Alaska - the last frontier

When I used to think about Alaska, I thought about a beautiful rugged state. The license plates read: The Last Frontier. This moniker makes sense because after all, even in the most inhabitable part of Alaska (southeast), there’s 6 months of snow, 5 ½ hours between sunrise and sunset on Winter Solstice and about 12 feet of rain a year. Come on! It's rugged since only about 650,000 hardy people live in an area that is about one third the size of the continental U.S.

So, I decided to take a rugged cruise. Now, I am now one of those 600,000 + people who took a cruise to the Last Frontier this summer. It’s a rigorous lifestyle that includes: sleeping in shifts - 8 hours at night and a nap during the day, eating – grueling dinners, painstaking trips to the nacho bar, countless souvenir shops and best of all – endless beautiful vistas.

My favorite town was Sitka and my favorite vista was the Hubbard Glacier where we stayed 2 hours and watched sheaths of ice crack then break-off and plunge into the bay to form icebergs.

The Inside Passage in Alaska is just like seeing the tip of an iceberg; it looks so tiny on the map. Maybe next time (when I’m in shape), I’ll explore the more frontiery parts of Alaska.