2015-07-14

Alaska : 2015-07

I was able to travel up to Anchorage, Alaska (JBER to be specific) to visit one of our units and since it was July, it was perfect! I've been to AK before, but only once to Anchorage so it was good to revisit.

Upon arrival, we took a quick tour of the area and as you can see, it's pretty amazing!

A couple hours later we had supper at Simon and Seafort's Saloon and Grill, aka Simon's.
I don't remember what I had for supper (pretty sure fish) but here is a pic of my desert!

The next day was going to be epic. We were scheduled to take a C-12 to one of the radar sites on the west coast. It wasn't close enough to see Russia, but I was very excited to see it. As we walked to the C-12, I had to take this picture - what a glorious shot with incredible scenery.

About an hour into the flight, the airplane had some issues so we had to divert. The crew elected to go to Dillingham. We were all bummed to miss our destination, but Dillingham turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. This is the airfield right after we landed. The C-12 is on the right.

Because the C-12 needed to get a waiver to fly back to Anchorage, there was plenty of time to walk around the airfield. I can't speak for all airfields in AK, but I imagine most would be like this one - basically a museum of flyable airplanes.

I'm not super proficient in general aviation airplanes, but I'm pretty sure this is a De Havilland Otter. They are icons in Alaska, along with other De Havilland versions. It was soon after I took this picture when we were told we couldn't walk around the airfield. We're in Dillingham, AK, in uniform, and we were told we couldn't walk around the airfield. Convincing ourselves we weren't really a threat, we continued to look at airplanes.

As often happens in life, this diversion from our original plan offered an unexpected adventure. A guy landed while we were there and after a short discussion offered to take us to town to get some burgers! How awesome is that?! And this is the van we used! We ate at the Bayside Diner and it was a perfect lunch!

We returned to Ancorage without incident and had supper at the Haute Quarter. I didn't want to be "that guy", but it probably should be called Haute Quartier. If they're trying to be French, there is no Quarter. Regardless, it was a cool restaurant and the food was fantastic. Above is a pic of their menu.

And this is what I ordered. What is it? I don't remember, but look at that sauce!! Delicious!

- mm -

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