Tag: Alaska

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Flying back to California

Taking off from SeaTac outside Seattle was gorgeous in the late afternoon.

Looking down on the Puget Sound.

Lots of boats out and about.

I’m pretty sure that’s the bridge at Longview, Washington over the Columbia River.

There is still plenty of snow in the coast range of Northern California outside Redding.
Coming into San Francisco Bay.
Treasure Island, Angel Island, the Bay Bridge, Oakland, Alcatraz, and San Francisco all in one shot.
San Francisco in all her glory.

Looking down on the top end of Silicon Valley.
Making the turn to land at San Jose.
On final approach to San Jose.
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Plane spotting at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport

I had a phenomenal time hanging out at the Anchorage International Airport waiting for my flight back to the lower 48 watching all of the interesting planes coming and going.

A 737 VIP transport tied down.
Float plane chilling in the terminal.

Lots of 747s coming through for fuel on the way from Asia to the lower 48.
Plenty of Alaska Airlines planes.
Polar Cargo 747.
Chinese airline of some sort doing a cargo run.

I think that’s a DC-7 or DC-6?

Watching a bunch of sacks of food come off from the front cargo hold while a bunch of boxes of money come out the back.

747 cargo with no markings.
Singapore Airlines cargo 747.

UPS plane going through.
CargoLux 747.
A really cool 707-based private air fuel tanker that contracts to different governments around the world. I know I must have seen a few 707s flying as a kid but this is the first one I’ve seen in a long, long time.

So cool to see it!
Aloha Air Cargo 737 with an Altas Air cargo 747 in the background.
Big Atlas Air 747 cargo coming through for fuel.

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Out to Glacier View

I had a few hours after the conference wrapped up for the day so I jumped in the rental car and drove out past Palmer to Glacier View. The valley heading up there is absolutely stunning.
No matter which way I turned, there were huge mountains waiting to greet me.
Just look at those gorgeous mountains!

Big river carrying snow melt out to sea.
Looking down off a bluff to those wild mountains.
Absolutely stunning.

Everything feels so big and so close.
Glaciers lurk in the back country.
It’s all just so dang big.
The glacier in the valley on the left is what everyone comes to see. It’s absolutely massive. It must have been really impressive a few thousand years ago when it made it all the way down to Anchorage.