Jan and Butch in Alaska

Lisa’s parents, Jan and Butch, dropped in en route to the rugby world cup in France. It was a short but really nice visit and, thankfully, the weather and animals played their parts pretty well. Our whirlwind highlights tour from Seward to Fairbanks meant lots of driving, giving us plenty of time to catch-up.

Lise and I zoomed the 360 miles down to Anchorage after work Thursday night, arriving just after Jan and Butch touched down. On Friday we made a day trip to Seward with a 5-hour boat tour or Resurrection Bay. Straight after launch we spotted a sea otter lolling and rolling around in the swell. (Sea otters eat 25% of the body weight a day - beat that!) Later on the boat stopped for 20 minutes to watch and photo a pod of Orcas (killer whales). We also saw Steller Sea Lions and some birds, but unfortunately for Lise, no elusive puffins. A slightly choppy crossing at the mouth of the bay, which opens into the Gulf of Alaska, we cruised passed the Bear Glacier and booted back to port. A really nice meal of crab and local seafood rounded out the day.

Saturday dawned a beautiful, crisp, clear autumn day for the long drive up to Denali Park. With only a few little clouds under the main peak, we got a fantastic view of Denali on the drive up. It was past the official ‘end of the but we were able to drive the first 32 miles of the park road. Unfortunately, no bears, moose or caribou made themselves visible but we did see some young snow shoe hares with ears and legs already white for the winter, and a flock of half-white ptarmigan hoping that if they stayed still we couldn’t see them. Daft little things. Dinner at a greasy spoon in Healy was sweetened with a shimmering green Aurora in the clear night sky.

We had the very comfy ‘Touch of Wilderness’ bed and breakfast all to ourselves, and from the second storey at breakfast, we were treated to a wolf wandering through the back yard with his own morning snack – a fox or rabbit maybe.

Lise had Monday off and showed her folks the Museum, galleries, sights and surrounds of Fairbanks. We had a lovely potluck dinner with Pat and Adia, and Bobby and Morgan hosted by our friends Fred and Kay. Too small for dinner, our place is also a bit small for accommodations too, and as it turned out nowhere near as unusual in character and characters as the Goldhill Lookout B&B.

So, a short but full and wonderful visit. No puffins and no bears but pretty much everything else. Jan and Butch - we hope you enjoy France and the AB’s finally lift the cup again. Thanks for the party mix, Dominion crosswords, chocolate licorice, ‘blackout’ tops and most of all, thanks for being able to make it all the way up here. Good tears at the airport.