Arctic Monkeys

Who would have thought we would tire of our never ending summer but, after a month in Mexico and a few days in San Diego - the self-proclaimed 'finest city in the US of A' which is actually as beautiful as claimed with year-round sunshine, good food, great beaches, lovely people (apart from the obligatory weirdo who had her identity stolen by the FBI after communicating with aliens and having the energy and information zapped out of her by the U2s ... still we believed her after she claimed the best thing about London was climbing the Eiffel Tower!) and fabulous shopping (whoa Ali, no shopping til New York remember), we did.

So, after checking the weather (May-August = thawed, October-April = frozen), we decided to add an extra couple of flights to our ticket and make this a true round the world experience ...

... from one pole to the other (kind-of!). Famous for the Northern Lights, Eskimos and grizzlies, we figured the opportunity to visit Alaska and - in the words of our guidebook - ogle awesome glaciers, watch migrating whales, admire 37 species of mammal (including 3 types of bear) and be dumb-struck by one big-ass mountain was just too good to pass up. Being able to try such tasty treats as Eskimo ice-cream (ice, berries and seal-fat) and stinkhead (fermented fish) was just an added bonus!

Arriving in Anchorage around 9pm, the first thing we noticed was the amazing setting with snow capped mountains surrounding lush parks and salmon filled lakes. The second was the sunshine! At this time of year the sun sets around midnight and rises again around 2am - giving you a bit of twilight in between! A pain when driving as you always think you have plenty of time to get to your destination but great to be able to play golf at midnight!

Alaska really is everything it's cracked up to be, and more, and we spent an amazing week driving North to the Arctic Circle just to say we'd been (although we were told it was only a 2 hour drive and that we'd see loads of wildlife along the road - 5 hours, 2 rabbits and 1 mouse later ...), and South to the beautiful port town of Seward to see the glaciers and whales (both of which were obscured by torrential rain!). Luckily it was the in between stuff that made our trip:

Denali (aka Mt McKinley) National Park
where wildlife spotting is as easy as Steve getting a speeding fine (more on that later) - you have a 95% chance of seeing a grizzly, as well as an abundance of Caribou, Moose, Wolves, Arctic Squirrels and Dall Sheep - all of which we did. Fortunately, we were in the car when we spotted the bears, although we had been given instructions as to how to behave when encountering a grizzly:

1. Identify yourself (?!). Let the bear know you are human and talk to it (again - ?!). Back away slowly, but if followed stand your ground.
2. Don't run or climb. You can't outrun or out climb a bear - they live in trees, have been clocked at 35mph and will chase fleeing animals as prey.
3. Bears often make bluff charges, sometimes within 10ft, stand your ground and don't scream (yeah right!)
4. If attacked surrender (!). Fall to the ground and play dead (perhaps in a panicked faint?). Typically a bear will now back away - if not fight back as it thinks you're food (maybe you could try that talking thing again?!).
5. However, should you accidentally get between a mother and her cubs then, unless you are the invisible man or wearing a jet-pack, you're history!

As we said, fortunately we were in the car when we saw that female bear and her cub grazing at the side of the road!!!

The other main attraction of Denali is the magnificent views it rarely offers of North America's highest peak, Mt McKinley (Denali is the native name meaning 'the high one'), due to being shrouded in cloud 80% of the year. Guess what, we were there during the other 20% of the year!

The All American Road
from Anchorage to Seward which is one of the most scenic drives we've done. Snow capped peaks, deserted beaches, bright blue glacial lakes, salmon filled rivers, moose cooling off in marshlands and bears by the roadside - definitely an awesome experience.

Accommodation
in places like the Chatanika Lodge - a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere with moose heads, stuffed bears and animal skins adorning the walls, live music and line dancing and Talkeetna, a very arty town in the middle of all that spectacular nature. Oh and the Howling Dog Saloon, which we declined to stay at due to it being a bit too reminiscent of 'From Dusk til Dawn'!

Alaskans
who are amongst the nicest people we've met, including: Rachel and Jennifer (the latter of which is a veteran of the 1,000 mile Fairbanks to Yukon Dog-sled race and owned 50 huskies - one of which Ali naturally offered to adopt and is still trying to figure out how to get Ruben, a 4 year old un-housetrained and very reluctant sled-dog, back to England without Steve noticing!) who we got drunk with at the Chatanika Lodge and who then took us sight-seeing to the old gold dredge - at 2am (don't worry - it was light!); Vic, Kathy and Skipper the Boatdog, a retired couple about to embark on a 3 month cruise who invited us on to their boat for a glass or two of wine after we got chatting on the marina; both policemen who stopped Steve for speeding on the same stretch of road during the same hour - the first of which asked him to step out of the ve-hi-cle but let him off with a warning after agreeing it must be difficult to be driving again for the first time in 6 months and the 45mph sign really wasn't that visible (he was doing 57mph at the time) and the second of which lowered the speed on the ticket down to 70mph (from 75mph in a 65mph zone) in order to reduce the fine to US$50 because we were wearing out seatbelts; and the bar manager who informed us we couldn't come in as he'd already called time - 'but thanks for trying'!

Adverts and place names
which kept us amused along the way - especially the Mc 'can my butt get any bigger' Meal Weighwatchers Ad, Gobbler's Nob Viewpoint and Skinny Dick's Half Way Inn Motel!

Our only disappointments were that we missed the Northern Lights (they're only visible until April), didn't get to see any Eskimos, Polar Bears (didn't go far enough North) or bears fishing for salmon (too early in the season) and nothing was frozen - but at least we have an excuse to go back at least 3 times!!!