day.  I don’t know how I would fare in that environment.  But the locals in Anchorage were out in-masse enjoying the warmth, and so were we!

A long day, and we are all tired, so good night from the Land of the Midnight Sun.  Tomorrow, we board the McKinley Explorer, so come along with us as we explore this magnificent 49th State!







LeRoy and Vi 


 

Location: Anchorage, AK, USA

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