Anchorage, Alaska
Part 1 (Sept. 13-17 2008)
For the ICAS conference where I presented my paper I went to Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A. together with some others of my laboratory (and the lab nextdoor). My presentation went fine, and I was selected as a finalist for the best student paper/presentation award, however unfortunately I didn't win.
I met quite some people I knew, such as old lab-members (from my lab in Japan) and some professors from my university in the Netherlands and some other professors from around the world who I met before when they visited Japan. Before and after the conference I enjoyed the surroundings as you can see here.
We arrived in Anchorage almost at midnight after 2 transfers (San Fransisco and Seattle) and stayed in the Voyager hotel which I had found via google earth and had some good reviews. I think it was a good choice: clean, helpfull staff, cheap (as we could share a room with 3), close to the conference center and they provided some pastries and coffee/tea/juice for breakfast.
The conference organization had recommended a glacier tour (although there are also others in the Kenai park for example). We went to Whittier (there seems to be nothing around there) by car, got some (very expensive but good) fish burgers and after waiting for a long time finally boarded the sightseeing boat.
It was a foggy day and slightly rainy day, however it was said not to be too bad, according to their standards. After the first glacier, where we saw some otters, we came to the "surprise glacier". As we came very close, we got a good view even in the bad weather.
Then we went into the "College fjord" with some more nice views
ans lots of seals! Some pretty close-up as you can see (although a zoom lens helps ;-) ).
The second day we went along the Glenn Highway to the Matanuska glacier. The weather was quite a bit better and the autumn colors were great!
It's a very nice ride through nature along the Matanuska river (and as there was road work going on, we had even more time to enjoy).
We had lunch at the Long Rifle Lodge with a great view over the glacier.
Then we went down (by car) into the glacier park and walked the last bit to the glacier.
We didn't have too much time (we had to go to the congress welcome reception that evening), but enough to set a few steps on the glacier and take some pictures.
The hotel was very close to the sea, so one morning I went for a short walk before going to the conference and took some pictures.
I met quite some people I knew, such as old lab-members (from my lab in Japan) and some professors from my university in the Netherlands and some other professors from around the world who I met before when they visited Japan. Before and after the conference I enjoyed the surroundings as you can see here.
We arrived in Anchorage almost at midnight after 2 transfers (San Fransisco and Seattle) and stayed in the Voyager hotel which I had found via google earth and had some good reviews. I think it was a good choice: clean, helpfull staff, cheap (as we could share a room with 3), close to the conference center and they provided some pastries and coffee/tea/juice for breakfast.
The conference organization had recommended a glacier tour (although there are also others in the Kenai park for example). We went to Whittier (there seems to be nothing around there) by car, got some (very expensive but good) fish burgers and after waiting for a long time finally boarded the sightseeing boat.
It was a foggy day and slightly rainy day, however it was said not to be too bad, according to their standards. After the first glacier, where we saw some otters, we came to the "surprise glacier". As we came very close, we got a good view even in the bad weather.
Then we went into the "College fjord" with some more nice views
ans lots of seals! Some pretty close-up as you can see (although a zoom lens helps ;-) ).
The second day we went along the Glenn Highway to the Matanuska glacier. The weather was quite a bit better and the autumn colors were great!
It's a very nice ride through nature along the Matanuska river (and as there was road work going on, we had even more time to enjoy).
We had lunch at the Long Rifle Lodge with a great view over the glacier.
Then we went down (by car) into the glacier park and walked the last bit to the glacier.
We didn't have too much time (we had to go to the congress welcome reception that evening), but enough to set a few steps on the glacier and take some pictures.
The hotel was very close to the sea, so one morning I went for a short walk before going to the conference and took some pictures.