My favorite places...

Over the years, my job has provided me the opportunity to travel to lots of amazing places. I'm only about 12 states shy of having been to every state and I've been to 10 different countries. I've decided to create a secondary theme to my blog and share "My favorite places". These places will be both near and far, familiar and unfamiliar.

A couple of years ago, I had the good fortune to travel to Alaska, on business. At the time, I wondered when I would have this chance again. So, I added a few days to the trip and departed early do some exploring. As a birthday gift, I traded in some frequent flier miles and hotel points and my eldest sister and frequent travel partner joined me on the trip.

Since the sun didn't set until after 11pm during our stay, we wandered the semi-dry river bed of a local State Forest. After a short stroll, we realized we were not the only ones walking the riverbed that night...

This imprint was the size of my head...

Luckily, we only saw prints and not the real thing...One the drive back to the hotel, we came across what has to be the most scenic Wal-Mart in the country...

Five minutes drive out of Anchorage, in any direction, brings more natural beauty than you can process.

While in Anchorage, I made what my wife and I consider one of our top 5 purchases - a Nikon D5000 Digital SLR camera. Photographs have never been the same...

200mm lense and a bear in rehab...

could pass for the Farmy after Irene came through

A color of blue in the water like I have never seen...

Hopefully, the future will afford me the opportunity to return to Alaska with my family. In my quest to visit all 50 states I figured this would be the hardest to get to but now I think it may be the hardest to get back to...