Eklund Adventures: Land of the Midnight Sun

For our third anniversary, John and I were blessed with the opportunity to return to Alaska. Alaska is a special place to both of us, we have a lot of wonderful memories from a previous trip. John and I spent a summer in the "Last Frontier" a few years ago. We lived with five other people and we spent our time working at summer jobs and going on all kinds of adventures. I know it sounds sappy, but Alaska is where we fell for each other. Soon after returning to Colorado, we decided to start dating. We couldn't think of a better place to celebrate our three years of marriage.

Our trip began with a tiring red-eye flight which was significantly delayed due to the Seattle airport being closed because of weather. We barely made our connection and arrived in Alaska just before 2:00 am. The landing into Anchorage is quite exciting. We could see the Ghost range poking through the clouds. Once we were closer to the airport, we could see the Cook Inlet. The runway is right on the Inlet, so all you can see is water. Then suddenly, the plane touches down on solid ground. We picked up our rental car with only a couple of minutes to spare and then it was off to find a place to sleep. A campground outside of Anchorage did the trick, we grabbed our sleeping bags and dozed in the car until morning.

After purchasing our gear and food, we drove south on the Turnagain Arm. We found a campground in Girdwood, and it was there that we realized we had forgotten our tent poles! As members of Team Junk Show, John and I are used to improvising for lost gear.

We spent the next day hiking Little Coal Creek Trail and The Hand Tram trail near Girdwood. After hiking all day we opted to stay in the Girdwood hostel. Of course we couldn't leave Girdwood without sneaking into the Alyeska Resort to use their beautiful hot tub. On our way to Soldatna, AK we stopped by Portage Glacier and Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Our purpose for going to Soldatna was to fish, unfortunately we caught the tail end of the second Sockeye (red) Salmon run. We each had a few fish on the line, but only brought one fish all the way in. John was the hero, and it was nice to have a salmon dinner. Fishing was still a great time, the Kenai is a gorgeous river and we chatted with people from all over the world. While in Soldatna, John and I also went hiking in the Kenai National Wildlife refuge.

From Soldatna we drove to Seward, our last stop. We had a cabin reserved which turned out to be quite nice. We cooked salmon, enjoyed showers and comfortable beds. Our first night we visited the Alaska Sealife Center. The center was funded using some of the settlement money form the Valdez-Exonn oil spill. John and I had a good time watching the animals and touching sea cucumbers, sea anenomes, sea stars, coral and sea urchins. The highlight of our stay in Seward was a kayaking trip to Resurrection Bay. We did an evening paddle and were able to sea harbor seals, eagles and spawning salmon. The Coho (silver) salmon were running, and they jump so high out of the water that we thought they might land in the boats! It was a wonderful evening and a great end to our stay in Seward.

The flight home did not leave until 2:00 am, so had some time to kill in Anchorage. We spent our remaining hours at our beloved Moose's Tooth Brewery drinking some of the best beer in the world. Afterwards, we ate pizza and caught a movie at Bear Tooth Theater and Pub. I think we made every moment count, it was the perfect way to end our trip.