We’ve been getting some phone calls today from one of our leisure travel clients who is feeling a bit put out because of weather-related travel delays. Fortunately for me, she’s not my client, but rather, my office-mate’s. But if she were my client, this is what I would tell her:

Relax.

There are a whole constellation of things conspiring against our client – the weather, the fact that everyone is trying to get back to Alaska after the holidays, and unfortunately, unrealistic expectations.

As a professional travel planner, I arrange a lot of airline flights, and coordinate them with our custom tour packages. One of the most important aspects of planning a trip is to make sure that potential for airline delays don’t impact your other plans. For example, when we plan a trip for clients, we never plan any activities for the day you arrive in Anchorage – the flight is long, and you’ll be tired… but more importantly, there’s no guarantees your flight is going to arrive when they promise it will. And for our Iditarod packages, we often will allow for another full day, especially if the guests are coming from the east coast or Europe.

Airline delays have become such a problem that many airlines have taken to pushing back arrival times – it doesn’t slow down the travel, but it changes the expectation. On a recent trip, all four of my flights arrived early… presumably because the airline added another half hour to the expected travel time to help pad their ontime performance.

But really, this isn’t what our client is complaining about. She wants to be here in Alaska, and she’s stuck in some airport along the way, and because of weather and heavy holiday traffic, she’s not going to arrive here when she had hoped. That’s a shame. But being upset about it doesn’t fix it. She needs to relax.

Once I was traveling from Fairbanks to Washington, DC for the Christmas holidays, and it took me twenty-four hours, four airports, and a lot of improvised scheduling to get around the weather and traffic delays.

I had a blast.

Whenever I travel, I bring a book… or two. It is really the only time I get to sit and read, so for me, the book is the treat. I also bring my mp3 player and some really nice headphones. I don’t go anywhere without my laptop… but that can be a mixed bag, because that is just one more heavy thing you have  to lug around with you. If I have a layover – whether scheduled or not – I make sure I take in some of the amenities that hub-city airports have to offer. For some, it could just be a nice lunch, or a drink a the bar. If the layover is extended, you might want to consider buying a one-day pass to one of the airline suites. Most have free Wifi, snacks and drinks, comfortable seats, a friendly concierge or two, and all the latest information on your flights. Sure they’re a little pricey, but when it comes to your sanity, it is often worth it.

The most important thing you can bring with you to the airport is a good attitude. Of course, you want to get where you’re going as quickly as you can. But if you can’t – so what? Make the most of the time you have. Be prepared to have fun. Treat yourself  to a good meal, people-watch, browse the Internet, catch up on your reading, or get to know a fellow traveler. And the key to it all is in the planning. Make your travel arrangements so that a delay of an hour or two doesn’t end up stressing you out and screwing up your plans.

After all, it’s a vacation!

There are an increasing number of visitors to Alaska in the winter… and many of them are coming here to experience the Iditarod.

The Iditarod starts in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March, and the race lasts about two weeks. Most guests arrive on the Thursday before – you wouldn’t want to schedule a Friday flight into Anchorage and end up stuck in Chicago because of a Midwestern blizzard – you’d miss the start of the race!

Dogs discuss race strategy while sitting in the back of a musher's dog truck.

The ceremonial start is on Saturday. This is when all of Anchorage turns out and lines the the streets to watch the mushers as they head through town. Most people head to Fourth Avenue, which is the starting line… but there are many great places to watch the mushers all over town, so it isn’t necessary to fight the downtown crowds. Among the more favorite spots are on the hill on Cordova Street as the mushers head down towards Chester Creek.

The route winds its way south through the parks in Anchorage. At one point the mushers cross a bridge over Northern Lights Boulevard, and a tunnel at Tudor Centre. In 2009, the Anchorage trail ended at Campbell Airstrip in Centennial Park.

A view of the "chute" at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

One advantage of heading to Fourth Avenue is to see the mushers prepare their sleds and dogs for the race. While the festivities on Saturday are purely ceremonial – the clock on the race doesn’t start until Sunday – there is still plenty to see in the “chute”. The area of downtown on Fourth Avenue west of D Street (the actual starting line) is fenced off, and each musher brings in his or her “dog truck”. A dog truck is how the dogs, sleds and equipment is hauled to different locations. The most distinctive feature of a dog truck are the boxes on the back where the dogs ride. You’ll often see dogs sticking their heads out of holes in the doors of the dog truck.

This is a great opportunity to get some photos of the mushers, talk to them a bit, and see the dogs. Most people can’t imagine the preparation and training that goes into a run to Nome. While the show on Saturday is just a very small piece of the entire process, it is very clear from watching the mushers get ready that a run to Nome in the Iditarod is something that takes years of planning.

Musher heads down Fourth Avenue in Anchorage at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

After the ceremonial start, the mushers pack up the dogs and sleds and head for Willow, where the race restarts on Sunday afternoon. Several thousand spectators attend the restart in Willow, and this event is an even more authentic Alaskan event – people arrive by car and truck, snowmachine (this is Alaska-speak for snowmobile) and even a few by airplane.

The atmosphere is a little different in Willow; the trail heads out across the frozen lake, and spectators line the trail and cheer as the mushers head out to Nome. At the same time, snowmachines race across the lake, and airplanes on skis come and go.

After the restart, many guests head north to Talkeetna, where they catch a flight out the next day to some of the remote checkpoints in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Flights leave in the morning and head to Skwentna and Rainy Pass. The first day is often a very entertaining time to be on the trail, because this is when the fastest of the teams try to set the pace.

For guests that are serious about the Iditarod, you can fly from checkpoint to checkpoint in a “Chase the Race” package. Other guests take a few days off and head to Fairbanks where you can take in the World Ice Art Championships, do a dogsledding adventure, where you can actually learn to drive a dog team and spend the night under the northern lights in a cabin or arctic-weight tent. After your dogsled adventure, an afternoon soak at Chena Hot Springs sounds like a very good idea.

The following week the lead mushers approach Nome, and guests fly out to this Norton Sound community to greet the mushers as they arrive on Front Street.

Iditarod packages have become more popular over the last few years, but there is still time to arrange your package if you’re up for a winter adventure in Alaska. Alaska Vacation Store creates custom Iditarod packages that include lodging, rental cars, and all of the activities. Packages can be as short as four days, or last for as many as twenty.

Back when I started Alaska Vacation Store, I had to embark on the chore of finding vendors who were interested in working with a new tour company. One of the first that I found was Mike and Sharon Renfro, owners and operators of Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat, located on the shores of Kenai Lake about 20 miles north of Seward.

Summer view of Kenai Lake near Renfro's Lakeside Retreat

View of Kenai Lake from Renfro's Lakeside Retreat

One of the things that made Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat such a good fit for Alaska Vacation Store is that Mike and Sharon share a lot of the same beliefs about what is important when it comes to taking care of your guests. I believe that Alaska is not just another vacation destination – certainly it wasn’t for me when I first came to Alaska in 1985. Alaska was about a lifetime of dreaming and planning, and when you spend that much time thinking about a one or two week visit, your expectations are very high.

What made the difference for me when I first came to Alaska was the wonderful people that I met… and while Mike and Sharon were not among those first Alaskans I met almost twenty-five years ago, they were certainly cut from the same cloth. To be sure, Alaska is an incredibly beautiful place, but more importantly, Alaska gets into your blood, and the place changes the people.

A few years back, Mike and Sharon decided that it was time to take some time and entered into retirement, and sold their place. The new owners took over, and we continued to send guests there… But it didn’t seem the same.

This past winter, my phone rang, and it was Sharon Renfro. She was calling to tell me that retirement wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and that they’ve taken ownership of their cabins once again. It was definitely the best news of the winter for me – Mike and Sharon were destined to take care of their guests on the shore of the lake, and now they were getting back into it!

Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat really combines all that Alaska is about: Mike and Sharon are the quintessential Alaskan hosts, committed to making sure that you have an amazing stay with them. But combine that with the beautiful cabins on the shore of the turquoise-blue Kenai Lake, and there are few places that I’d rather send my guests.

I really missed Mike and Sharon, and I am sure that their guests did, too. So as we end March, 2009, Mike and Sharon are getting everything just-so for the next season of summer guests.

I couldn’t be more excited!

It is rather unusual – the number of bears that are in regular view of guests and residents alike here in Alaska this year.

I first moved to Alaska in 1986, and other than in places like Denali National Park, where the chances of seeing a bear are rather high*, I don’t think I saw more than one or two bears in my first twenty years here. Since then, the bear population seems to be either getting larger, or moving to town, because they are much more obvious than in the past. Already this year I have seen at least six bears, including one very close encounter.

The first picture was taken from about 30 yards. We came around a turn and found the bear and immediately turned back. The bear followed us down the trail and challenged us, looking for fish. We retreated down the trail, but he followed and came within 10 feet of us. We were finally able to negotiate some distance between the bear and us when I snapped the last two pictures.

Bear sightings and bear-people encounters have become a daily event. Even in Anchorage, which is urban by any standard, bears are seen with regularity. In the past, most of the bear sightings have been along the fringes of the city east of town, where the Chugach Mountains come down to the floor of the Anchorage Bowl. However, the bears are now traveling down the greenbelts that surround the creeks that come out of the mountains and flow into Cook Inlet. Just this morning, a male brown bear was hit by an SUV at 4 AM, on one of Anchorage’s major thoroughfares.

Alaskans are of two minds with all the bears on the loose. On one hand, I think we all like to see the large wild animals wander around the city, and a moose in our back yard or a bear running down the street is usually something that brings a smile to many Alaskans faces. On the other hand, the close calls, and especially, the serious injuries that have occurred in several bear-human confrontations have chased a lot of joggers and hikers out of the woods.

The problem with all of this is that often times, the losers are the bears. The frequency of bear-human confrontation, and the inadvertent positive reinforcement that goes with it (I saw a bear, so I threw my fish and ran – showing bears that they can intimidate humans into feeding them) teaches bears habits that ultimately lead to their destruction.

In a perfect world, we would see lots of bears… off in the distance, doing what bears do. Instead, we’re seeing bears as we drive to work at 4 AM, or when we’re cutting wood, or when we’re walking our dogs, or biking or jogging. The bears are, for the most part, doing what bears do. People should do what people do – think, and be careful, because our back yards are becoming bear country.

* Most visitors to Denali National Park see grizzly bears – but usually from quite a distance, and from the relative safety of a park shuttle bus.

I had the opportunity to take a weekend off and head to Seattle. On the way back, I was seated in a window seat, and was treated to one of the more spectacular and rare views that one experiences in Alaska: The view of the Kenai Mountains by air.

The coastal mountains of Alaska guard the interior of the state from the moisture of the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and in doing so, pile up some impressive snow, which then turns to ice and fills vast valleys with glaciers. These glaciers creep down the valleys and either terminate into a lake or river, or plunge all the way to the sea, forming the sight that many guests to Alaska have come to expect, large chunks of ice falling into an otherwise-glassy bay.

Another way to look at these glaciers is that they exist in an area where the Ice Age never ended. These are the last remnants of the thousands of years of continental glaciation, and are just now retreating into the alpine areas of Alaska.

Most people think that the ice age has been over for thousands of years. But in a significant part of Alaska (as well as other far northern and southern regions), the ice continues today as it has for millenia.

One of the things that has scientists so concerned about global warming is that many of the glaciers in Alaska and in other places have been historically stable – their rate of retreat has been slow, or oscillated between advance and retreat. However, in the last thirty to fifty years, many glaciers have shown a dramatic retreat as their rate of growth has not matched their melting. In fact, there are a number of places around Alaska where a guest can get instant feedback of the rate of glacial retreat. If you visit Exit Glacier near Seward, as you drive up the road to the visitor center, you’ll see wooden signs along the road, that list the location of the terminus of the glacier by year. On the slopes of Mt. McKinley, one can see the lateral moraines where the Ruth Glacier has pushed rocks and gravel to the side, and how the glacier has since melted away from the moraines, leaving walls of gravel dozens or hundreds of feet high.

Alaska’s glaciers are not in danger of disappearing in our lifetimes. But when we talk about change in a geologic time frame, these changes are occurring essentially instantaneously.

Almost everyone that contacts me about coming to Alaska has Denali National Park on their “must see” list. It is no surprise, considering the tremendous number of images and advertisements that one sees that include Mt. McKinley and the spectacular wildlife that lives within the park. In addition, there has been some considerable publicity in recent years about the wolf packs in the park, and their habit of wandering outside the park boundaries, where several Denali wolves have been taken by trappers. Everyone seems to know about Denali, and they all want to visit.

Unfortunately for most visitors, the experience within Denali National Park is not as great as it once was. My first visit to the park was in 1985, and even at that time there were reasons for the visitor to leave Denali feeling that the visit did not live up to expectations. In the 21 years since, the annual number of visitors to Denali National Park has doubled, and there is no sign that the number of visitors is going to level off any time soon. A number of the larger tour and cruise companies have undertaken large construction projects in the past year to add hotel rooms at the entrance to the park. The growth in popularity of this already popular park is taking its toll on the visitor experience.

This is not to say that there isn’t something to see and do in Denali National Park. There are few places in Alaska that are as readily accessible as Denali that offer such great wildlife viewing opportunities. The park is notable because of both the numbers and variety of wildlife that a visitor can hope to see here.

However, all of this beauty and wildlife comes to the visitor at a price; dealing with hundreds or even thousands of other visitors in the park at the same time. This may seem like a false panic in a park the size of the state of Massachusetts. However, for almost every one of those thousands of visitors, the path through the park is the same. Virtually all of the park visits originate at the park headquarters in the town of Denali Park, and almost all visitors enter the park either on a guided tour, or on the park’s shuttle system, known as the Visitor Transportation System, or VTS.

Whether on a tour or on the VTS, the experience is similar: the day starts with long lines of people waiting to get onto one of the buses. Once you’re on the bus, you travel along the 90 mile Denali National Park Road, watching for wildlife and enjoying the scenery. If you’re on one of the tours, you don’t have the option to explore the park on your own. You do get off the bus periodically to stretch your legs and to take a bathroom break. The VTS offers a lot more flexibility; once you pass the Savage River, your driver will stop the bus wherever you like and let you off to hike, or do whatever it is you want to do within the park.

I strongly suggest to my guests that they choose the VTS over the tours, for a number of reasons. The most important is that the VTS allows you to decide what you want to see and do, and how long you want to stay in the park. In contrast, the tours are a fixed length, and if you want to see more of the park, or if you’ve had enough and want to go back sooner, you don’t have either option available to you.

Winter picture of Mt. McKinley taken in Denali State Park near Trapper Creek. This location is about 100 miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park.

The VTS is not the perfect alternative, either. While the drivers are knowledgeable and will answer your questions and provide a basic narration along the way, it is still just a bus ride, and you’re best suited if you get off the bus and experience the park on foot. I am not the most eager hiker, and my first visit to the park was a bit intimidating, both because of the tremendous size of the park (a treeless vista of mountains, tundra and rivers that goes on for dozens of miles) and because of the small but nonzero chance of a wildlife encounter. I remember thinking that the view from my seat on the bus would be almost as good as the view from outside, and I didn’t need to wander through the tundra singing to keep the bears away. For that reason, and many others, a lot of other VTS guests choose to stay on the bus instead of getting off.

I make it a point to follow up with my guests about their visits to Alaska, and I am proud to say that almost without exception, they rave about their experiences here. When I ask them for specifics, and they get to the part about Denali National Park, the raves are replaced with ‘OKs’. If there is a complaint, it is the experience with the crowds and the limited access to the park that is most common. This is unfortunate, because Denali really is a spectacular and special place. There just isn’t a good solution for most visitors that want to experience the park.

Which leads me to the secret. In late April, early May and mid September, the park road is open to private vehicles as far as the Teklanika River, provided the road conditions allow safe passage. You’re welcome to drive the park road in your own car (or a rental car), stop anywhere you like, and enjoy the park on your own terms. If you have a bicycle, you can take the road past this point by bicycle. Unfortunately, there is nothing guaranteed about the road conditions; snow can occur in any month of the year, and as you might imagine, it is rather common in these shoulder seasons. However, in most years, you can generally get a day or two in the park by road.

I have made several trips into the park in April and May, as well as in late September and early October and I’ve seen bears, caribou, moose, fox, golden eagles, ptarmigan and other wildlife along the road. The park is interesting at those times of year for other reasons, too. In the spring, there are still patches of snow everywhere, and it is a great way to experience what winter in alpine Alaska is like, without having to brave numbing cold. The wildlife viewing is generally quite good, with caribou and ptarmigan being the most common animals. A couple years back we were driving through the park and watched a golden eagle as it hunted in the park. While bald eagles are the birds that most people are intent on seeing here, a golden eagle is an impressive creature, indeed – they are considerably larger than bald eagles, and they tend to take on larger prey.

Last fall we drove through the park, and while we didn’t see a ton of wildlife, the day itself was rather spectacular, with frost adorning all of the trees. We had heard rumors of bears around the Teklanika River, but we didn’t see them.

The shoulder seasons are not without their challenges. There are no guarantees about the weather, and of course, wildlife doesn’t stick to the script either. However, the park is amazing, especially when you’re able to do it all on your own, rather than with a couple hundred of your closest friends. Because everything is iffy in the park in the spring and fall, it can be tough to plan a vacation around the shoulder seasons in Denali. But it might be worth a shot, if you want to explore on your own… and for some people, the shoulder seasons are when they can be here. For them, Denali should be a “must-see.”

Tundra near the Savage River in Denali National Park, September 2005.

Immediately east of Anchorage is the Chugach Mountains. The first ridge that overlooks the city has peaks to about 3500 feet; head deeper into the mountains and the peaks get taller, and eventually you reach the glaciers of the Chugach Mountains.

About this time of year, we’ll get a rainy, foggy day, and when we get up the next morning, the tops of the peaks will have a fresh coating of snow. Alaskans call this “termination dust”, which is a reference to the end of summer. Termination dust comes and goes several times in late August and September, before the snows settle in here at sea level, usually on a Saturday morning, when we have some outdoor chore, or even worse, a fishing trip planned. The phenomenon is the same in other parts of the state. In Fairbanks, the White Mountains just north and northeast of town will gather a mantle of snow a few weeks before the snows reach the floor of the Tanana Valley.

In Denali National Park, the situation is a little different. The mountains there are quite a bit taller, and most of the park, including the area along the park road is around the 3000 to 4000 feet, so when there’s termination dust on the Chugach Mountains, there’s snow on the park road in Denali. This is an important thing to remember when you’re out in the elements in Alaska; especially in the fall, but in fact, it is important anytime. When it is raining on you, it is snowing just a few thousand feet above your head, and in Alaska, a nice sunny day can become rainy very quickly, and an unexpected heavy shower might have a few hailstones, then a few more, then a few flakes of snow, and before you know it, you have a cold, wet mess.

I was on a moose hunting trip a few years back. We traveled by boat for about 15 miles, and we spent the better part of the month of September at our camp. We hunted the last day of the season. It was a beautiful fall day, with temperatures in the low 50’s. We went into our tents that night, ready to break camp and go home the next day. I woke up around 7 AM, and I heard some dripping on the tent.I was eager to make some coffee and some breakfast, so I started to get dressed and go to our campfire and get the fire started. I unzipped my tent, and was greeted by the sight of six inches of snow.

First snow of the year at Kashwitna Lake near Willow.

I made my coffee, and we broke camp, and rode in the boat for 15 miles in the cold and miserable snow all the way back to town.

Any day now, the Chugach Mountains will get another coating of snow, and Alaskans will moan and complain about how summer was short, and winter is coming. The truth is, winter comes when it wants to come, and summer is really just on loan to us, and we’re going to have to pay that loan back… Any day now.

Alaska has become one of the more popular destinations for travelers in the United States. The hospitality industry in Alaska is one of the largest single sectors of our economy, and we have experienced a slow and mostly steady growth in visits to Alaska. One implication of this growth is that once-small businesses have had to grow and change to accommodate higher and higher demand for their products and services.

In the years that I have been in the industry, my business has been transformed in the opposite way. Most of my guests contact me because they are looking to avoid the larger, more commercial destinations and activities. So as the Alaska Hospitality industry grows, and the businesses within that sector try to accommodate larger and larger volumes of people, my business is charged with the task of courting and maintaining relationships with small or very small business that offer highly customized and personalized experiences, whether it be lodging at a secluded cabin on a hilltop with views of Mt. McKinley, or a personally guided rafting and float trip, or a personalized adventure in the Brooks Range.

Much of the information that people outside of Alaska receive about our state come from large, sophisticated marketing engines operated by industry groups and/or large vendors. You’ll notice a lot of cruise ships, domed rail cars, king crabs and big mountains in these advertisements, and I am the first to admit that these images are very compelling, and the cruise lines and other large players have done a very good job at getting their guests to some truly spectacular destinations. However, to be on that cruise ship looking at that glacier or visiting that national park requires you to compromise about the number of people with whom you share that experience. So while the experience with both the cruise lines and the railroad is very good, once you reach your destination you’re faced with a rather commercial and often crowded set of options.

View from the entrance of one of the large hotels in Denali Park, Alaska. Numerous business, hotels and other commercial enterprises are located in the area known as “Glitter Gulch.” This picture was taken in September 2005, after the guests had left for the season.

The biggest enterprises are the drum to which the smaller businesses tend to dance. Tour schedules and courtesy shuttles are tailored to match the arrivals of cruise ships and trains. In order to offer these added amenities, the smaller companies must have the ability to handle the large number of guests arriving at once, and so what was once a very personalized experience becomes something geared to a larger audience, and by definition, is less personal. In addition, businesses that are located away from the cruise ship terminals and train stations have a hard time attracting these guests because they can’t offer the transportation options that the larger places offer. While this situation may seem like quite a problem to overcome for a small to very small business, I actually think this is a big advantage for many of them, provided they are focused on a very high quality experience for their guests.

For that reason we generally suggest that people skip the larger vendors, and do a self-guided trip instead. It isn’t that these larger vendors don’t do a good job, but rather that to have that wonderful, personalized Alaskan experience, with great hospitality and great locations, you need more flexibility. In almost every case, that requires that you travel by private vehicle, and for that reason we include rental cars in almost every package we do for our guests.

A lot of people are reluctant to drive during their visit to Alaska. My guests have cited a number of reasons, from finding driving to stressful, to concerns about the condition and quality of Alaskan roads, to the amount of time required to drive the hundreds of miles in a typical stay here. I will admit that I am not typical, and I really enjoy driving, but part of that is because of the tremendous flexibility that having your own vehicle offers. In addition, there are so many wonderful destinations that are not served by cruise ships or the train. Having access to a car opens up your visit to so many possibilities that really make a difference in your stay.

Having access to a vehicle is not the complete answer, however. This past weekend is a perfect example of what can go wrong in Alaska, or in fact, on any trip that you might plan. A week of heavy rains caused widespread flooding that damaged two bridges on the Parks Highway, the major route between Anchorage and Denali and Fairbanks. The road is just now being reopened, and drivers should expect delays traveling either north or south on the Parks Highway between Talkeetna and Denali. Travel insurance is always a good idea, and if you had the right travel insurance, your costs relating to delays and trip interruption would be covered. The same flooding also suspended rail operations, and thousands of guests were stranded, especially in Talkeetna and Denali, so taking the train did not help guests avoid the inconvenience caused by the floods.

So, get in the car, find the special places, meet the special people, buy travel insurance, and have a great vacation.

Last fall, after the visitor season was over, I took the family down to Florida for a week. I had never been to the Florida Keys, and I had always wanted to see them. We originally planned to camp at one of the state parks near Marathon, but Hurricane Wilma did quite a bit of damage, and the park was not available for camping.

Rather than cancel the trip, I decided to do some research and try to find a place for us to spend the week. I found an apartment with two bedrooms and a kitchen, and it actually fit our party of four very nicely.

When I arrived there, and it was time to check in, the first thing I noticed was the number of small signs that were posted everywhere. There was one on the door that said that said that vehicles that did not belong to a registered guest would be towed. There were a number of other ones, too, but I don’t remember what they said.

I went into the office to register. The person was business-like, and had a contract for me to review and sign. Since I actually work in the hospitality industry, I read the contract thoroughly, both because it is a good idea, and because I wanted to see if there was anything that people in Florida were doing differently than what I had come to expect in Alaska.

The contract stated that they would charge my credit card for the entire stay at the time that I registered, and that if I left early, there would be no refund. This was acceptable for me, because this is one of the conditions that I require, too. However, it would have been good to have been advised of this in advance. There was a list of “Thou shalt nots…” having to do with damages and noise… nothing that I thought was unreasonable. I signed the contract, was given a couple of keys, and we went off to our apartment.

The apartment was very nice. There were two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a ceiling fan, air conditioning, cable television and a balcony with a view of the Gulf of Mexico. The kitchen was at least passably supplied, with a stove and microwave, dishes, pots and pans, glasses, etc. At this point, I noticed a sign posted in several places in the kitchen. The sign said that if we left dirty dishes, we would be charged a $200 cleaning fee.

As you might imagine, after a flight across the continent and a drive from Miami to Marathon, it was time to visit the bathroom. When I walked in, I was greeted by a sign that said that if the bathroom towels were used for spills, or were otherwise stained, there would be a $50 replacement charge.

Now I am the first to admit that I pay attention to these kinds of details more than most. However, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable at the constant reminders that I should definitely not make myself at home. I don’t think that any of the things on the signs were in any way unreasonable. In fact, they are completely reasonable. However, there are other ways to let your guests know about these conditions.

Every time I walked in the bathroom to take a shower, or washed dishes in the kitchen, there was that reminder, and it ate at me. I know that I am overly sensitive about such things, but I can’t help but feel that other guests would be similarly uncomfortable, but just not know what they were uncomfortable about.

Now that I was sensitized to the little things, I noticed that the owner spent a lot of his day riding around on his golf cart. Admittedly there was still a lot of cleanup to be done after the hurricane (notice that some of the trees look dead or brown from being flooded with seawater). However, he was a lot more about riding in the cart and supervising than about cleaning up.

The place itself was very nice, and we did have a very good time while we were there. However, there are certainly ways that the owner could have presented his conditions that would have actually been a positive experience. Guests expect that there are conditions and penalties related to their stay. Informing the guests about the payment and cancellation policies in advance is a start. Taking the time to explain the damage penalties, rather than just putting a piece of paper in front of you and having you sign it is another. Having someone take a moment to walk you through your apartment and remind guests about washing the dishes and not staining the towels would be a third. Letting the guests enjoy their vacation rather than reading and re-reading every little condition is a fourth.

I am sure that there are some of you out there reading this thinking that I am just way too uptight about this. However, you can tell from my experience what this particular host is focused on. I never actually met the owner — he never took the time to introduce himself to me, even though I was there for a week. This experience left an impression with me, in part because one of the criteria by which I choose vendors is the way they treat their guests. All of my vendors have very nice places, and they have their own policies and penalties. But they are also very focused on making sure that you have a great time. I have lots of opportunities to visit properties and speak with hosts. I am impressed when they talk about the guests experience, and put off when they focus on the money.

My vendors make their livings by making sure that their guests are not just satisfied, but have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The same is true for me. If that isn’t the most important thing to a vendor, I don’t use them.

One of my most lasting memories of my first visit to Alaska was the view out the window of a van as I was heading back to Anchorage to leave. It was September, and late in the afternoon, and we were driving south near the intersection of the Parks Highway and the Glenn Highway. The weather was rainy, and there really wasn’t much to see in terms of scenery, because of all the clouds and fog. [This area is actually quite scenic, with views of the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains.] At the time, the roads here were two lane roads with at-grade intersections. Today the road is expressway, with interstate highway-style interchanges.

What was memorable was the crossing of the Knik River. The river originates at the Knik Glacier, 20 or 30 miles east of where it crosses under the road. Like all glacial rivers, the silt load is tremendous, and the water is as opaque as chocolate milk. The water was grey, the sky was grey, and the boundary between the two was almost invisible, as if the sky and water and fog melted together into a single impenetrable blob. This probably sounds unappealing, but for a kid from the east coast, where glacial rivers are something you read about in a book, this was a fascinating experience and strangely beautiful scene.

It is raining today here in Anchorage, and Alaskans far and wide are complaining about the weather. But I think if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that most of us are really rather spoiled. We do get our rainy days, especially at this time of year, but a weekend is a weekend, and we’ll all still probably go fishing, or visit our cabin, or go four-wheeling, or whatever our weekend plans are. If we catch that monster silver salmon, we’ll quickly forget that it was raining. If we sit in our cabin and finish that mystery novel we’ve been meaning to read, the weekend will be a success. And as we drive down the road, and see trailer after trailer of muddy four-wheelers heading back home on Sunday afternoon, you won’t hear their owners complaining about the rain, but rather the fun they had splashing through all the puddles and mud.

Alaska in the summer is about being outdoors. When it rains, we complain, but when it is sunny and 75, we complain that we have to put on sun screen and that it is too hot.

I guess there isn’t a perfect Alaskan day… but on a scale from one to ten, almost all of them are a nine.