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When Americans talk about the most
beautify places in the United States, Alaska is always at or close to
the top of the list. It's the biggest state with the fewest
people. Most of Alaska is undeveloped. People who live in
the state consider themselves some of the toughest people in the world
due to the harsh conditions they must endure living in such a cold and
untamed environment.
I'm a warm weather person. I
moved from Chicago to Texas back in 1992 after spending 10 years in the
windy city. It just took living in Texas a week to convince me
that I'd never move back to a cold climate. When I get time to
travel, my first thought is of warm beaches, golf courses and most
importantly, warm water to ski in. So Alaska has never been even
in my top 10 places to visit. I watch "The Deadliest Catch" show
on the Explorer channel and cringe as the Alaskan fishers leave out of
Homer, Alaska to brave weather that could reach -40 degrees.
A year ago in August 2008, Michele's
mom Georgianne passed away suddenly of a heart attack. Georgianne loved Alaska
and had been there to visit 3 or 4 times over the last 10 years.
She was constantly bugging us to go on a trip with her. She would bring back beautiful
pictures to share with us. Pictures of glaciers, bears, seals,
whales, and remote villages she had visited. We always told her we
didn't need to visit after talking for hours about it with her. Knowing
how much she loved it, we all decided that we should
take that trip to Alaska that Georgianne had always wanted us to take,
to her favorite place Homer. In her will, she stated that she'd
like to be cremated and have her ashes spread in a beautiful place with
the animals. So we decided it would be Homer, Alaska.
Fortunately, many of our neighbors at
Lakes of Katy are from Alaska. Being that Houston is an oil town,
many residents have roots in Alaska having worked on the Alaska
pipeline. We have several neighbors with families in Anchorage,
Homer, and even in the town of Wasilla, now famous for being the
hometown of Sara Pallan. So we had great advice from people who lived
there on where to go and where to stay.
My first question of my neighbors was:
"When is the warmest time to visit Alaska, and can I barefoot while I'm
there?" The answer was the middle of July, and yes, they have a
large waterski population in Alaska. We were pleasantly surprised
to hear that news. So Michele set out to plan the trip.
 We invited my partner Joe and his wife
Nancy along on the trip. We've traveled to many places around the
world together and they were more than eager to join us on this
adventure as well. Michele set it up so we would fly into
Anchorage, travel to Wasilla to visit some waterski friends (JC and
Brenda McCavit). JC & Brenda live on a beautiful lake in a small
community that all share a passion waterskiing and good cooking.
JC and Brenda entertained us for two days. We ate more varieties
of salmon, halibut, and crab than I thought existed. We skied at
midnight while the sun was still high in the ski. During July, the
sun never sets in Alaska. That allows their plants to grow 24/7
and water to warm up to a balmy 75 degrees. We were pleasantly
surprised to find out that we could ski in only a wetsuit. JC went
out of his way to make sure we had a boat that was fast enough to pull
me at 45mph as I barefooted around their lake. We had a blast
skiing and visiting with all of JC's neighbors.
After two days in Wasilla, we drove 5
hours South of Anchroage to Homer. It was five hours of some of the most
picturesque scenery you can imagine. Beautify mountains, rivers, and
crystal clear lakes all along the way. I think we stopped about 20
times to take pictures.
We planned to stay 5 days in Homer
(Mon thru Sat morning). During those 5 days, Michele had scheduled
us to do nearly every type of outing available:
It took us a while to get used to going to sleep at 11:00pm and the sun
still be up. The condos we were staying in didn't have blinds on
the windows, so you'd have to imagine you were taking an afternoon nap.
If you woke up at 3am, the sun would still be out.
We'd wake up each morning to the
sounds of seagulls and eagles outside our windows. The morning
temperatures were 45-55 degrees, and it would slowly warm up throughout
the day and reach a high around 75-80. They say the highest
temperature recorded in Homer, Alaska is 82 degrees. We reached 79
one day. It's very comfortable. I reminded me of Wisconsin
temperatures. The only difference was instead of seeing corn
fields and cow farms, we saw huge mountains, oceans, wild flowers, and
glaciers.
The wildlife was amazing. In a
weeks time, we saw grizzly (brown) bears, black bears, moose, sea
otters, seals, eagles, and countless birds. The sea otters were
very entertaining. While kayaking, we had one otter swimming on
his back about 3 feet next to us just checking us out.
One of the most memorable outings was
the horse back ride with the Trails End Horseback Riding Excursion.
We took a 4 hour ride up the coast into the back woods, only assessable
by horeback or on foot. Riding through the thick woods gave you a
perspective of what it was like for the original settlers over 100 years
ago. The scenery was the same today as it was back then.
We were able to spread Michele's mom's
ashes in the remote wilderness in a field of wildflowers with beautiful
mountains and glaciers in the background. It's exactly what we
imagined she would want.
We ended our adventure with an evening
cruise and dinner at Halibut Cove, a beautiful village built on the
cliffs surrounding a cove across the bay from Homer. It looked
like something out of a Norm Rockwell painting.
For all those who have not yet taken a
trip to Alaska, I'd highly recommend it. If you want the best
summer weather, plan to go during the month of July to early August.
Chuck Gleason
Team BarefootCentral.com
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