Alaska Vacation - 2017

Last part of the trip. The one small concrete structure is a salmon ladder so the fish can go upstream. We were about a month too early to see them. A few photos of the meals we had. One shows a beef Wellington that I had. The other is short ribs. Julie was unsure if she wanted the ribs or a crab dinner. She ordered and got the crab but the waiter brought us the ribs too! So we picked at that. A delicious dessert and a description. Those brown birds are common murres. Some late evening/sunset shots. The bridge at Vancouver. The captain said we cleared it by 19 feet. https://photos.app.goo.gl/A068IszElEQIqXna2

Skagway has a railroad through the mountains up into the Yukon. We only went as far as the Canadian border on our trip. The railroad was pretty cool. The scenery was great but the higher we went up the cloudier and mistier it got so we weren't able to see the really great scenery. As we were leaving port I heard and then saw the Coast Guard helicopter. Watched it land. Kept it's engines running. Saw an ambulance headed to the runway. As we were getting away from the harbor I heard the chopper fly past us on the other side of the ship. That yacht, "Daedalus", is owned by the Boeing Company. At least it was if you check out Google. At Juneau we did a Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching Photographic Safari. The guide was a professional photo journalist. Interesting tour. He provided technical help and led us on a little hike to the glacier and then a boat trip to see whales. Photo technical tip for those that are interested: There are 3 photos in a row showin...

Some pretty flowers at the Kenai Princess Lodge. There were beautiful flowers all over the place. That A-frame structure is the opening of a tunnel that has one way traffic only along with a railroad. At the top of the hour vehicles going South are allowed in. At the bottom of the hour the North bound vehicles can go. And the railroad can go whenever. There were about 4 different lanes; 1 for buses, 1 for trucks, 1 for campers, and 1 for cars. Buses take priority. Each bus waits for a green light before it can go. They set it up such that there is 1,100 feet between buses. It's 2.5 miles long. Called the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. Google it. Then on to the Star Princess! There was the obligatory fruit & vegetable carving which was neat. And gorgeous scenery and glaciers. https://photos.app.goo.gl/7WzT4JYoSUKYi9062

More wonderful scenery on the way to Anchorage where we ate pizza at the 49th State Brewing Company. Then to the Kenai Princess Lodge where we stayed in a cabin with a wood burner to keep warm. Creme brulee is my favorite dessert and I had it almost every night. The one morning the menu had creme brulee French toast (with a blueberry compote) so I had to have it! Went on a Kenai Fjords Wildlife tour that was great! Lots of scenery, glaciers and wildlife (including orcas & whales). You can see that some of the sea lions had numbers scarred into their hide. It was explained that scientists do that to keep track of them. One of the numbers means where the animal was born. The harbor seals were cute as well as the puffins. I loved watching them run on the water to take off! And then the sea otter having his dinner as we pulled into the pier. :) Here's the link to the photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nWJFJEtq2mCJDRPg2

On to the Cooper River Princess Lodge. Now the pix are more interesting....animals! Interesting ride to Cooper River. 135 mile long Denali Highway with only about 20 miles of it paved! Again, beautiful scenery. We stopped at the Maclaren Lodge which was a roadhouse that had showers for hikers, trappers, whomever. It was right by the river that was being fed from the Maclaren Glacier. Pretty awesome. Alaskan fireweed was all around. Pretty color. The saying is that as the flowers bloom from the bottom up, by the time the top-most blooms then summer is over. On the trip we could take various side trips. When we were at Cooper river we decided to take a tour of Prince William Sound. On the way to Valdez the driver of the van stopped at the Worthington glacier so we could get pix. Valdez is where the Alaska Pipeline ends. Interesting fact....there are no refineries in Alaska so the oil is shipped south and then gasoline is shipped north. Glacier, icebergs, eagles, sea otters, s...

Next came the Denali Princess Lodge & environs. We took a several hour railroad ride on the Alaska Railroad. It was fun! I spent most of the time outside the car on a platform. Didn't see any wildlife other than a swan in a pond. The car had a clear dome roof. And also a bar for us to have a couple of free drinks before breakfast. :) Then we went downstairs to the dining area. Nice table settings with a choice from the menu. We picked French toast with blueberries. Scenery was, of course, spectacular! Especially as we got closer to Denali. You can see some white water rafters on the river. This is what we did later that day. Check the video in the album. Watch what happens to me & Julie. I'm the one on the far right with Julie next to me. Good times! The next day was an 8 hour trip (about 60 miles of unpaved road in a school bus) through Denali National Park. It's the size of Massachusetts! Didn't see a lot of wildlife other than a grizzly bear that was ...

I took over 2,700 photos! And no....you will not see all of them! What I've been doing and will continue to do is sort through them and then create separate Google Photo Albums. I'll make some comments about the photos and what we did and post a link to the album. Here's the first link https://photos.app.goo.gl/5SdI9EbyizkfTqu82 It's Alaska 2017 - Fairbanks. We flew from Newark to Seattle and then on to Fairbanks. This was the start of our land part of the trip. We had a great tour director for the entire land part. Her photo is one in the album. Didn't get a photo but what was interesting at the Fairbanks airport was there were 2 runways. In between them there was what I would call a water runway for the float planes! Go to Google Maps and check it out. All the lodges we stayed at were Princess properties. Everything was like a well-oiled machine. As we got to a lodge, the manager would come aboard the bus and welcome us. As we got off, we were handed an ...

Got to civilization where there is Internet! At the Seattle airport. Will be heading to Newark in about an hour and a half. Then the 2 hour bus ride back home. My plan is to work on my photos (didn't count them but I'm sure there are thousands!) and then start posting with descriptions of the things we did and saw and was was good and not so good.

Haven't been posting. Lousy internet service.

Interesting place. The park is the size of Massachusetts! There is only 1 road into the park. It goes for about 92 miles. Our tour went in to the 62nd mile and turned around. It took about 8 hours with several breaks. No vehicles except park buses are allowed in beyond the 15th mile. After that point point it is a gravel road. The driver/guide was full of information about the animals, the different types of trees, plants and the diversity of the park. Below are some photos of the scenery and the animals we saw. If someone saw an animal the bus would stop so we could get photos. The best photo is the first! This guy (or gal) was just off the road. And yes, it was a grizzly bear.  This is Northern Hawk Owl. It was sitting on the top of a tree and then took off. A willow ptarmigin father and children. Dall Sheep. Caribou Caribou on the side of a mountain. The caribou were somewhere on the side of this mountain. ...

Here are some photos of the Denali Princess Lodge where we spent 2 nights. Our room. Nice and big.  The Main Lodge.  Outside our room.  The building we were in.

Yesterday we took the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks to Denali. Took about 4 hours. Fantastic! We were in the best car the railroad has. It was 2 levels with the top level completely domed. There was a small section at the end of the car that was open. I spent most of my time there. The speed of the train varied but it got up to 55 mph. There was a bartender in the car so we each had 2 complementary drinks. The first level was the dining area. It was really charming. Had a choice for breakfast so we had excellent french toast. I saw one moose on the ride. Beautiful scenery. A great time.

Went on an interesting paddlewheel river cruise. Watched a seaplane takeoff and land. The boat stopped at a sled dog training facility that was pretty cool. We watched the puppies frolicking around the shore. Then a demonstration of a team pulling a 4x4. Later, at the village where I took the photo of the pretty woman, they had the dogs where you could see them up close. I was surprised at the size of them. They were not very big. And they were very friendly.

I tried to get the video to the blog but it just didn't want to work. So instead, here is a link to a Google Photos folder where there is a video of Julie & me white water rafting today. It's only about 30 seconds long. We're in the front row. I'm on the far right and Julie is next to me with the white hard hat. Watch what happens after we wave. Great time!! https://goo.gl/photos/46A2BNeVdziNbVhv8

Had a tour of an Alaskan village. Might sound corny but it was great. The guides explained all kinds of things. How they used the various trees for various purposes. Explained the different animal pelts and what they were used for. Certain hides were for waterproofing. Certain ones were for warmth. Here's a photo of one of the guides wearing a winter coat of different pelts. I thought she was a very pretty woman.

Don't we look like prospectors? This is what $15 of gold looks like. Julie panned $25 worth. Interesting tour and the panning was fun.

Kinda weird having sunrise at 3 a.m.

Outside our room window overlooking the Chena River at the Fairbanks Princess Lodge....at 2 in the morning!!