20090731 – Denali to Anchorage

Sorry about the blog yesterday. The photos were aligned on my computer before I published the blog. They got a little mixed up on the upload. I’ll be more careful today. I’ll also be a little more wordy because we have lots of time on the train.

We slept in until 6:30 this morning. This was almost 3 hours later than yesterday when we had to leave on our Denali wilderness tour at 5:20. We went to the breakfast buffet with the Bensons at 8:30 in the main lodge. (We are in mini chalets about 1/4 mile from the main lodge). After breakfast we went back to our rooms to finish packing. Then we returned to the main lodge to catch a shuttle to the main Denali Visitors’ Center.

The Visitors’ Center has several exhibits of the development of Denali as a national park. It also has replicas of many of the animals and birds in the park. Several sit-down areas show videos. There is a long video in the main auditorium that is supposed to be very special but we were too late to see it.

From the visitors’ center, we walked over to a large bookstore/gift store. While Ann and Ellen went shopping, Ben and I relaxed in the courtside next to the book store and snack shop. The weather was turning sunny, so we were very comfortable sitting outside until I sat in a chair that was still wet from the morning’s rain shower.

We boarded our train to Anchorage around 12:30. We sat in the same dome car that we were in on the ride from Fairbanks. We had a panoramic view of the spectacular countryside as we rode past it. Lots of mountains, rivers, forests with their skinny trees, fireweed and dark-to-fluffy clouds.

Lunch was in the dining area under the dome. The food a pretty good and less expensive than in many of the restaurants that we have been in so far. Alaska prices are pretty high. For lunch, Ellen, Ben and I had a crab/shrimp salad sandwich while Ann had a cup of cod-tortilla soup and a turkey half sandwich. Ann and I split a slice of carrot cake.

The afternoon and early evening was spent watching the scenery go by. We went past several remote cabins and towns. Some of them had access only by train – no roads.  One of the towns had a population of two. The mayor stood on his porch and waved at us.

Dinner was on the train. Ben had salmon fettuccini while the rest of us had pork ribs.

We arrived in Anchorage at 8:00 and were driven to the Anchorage Hilton. Our room is really nice with lots of space and a king-sized bed. After dropping our things in our room, Ann and I took a short walk around the downtown area. Being Friday night, most of the cafes and restaurants were full. We checked out a possibility for breakfast tomorrow.

It’s now after 10:00 the sun is still out and the sky is light. Despite this, we are going to bed.

20090728-30 Fairbanks to Denali

I haven’t posted to this blog for a couple of days for various reasons. First of all, we seem to get sleepy at night and fall asleep before we can finish the day’s journal. Second, internet access is available but mainly in the lobbies of the hotels. So, being conservative and modest, we don’t want to expose ourselves in our PJs in the midst of all of the tourists. Thirdly, it takes a lot of time and coordination to get a day’s journal written, insert photos and publish it. We would rather spend this time being tourists. Rest assured, though, that our journals will be on our website a couple of weeks after we get back.

So here’s what I am going to do so that you know that we are still on our trip and enjoying it. I’m going to fill this blog with photos and add sketchy comments to them.

20090728 – Fairbanks Area Tour

The day can be summarized with these activities: River cruise, miner’s lunch, tour of of gold dredge mine and panning for gold at the El Dorado Mine.

This is the Discovery III, our stern wheeler that took us on a cruise on the Chena River out to an Indian camp and back.

On the right is a sled dog training facility. Notice the dogs lined up to pull the cart.

On the left is an Athabaska Indian modeling a traditional woman’s winter coat.

On the right is a reindeer with mega antlers.

 

On the left is the table where we ate a miner’s lunch – beef stew and biscuits.

On the right is John and Ann outside of the El Dorado Mine where we panned for gold. Ann and my combined gold dust was worth $30.

 

20090729 – Fairbanks to Denali

Today we took the train in a special observation car to Denali.

In the left is a photo of the special observation car that we rode in. It was designed for Holland America Lines.

On the right is a view of the train going around a corner. Alaska Railroad runs the train while Holland America and other tour companies attach their cars to it.

In one of the towns along the way, there is a contest to guess when the spring breakup occurs on the river. The photo on the left shows the mechanism that determines the exact time the breakup happens.

 

On the right is a photo of the Denali train station.

On the left is a photo outside our cabin area. We have adjoining rooms with the Bensons.

On the right is a photo I took trying to get a picture of Mt Denali (McKinley). Lots of fireweed but no mountain.

 

20090730 – Denali

Today we went on an 8-hour bus tour into Denali National Park.

On the left is a moose in the bushes. Two of them had just walked across the road.

On the right is a Willow Ptarmigan.

 

Grizzly cubs and a mother bear.

 

 

 

A caribou.

Ann, John and Ellen in front of our bus.

 

 

Below is a panorama in Denali.

20090727 – Leavenworth to Fairbanks

A little background first. We got to Leavenworth on the 25th after flying from Oakland to Seattle to Wenatchee and renting a car at Pangborn Field. That evening, we went to Ann’s 50th high school reunion. There were 25 classmates attending out of the 35 who graduated. The dinner party was at the clubhouse at the Leavenworth Golf Course. Ann and Ellen had a good time visiting their old friends and trying to remember everybody’s names.

On Sunday morning, after the last segment of the Tour de France, Denny and Susanne Hauff brought Dr. Speer over for a visit. We enjoyed seeing them again, especially Dr. Spear who is now getting around with a walker. That afternoon we took Ruth to the cabin. John, June, Bruce and Dawn met us there. John cooked some salmon that he caught in Alaska. We had a good time visiting. The weather was warm and a breeze kept most of the mosquitoes away.

This morning we woke up reasonably early, packed up and left for the airport at 9:00. Our 11:00 flight was a little late but it got us to Seattle with enough time to grab something to eat and catch our flight to Fairbanks. The Benson’s couldn’t get on this flight because it was full. We are meeting them later tonight.

We were a little concerned about how we were going to get to our hotel, but Holland America Tours had staff at the airport to give us our first packet of information. They also took our bags to our hotel and drove us there in a large bus. Our bus driver was a stereotype of what I thought an Alaskan local should look like.

When we got to the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised to find our bags already in our hotel room. We were also pre-checked in so that we didn’t have to wait to get to our room. Our room is similar to rooms at a Best Western or Choice Inns – not very fancy but adequate for our needs.

We got cleaned up a little and went down to the lobby to meet Katie Harmon, our guide for the land portion of our tour. She gave us more information including a list of restaurants that she recommends in Fairbanks. We decided to walk about 1/2 mile to Gambardella’s Pasta Bella. If you can believe it, we sat outside on the second deck of the restaurant. It was still about 80 degrees. Ann had a spinach, tomato and mozzarella pizza while I had tortellini with a tomato and meat sauce.

After dinner, we took a scenic walk back to the hotel. We discovered that Fairbanks is not very scenic, but there are a few highlights. Here are some photos of them:

 

 

 

 

 

It’s approaching 9:00. We are going down to the lobby for a wifi connection, to publish this blog and to wait for the Benson’s to arrive.