Alaska Part Three

I almost forgot what part I was on: Alaska Part Three.

I spent a couple of days in Fairbanks with my newly married friend and then flew down to Anchorage to meet up with my other friends who were road tripping.

Here's the Fairbanks airport:

The airport has grown up a lot since I lived there.  It definitely did not look like this.  My friend and I wondered how much it takes to keep it warm in the winter with all those windows.  Hmm.

It was a bit of an odd flight.  It was one of those random ones where you have to walk to and from the airplane.  Then we learned that former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, along with some others, was killed in a plane crash that day.  Ted Stevens is HUGE in Alaska...even the Anchorage airport is named after him.  It was a sad day.  Then Senator Lisa Murkowski was sitting two rows behind me.  She was recently defeated by Tea Party candidate Joe Miller.  So it was an interesting day to be flying in Alaska.

After I spent the day and night visting my brother, sister, and nephew in Anchorage I met up with my friends just outside of Girdwood.  Our first stop was Portage Glacier.

As you can tell it was a pretty cloudy day.  Back in the day when I first moved to Alaska (1995), the glacier was into the water and there were tons of huge chunks of ice.  I'll have to dig out my hard copy sometime when I unpack and scan it.  It's amazing how much the glacier has receded.  The visitor center used to have an underwater viewing area so you could check out the bergs in the water.  That area, obviously, is not used anymore (well at least by us meager tourists). 

Here's a close up of a nearby glacier to the right:

It's just a beautiful area:

Here's the visitor center:

I love the lushness of this area.  Just look:

I have to post another photo of fireweed, just because:

Glacier fed rivers are so amazingly blue/green. 

I love all the berry bushes around:

Well, looks like this post will be short and sweet. Got to find some missing photo and cook some dinner.  I am starving.  Until later!