Anchorage, Alaska
Talkeetna, Alaska
Homer, Alaska
Gittoffmy Island, Alaska
Lisl’s Mom: “Make sure you guys have your sneakers, appropriate jackets, gloves, and a hat in case of a crash.”
Me: “Okay. Sounds good.”
Lisl’s Mom: “No. If we crash that doesn’t sound good at all.”
It was 6:00A.M. and hard to draw the line between sleep haze and anxiousness. The weather was clear and Lisl’s mom had promised us the unimaginable experience for a trio of poor recent college graduates and road trippers. She had her pilot’s license and a beautiful Cessna 4-seater plane and had offered to fly us around Alaska for the morning.
We got to the airplane hangers by 7:15A.M. and met up again with Lisl’s cousin, Lucas, who also had also recently gotten his pilot’s license. The destination was a diner/restaurant near the base of Mt. McKinley, where we’d been a few days earlier. Talkeetna, a town boasting less than 1,000 residents, is the standard starting point for most all mountaineering teams attempting summit of McKinley and the culture and atmosphere reflected these accomplishments.
The flight and experience of the small Cessna plane, of which I’d never flown in, was breathtaking. We got to see the untamed wilderness and bush areas of Alaska from the sky and see Mt. McKinley from a view most see only in postcards. We took dozens of pictures in the short 35-minute flight each way but they only taint the true beauty we saw. We were fortunate to have been granted this opportunity and it instilled a deep desire to learn to fly in Dan and I both. Oh yeah…we’re ready to start training to climb McKinley too…so many goals created in just a morning.
We were back in Anchorage before noon and packed quickly to head to Lisl’s family’s cabin in southern Alaska, just a 30-minute boat ride from Homer. We had planned it out so we’d be able to stay until Monday afternoon. Lisl had told us this was her favorite place in the world so it was crucial it was worked in. Upon arrival around 5:30P.M. we understood why. A beautiful wooden house situated by itself on a decently sized island became our home for the next two and a half days. That night we prepared our traditional and high-maintenance cuisine of beans & weenies while watching the sunset over the ocean.
In traveling one notices how lucky you feel when in a situation of pure natural beauty. It feels like something that you may not deserve or should have had to pay a lot of money for. The joy and satisfaction achieved from these sights, experiences and interactions is unrivaled in anything materialistic. No matter one’s beliefs on religion, science, or whatever it cannot be argued how overwhelming these feelings can be. These moments are the exact ones that create that burn to continue traveling, exploring, and meeting people. I haven’t discovered anything else that opens my mind as much and I’m not sure I ever will.Lisl's Mom's 4-seater Cessna plane that we flew around in.
Dan working his charm on some of the locals in Talkeetna after breakfast.
Mt. McKinley (on the right) from the air...we were so lucky. No one gets this view.
The cabin.
We went old school when it came to cooking. Beans on the left. Bread in the middle. Weenies on the right.
Munchin'.
The view from the cabin windows and front deck. This is what we fell asleep to every night. As you can imagine it never got old.
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