Our flight took us north from our home
in central California through British Columbia and the Yukon
Territories to Anchorage, Fairbanks and return. . The trip itself
had seventeen (17) flight legs totalling 42.7 hours. Between July 13th and July 27th of 1990, my daughter Victoria and I took a two week flying and camping vacation to Alaska. It was a memorable experience, one of life's best.
Our flight took us north from our home
in central California through British Columbia and the Yukon
Territories to Anchorage, Fairbanks and return. . The trip itself
had seventeen (17) flight legs totalling 42.7 hours.
On returning, I found it difficult to remember with certainty the details of what we had done. Also it was difficult (if not impossible) to convey to my friends and family the excitement of our trip. A retelling of our trip, I thought, would create a permanent record of our experiences.
Why write a diary of a vacation? It's a bit like home movies that bore everyone. But this diary is not really written for others. Rather it's written for me and, probably for Victoria. I can't expect others to be truly interested today. Perhaps, in years to come it may have some quaint historical interest.
Most of all, I realize, I am writing this because I expect to enjoy reliving the experiences. Writing about something is a means of recreating (in one's mind) the experience and to preserve the memories before they fade. In the process, it is possible that this diary might be of interest to others. It will give us great pleasure to share this trip in this way, but that's not the main point.
I realize that this document is not a diary since it was not written daily during the events recounted. It was written between November 1990 and March 1991 from an outline of events put together in the late summer after the trip. No doubt, the events are not as fresh as if they were transcribed daily, but perhaps, the document as a whole will have more balance written, as it were, from a perspective viewing the entire trip.
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