John-

I remember you mentioning in a Reunion thread a few months ago how you wanted to visit two places in America, the only two states you havn't seen so far - Alaska and Idaho. Well, Idaho's pretty, but I couldn't think of much to do there, other then an internship on a potato farm. So...

You're going on a two-month-long, Land-Air-Sea tour of Alaska!

And you're not going the cruise way, either - you're going to see an intimate, close-up view of Alaska. You and your family are going to fly first-class from Scottsdale to Anchorage. There, you will be met by me and my expedition-equipped Land Rover (what else?) for two weeks driving as far north as you can go in North America on a road, following the Dalton Highway all the way to Prudhoe Bay. There, we will go on a tour of the oil fields and such there, and, if you want, we can all go swimming in the Arctic Ocean.

We'll go back to "home base" in Anchorage, drop the Rover off, and take a private, luxury seaplane (the wings of which will hopefully stay attached) to visit the various national parks up there - Denali, etc. At each one, we will stay in luxury lodges, hike the mountains, and explore the Arctic area.

When our National Parks tour is done, we'll fly back to Anchorage for the final leg of our journey. We'll board a private, 100-foot, expedition yacht to explore the islands on both "legs" of the state. We'll stop at as many as we can visit, and each night dine on gourmet meals by our 5-star chef. Of course, every Alaskan lighthouse will be seen, and viewed up-close if possible.

When we finally return to Anchorage, we'll part ways, you and family returning to AZ first-class, and myself driving the Land Rover back to NJ. We'll probably be sick of each other by then, but I want to be able to show you the sights first-hand.

Happy Christmas, and Joyous Boxing Day!

_greg