On the lodge grounds. Not a look we often see in Hawaii

 

Internet is dicey here but will try to post a vid. You can see the dogs on the left, harnessed and hooked up to an ATV, going into a frenzy, let’s GO!

 

First adventure today was at a sled dog company, the owner/operator has won the Iditarod several times.

The first thing they did with us (to seal the deal, of course) was to let us smooch and play with the puppies.

Sherman, Alaska. Population: 2.

Not a bad view from our balcony.

 

Took the train from Anchorage up to Denali National Park today. Utterly gorgeous.

We sought out a fun, mostly-popular-with-locals kind of place (as corroborated by the extremely high pickup-truck-to-car ratio in the parking lot) for dinner. Gotta love bison sliders.

Not an overly interesting picture from a hotel window except…..it’s after 11:00pm.

Took a touristy tour of Anchorage today, everything starts in earnest tomorrow. Lots of seaplanes and green forest. I shall be extremely disappointed if I get through this whole trip without enjoying a reindeer taco

Yep, lookin’ like our island.

So……almost home-sweet-home, in L.A. between flights. Been a while, so I figured I’d get in one more passion before the whole thing ends. First pitch, Dodgers vs Tigers:

Also, I wish I had known that I could have brought my scooter onboard, to go into the overhead bin. (and the very nice Turkish flight attendant gentleman reads the appropriate announcement from his phone, in his very best rehearsed English)

The new Istanbul airport is impressive (it opened just before the pandemic, and then essentially closed for 18 months). But there’s still a nut they haven’t cracked…..you have to walk to the far end of the airport, go down to gate 3G ( there are lots of 3G gates - 3g1, 3g2, 3G3, etc), and then when you get to the correct 3G gate, a bus drives you 16 minutes/2 miles to the other end of the airport property to find a plane. We did this three times on this trip. You may or may not be able to see the actual airport building in the distance.

The lounge at the new Istanbul airport is enormous. We go from Istanbul to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to San Francisco, and San Francisco to L.A. Kind of a slog.