The weather gave us some fits today. Yesterday a very thick blanket of fog rolled in and has just sat here! We are seeing a bit of sun now, but the fog is trying to come back. All of the folks here are just flabbergasted with it and tell us it is never like this. Since I was here for the pre-tour I was lucky to get to see what Anchorage has to offer with its views of the water, the mountains, etc. But some of our group just got in yesterday and they are yet to see the beauty. (The above photo was taken on Monday at Talkeetna north of Anchorage.)

I'm hoping that tonight's event sheds some light on a possible hotel for the Ag Media Summit. So far I haven't found one but we have more options tomorrow. Beautiful (and brand new) Convention Center is a for sure thing though. We'll see what happens. They are treating us like kings and queens and of course, I'm enjoying that!

Wow, what a day. This morning we travelled north of Anchorage about two hours to the area around Talkeetna. This sleeply little town is right out of the old TV show "Northern Exposure". After getting to our hotel it was lunch and then the quick jaunt over to go flightseeing. Since I didn't realize what that meant I didn't know what to expect.

But this adventure was incredible! Ten of us took off in a small plane and had it been camo, it would have resembled something from M*A*S*H. Tony the pilot was very experienced and we traveled 60 land miles to Denali National Park in the Alaska Mountain Range. The Park covers six million square miles which is about same size as the state of Massachusetts. I think we saw every mile which made the two hour trip worth it!

We traversed in and amongst all of the mountain, glaciers and the majestic Mt. McKinley which rises 20,320 feet high. This is highest peak in the U.S. and we seemed so close to the mountains, the peaks, the blue reflection coming from the glaciers. We were in amongst snow and ice that in some areas has been measured to 3500 feet deep.

The highlight was landing the plane on the Eldridge glacier (Mr. Eldridge is a famous geologist). Just imagine landing between mountains on a plane and praying that the plane stops. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures. I did not bring my laptop up here for our one night stay but I'll be posting some pictures on my Facebook page that are breathtaking!

All for now. More to come!

I just arrived in Alaska last night for a week in the Anchorage area. I was invited by the Anchorage Convention and Visitor's Bureau to see what the area has to offer and their goal will be to entice me to bring a group up here. In the meeting planning business this kind of trip is called a "FAM' which merely means "familiarization". If you say that word several times, you'll see why FAM is much easier. I believe there are about 20 of us in our group who I will meet in a few hours.

In the nearly seven hour flight from DFW I decided that I should blog this experience. In the case that the Ag Media Summit will consider Anchorage, your opinions will be very important. No need to choose this city and have no one show up! So this week I'm going to try to keep you updated with pictures and my initial thoughts of the area. It's 6:30 a.m. which is 9:30 a.m. in Fort Worth so it certainly was easy to get up. And I just heard on the weather that we are going to have record breaking temperatures this week! Ahhhh... music to my ears as I just left hot and very humid Texas. The good news is these record highs will be 70.

So with that thought, I'll leave you now. Am looking forward to seeing the bright sunshine and we'll see what Denali offers today. 

SIDE NOTE: I was trying to include a picture with this and can't get it off of my phone! Hence the two hour delay!