Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

For years now I've had a bucket list goal of visiting all the states in the US. After notching Alabama, number 49 out of 51 in 2016, I remained stuck at 49/51 for several years. (I'm using 51 because I'm counting Washington, D.C. in addition to the well-known fact of 50 states in the US.) Last year I reached 50/51 by visiting Louisiana. That left only "The Last Frontier" of the US— no, not outer space; that's the final frontier— Alaska. And now I've got plans laid in to visit Alaska in June.

We'll visit Alaska for a 5 day trip in June. We'll fly to Anchorage; it's a 5 hour flight non-stop from San Francisco. Once in Anchorage we'll rent a car and drive out to Seward, AK.

Why Seward? There's nothing to recommend that podunk little town except that it's right outside Kenai Fjords National Park. So this trip will serve two bucket list items: getting me to 51/51 states and adding another national park on my national park bucket list. It'll be national park number 53 out of 63. We'll spend a few days visiting the park, both on foot— we'll hike to a glacier!— and by boat, where we'll see more glaciers.

One thing that's struck me as we've made our bookings is how expensive everything is in Alaska. Decent hotels in Anchorage start above $300/night and go up from there. (We're staying one night in Anchorage after a late evening flight.) Rental cars are $200/day. And no, these are not last-minute prices; I was booking 7 weeks ahead. I tried dates in July and August to sanity-check if we'd just chosen the wrong time to visit, but no, Alaska's always expensive.

"What's our alternative?" I asked myself rhetorically multiple times as I choked on the prices. "The only alternative is we don't go." So we'll pay the price to complete our all-the-states bucket list. And notch one more national park.

Over the last umpteen years I've flown through Washington-Dulles Airport (IAD) more times than I can remember. Actually I don't have to remember; I have a flight tracking service I use. A quick query there indicates the number is 83. I have flown through IAD 83 times. Anyway, on a good many of those trips I have driven VA highway 28 south from the airport entrance and passed exit signs for an oddly named attraction seemingly in the middle of nowhere: The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the National Air and Space Museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Links: Udvar-Hazy Center at Smithsonian Institution; Udvar-Hazy Center on Wikipedia.



Most of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution are in downtown Washington, DC, arrayed along the National Mall. There they share frontage with the US Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument. This annex was built out in farm country, or at least what used to be bordering on farm country when it opened in 2004, because the National Air and Space Museum downtown had always had way more artifacts than it could exhibit.

Finally this past week, after years of meaning to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center, Hawk and I did visit.



The building is shaped like a large hangar. This is appropriate to the nature of its content: dozens of aircraft and spacecraft from the WWI era up through the 21st century. Among the notable craft are the Enola Gay, a Concorde jet, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the Space Shuttle Discovery.




When I visited the main building of the National Air and Space Museum several years ago— actually my fourth visit, the first having been as a child of about 9— I pondered whether the museum had become boring. My 11 year old nephew certainly thought it was. Likely so did nearly every other child his age ± a few years there with their faces buried in their portable game machines. I think this museum would impress them more with its real-life aircraft standing on right in front of them or hanging overhead suspended on cables. I know it felt special for us, as middle age adults, to stand almost close enough to touch an actual space shuttle.