Anchorage to Valdez: Matanuska Glacier

Our Globus Spectacular Alaska tour first full day started with a drive from Anchorage to Valdez.  The first stop was a rainy one at the Palmer Visitor Center where we explored the beautiful garden and pet Balto’s nose for good luck!  Balto was a sled dog that delivered the diphtheria antitoxin to remote Alaskan villages in 1925.

We then traveled along the Glenn Highway to Matanuska Glacier, which you can literally just pull off the highway to explore and take photos!

Matanuska Valley

Matanuska Glacier & Valley

This was the first part of the trip where I became really excited!  I have never seen a glacier before in my life, and it was an incredible, awesome experience.  The unearthly cold that radiated from the glacier was unreal.

Matanuska Glacier

We were then on to our lunch stop at Sheep Mountain Lodge, an incredibly sweet and charming place with truly delicious food!

Flower box at Sheep Mountain Lodge

Alaska flowers in the dew

Palmer, Alaska is the agricultural capital of the state.  Flowers at the Palmer Visitor Center, wet from the rain

Colorful canal from Rialto Bridge

Embed from Getty Images

Bell tower under blue skies: St. Mark’s Campanile

Embed from Getty Images

St. Mark’s campanile or bell tower of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy under blue skies with white clouds

Underneath the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France

via Photo Challenge: Textures

Embed from Getty Images

Indian Treasures: 70 years on from independence

The collection includes an 19th century images of the Taj Mahal, Himalayas and Indian city life.

Indian Treasures: 70 years on from independence

via London Live 📷: Samuel Bourne/George Eastman House/Getty Images

---

Getty Images | iStock Ambassadors

Hyde Park, London UK, in spring, waterscape

Embed from Getty Images

Many of my favorite travel activities are free things, and not just because I am cheap.  I can genuinely get lost and feel completely at peace wandering around landscapes like Hyde Park in London for hours at a time.

What I Bought for Alaska

• A Raincoat – Size Small

  As a half-pint sized person, jackets that are not petite sized tend to eat me.  I will let you know how this one fits when it arrives.  The reviews all said that it RUNS SMALL so here’s hoping!

Women’s The North Face ‘Resolve Plus’ Waterproof Jacket by The North Face

Source: Women’s The North Face ‘Resolve Plus’ Waterproof Jacket by The North Face

• 2 Pairs of Trail Shoes 

Bring it on wilderness!  I was advised to take TWO pair of shoes in case one pair gets wet!
Women’s Merrell All Out Blaze Aero Sport by Merrell

Source: Women’s Merrell All Out Blaze Aero Sport by Merrell

Book Review: “Into Thin Air” leaves me cold

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a harrowing read that just got more disturbing as it went along. The author can definitely spin a tale, but is it a tale we really want to hear? The complete disregard for other human life in this book left me colder than the sub zero wind chills. I will be the first to admit I do not understand the mindset of any of these characters or why we as a society take such great interest in these types of feats. The real heroes are not the athletes, but the native Sherpas who schlep all the equipment and do all the work for minimal pay. Then rich white and Asian people literally climb all over each other’s corpses to try to make heroic claims! It made me sick by the end, and not just because of the high altitudes. Why do the other teams not help each other out?

View all my reviews

Purchase:

The Dolomites

The Dolomites are a craggy, rocky mountain range that make up part of the Alps in northern Italy that are too awe-inspiring to be believed.  Cortina d’Ampezzo is one of the most beautiful little towns in Italy that I had never heard of!  It is a popular winter resort, but I loved it in summertime.  Fun fact: Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics.  This was part of a Globus tour that I did with my parents, and I have a strong memory of being fairly cold and miserable in Switzerland, and then suddenly we crossed the Italian border and the sun came out and this beautiful fairy land Alpine village was our next stop.  I think this would be a great little town to rent a home in for a week or two, any season of the year!  Ciao!

Embed from Getty Images