Counting down the days...

 

While preparing for the 2014 Alaska trip and reading about the places we will visit, it dawned on me that this is easily the biggest trip I've made sofar. And an exploration of The Last Frontier like this deserves a blog.

 

This first blog is a test to see how this Google Blogger platform works and how I can fiddle around with it. I think will also add travel stories from previous trips at a later stage. 

This upcoming trip I will once again share with my favorite travel partners Lessie and Keith Jacobs, from Efland North Carolina. They are my family abroad.

 

 

They sent me a T-shirt just like it, with "Rotterdam, NL" underneat :) ~ Notice little K.J. on the right

 

We traveled together twice before (2008 and 2011 incl. my girl Marieke) and they have so much knowledge about their beautiful country and so many great stories to share. Having travelled a lot themselves, they have shown me some of the most beautiful places in North America. I love you guys and can't wait to see you again on the 22nd of June. 

Lessie has been the one who made all the necessary arrangements for our trip. She is great at preparing trips and loves doing it.  (I have a hard time deciding on even picking the best flight for myself.) So grateful for all she's done.

So here is the itinerary for the period of June 22nd - July 19th 2014:
(I'm going to write the following by heart so I may be off on some dates)


Sunday 22nd of June I fly from Amsterdam, through Detroit to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, where I will stay with Lessie and Keith in their warm and loving home in the city of Efland. Lessie and Keith just became the proud grandparents of their son Keegan's and his lady Tosha's babyboy, lovingly named after his grandfather Keith: Keith Jacobs the 2nd a.k.a. K.J. So there will be a lot of baby cuddling for a couple of days, as well as preparing for our Alaska trip together. 

Thursday 26th of June the three of us will fly out from Raleigh Durham to Seattle, Washington where we will stay for two nights. I can't wait to visit the Space Needle. We plan on having a lunch or dinner up there. 

Saturday 28th of June we will take a train from Seattle to Vancouver in British Columbia-Canada. It is supposed to be a lovely train ride of a few hours and we will only stay in Vancouver for one night. 

Sunday 29th of June we will board Holland Americal Line's Statendam Cruise, for a 7-day cruise from Vancouver through British Columbia to Seward, Alaska. We will dock in places like Ketchikan, Juneau and Glacier Bay National Park to name a few (on top of my head). 

Since this is not an open sea cruise, we will have a continuous decor of the fjords and glaciers British Columbia is made up of. I can't wait..

Saturday July 5th we will dock in Seward, where we will continue our trip on land. First by train to Anchorage, where we will collect the car we rented for the next 10 days. These 10 days are scheduled a little (hotel accommodations in various resorts are made, including a beautiful train ride with glass rooftop) but other than that, we will let Alaska happen to us. Who knows who we will meet, what excursion we will decide to do and what spectacular encounters we will have with the wildlife of Alaska.

 

 

The reason I personally love to travel to these remote area's is the feeling I get inside, when I am faced with the grandness of this type of nature. My latest roadtrips have included these areas like the various Canyons that make up The Grand Circle in Southern Utah in 2011 and the Grand Canyon just South from that. When you see nature of that kind in real life, the absolute grandness of it makes you feel so incredibly humble. Especially when you know how old it is and how it's gotten shaped like that over millions of years.

 

The first time I visited the Grand Canyon was in 2007, and as a 30th birthday present to me, I treated myself to a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon. 

 

 

The moment when I realized just how immense it was, was when we flew over the edge of a forrest and the ground underneath us suddenly dropped 1200 meters. In a reflex I lifted my feet up. Every second after that, was increasingly humbling.

When we returned to Sedona, AZ the next day I frantically tried to pen down every detail of this amazing experience in my travel journal. Here is an excerpt:


 "When we lifted off, there were two helicopters leaving at the same time, with 5 tourists in each of them. I see the other helicopter flying far away from ours,  at the same altitude. It was as big as a fly on a wall. I feel so vulnerable and tiny, compared to this grandness that keeps stretching out, as far as I can see. Tears start to roll down my face. "It's just like the picture" I think to myself. See, when I was just a young girl I once saw a picture of The Grand Canyon and I knew I would visit that amazing place one day.    

And here she was..

Finally we meet. 


I once read somewhere that "The Grand Canyon is the biggest known Canyon in the world. The only Canyon all other Canyons are compared to in size, shape and age."


She is so beautiful. Carved out by water over the years, continuously working together with nature. Always changing for over millions of years and millions yet to come.


If she were human like us, she could easily have an ego.
She's THAT impressive.



She almost resembles a lazy Diva to me. Like Mae West... lying casually on a chaise longue, arms stretched behind her head in a sensual manner, watching us float above her like tiny specs of dust.



But there is no arrogance to her. 

There is no ego. No attitude. No hidden agenda.

She just IS....and by God, she is absolutely majestic."

I just know this will be a humbling experience once again. Glaciers - wide and long - that stick their 1200 meter high icy 'toes' in the water. Some glaciers are as long as 26 miles and have white canyons hidden deep inside and cracks that can easily swallow an average townhouse. (I actually read this in a description of a glacier - "swallow" a house? Seriously?).

 

Just knowing that inside these thick layers of ice lies history in frozen form. The same water shaped carvings of watery rocks. 

So yes, I can just imagine the Grand Canyon in pure white.  I hope we get to see ice rock formations like this, when we go for the Kayaking excursion....

... ok I am starting to ramble now.

 

 

We are going to see so many beautiful places, panoramic views, small towns and fishing harbours, a bear resort (!) and the Denali National Park, where we will visit the highest mountain peak of North America: Denali (a.k.a. Mc. Kinley).

 

We will travel all the way to Fairbanks. This is the last city North in Alaska. If you drive 100 miles North from there over the Dalton Highway, you will find this sign:

It goes without sying that I want my own picture of this sign with the three of us in it. Wouldn't you? Once you've traveled that far up North, you gotta do those 100 miles, right? To be that high up North is quite something if you ask me. I wish there was more time to go even farther. Here's an Arctic View:

 

After Fairbanks we will come back down in a loop, towards Anchorage, from which we will fly out again on Tuesday July 15th. Back to the Jacobs' family home in Efland, North Carolina.

There, we will have another three days to spend together and we have a little party planned for our friends JadaKaye, Glenda, Justine and their families and I finally get to meet Lessie's life long girlfriends. Great moment to show the pictures of our Alaska adventure and share a great meal together. 

On Friday 18th of July I fly out of Raleigh-Durham again, back to Amsterdam.

Finally, if you draw out this itinerary on the map, this is what it looks like:

 

 

While writing this blog, I have been able to test this bloggers platform.

 

 

I like it. It is user friendly allows me to keep a simple report of our trip. I hope you have an idea of what makes Alaska so fascinating to us and what makes this trip so versatile and exciting.

We are litterally going by 'Plane, Train and Automobile' (and Cruise ship, helicopter, kayak and airboat).

 

Like I said: this trip deserves a blog.

 

 

Now that this blog is set up, all there is left for me to do is to pack my suitcase.

 

 

If you want to join us on this trip, all there is left for you to do is to leave your email address in the field below. You will receive an email as soon as we post an update of our trip.

 

 

Oh, and feel free to leave a comment on here! Love to hear from you!  

 

~Ilona.