Alaska via Air

I got a great deal on the flight to Anchorage on Delta.  And a great deal on the flight out on Alaska Airlines.  Alaska Airlines has a little more legroom than a lot of other airlines, but if you want in flight entertainment you have to rent a little tablet that is preprogrammed with the movies and shows.  It's only $8, but I was planning on watching the scenery go by.

 

Anchorage is nestled below the Chugach Mountains and edges right up to the ocean on a little peninsula.  The mountains are part of your every day scenery, as seen in this airport snapshot.

 

The Anchorage airport is a nice little airport.  There are a few nice little shops and some interesting taxidermy, although I prefer animals in the wild, and in the case of this one, at a very great distance.  I guess this is the closest thing to a live polar bear I have ever seen.

I heard a lot about the moose in Alaska.  Apparently the 'urban moose population' of Anchorage is somewhere around 1300.  That's not much in a city of 300,000.  I am looking forward to seeing a few moose (not mooses or meese or moosei, my favorite made up term for multiple moose).  Moose have only trampled 2 people to death in the city, none since 1995.  The city also has black bear, grizzly bears, and wolves.  Oh, I mean outside of the city, right?  No, no, they pass through from time to time it seems.  A few may even be permanent residents, which is more than I can say for myself.

Anchorage has direct daily flights to Seattle, Phoenix, Honolulu, Las Vegas, and Denver as far as I can tell.  Heading south, you fly right alongside the rather impressive mountains of the St. Elias range, seeing Canada's highest peak at 19,551 feet, Mount Logan, and the 2nd highest peak in North America, Mount St. Elias at just over 18,000 feet.

Sometimes skiing or snowboarding we think we have powder.  I looked out the window and thought...now THAT's powder.

You could make out icy blue crevasses in the ice, and the deep, ancient blue in the ice where it meets water.  I guess these are part of the glaciers...as seen from 35,000 feet.

I wondered if any polar bears were hopping around down there, or if this is too remote even for them.

3.5 hours later, I was back in Seattle, on a warm sunny day.  I suspect I will be making a few of those quick flights south next winter.  Up next...Alaska....by road.