Traveler Stories Series: Al and Carla Visit Every Alaska (and US) National Park

Jennie interviews Al about his and Carla's quest to visit all the US National Parks, including their three trips to visit all 8 Alaska National Parks

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Transcript

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Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co host and full time husband, Jennie and I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska, before we start today's show, we'd like to take a moment to thank our Patreon subscribers for your support and making this Podcast possible. Enjoy the show. Hi everybody. Jennie here, this is our last episode this week for Alaska National Parks week, and today I am so excited to bring you this interview with Al Pranaitis. And Al was the very first person I helped plan a trip to all of Alaska's national parks, and he has so much wisdom to share about his national parks quest. And this was a really fun conversation, so I'll bring you that in just a moment before I do just wanted to remind you that I have my new workshop. It's an on demand workshop. It's just an unlisted YouTube video, so you don't have to log in to a course or have any kind of login or whatever. And it is all about it's about an hour long, and it is all about how to help you plan your own trip or a series of trips to all eight of Alaska's national parks, and through tomorrow night, you can save 30% for this first week for national parks week. Well, it's brand new, and you can do that with the code parks 30. And if you follow the link in the show notes, it'll take you straight there. You can also go to shop. Dot ordinary, dash adventures.com. All right, here's my conversation with Al. My guest today is Al pronitis. Al and his wife, Carla, are on a quest to visit all the US National Parks, and I have been lucky enough to accompany Al and Carla on the planning portion of their journey and help them kind of navigate working working in all these different parks in Alaska. So Al, thank you so much for coming on and being willing to share your story with everybody. Oh, it's my pleasure. Yes, okay, and it's possible that Carla might pop in, but she might not, because she's not wild about the spotlight, and that's totally fine. So Al to start us off, can you just share a little bit about the quest that you're on? Why? Why it is that you're doing this where you are as of 2025, fell in love with National Parks from the first time I went to the Grand Canyon, and then, you know, following that, visiting some of the other parks, Sequoia, mount, rainier, particularly those out, you know, West and I wanted to get to them. And as I was approaching retirement, and full disclosure here, I retired at the end of 2018 I was I had reached my 70th birthday, and as I was approaching that time, I thought, you know, I'd like to have some goal to accomplish. And I thought, what better goal could there be than to get to all of the US National Parks? Because they're so phenomenal. And so by the time I retired, I had been to, I believe, 18 of them. And you know, there are 63 total national parks, I think something like 433 National Park System Units, yes, which includes, you know, monuments and national seashores and battlefields and things like that. But there are 63 national parks, and I just decided I wanted to get to all of them. And I thought that would be a good goal, and that it would be an enjoyable thing and thing to do. And fortunately, my wife Carla was willing to do it with me. So love it. And as far as you know, where I am, where we are, of the 63 as of today, we've been to 61 that is really exciting. You're almost there. So, yeah, so Al, I'd love to have you talk about how you approached Alaska, and I know that you ended up do. Doing this in three separate trips. Can you, I forgot to have you tell everybody where you live in the US? Oh, okay, I think that's important. I live in southwestern Illinois. So where most people think of Illinois consisting of Chicago, but we're, we're about 280, miles southwest of Chicago. We live in what's considered part of the St Louis, Missouri metropolitan area, yep. Um, so, you know, in southwestern Illinois, town called God Godfrey, Illinois, love it. So I think that's also important, because it's a little bit of a track to get from the St Louis area to Alaska, but you did that three times. So one thing to keep in mind, listeners, as we're going through this story, you certainly could put all these trips together in one but I think, as you'll see from learning from Al, that can make for a really logistically kind of frantic and exhausting trip. And I love the way that you and Carla decided to spread it out. I think that gave you a much like more immersive and chill experience for the most part. So can you talk a little bit about the three different trips kind of which parks you went to on each Sure, so as and by the way, Carla retired at the end of 2017 so by the time I retired, you know, we were both retired at the end of 2018 and as that as the end of 2018 was approaching, I I thought, you know, I'd like to go to Alaska. I want to see Alaska. And we discussed with this with numerous people, and got various ideas as what would be the best way to go to Alaska. And mul multiple people said, why don't you do a cruise? That's a great way to see Alaska. And although we are not cruisers, I know lots of people love cruising, it's really not our thing, and but we decided that we would do a cruise, and we I asked my best friend and his wife if they wanted to go with us. And so we wound up booking a cruise on Princess cruise lines from Vancouver to Whittier, a seven day in what's it called the in inward passage, in Inside Passage, Inside Inside Passage, and with stops, you know, along the way and shore excursions and that sort of thing. And one of the places we went to was Glacier Bay, which is a national park. And then our crews also included a land package to Denali. And, you know, we got to Denali National Park as part of that land package. So those were the first two national parks. And as of that time, those would have been number 19 and number 20 for me, yeah, um. And then so, so at, you know, as time progressed, and with the idea of getting to all the national parks, I realized, you know, got to get to six more in Alaska, because Alaska has eight of them, the second most of in the state. And, you know, how do I do that? You're not going to cruise to those other parks. And it was really kind of mind boggling. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get to one or the other, and it's not easy. And it was at that point that you and I became acquainted, because, yeah, I found you on the internet, and I thought, you know, I think this woman is someone that could help us figure this out. And we wound up hiring you to put together an itinerary, and that itinerary is how we got to the other six parks. Yes, yes. And, you know, one thing that I think is so interesting Al is that I've had, I've had quite a few clients who have been on a parks quest, like you, and often people contact me when they are kind of in the planning, and they're like, Wait, it can't be this difficult. This can't be right. So a lot of I feel like a lot of my job is to say, No, you're not the problem. This is just really complicated, but you could totally do it well, do I remember correctly that you said to me, this is the first time I've ever put together an itinerary for someone wanting to get to six national parks in Alaska. And it's a great challenge. And you look, you said you'd love to do it. Yes, it was the first time I had planned lots of park itineraries, but yours was the first one that was like. Uh, the first client I had who was really on a parks quest, and I've had lots since then, but I always think of you Al, because I'm like, I always draw on some of the conversations that we had around like, is this day really going to be this long, and do I really want to do this and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, yes, you're right. Yep, it was a great challenge, and one that has been fun to take on for other people in different ways since then. Well, I couldn't praise you enough. I know you didn't ask me to come on here to praise you, but that itinerary was so necessary and made things so much easier than trying to spend, I mean, probably weeks trying to search things out on the internet and figure out, yeah, yeah, for Sure. Um, one thing too. So for everybody listening, initially Al and Carla were going to go to the other so there's eight national parks in Alaska. Like Al said, they had already gone to two, and they wanted to do the other six. And initially that itinerary was for all of them, but then you and Carla decided to split that into two, and you just use that same itinerary, and just did part of it one year and part of it the next year. So can you talk about why you decided to do that, and then which parks you did in which? Well, when you sent the itinerary to us, and it had all six parks laid out, and it was going to be 22 days, although you caution that we might want to make it a little longer to have some some days in between, in case something didn't go right during the trip. But at any rate, it was going to be a minimum of 22 days. And I think your itinerary initially had us going to the two parks that were that are above the Arctic Circle, but I recall you said that you could do all six parks in one trip. Or you could break this into two trips and do four on one trip and come back and do two later, or vice versa, or you can do three trips and get two each time. Yeah, you had it laid out in such a way, and it really makes sense. And you explained to us that geographically, these are ought to be considered in like two park units. Yes, yes, you probably want to talk about but that was very good advice. So yeah, so we we decided that what we would do would be to get to the four hardest ones in one trip, and which we figured would be, and turned out to be a 15 day trip, and those are the four parks that you can't get to by driving. So you can't we're not our viewers, but for folks that travel and have RVs and think, Well, maybe I'll take an RV trip to these four parks, you can't do it. You gotta go by by a private plane to get to them. Yeah. So we decided to go to those four first and then later do the other two? And the first four are COVID Valley. I'm sorry, the first four that we went to were Lake Clark, Katmai, COVID Valley and Gates of the Arctic. And then the later trip was Wrangell St Elias and Kenai Fjords, yep. And one thing that's nice about doing it the way that you did Al is that you did the fly in hard to get to once first. So if something had gone wrong with like weather or something, you would have had another crack at it. So I like the order that you did that, because you could have gone to one of those four parks if you had to on the later trip when you were back in Alaska. Yeah, yeah. Worked out, yeah. It did. That was awesome. So just to kind of follow up on something you said a minute ago for listeners, those clusters of parks that Al was talking about, I think of Gates of the Arctic and COVID Valley as one pair, and the lake Clark and Katmai as another pair, and then the other four. It kind of depends on how you're going to do it, how that makes sense, and we'll talk a little more about those as pairs here in a few minutes. So let's see. I'd love to talk about some of the logistics a little bit. Well, actually, before we do that, Al, one thing that you and I talked about was some of the decisions that were were hard ones for you and Carla to make. Would you mind sharing any of those that come to mind as like this was a really tough call, and then how you felt about the decision that you made. Well, first, I mean, the hardest decision was avoided because you helped us figure out how to do it. There were so many hard, hard decisions to make when I was trying to do it myself that it was mind boggling. But then, you know, then the next hardest decision, I think, was the one we've just talked about, and that is, do we do it in one trip, two trips, three trips. Yeah, if so, in what order I would say, other than that, you know, it was, how do we get to the point where we catch the flight that's going to take us to COVID Valley, Gates of the Arctic. Where do we stay up there to do this? Yep. And I would say the other last hardest, hard decision of all this was how to get to Kennecott to get to Wrangell St Elias, yeah. And that one is surprisingly tough, actually, even though, you know, you do have a couple of options, but, well, three, I guess, but it's hard. It's kind of a tough, a tough call to figure out how to do that. And how did you decide to do Rangel st Elias, yes. So you told us of the three options, one is you rent a car and drive there yourself, and the other is take a shuttle bus, and the other was take a private chartered plane to get there. We chose. We chose to rent a car. You told us that there were options you couldn't rent from someone like hertz or Avis or enterprise that only certain rental car companies would rent you a car to go there because of the road being a Rock Road, kind of rough road to get to McCarthy, but so you suggested that we could either rent from a place, I think, called rent a four by four, or a place called rent a Subaru. Yes, we decided we would rent a Subaru and drive ourselves out there. It turned out that when we got to rent a Subaru. They didn't have any Subarus, so they have a they have a related company, I think, called Midnight Sun rental. They rent like SUVs. You can drive out there. And so they put us in a big SUV. I forgot the exact brand name of it, but that's what we wound up driving out there and back with actually having a flat tire on the way back. So annoying that road is pretty rough on tires, yeah, but that was, that was a hard decision. I didn't know. You know, did we want to drive ourselves? Did we want to take a plane and get there quicker? Did we just want to make it real easy and get a shuttle bus? But ultimately, we decided it would at least give us some opportunities to stop along the way. We wound up hiking to a glacier along the way, I think, as I remember correctly, and, you know, so we've got a few few interesting stops in and and had an interesting lunch along the way before we got on that rocky road, you know, just different things. So I'm glad we did it that way. Cool, yeah. And, you know, I'm glad that you felt good about what you decided that is one of the things that I find the hardest to help people decide, because, you know, it's, it's such a trade off, right? Like if you drive, you can be on whatever time schedule you want, the weather doesn't matter, like it does if you fly, um, but then, on the other hand, you gotta drive forever on this kind of remote and I feel like it's a pretty boring drive, actually, not not between Anchorage or Fairbanks and shitna, but like, once you get on that gravel road, it's a little like, oh, it's kind of McCarthy Road, isn't it? The McCarthy Road, yeah, um, but then if you fly, it's fast, but, you know, the weather might interfere, so it might take forever, you know, it's just, it's a tough one, cool. Okay, so Al, we talked a little bit about ringles. St Elias, I'd love to spend a little more time talking about the Arctic parks and also about Katmai and Lake Clark, because those ones are more difficult to get to, ones that people struggle with a little bit more and have to make some choices. So let's start with Arctic so you already talked about, kind of the decision of different options for going to those Arctic parks. Can you just walk everybody through, kind of how you went to those parks, and then how you feel about that, like, if you liked doing it that way, or if you do it differently, if you had it to do over. Yeah. So in your itinerary that you prepared for us, you recommended or suggested that we stay at a hotel in Kotzebue, Alaska, yes, called, and if I say it wrong, please? You, I know you'll say it right. No, look, Vic, yeah, and it's the only hotel in that small town of Kotzebue, yes. And then, you know, I thought about it, I looked at the hotel, and I thought, Well, geez, you know, are there other options? And one, you know, to be honest, one simple reason was we like to have a glass of wine with dinner, and there's all allowed in that hotel. Yeah, that's right, you don't allow it. So, yep. Anyway, I thought, Well, I'm just on my own, gonna do a little research in and I think you had already told us about another option where you could go to those parks by going through Fairbanks and flying to battles and yes. And from there you get either so either from Kotzebue or from battles, you get a a private company to fly you in their plane to those two parks. Yes. And ultimately we decided, well, we're going to go ahead and we're going to go the Kotzebue route and we're going to stay at noligvik hotel. Yep, and you recommended golden Outfitters. I think it was golden eagle. Yeah, golden Golden Eagle, yes, to fly us to the two parks. And I certainly I'm beyond the age where I want to camp. And yeah, Carla's never really been a camper, so you know, the options you had were to have golden eagle fly you in, drop you off with your camping gear, and you could spend a few days and they'd come back later and pick you up. We didn't want to do that. So the other option, and the one we pursued, was to have basically a flight, seeing trip over the two parks, landing in each park, getting out, being on the ground for 30 to 45 minutes taking some pictures, just kind of seeing the lay of the land from down on the ground. You know, doing, I think we went to COVID Valley first, and did that. We actually dropped some people off who were camping. We picked some people off who were finishing their camping. Yeah, we went, went to the other part Gates of the Arctic. And I think there were some people starting a kayak trip on a river there. And, yeah, but anyway, for us, it was flight, seeing and landing and taking some pictures, getting back on and then, you know, ultimately, getting back to Kotzebue on the plane, yes, yeah, and listeners, just to kind of give you some context around this, so both of these parks that Al is talking about are places that don't have any roads, any trails, any campgrounds, nothing, right? So you can do a remote back country trip like Al mentioned, if that's for you, that's going to mean tent camping and rafting or hiking off trail. And there are also a couple of lodges that that I'll sort of alluded to. One is in battles, and then one which is a small community off the road system. And then the other is ENIAC Lodge, which is, which is kind of on the other side of gates the Arctic. And in both those cases, you fly out to the lodge from Fairbanks, and then you stay there for a few days, and they take you out to different parts of the two parks. So it's, you know, it really is going to be a fly in, get on the ground and leave, kind of scenario, unless you're doing. Like, more of a back country experience. And so I think for people like you and I, Al, who love parks, national parks, it's a it's a weird and really different kind of way of interacting with a park then, certainly, than what's more typical in the lower 48 so I'd love to know, like what your thoughts are about that, you know, it costs a lot of money and to get out there. I guess what I want to ask you is, if you felt like it was worth it, well, if I, if I weren't on a mission to get to all the national parks, and if I weren't wanting to do some activities such as camping or kayaking or maybe fishing, I don't know, I I probably wouldn't go to those two parks. Yeah, and the reason is, I mean, not that there's anything wrong or, you know, whatever about them, it's simply that having flown over them, you know, and we had a pretty long flight over both parks, the scenery elsewhere in Alaska is more spectacular, yeah, from what we've seen, including a, you know, a flyover While we were at Rangel st, Elias, etc. So if I weren't on a mission to get to all the national parks, I probably wouldn't go to those two parks. It is expensive, it's it's difficult to get to. I mean, you gotta fly Anchorage to Kotzebue, and then, of course, you take the the golden eagles, or whoever else may be available to take you to those parks. So it's a lot to do. And if I just was looking for, you know, scenery, I think the scenery is more spectacular and better elsewhere. So yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, I think you Well, I know, you know Al listeners, you probably know by now that I've spent quite a bit of time in Gates of the Arctic. My husband spent three summers working there as a field archeologist. And the Arctic is is amazing in its own way, but it is also an extremely harsh environment and very buggy. Yes, I forgot to mention that. And by the way, Carla's here. Carla, do you want to tell us how you felt about the bugs in the Arctic? Well, I am a mosquito net. The advice you gave for a mosquito net was very much appreciated. Yeah, it's really important. Yeah, the mosquitos there were amazing. There were so many. Yes, they were actually in the plane with us, and we kept our netting over our faces. So that is absolutely the worst. Oh, I have so much empathy for that. Oh, man, but you got through it Nice job, yeah, and it wasn't, I mean, those are two parks, like Al said, I maybe wouldn't, well, I wouldn't go back to Yeah, but it's still an experience. It's just something to experience. Yes, absolutely, yeah, yeah, love it. Okay, so let's talk about the other really kind of remote hard to get to. You parks Al and you did Lake Clark National Park and cat my together by staying at the farm Lodge, which is definitely my top tip for people wanting to go to both those parks. You can also do day trips from Anchorage. You can do back country experiences with a guide. But I really love the way that you did this, and I know you really love the farm Lodge. So can you share a little bit about how long you were there, kind of what some of the highlights were, what you did while you were there, sure. Well, you recommended to us that we stay at the farm Lodge, and you recommended to us if we could afford it, because it is an expensive place, yes, but I'll get into the value of that expense if you want in a minute, because I'd love that worth every penny. But you recommended to us that we do a, I think it was a six night package, and to stay at the farm Lodge. And we did that. And actually we did we went there before we went to the two parks that we just finished discussing that are above the Arctic Circle. So the first thing we did was we went to the farm Lodge, and we went to Katmai and Lake Clark several times from the farm Lodge, and then later went up to Kotzebue, okay, and the. Wants. But anyway, so they the farm Lodge is run by a family, and it's located at a place called Port allsworth, there at Lake Clark. And they have their own planes Glen allsworth Senior, I believe, came in in their plane to Anchorage and picked us up at Merrill field. And I think there was another there was a woman and maybe two kids also on that flight going to the farm Lodge. So he flew us to the farm Lodge. We landed. We got out of the plane. People were there at the plane to get our bags. We arrived just in time for dinner. So they told us, you know, go to the lodge and dinner will be waiting, etc. This was the best run place you could imagine. I mean, the farmland, every day, we had multiple adventures we would and they almost all of them involved going somewhere, flying somewhere in one of their float planes. So you know, for example, I don't remember the exact order, but one day, we flew to Brooks camp in Katmai National Park. Yeah. From there, did a short hike and went to a bear school operated by park rangers who told us about, you know, how to avoid getting in trouble with brown bears. And then we went and we saw brown bears everywhere. Yes, everywhere, you know, along the river, waiting for salmon, in the woods, doing things that bears do besides eat, you know. I mean, it was just amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. And so that was, you know, one adventure, another one. They took us to a part of Lake Clark where there's a cabin that, if people are interested in national parks, and they've read about Lake Clark National Park, they've maybe read about or Dick prenecky, and the cabin he built and lived there by himself, I think he wrote a book which I read. He did a documentary that he filmed, and they took, you know, so the farm lodge in one of their planes took us there, and we got to see the cabin where a ranger lives at least, at least prior to the recent cutbacks with the Park Service, yeah, but, and honestly, when I saw that on the itinerary that we're going to go see pranic keys cabin, even having read his book, I had my doubts as to whether I really thought that would be a good thing to do, whether it would just be boring. But once we got there and we saw the cabin he built, and all the stuff in it, including things he built, his tool shed, his his food, cash and listen to listening to that Ranger cat, K, A, T, and I don't know her full name, yeah, she was the most enthusiastic person, and knowledgeable and friendly, and she made it an absolutely marvelous experience. And we also did a hike there that was a very strenuous hike on a trail that goes off from parent East cam. But every day we did something different. They have a they have a fire and ice tour where you fly over a volcano that still is, is active, yeah, and you fly over glaciers. I mean, one day we flew somewhere and landed the float plane. It was just Carla and and the pilot named Ned and myself, and we landed, and we had a shore lunch. You know, he put up a campfire. That's amazing. And one day we flew somewhere and got out and hiked through tundra. And it was just it. Every day was a different adventure. We asked them had in we, I think all together, including the flights to and from Anchorage, where they picked us up and took us back. I think we had 24 flights during that six days, and and every, every and the package included three meals a day. And if you and the meals were very good, the service was very good. It was, it was so well run you sat at a table of, I think, six people, and so for some of the days, we would be with the same people, and then other, you know, people would come and go, and then the next day or two, we'd be with different people. That's all interesting. But one funny thing is, I think everyone we met there was on a quest. Us to get to all 63 national parks? Yes, I'm sure that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we talked about that, and it's because these places are so remote that, and, you know, not cheap to get to the farm Lodge and stay there that if you're not going to all the national parks, you may never, ever get there. But, yeah, but you know another, hey, let me just say that that that six days, six nights we had there, Carla and I have agreed on this. She can chime in if she wants, that was one of the best six days we've ever spent on any vacation in our entire 37 years of marriage. So I love that, yeah, yeah, that is worth going to whether you're on a mission to get all the national parks or not it's a trip to do it is, yes, I'm so glad that you shared about that, because one of the things that's really unique about the farm Lodge is that they do really focus on a national parks experience. And most remote lodges in that part of Alaska, actually, many parts of Alaska are focused more on fishing trips, and so the fact that the farm lodge sets up this whole package where you get to experience different things in two parks, and is all inclusive, including the transportation from Anchorage is really, really special and unique. It was, it was marvelous. I mean, I could talk about her all day. Oh, I love it. That's wonderful. Um, okay, so we talked a little bit about Ringel st Elias. Is there anything that you want to say about Kenai Fjords or Denali or Glacier Bay that you think people on a quest like yours should really be aware of? Well, I would say Denali, you know that you definitely want to get there. Yeah, that is just so awesome. Yeah, it was, it was just amazing. And, you know, fortunately, we've got some good views of it. The clouds, you know, moved away, yay. How does to see it? And it is just an awesome thing to see. The other thing is, we, we, you know, we stayed in two different lodges owned by Princess cruise lines, and got there on a train, etc. But there's a little town nearby called Cal kitna, and it was a $10 per each way to ride a shuttle bus between the lodge and tell kitna, yeah, tell kitna is like a must if you go to Alaska. As far as we're concerned, we went for two days. It's a quirky little town. I heard that television show called northern exposure was filmed there or based on it. It was when we arrived off the shuttle bus, the first time we're walking into the little town. And they had live music playing in a park. It was a beautiful day. They had live music playing. People with their chairs set up listening to the band. It turned out there was a parade that came through town of a of a certain touring circus. They were doing somersaults down the street, etc. It and we met the mayor, who's who's a cat. Yes, this was the second cat who's been the mayor. Yes, his name was Denali. I understand he has since passed away, and his sister Aurora is now the mayor. Yeah, his believed to be father called Stubbs had been the first cat mayor. But anyway, that's the sort of thing you encounter in this little town called talquitna, it is that you have given a really accurate description of Tal kita here. I'd love to go back there. Yeah, you know talquita too. Um, it is an awesome place. A couple other things about talquitna that relate to the parks. So that's the location of the climbing ranger station. And so everyone who climbs Denali has to check in with the Rangers in Talkeetna, and they typically fly to start their climb from Tel kitna. So it's also a hub of flight scene for Denali, even though it's like a three hour drive from the park entrance area, it's a big, a big part of park operations, for sure. Well, I should mention also that we had booked a helicopter flight around the. Ali that was supposed to take off from tal kitna, and it wound up getting canceled due to weather, so we didn't get to do that. But yeah, which was disappointing, but that's all that's okay, yeah, it does happen. And you had a lot. When you add up all these different flights that you did and all your park travels around Alaska you you had a lot of them. Yeah, we did a flight seeing tour at Wrangell St Elias, which was pretty fun. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. So one of the things I realized I didn't ask you before Al, that I think is good for people to know, is, can you tell us what month you were in each park? Yes. So the cruise that we did was in June of 2019 Okay, the four Park trip was in July of 2023, and the two Park trip, the one we most recently did, wrangle and Kenai Fjords. That was July of 2024 Okay, I think that matters, because, like, the experience that you had of seeing the bears at Brooks Falls, that's kind of a July and September kind of experience, you know, going to the Arctic, you can really only do in July. I mean, a little bit at the end of June, maybe a little at the beginning of August, but that is a pretty summer kind of is July. And this was more. This was another, per your advice, thank you. Yeah. Oh, you're welcome. Yeah. Okay, so anything, anything you want to say about Kenai Fjords or Glacier Bay before we move on to some of your superlatives. Well, yeah, Kenai Fjords, you recommended a couple of things that we wound up doing, and one was the eight and a half hour National Park boat tour. Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, awesome. And I highly recommend it, as you did, and Carla, you do too, right? Absolutely. We, we, it was narrated by the captain and and we saw so much wildlife. Yes, whales to seal, many kinds of birds that were nesting on shore. It was just awesome. We also did a hike. There was it exit glacier, I think, is that the one at Kenai Fjords? Yes, yes. That was a very nice hike, a nice trail. And, and, you know, I would certainly do that again and, and what was the other you ask about Glacier Bay, yeah. And I know you were on a cruise, so you didn't go ashore in Glacier Bay. But is there anything you want to share with folks about that? Well, no, I mean, other than you gotta see it, yeah, you know, it's amazing. We were on a cruise ship. And the cruise ship would move around and give you a different view from, you know, depending on where you were positioned on the ship. But, you know, we got to see Calvin calving, calving glacier chunks and that kind of thing. It was very still, very quiet, very calm, almost meditational. So it's something that everyone should do if they have a chance. Yeah, I agree. Oh, the other, the other thing on the cruise part of it, it's doesn't it's not a national park part of it, but Skagway is another really neat little town. Yeah, there. My friend who was with us had a goal of getting riding a motorcycle in all 50 states, and the only one he had left was Alaska. So we wound up renting motor scooters and driving so fun. I love that, by the way, skeg way has a national park unit. Um Klondike. National Historic Park is in segway and Seattle, yeah, and and we wound up having lunch at a place that was recommended to us by the comedian from the cruise ship, yes, Richie and we had lunch at a corner restaurant where you pick your food up at a little window and sit at a, you know, picnic bench outside. It's called woes, W, O, A, D, I, E, S, as I recall, nice. The halibut sandwich that they serve there is out of this world. Yum. Richie knew what he was talking about. Yes, you know, you kind of stumbled on there to one of my pro tips for cruises in Alaska, which is to always ask the crew where their favorite places to eat in each morning. Yes, so. Um, okay, well, Al, I'd love to ask you about some of your superlatives for the different parks that you went to. And Carla, if you want to chime in, you can too. So I'd love to know to start off with, what was your favorite park that you went to in Alaska, for me, and Carla maybe has a different one, but for me, Rangel st Elias was I enjoyed the whole experience there, including just staying at Kennecott glacier Lodge. But yeah, we did. And again, per your recommendation, we did a flight seeing tour, and which took us through the rank, I guess, at the Rangel, mountain range there, yes, and, you know, huge, huge mountains. And, yeah, glaciers everywhere. And the pilot was very informative. And it was just a marvelous, marvelous flight. But the thing that I liked even more was the guided glacier hike. Yes, and, you know, we there were, there were, there were two guides who were, I think, college students from South Dakota State University, and they told us they never knew each other before they came to work there, even college. But they were very helpful, very patient. We had, I think maybe six other people who were hikers like us. They were a lot younger than us, yeah, but everyone, and there were times because that hike consisted of going down for quite a ways and then up on the glacier, yes, and walking in crampons on a glacier really tired out our legs. Yeah, it tires out everyone's legs. It's tiring. And then coming back and having to go up the part that we came down. I know I insisted. I had to stop several times because I was just kept having a hard time catching my breath. But everyone was so patient. Everyone was so helpful, and I would do it again tomorrow. I would definitely it was a beautiful experience looking down these, I forgot the term the shoots, where the water is shooting down in, inside the glacier. Yes, all blue, and I loved it. I love that. That was my favorite part of Wrangell St, Elias, yes, that's one of my favorite tours in Alaska, actually. Is that root glacier hike? Yes, did you Lake Clark? But Lake Clark and Katmai probably were my two favorite and, and I think that's the farm Lodge has a lot to do with that. Yeah, yes, of course. You know, it's funny, my favorite park in Alaska is Glacier Bay. Yeah, it's beautiful. They're all, they're all pretty great, but that one is my favorite. Yeah, awesome. Okay, so I'd love to know you did a lot of different Tours and Guided activities. Which one of those was your favorite? It doesn't have to be in a park, by the way. It could be somewhere else when you were transitioning or something like that. Well, I think I'd go back to the glacier hike, yeah, the glacier hike we were just talking about, but there were a lot of them that were really, really neat. The Kenai Fjords was really neat. Yeah, I don't know one thing, one thing I wanted to mention about Kenai Fjords and that wonderful all day boat tour, absolutely do it. And also, listeners make sure that you bring something for seasickness, because it does get super bouncy out there. Okay, Carla, did you have a favorite tour? Oh, it's so hard to say, but I think the one Ned took us on to beach where we had a campfire and lunch. Yeah, and that that was in like Clark national tech, yes, yeah, yeah. Cool. Love it all right. What about just a couple more? What was your favorite hike that you went on? So I know you did a few, gosh, I can't remember. Well, there was a hike that we did when we were staying at the farm lodge to a falls. We first we went to the visitor center there. We walked to the visitor center. Yeah. Yeah. And then beyond that, where there was a trail, and I think the file Falls is like 10 alien falls or something, Yes, yep, Mm, hmm. And it's a, it's a really neat, powerful falls. And it was, it was a very nice hike, and really neat to see that falls. I mean, that was one of the activities they had lined out for us, which that one day was, you know, you're on your own kind of a day, instead of flying all over and doing things and but I'm, I'm really happy we did that. And I think that was probably my favorite. It's mine too. Love it. That's great. Okay, last question in this superlative series, what was your favorite meal that you had while you were in Alaska, on any of your trips? Well, I've already mentioned wodies. You know, of course, favorite meal is fish, because that's about all I eat when I'm in Alaska. Yeah, fresh fish. That's what I'm going for. I'll do it seven or three meals a day. But surprisingly, and we could talk about restaurants, I mean, like glacier Brew House brewing, Glacier brewing and anchor Anchorage, that's that's a really neat restaurant, and had very, very good food. Yes, that's a great question. Surprisingly to me, you had recommended on our drive between Rangel and and Seward, where we went for Kenai Fjords that we break the trip up by spending a night at a place called sheep Mountain Lodge, because the drive from one place one park, to the other is pretty long, yeah, and we did that at first. We couldn't get a reservation at sheep Mountain Lodge. They were filled up. And I said, and they said, we'll put you on a waiting list. And they did, and eventually it broke through, and we were able to get a reservation and stay there. The place itself is not fancy at all in terms of its room or cabin, but the restaurant and it wasn't anything fancy either. But I think the best meal I had in Alaska was at the restaurant there, oh, that's awesome, some sort of halibut. And I forgot they had a name for it, but it was, it was really good, really excellent. It surprised me. I wasn't expecting it, you know, yeah. And you know, Alaska is a place where you'll often find really good food in kind of the middle of nowhere or a place that really doesn't look like much from the outside. Those are often better bets than than others in Alaska. Yeah, we ate at the glacier Brew House at least two or three times, right? Yeah. It's a great place. Real lively. 49th Street Brewery is a fun place and and it's very similar in you know, when you go inside of them. But I thought the food was better at Glacier brew house or brewery, I forget exactly what its name is. Yep, the food we had at the farm Lodge was always excellent, too. Yeah, yeah, okay, before we finish up today. Al, I would love to know what advice you have for other park chasers, other people on a national park quest who are trying to figure out Alaska, what's the biggest piece of advice you would have for them? Hire you to hire you to put together an itinerary. Oh, thanks. Al, oh, it was really fun to do. It's worth every penny. And I've told many people that Now, having said that, the other piece of advice is one that you gave us, and that is, make your reservations early. Yeah, you know, and you, I actually asked you, and you told me, like, how many months for this? How many months for this, in terms of the hotels, in terms of the excursions, you know, and all the or the the tours, you know, how many months in advance should I book this? Because you maybe have to put a deposit down or something, and, yeah, you might not want to do it as any further in advance than you can. But yep, I would. I would start, maybe, you know, 1012, months beforehand, and start making some reservations, you know, probably not for commercial flights and that sort of thing. But yeah, in terms of somewhere like the sheep Mountain Lodge or at Seward, when we went to Kenai Fjords, we stayed at the Windsong Lodge. Yeah, those places. You know, you better reserve them several, several months in advance. We wound up trying to change a reservation we had made to a hotel in Anchorage, and couldn't there was nothing to be found, so we wound up keeping the place the hotel that we had originally arranged for. And so I would say, start making reservations as soon as you can. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I would just add to that to you to make sure for folks that they have travel insurance, because once you've put down 1000s of dollars at the farm Lodge, you know you want to make sure that investment is protected. Yeah, yeah, cool Carla. Is there anything else you want to add as advice for other folks? Well, definitely, definitely take the mosquito net if you're going Yes. Pro Tips by Carla, yes, well, that was your recommendation too, and I would agree with Al when he says the best, best advice is to hire you. Oh, you guys are so kind. It was really, really fun. We followed scheduled to a T and it worked. Yeah, even after looking at it and doing my own exploring of options elsewhere, we always came back to what you recommended. And on the mosquito netting, there's a free one up there in Gates of the Arctic because Carl left one on the ground when we flew away. So, oh, somebody finds that they can have it okay if it hasn't been carried off by snow and wind and and if the mosquitoes haven't taken it over, blown away with it. Oh, well. Al, and Carla, thank you for thank you for making a cameo here and there and Al, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with all of our listeners. It's a pleasure. I love talking about these national parks. Thank you. Thank you very much. Oh, you're Welcome. I love talking about them, too.