Monday photo feature

Here we've got a satellite view of the city of Anchorage, Alaska, and environs.

I've been talking a lot about my upcoming trip to the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon-Washington state line, but what I haven't mentioned until now is that I've got a little side trip planned.  Once my plane has touched down in Portland this Thursday, I'm going to get on another plane and fly to Anchorage by way of Seattle.  I'll spend Friday and Saturday in Anchorage, and then on Sunday morning I'll fly back to Portland and proceed with the regularly-scheduled activities in the Columbia Gorge.  Of course, the fate of my side trip counts heavily on no flight cancellations on my route to Portland this Thursday.  Just about every day as I listen to the news I hear reports of that being an ongoing industry-wide problem this summer.  And there's not a thing I can do about it but hope for the best.  I did purchase trip insurance, but I'd just as soon not have to use it because getting an insurance company to pay up is always a hassle.

Why do I want to make this side trip?  Well, Alaska is the one state in the United States that I have never set foot in.  I figured that since I was going to be "in the neighborhood," globally speaking, I might as well hop up there.

Now, I don't intend for this to be my definitive Alaska experience; two days is hardly enough to explore the largest state in the Union.  But I hope to gain a modicum of familiarity with its largest city, and size it up as a possible staging area for future adventures in Alaska.  And if I should croak before I'm able to make that happen, at least everybody can say that I visited all 50 states.

At the moment the weather forecast says it might be kind of rainy and chilly up there.  With any luck, that won't stop me from doing a bit of paddling and a bit of hiking and a bit of looking around, and making this experiment something more than a fool's errand.

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