The mountain appeared!
Photos - Alaska Trip - The Mountain Appeared!
Today we woke up and drove one last time into the park. We spotted one more bear, which was cool. Clouds were still covering the mountain as we drove out. BUT, about 50 miles down the highway, on our way to Fairbanks, Randy looked out the back window and suddenly said, "Is that Mt. McKinley?" and sure enough, it was! Shining in the sun under the blue sky, it was beautiful.
We stopped on the side of the road and took a bunch of photos. It would have been so great if we'd seen it while we were in the park, but we are so grateful we finally did get to see it. I'm especially glad for Randy. At least I got to see it as a kid.
Before reaching our hotel we stopped at the University of Alaska Museum. My dad had told me that was a good museum and it was. We got the earphones to listen to. The building itself is beautiful. The narrative said that the architect was trying to give the impression of a glacier and a whale tail. Very pretty. The day was the warmest we've had yet. In the morning in the park it was only around 50 degrees but in the afternoon when we got out of the museum it was 75!
Fairbanks feels like more of a big city than Anchorage even did. We probably didn't see the part of Anchorage that looks like this. Safeway, Starbucks, banks, all the stores like home. Our hotel here is a little cabin, too, right by a river. We went to Safeway and got some cheese, crackers, wine and other goodies including some delicious crab, and had a little feast outside of our room. It was great. Tomorrow we'll go see a demo of a gold mine.
Oh, just now we heard a kind of whooshing sound and it started pouring rain. Wow, this is changeable weather.