***Edit*** Drew has blown his other knee out this week. *sigh* When it rains it pours!

** WARNING this is a very long post with many photos.



As many of my real life friends know my youngest son Drew lives in Anchorage, Alaska. He had to have some knee surgery done last month and it all got kinda crazy out in the 49th state.



Not to completely bore everyone but Drew is an ophthalmologist and travels all over Alaska to remote village to help the natives get the eye care that they need.

Drew has been having troubles with his knee off and on. One day while he was fighting off a big black bear he .. oops.. just kidding he was not fighting off a big black bear - he was walking at an Air Show and his knee just went kaput. After seeing a doctor he needed surgery right away. I planned to go out and stay 4 days. My 4 days turned into 3 weeks. Poor Drew had his meniscus flipped and caught, he had complete ACL reconstruction using his ham string and a bone graph. Then he developed a blood clot below the incision site.

Drew did drive me around a tiny bit in Anchorage when I first arrived. He took me pastThe Great Alaska Bush Company. Yeah, I took this shot from the passenger side of the car across the drivers side doing about 60 mph.


Everyone - and I mean EVERYONE rides bikes in Alaska. :O Drew and I seen this one with a weed eater motor on it just a bookin' down Lake Otis Road. hehehe




I laughed and laughed at this sign.


Every where you looked in Anchorage there were mountains. Gorgeous mountains! The Chugach Mountains. These happen to run along the Kenai. So pretty!





Here is a view from Drews deck.

The statue is a whaler that his friend Herman made him with soap stone and real ivory.

That was the most I got to see of Alaska for the first 2 1/2 weeks. The 4 days I planned on staying turned quickly into 3 weeks. Drew was in lots of pain and most of our time consisted of doctor appointments, hospital visits, physical therapy and many trip to Fred Meyers. I didnt get a big chance to see much of Alaska... until... Drew's cousin(on his dad's side) Steve called and asked us if we wanted to "blow the stink off of us" and ride along with him to look at an RV he was thinking about buying. We took him up on that offer since I am a total spaz at driving in place that I am not familiar with. So off we went. Steven ended up buying the RV that day and we decided to drive it to Denali National Park to try out the new RV and to hopefully see The Denali. The.REAL.Denali.!!!


Some shots of the Great Alaskan Mountain Range on the way to see the Denali!!






We arrived to the South Entrance to The Denali National Park and looked for a place to park around 1 am. While I was in in Alaska the sun was up for about 19 hours and the other 5 hours of night time were like Dusk here in the lower 48. So it was hard on my old body to adjust. This shot was from a little camping site we thought about staying at located at the foothills of Mt. McKinley!. Now, mind you, this was around 1:30 AM. yeah - I said 1:30 AM!!





Then the next morning the trucked down to the pull off to see if we could see the grand mountain in all its glory.

This was Mt. Foraker one of the sister mountains to Mt McKinley.



As you can see we didnt get to see all of the majestic beast for all the weather that was happening on the mountains. We mostly got to see the base of it.


the light blue at the bottom of the page is a marker showing us where Mt. McKinley is - you can see the actual Mt McKinley in the photo above but only the base.


We left and headed about 150 miles back towards Anchorage to a little quaint town called Talkeetna. Such a cute little spot. I would love to go back! On our way to Talkeetna we seen a little pull off that we thought showed up Mt McKinley. So back we went to check it out. Oh was I so happy that we did. Cuz this was the view of the Denali that we got to witness.


B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L! the clouds parted and allowed us a rare look of at the highest mountain peak in North America!

I am so glad I was able to witness this while I was in Alaska. Drew had not got to see Mt McKinley like we seen that day. He has only witnessed the mountain from above on a plane.

Drew wanted me to experience a true Alaskan meal before I headed back home. So I made fish and chips. (Halibut and fries)

I wanted to bad to get a shot of a Moose but the only time I seen one it was 4 am and I was on the hunt for ICE for Drews machine and didnt pack my shooter with me. So I bought this shirt - hoping to lure them out.


But - alas this was the only moose that I got to shoot.




I left to fly home on Memorial Day. As i got outta Drew car and headed into the airport this was the final look I got of Alaska. Truely a beautiful state!