Page 143 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

In August 2003, Virginia and I attended the AMS Weathercasting Conference in
Seattle. During a break in the Conference, we visited the Famous Space Needle and
rode the “Duck”, an amphibious landing craft through the city and into the Lake Union
for a fabulous view of the city’s shoreline. Following the Conference, we flew to
Anchorage where we enjoyed seeing students performing at the Alaskan Native
Heritage Center. After a few delicious Salmon dinners, we rode the train past Talkeetna
to Denali Park. After spending the night in a lodge on a hill above the Park entrance, we
rode a bus through the park. When the bus stopped, we were reminded not to discard
anything on the Park property because it would disturb the animal’s native
environment. We could only see the base of the large Alaskan mountain range because
of a dominant overcast during the entire trip.

We rode a van back to Anchorage with a rest stop at Talkeetna. This was the place that
a few people had gotten off the train for a helicopter tour of Mt. McKinley. That
mountain is over 20,000 feet high. If I ever go back there, that’s what I’d like to see.
I’ve never ridden in a helicopter, but that is one place I would try it. In Anchorage, we
enjoyed a tour of some of the residential neighborhoods bordering Cook Inlet where the
gigantic 1964 earthquake struck.

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