Perhaps we bit off more than we can chew

Alaska is a big state. A really, really big state.  Wednesday found us in the car driving back up the Kenai Peninsula from Homer to Wasilla, not much to report there.  Yesterday found us in the car driving from Wasilla to Healy, just outside of Denali National Park. Again, not too much to report from yesterday.  We did not see Sarah Palin.  One thing we learned about Denali is that you cannot drive your own car through the park, which has one road, beyond the fifteenth mile.  Several weeks ago, not really thinking this out, Jll and I booked our family on the Kantishna Experience Tour, which takes you via bus through as much of Denali as is accessible by road.  The total route is 185 miles, and takes 12 hours. 

We woke early for our 6:05 am bus and made it just in the nick of time.  We had a great driver/tour guide for the day who taught us a lot about the history of the park and its fora and fauna.  For two hours at the half-way point, we also picked up a park ranger who taught us about the gold rush in Alaska and its short-lived heyday in Kantishna.  We had a lot of animal sightings throughout the day, including moose, grizzly bears, Dall sheep, a wolf, a fox, caribou, owls, snowshoe hares, and a hawk. 

We stopped by the 49th State Restaurant to see the replica of the Magic Bus (Into the Wild).  Originally I had plans of going to see the actual bus along the Stampede Trail, but when I learned that it is a 20 mile, multi-day hike to the bus, I decided to settle for the replica.  Here is Dagny with the bus.  She gets the nod because of all of our children, I think she's most likely to go into the wild.  Getting back to our cabins, Jll took the kids to the hot tub and sauna while I waited out the weather.  It has been overcast and drizzly all day, with isolated showers.  I hoped it would clear so that I could go play night golf at a local golf course.  The last tee time is at 10:00 pm, which would beat my previous record of teeing off at 6:30 pm on the Darley Course in Troon.  Currently the sun sets at 12:20 am, rises at 3:40 am, and there is no official listings for the last light of one day or first light of the next.  Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and I will get my midnight golf in after all.  Here's hoping.

- Dave