As so many of you already know, we love Alaska. So, when this opportunity came up for us to visit Anchorage March 1-3, 2013 with VisitAnchorage.com and Anchorage Awe lumni, we were so excited! Neither of us has traveled to Alaska during the winter- so this was definitely something on our Bucket List for Alaska!
To make this trip even more exciting, our time here was planned by Visit Anchorage to coincide with the ceremonial start of the Iditarod and their Fur Rendezvous celebration which is held the last two weeks each February. We gained interest in the Iditarod several years ago when we took a helicopter/dog sledding tour on Herbert Glacier outside of Juneau before one of our cruises. Along with our friends Mark & Debbie Hoffman, we enjoyed one of the most amazing afternoons with 60 sled dogs and our musher, Jake Berkowitz. Since then, we have followed Jake during some major sled dog races in Alaska including the Copper Basin 300, the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod. Jake won the Copper Basin 300 and the Knik 200 in 2011, was named Rookie of the Year his fourth place finish in the Yukon Quest in 2012; he was pulled after a hand injury in the 2012 Iditarod (but was in 7th place until then!); and he just recently finished fourth in the 2013 Yukon Quest.
Coincidently, when I was telling my cousin Lori (who is Principal at Classical Academies in San Diego) that we were coming to Alaska, she mentioned that her 2nd Grade teacher, Mrs. Stein, just happened to be teaching her children about the Iditarod. Mrs. Stein’s 2nd graders made us a Flat Stanley and Lightening the mush dog to take with us on our adventure. So, Flat Stanley and Lightening have accompanied us on our journey the whole way here from San Diego.
To be honest, I had never heard of Flat Stanley. So, this has been a learning experience for Gramma and Grampa Jim as well! And, it has been so much fun!
Our journey began on Wednesday night when we loaded our suitcases into the car and off we went to the airport in San Diego to board our flight. Flat Stanley and Lightening were right with us. We all made it through the Security Check at the airport and then enjoyed a slice of pizza for dinner before we boarded our flight. We had a nice flight from San Diego to Portland. Flat Stanley and Lightening were in seat 23A. We arrived in Anchorage at 1:00 a.m. and were met by Marsha from Visit Anchorage. As you can imagine, we were all a little tired - so we got Flat Stanley and Lightening put to bed for the night and Gramma and Grampa Jim fell asleep right away after that!
See you tomorrow in Anchorage!
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