In July of 2002, we made our way to Healy, Alaska, to visit my best friend and his wife, Sean and Mindy Fielding. This was our first visit to this beautiful state, and our daughter Ashley's first plane ride! A lot of firsts on this trip! We left Detroit bound for Anchorage. Once we arrived in Anchorage, we headed north in our rental car towards Denali National Park.

We spent a week and a half in Alaska and saw so many wonderful sights. The entire visit was so breath taking. We saw Denali National Park, made our way up to Fairbanks and then to North Pole, Alaska. We also made our way south back through Anchorage and on down to Seward. While in Seward Alaska, we took a tour of Resurrection Bay and saw some wonderful wildlife. Our entire stay at Seward was breathtaking and we shared the experience with Sean and Mindy, who took us there to see the sights. My favorite bird is the "Puffin", and I was finally able to see many!

We toured Denali National Park, and it makes you appreciate all that our parks do to preserve such beautiful places. To see wildlife in their element, Bears, Wolf, Dull Sheep, Moose, and many others, was simply amazing. Sean took us to the "Tundra", which I believe was one of Ashley's favorite places.

Alaska has everything that we love. It has flat land, mountains, streams, rivers, ocean, and a lot of plant life. I describe Alaska as being the closest you can get to heaven without actually being at the front gate.

We are looking forward to our next trip back. We owe a special "THANKS" to Sean and Mindy for showing us around and making our stay filled with memories that we will never forget. We hope to someday be able to walk down the street and visit!

A personal highlight for me was actually on our trip home, as we were driving back to Anchorage from Healy, Alaska. We had hoped to see Mount McKinley and it never fully revealed itself...until the last day. On our trip home, the clouds parted and the mountain showed itself, allowing numerous photo opportunities. Ashley told us that the mountain showing itself on our trip home meant that we were supposed to stay! I could not agree more, and we are looking forward to our next trip either round or better yet, one way!