Back in 2013, I wrote about My Four Compass Points. In other words, the farthest North, South, East, and West I’ve ever traveled. (And of course, I was talking latitude and longitude. I’m not going to debate about the curvature of the earth or have an even more absurd discussion to convince you that the earth isn’t flat. It stuns me that people still believe this.)
But I’m proud to announce that this month I broke two of my records: I’ve now been even farther North and farther West in one vacation. My world is expanding. I find that exciting.
Now, the furthest North I’ve ever been is Fairbanks, Alaska. Sadly, we did not see the Northern Lights, and I really hoped to. But it’s still a very cool town, and I’ll be blogging more about it in days to come, so watch this space!
My new Westernmost compass point is Anchorage, Alaska. We weren’t there long. We stayed in a hotel overnight and had a few hours in the morning to explore the fun and artsy shops downtown, so there isn’t much to write about there.
I think the most memorable thing that happened to me in Anchorage was slicing a 4 inch gash in my leg by walking past a chair with an exposed piece of metal sticking out from the corner. So I guess you could say I bled for my Western compass point. I left a little DNA in Anchorage. Thank God for tetanus shots.
Anyway, here are a few Fairbanks and Anchorage photos from our hotel rooms. We’re still organizing our nearly 2000 photos which is bound to take some time. Bear with me, dear reader!
I wrote an actual book, and you can own it! How cool is that? http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5
The View from a Drawbridge 
The good old Westward! I used to go up and sneak quick views out of the restaurant. Spent a few months there in ’75 and did see the northern lights, figuring out what they were at once. There was a little lake on the campus that if you walked close to it you found yourself floating, as if walking on a giant waterbed. And, of course, there was the Book Cache. But I don’t feel the need to go back.
The memories are the thing. 🙂