I recall as a young child my dad claiming that he had visited all 48 states.  I was quite impressed.  I wondered if I would ever be able to ever match that accomplishment. 

My dad had the advantage of being the son of a professor whose research and world war II assignments took him nearly everywhere.  Later, in the home that my parents made, travel was not mandated by an employer, rather, it was actively pursued to expand the experiences of their children.

And it did.  We visited many states on our summer vacation travels and gained an awareness of their local distinctions.  But some were beyond our range, including Alaska.  I have not been there until just now, this year, 2022.  It has been a wonderful addition to my catalogue of states visited.

We signed up for a week with an Alaskan company, Salmon Berry Tours [https://www.salmonberrytours.com], and then Poldi extended it another week, using her formidable travel-agent skills to find interesting locations to explore.  This and the next series of blog entries will show the highlights of this fascinating trip.

We started by flying to Fairbanks, a modest city of 30,000, first created during the gold rush, and in “the interior”, a geographic description that Alaskans fully understand that contrasts it with the southern coastal regions, where the history and economy is quite different.  We found the city to be not much different from Minneapolis—similar climate, but with mountains surrounding it.  Maybe a bit more snow.

Here are a few photos from our time in Fairbanks. Click a thumbnail, then scroll through.