alaska day 3: helicopter ride and hurricane gulch

these are marathon posts, so i commend you...
even if you've been 'skimming'.
not that you {nor i} ever would.  ;)



wednesday, we stopped by era helicopters to thank them for setting us up with such great adventures the previous day.
unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating,
so for safety's sake, they had to postpone/cancel flights scheduled for the morning.
again, no glacier tour.
*sigh*
while chatting, they offered to let us ride with the pilot to do a 'weather' check.  sweet, right?



hubs hopped in the back seat, while i hopped in right beside the pilot.
behind the controls.
one does not want to accidentally touch the millions of buttons.
i am not a co-pilot.
roger that.



even though the cloud coverage proved that customers would not be landing on their glacier immediately, bill made sure we got a lil' mini tour.
he searched for any signs of wildlife.
they were hiding.
and showed us victory falls.
as well as numerous glacier made rivers.

the pictures don't do this excursion justice.  i was kinda busy looking for bears.

and, again, one is thankful to have an experienced pilot.
thank you, bill.
it was a smooth ride!



this is where we ate most of our quick denali meals.  subway.  we're classy like that.  it's home of the $9 foot long.  denali park also sells $5/gallon gas.  ouch.

but denali makes me feel young.  there are a lot of seniors taking advantage of the land and sea cruises.  sweet, yes?




it was time to say good-bye to our spectacular mckinley chalet views.
three nights in alaska.  three different beds.
but this was, by far, the best view.



seriously.
this was the view upon opening our door.
i loved the sound of the nenana river.
fresh, cool air first thing in the morning.
hahhhhh...

on our road trip, headed back south toward wasilla, we stopped to soak in a little scenery at one of the road-side stops.  it happened to be hurricane gulch.



the view was quite spectacular.

i can't wait to share what our wasilla visit held.
be prepared to oooh and aaaah at the cuteness.