Contagion

With all the super-stars in this movie, how could I miss it! Matt Damon - Gwyneth Paltrow - Marion Cotillard - Jude Law - Kate Winslet - Laurence Fishburne (The Help STILL isn't here, Kristin!!!) Well, I kind of suspected the premise of the story and of course was pretty right on. If you think of the SARS epidemic that happened not too long ago, this is the story, although it is not SARS (but they do refer to it in the movie). Luckily, was only about 1-1/2 hours long - which was plenty long enough. A bit of a sleeper if you ask me although IMDb gives it 7/10 stars. Worth seeing?? I would wait for the DVD to come out.

south to Denali

Left Fairbanks and drove toward Denali National Park. The sky started to cloud over (oh no, where did our summer weather go???) and soon drops of rain were falling on our car. It showered off and on, but the bright side of this was the rainbows that formed.
We viewed a slight double rainbow as we neared Nanana.

Denali National Park, home of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America (20,322 feet). Unfortunately, the clouds had settled over this great mountain, so all we saw was the bottom 322 feet. We drove the allowable for personal vehicles - the first 15 miles. Although we couldn't see the highest mountain the foliage had turned and the scenery was alive with colour.


Next time, I want to take the bus tour into the park. It takes about 6 hours to complete and apparently the wildlife viewing is phenomenal.

north to Fairbanks

Forgot to tell you about the large mosquito we ran into in Delta Junction. K took a photo of it biting my wrist - boy did that hurt!

And, couldn't bypass North Pole Alaska. The town has street names like St. Nicholas Drive and Santa Claus Lane and the street lamps are decorated like candy canes. Ho Ho Ho, we did some Christmas shopping there.

Fairbanks and area

Took my computer, but not the cord to charge it. Consequently, the big break in my trip.
Onward now to Fairbanks. Visited the University of Alaska's Museum of the North. Loved the art exhibits. The building's design conveys a sense of Alaska, evoking images of alpine ridges, glaciers and a diving whale's tail.

Above is Kristin in the "outhouse", decorated with all those things you have at home and don't know what to do with. It was decorated inside and out, something I may do if ever I have an outhouse again.

The university is high above the main city and affords a wonderful view from the large windows.

One fascinating section of the museum was The Place Where You Go to Listen. It is a unique sound and light environment created by composer John Luther Adams. It gives voice to the rhythms of daylight and darkness, the phases of the moon, the seismic vibrations of the earth and the dance of the aurora borealis, in real time. Although not music, the vibrations of the earth are amplified to sound to our ears like music.

The university also has a large agricultural section in which it invited one to stroll through its gardens and greenhouses. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that.

The weather was beautiful. We drove east for about an hour to visit Chena Hotsprings. It was even warm enough to lie in the sun after our dip in the water!