WhaleCoast Alaska’s 2008 All-Alaska Tour is scheduled for July 13-July 28. Long time tour directors Dick and Mary Weston-Jones have retired from touring. The new tour director is Dave Frey, a 27-year Alaska resident with extensive experience in Alaska tourism. He has been WhaleCoast Alaska’s Fairbanks coordinator for 7 years. For information about the 2008 program please email waltonfrey@gci.net or phone 907-457-2131 or 907-322-4966.

WhaleCoast Alaska is a Unitarian Universalist eco-cultural and spiritual program for people from “Outside” who want to experience the real Alaska. It’s operated in cooperation with five UU Alaska fellowships—Anchorage, Seward, Fairbanks, Juneau and Sitka—that provide the hosts for the programs, home stays for the travelers, and dinner parties for all participants.

Significant funds raised through wUUrld have helped finance building of the farthest north UU church in the world in Fairbanks, for which the local UUs provided much of the labor and money. A total of over $230,000 has been raised shared by all of the participating Alaska UU congregations. Over a thousand UUs have visited Alaska with our program.

We travel throughout Alaska to see wildlife in their natural habitats--humpback and killer whales, sea lions, seals and sea otters; bears, wolves, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, eagles, murres, puffins and other birds in some of North America’s most beautiful scenery. Three National Parks are on our itinerary: Denali National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park and the National Historic Park in Sitka. Native American and Eskimo art, dancing and storytelling are featured in “living museums” like the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. We have an optional trip to Barrow, an Inupiat village that is the northernmost town on the North American continent.

For a detailed description including the cost of the 2008 trip, click on the Daily Schedule menu on the left of this page. We expect information on the 2008 program to be on the website in January. The Thumbnail Descriptions is a brief outline of the trip.