Once in a lifetime

Over the years, we have taken many great trips. Most of which we consider once in a lifetime simply because the world is so big that we will probably not get back to see the same place again. A few are real stand-outs, like the 70th Anniversary D-Day trip that we took in 2014, our 25th anniversary cruise last year on the Aranui 5 and our most recent trip to Nome, Alaska for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race finish.

We are coming up on the 74th anniversary of D-Day, our friend Clinton Riddle (a veteran of WWII) is over in Europe on the shores of Normandy once again. This year sponsored by the Best Defense Foundation. We wish him safe travels!

About our most recent trip to Alaska, I have been meaning to write about it for a while now. I remember before we left one of my coworkers asked what in the world was I going to do in Nome Alaska for 10-day’s…it’s not very big. Well, I can tell you by the length of time that it has taken us to sort and publish our photos, we did and saw a lot. Nome is unique and for us an unusual latitude of exploration (it is no where near the equator). It is by far the farthest North that we have traveled. And to do so in winter, when there is this white stuff called snow falling from the sky and accumulating in record amounts on the ground, was extraordinary for us.

So why did we go to Nome Alaska in winter? In a nutshell to see and experience the finish of the last great race on earth.

Now we could have just flown up there, stayed at anyplace available, and seen a few mushers cross the finish line, all on our own…and it would have been a good trip. Our past travel experience told us that this event/trip could be made magical by the right tour guide/company. The research for the perfect guide began a bit over a year before the actual trip.

We’ve had some good tour guides and we’ve had some great tour guides, Laurent Dick of Wild Alaska Travel ranks up near the very top of the list. We knew from his beautiful website that the itinerary for the trip was comprehensive, including all of the things we would like to see and do. We had high expectations and they were exceeded.  Laurent even threw in a few awesome surprises.

Highlights of the trip included:

• Experiencing and photographing the finish of the 2018 Iditarod Sled Dog Race
• Flying to the scenic Iditarod checkpoint of White Mountain
• Riding a snowmobile to the Iditarod checkpoint in Safety
• Attending the 2019 Iditarod Finisher’s banquet
  
  

  

  
• Tracking down muskoxen by snowmobile
  
  

  
• Playing golf on the frozen Bering Sea
  
  

  
• Seeing and photographing the northern lights
• Experiencing authentic Alaska and learning why ‘There’s no place like Nome!’
  
  

  

  

  
• And, of course, meeting Iditarod mushers and their dogs!
  
  

  

  

  

  

We enjoyed great food.

And even had a little bit of fun photographing all of that snow!

There are many more photos on our online photo album at: https://clukey.smugmug.com/Through-The-Years/2018/AlaskaIditarod-2018