Trip 3, August
Part 1So this third trip was quite different than the others. The last few were small groups, adventure-style - we traveled lightly, covered a ton of ground, prioritized practical lodging over fancy hotels, and so on. This trip on the other hand was a luxury one - I flew down an entire catering team, we stayed in a luxurious resort, chartered planes... the whole shebang. This group was also a lot larger than the 4-5 that normally come on adventure trips - I had over 20 people on the main trip, and nearly 50 on Shabbos. And instead of 4-5 days, this one was 8 days long (10 for me).
Altogether, 15 flights for me on this trip:
The staff and I left early Sunday morning to get everything set up before the guests arrived Monday afternoon. Once we got to Anchorage we rented a couple of cars and all split up - there were tons of things to take care of in a very short period of time. We went shopping, received orders, had final meetings with hotel and F&B management, and got started on kashering our own kitchen, restaurant, and banquet spaces. We were staying at Alyeska Resort about an hour south of Anchorage, so it was close enough to be convenient yet far enough to be deep in the Alaskan mountains.
Come Monday afternoon and everything was in place. I headed down to the airport to meet and greet the guests, dropped off one of our rentals, and headed back on the coach with the group. Checkin, light refreshments, settling in to the hotel, giant welcome dinner, less giant welcome speech, and then maariv and call it a day.
TuesdayBreakfast, Kosher Horizons style:
Today it was off to Matanuska Glacier. Most of the group was going trekking, while five people opted for the ice climbing option. Scenic stops along the way:
Back at one of my favorite places in Alaska:
Heading out:
Glacial mud is supposedly great for the skin. Either that, or it's just fun to smear all over your face...
One of our guides:
The details that are found on the glacier are mind-blowing. Here's a river of mud pouring out from... a tear in the mud:
Made it to the glacial lake:
The details and colors are just crazy:
The icefall on top of the lake:
Part of the group:
Filling up water bottles with pristine glacial water:
Ominous clouds gathering on the horizon:
Thankfully it only rained lightly for around five minutes but it made for some epic lighting and guest portraits - the latter of which I'm not gonna share here, sorry
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Time to head back:
Quick stop at Long Lake on the way back:
The only picture I took of dinner - in general I found I was too busy to take too many pictures of the food unfortunately...:
WednesdayNorthward bound today towards Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. Normally the summit is hidden in clouds, but we're looking at a perfect bluebird day today:
Instead of admiring the mountain from afar, let's get right up close:
I may or may not fit into this thing:
We spread out over three aircraft, and up, up, and away.
Check out the muddy river meeting the glacial one:
Nice welcome as we cross over the foothills of the Alaska Range:
Actually morphed into a double rainbow as we flew past:
As the mountains grew higher the landscape became more and more alien... and amazing:
Glaciers cascading off the summit, sitting at 20,308′:
We had completely epic views of the summit itself, which is something that does not happen very often:
Glacial lakes:
Approaching Kahlitna Glacier, the largest on the mountain at over 44 miles long:
Hmm, this looks like a nice place to land:
There goes the first of our squadron:
Our turn:
Absolutely breathtaking:
The planes are equipped with both wheels and skis, which get lowered for the glacier landing:
It was just an unbelievable experience. Standing in the snow, high up on one of Earth's Seven Summits, in incredibly beautiful surroundings. A massive snowball fight broke out, where I got absolutely creamed by this guy:
We spent 15-20 minutes on the glacier, just having a great time. At one point a massive rumbling sound reached us, which was apparently a rockfall on the other side of the ridge - we sure didn't see anything that could've caused that.
Reluctantly leaving:
Amazing colors in the ice and snow:
Heading back:
Patriotic red, white, and blue rivers:
Back at the hotel, our youngest guest was turning twelve:
ThursdayFirst things first:
Off to Whittier once again:
There goes the train:
Driving on the rails... It felt even hairier doing this in a huge bus vs. the SUV we had last time:
Due to the tunnel schedule we had a bit of time before we needed to board the boat, so we explored the town a bit.
Um... what?
I went inside, and was informed that they had neither ice cream, nor smoothies, nor hot dogs, nor pizza, nor the slightest idea what kosher means. I left with significantly more questions than I entered with.
Today's cruise was virtually identical to the last one, so I won't go through the entire thing now again. I'll just post a couple of pictures. Even though it was rainy and we didn't end up seeing too much wildlife, it was still a great experience:
Steller sea lions:
Hitting tiny icebergs as we approach Harvard Glacier:
The Daf doesn't take a vacation:
Blackstone Glacier:
Black-legged kittiwakes:
Calving icebergs:
The waterfalls were going a lot stronger than they were three weeks earlier:
Waterfall meets the sea:
The sun trying to break through over Resurrection Bay as we head home:
Dinner time:
To be continued...