6/19 and 20 Home

We arrived in Vancouver and made our way to the airport by bus.  We had to say good-bye to Kelly.  She is staying over in Vancouver and flying back to Tampa the next day.  We were able to clear customs at the airport so that we didn't have the hassle of doing so when we got to Minneapolis.  We spent most of the day in airports and didn't have a lot of time to post the blogs so I am posting this morning from home.  We got into Hartford last night and home about 12:25 AM.  We slept in a tiny bit this morning and am now doing laundry (Dave is mowing the hayfield that used to be our lawn).  We had a wonderful trip, but it is sure nice to be home.

By the way, life is really unfair!  Dave lost a half a pound on the trip while I gained two!  I'm sure it was the Princess Love Boat dessert I had almost every night after dinner!  Ah, well, I will be working on losing my love handles from the love boat in the next couple of weeks!

6/18/13 A day at sea

      

Today is a day at sea.  We will arrive in Vancouver tomorrow morning and then fly home via Minneapolis and Hartford.  We are again having sunny weather, although cool on the deck.  After breakfast this morning, we came back to our cabin to pack.  We will put our cases in the hallway before bed and they will take care of transferring them to the airport tomorrow.  At 10 AM, we watched the head chef and head maitre de give a cooking demonstration and then had a tour of the galley.  It was an amazing place!  They prepare 850 pounds of fish, 2000 portions of salad, 900 pounds of pasta, 5000 assorted pastries, and, just for Lana, 8 gallons of mayonnaise each day!  After lunch, I signed up to walk a 5 K cancer walk out on the promenade deck.  It took 8 times around to make the 5 K.  It was breezy and chilly on one side of the ship and warm and sunny on the other.  The bonus of taking the walk was that I saw an otter quite near the ship and also a whale come to the surface (of course, I didn’t have the camera with me!).  We went for high tea this afternoon and now I am catching up on the blog and relaxing until dinner.  Our waiter told us to bring cameras tonight as they will be parading with baked Alaska tonight.  We will go to a musical this evening and then get some sleep before getting to dock something early tomorrow morning.  This has been an interesting experience.  While we have enjoyed the ship and being pampered, I think the shore excursions were our favorites.  Most of the people onboard do not look like they enjoy the activity and we are not ones to just sit around.  It was a great way to see Alaska and all of its beauty, but I don’t think there is any chance we will become “cruisers’.

6/17 Ketchikan

We had a later breakfast this morning as we didn’t dock in Ketchikan until 9:30.  We decided at the last minute to take a tour called Lighthouse, Totems, and Eagles.  It was very good – a boat trip out on the water where we saw lots of eagle nests, quite a number of eagles both flying and in the nests.  We passed Totem state park with a collection of totem poles.  We saw a few seals – one was quite close hauled up on the rocks.  We went out to a lighthouse on a small island and cruised past.  On the way back, we saw more seals, a mink and a bear on the shore – a very good trip, indeed!  We came back to the dock and walked around town poking into a few shops and then got back on board just in time for dinner.  We were entertained by the comic/magician again and again had some good laughs and enjoyed the music.  Tonight we have to move our clocks forward an hour as we will be crossing from Alaska into Canada during the night.

6/16/13 Juneau

     

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!  Dave LOVED the card and I had picked up two brand-new Denali quarters for him  when we were at Mt. McKinley.  He was surprised.  We got up extra early this morning to have breakfast as we have a tour today.  We had a fantastic bus driver – very entertaining!  We are in Juneau, which is a land locked city.  There are 40 miles of road here, but everything dead ends.  The only way out is by plane or boat.  We visited Mendenhall Glacier, which has receded greatly over the years, but is still a gorgeous glacier.  Next to it was a huge waterfall!  There were large icebergs floating in the lake under the glacier.  Some of the wildflowers were in bloom and we feasted our eyes on lupine and large buttercups.  We drove to a rainforest garden.  There were lots of things in bloom there including wild irises.  The walking path through the gardens and forest was very nice and we were treated to orange/cinnamon tea and muffins.  We drove to the Alaska State Museum and enjoyed the early Eskimo exhibits, along with informational exhibits on totems, fishing and gold mining.  We got dropped off in town to walk around a few of the shops and then John and Kelly stayed to ride the tram to the top of the mountain, while Dave, Lana and I walked back to the ship.  Again, we lucked out with the weather: hot and sunny!  We must be living right as the weather has been so much better than we expected it to be.  We went to a slide show/lection by Libby Riddles.  She was the first woman to win the Iditerod.  She had great stories about her dogs and the sport of mushing.  I have been sitting on our balcony writing today’s entry and watching eagles soar overhead – life is hard.  We just cast off and are moving out of the bay – I will keep my eyes on the water – still looking for whales, otters, seals, etc.  After dinner this evening, we went to see a comic/musician in the theatre.  He was fantastic – very funny with a wonderful singling voice while he strummed the guitar.  We then went to the Universe Lounge for a stage show set is New Orleans – it also was very good.

6/15/13 Skagway

      

We had an early breakfast and then went into town to do a bit of shopping.  The town is quite small so we had an easy walk all around.  The most interesting building is sided completely in driftwood (see photos).  We saw more totems here than we have been seeing.  Some of them are quite intricate.  We stopped at the library to use their free wi-fi for posting the blog.  I was able to get 2 days on, but the reception got funky and I was not able to get yesterday’s posted. We walked back to the ship for lunch.  Dave took a nap and I read for a bit and then I walked back into town.  I had forgotten to bring a Father’s Day card with me for tomorrow.  I didn’t find a card specifically for Father’s Day, but I did find a perfect pun card for Dave.  It says “Did Juneau I love you?”  - the perfect card!  Kelly was on another adventure today.  She had a helicopter ride to a glacier and then was able to ride and drive a dog sled.  She said she had a wonderful time and took some cute pictures of the pups.  We had another wonderful dinner – surf and turf tonight and then went to see an illusion show.  We enjoyed the show and then walked to the other end of the ship to watch the pianist again.  The ship was beginning to move so we went out on deck and watch the ship leave Skagway.  The mountains were beautiful, the sun was low in the sky, and the moon was out.  It was still pleasant and warm at 9:30 at night.  We have been so incredibly lucky with the weather!  We have had above average temperatures and mostly sunny days.  It is supposed to be colder in Juneau so we will see what tomorrow brings.

6/14

We woke up this morning just as we were entering Glacier Bay.  The views are magnificent!  We saw a number of whales, including a minke whale, seals, sea lions, and porpoises.  It was great fun to watch the porpoises frolicking and the seals riding the wake of the ship.  We had breakfast this morning with a young couple from CO and an older couple originally from England, but now from Georgia.  They were very interesting and told tales of being young children during the blitz.  They have been married 56 years.  We met another couple the other day, who have been married for 70 years!  We made our way up the bay until we reached Margerie Glacier.  It is so enormous and impressive.  We were lucky to first of all, see it clearly – it is a lovely, sunny day and secondly, to see the glacier calf.  Huge chunks of ice fall into the water accompanied by large noises, which sound a bit like thunder.  Hopefully, we got some good shots with the camera.  We had a lovely afternoon walking around the promenade and lido decks, looking for whales and otters and taking pictures of the magnificent scenery.  We had a lovely dinner last night and then went to hear a pianist accompanied by a small group of musicians.  They played classical, rock and roll, boogie-woogie and salsa – great fun!  Dave and I walked around a bit more and then I popped into the casino (tiny) and won $30 in 10 minutes!  We went back to the cabin and settled in for the night.  We have been sleeping like rocks.  It is probably a combination of the movement of the ship and the miles of walking we put on each day.  We will be stopping in Skagway tomorrow and hope to find a hot-spot to up-load the blog.  They have satellite wi-fi onboard, but it costs and arm and a leg!

We are sitting outside the library in Skagway and trying to post the blog.  I was able to get two days on, but am having trouble with this one so I will try again when we get to a different port tomorrow.

6/13/13

We woke up this morning to cold temps and gray skies.  We showered (the water pressure in so great, I almost gave myself a concussion while washing my hair!), dressed and met for breakfast.  Our table was right next to a window and as we were eating, Dave spotted porpoises playing not too fair from the ship – that was so cool!  Dave and I took a few turns around the deck and then split up to attend different events.  Dave took in a lecture about the history and points of interest in our three port calls: Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan while I viewed a fruit and vegetable carving demonstration.  I met up with Dave, Lana and Kelly while wandering around trying to get the lay of the land, so to speak.  Dave had seen John at the lecture, but we haven’t seen him since.  We will all meet for lunch at 12:30 and exchange tales of our morning.  Our cabin steward, Vicente, graciously removed the panel between our balcony and Lana and John’s balcony.  Now, we will all (with an extra chair for Kelly) be able to sit (when it warms up a bit) and enjoy the views.

Lana and Kelly did a line dancing class this morning – a good way to get heated up on the ship.  We had a lovely lunch and then went to a lecture by the ship’s naturalist on otters, orcas and humpback whales.  We went back to our cabins for a bit and then donned our winter clothes so we could stand outside and view the glacier.  While we were entering the inlet, we saw a whale (or at least his tail) and then noticed some icebergs floating by.  Some of them were very blue (it is because they reflect blue light) and some had seals or Stellar sea lions lying on them.  The glacier was worth the wait in the cold.  Hubbard Glacier on Yakutat Bay is huge!  We had great views from the promenade deck and when we went back to warm up, we had equally good views from our cabin.  We will dress for dinner shortly and then we are planning to see a magic/comedy show. 

Dinner was excellent as usual and afterwards we had our pictures taken.  We then went to the lounge where we enjoyed the magic/comedy show.  He was quite good and we had a few laughs as well.  Kelly was going to check out another show, but we were tired and went back to the cabin.

6/12/13 Heading to the ship

I woke up early this morning and went out to look at the mountain.  The sky was clear and the mountain was magnificent – even better than yesterday!  We went to breakfast, took more pictures of the mountain and then took a walk on one of the property trails.  I did a little checking of email and then we just relaxed until it was time to board the bus for the train station.  The train ride was lovely.  We had a super car host.  Alexander is a retired kindergarten teacher who gave fantastic commentary as we went from Mt. McKinley to Whittier to join the cruise ship.  We saw some moose along the tracks and a couple of eagles.  We passed several small glaciers and at one point had mountains on both sides of the train.  We traveled through Turnagain Flats where a tsunami came roaring through in 1964.  There are still trees standing, but they are dead as the salt water killed them – they call these ghost forests.  We traveled through two tunnels, but the last (over 2 miles long) was the most interesting as the traffic flow alternates every half hour.  The train goes through first and then the automobiles follow behind – a very interesting system.  As we pulled in to Whittier, we could see our ship at dock.  There was an eagle sitting on a light post just waiting to greet us.  We passed through security and then found our rooms.  About 20 minutes later we had a muster drill to explain about life jackets and safely precautions.  We went up to the open top deck and watch while the ship sailed away.  It was all very exciting as none of us has been on a cruise ship before.  We had open dining tonight so we were seated at a table of ten with five ladies from Mississippi.  We enjoyed both the meal (everything I imagined cruise fare would be like) and the company.  We went up to the top deck again to enjoy the views and by the time we got back to our cabin, it was close to 11.  We unpacked and went to sleep being gently rocked by the movement of the ship.

6/11/13 Byer's Lake Walk

I got up early this morning and did a quick load of laundry before breakfast.  We again ate at the Mountain View Restaurant, which has fabulous views of the mountain.  Kelly asked for and got a wake up call at 4 AM to view the mountain while it was clear.  She was so excited to see it!  It looked pretty good this morning though and has stayed pretty unobscured throughout the day - just a few clouds.  We met our guide for the Byer's Lake walk at the lobby.  She stopped at a viewpoint on the way and let us take more pictures of the mountain.  The day has been warm and the walk was lovely.  The ice had just melted from the lake and we took a trail along the edge of the water.  We could see tiny salmon fry at the water's edge and she pointed out wildflowers, mosses, trees, etc.  We did see the prints of a baby moose, which was way cool!  We ended our walk at an abandoned cabin that had moss and trees growing from the roof.  The blue flower is the wild geranium and the white one is the dwarf dogwood. We had a lovely walk on a perfect day.  When we came back, we went to lunch at the 20,320 Grill.  We are all doing our own thing this afternoon (I am sure Kelly is napping) and when I catch up on the blog, I am going to check out the gift shop.  The internet here is in the lobby.  It was there at our last stay also, but I never had time to get there as

we have been staying so busy.  We have a good-bye cocktail party tonight and then dinner.  Tomorrow we will take the train to board the ship and that will be a new adventure.  We certainly have enjoyed the land portion of our trip - totally fabulous!

6/10/13

After an early breakfast this morning, we walked down to the main lodge lobby for our nature hike.  Unfortunately, Lana wasn’t feeling well so she stayed behind.  Our guide was a free spirit who had been a massage therapist/ski bum in Colorado.  He was quite knowledgeable about the flora on the walk though.  The trek was not for sissies, however.  We donned rubber mucking boots and he handed out walking sticks.  Much of the trail was uphill and muddy and it rained off and on.  If Lana had to miss an excursion, this was the one to miss!  We saw lichen, mosses, windflowers, many flowering berry bushes (blueberry, lingonberry, currant), and bracket fungus.  The locals used to hollow these out and put their embers from the fire in to carry from hunting spot to hunting spot.  We came across a stream where the ice was still quite thick – we could see the stream running below the ice.  We got back just in time to board the coach for a short ride to the train station.  Our group had a glass-topped coach and the views on our way to McKinley were great!  Kelly and I stood out on the open platform for a while taking shots of the scenery.  I can see how people can fall in love with the beauty of this state.  There is only one problem here and this is spelled: W I N T E R!  In Fairbanks, the temperatures ranged from -65 to +95 this past year!  The local college kids have a tradition of donning their bathing trunks and bikinis and having their picture taken in front of the large thermometer on campus when the temperature reaches -60!  The other thing about the cold temps is the stress on the cars.  All of the local cars have a plug hanging out of their grills.  At every parking lot, there are electrical stands where you can plug in when you park.  There is a pad in the car, which warms the engine block, radiator and oil pan.  At any rate, we had a lovely train ride and got to Talkeetna around 5 PM.  We then had an hour bus ride to our hotel, which is located just 40 miles from Mt. McKinley (Denali).  The views were terrific, but the mountain was obscured by clouds a bit.  We are hoping that they will clear away.  We had a lovely dinner in the Mountain View Restaurant and then came back to our rooms.  Lana and Kelly are going to do laundry tonight, but I think I will do it tomorrow

6/9/13 Denali National Park

We got up early this morning to have breakfast before our Denali Tundra Tour.  The weather was cold, but clear so we had great hopes of both spotting wildlife and seeing Denali (only about 30% of visitors see it as it frequently is hidden in the clouds).  What a fabulous day we had!  The weather was perfect and we saw so many animals!  There were moose, including a female and her calf who came right next to the bus, caribou, Dall sheep – the males with their curly horns, ewes and some lambs, a willow ptarmigan, the Alaska state bird, a red fox which ran right next to the bus for a while, and grizzley bears.  The first time we saw one from a distance – it was chasing a moose and her calf, but fortunately did not catch them (probably didn’t want to put in the effort).  We saw a few more from a distance, but then we spotted one very close to the road.  He was digging in the ground for roots or insects and paid us no mind – we watched him for quite some time.  We also saw ground squirrels, who looked like prairie dogs and are, along with the arctic hare, the main prey in the area.  The wildlife was amazing, but the wildflowers were also wonderful, although the peak is probably a week or two away.  The most amazing thing though was to see Denali – it was majestic!  We were able to see both the north and south faces before the clouds obscured the peaks.  Our tour guide/driver, Rebecca, was fantastic and since today was her birthday, I think she brought us good luck in seeing all that we did.  This was the best day ever – we saw much more than I dreamed we would.  When we returned, we had an hour before it was time to go to dinner.  Dinner was fabulous!  I had Alaskan King Crab – delish!  The chocolate cake for dessert was good, but the homemade huckleberry ice cream that was the ala mode was absolutely scrumptious!!!  (this endorsement from a non-ice cream person).  I am looking forward to our train trip tomorrow – we are headed closer to Denali and am hoping for the same wonderful weather we had today.

6/8/13 Denali National Park

      

Today we got on the bus after breakfast to head to Denali National Park.  We drove for a while and stopped at Nenana Cultural Center for a rest stop.  The locals have a lottery going to pick the day and hour that the ice will break-up in the Tanana River.  We each bought a ticket – my choice was 5/1/14 at 8:08 PM.  This year was the latest the ice has broken and it happened on 5/20!  As we traveled along, our tour guide told us about a little town close to the park called Ferry.  Ferry only has about 50 inhabitants, but the town is split by the Nenana River and to get to the other side you have to drive 12 miles up to the bridge and then drive 12 miles back.  The people of the town used to cross on the railroad trestle (in the middle of town) with their ATV’s until the railroad decided that it was too dangerous and stopped that custom.  People continued doing it until a large fine was imposed on anyone who crossed the trestle.  The town decided to get back at the railroad company so every day when the train went by, the entire town would stand outside and moon the train!  This continued for 17 days until finally the railroad company caved and built a small bridge for the residents of Ferry!  The funny thing was that our bus driver was from Ferry!  We got to Denali National Park and found that we have a beautiful hotel right on the Nenana River and looking at the mountains – it is quite spectacular.  Dinner tonight was a dinner/show: The Music of Denali.  It was a bit hokey, but the young actors/waiters looked like they were having a good time.  The two pictures for today are the view from our hotel window and a shot of the sky from the bus.  As you can see the weather is very changeable – it started pouring about 2 seconds after I took this shot!

6/7/13 Fairbanks

Last night we drove about 60 miles to Chena Hot Springs and Ice Museum.  On our way we picked up a couple with their adult daughter from Ohio.  The daughter had just graduated with a teaching degree and this is her graduation present - a trip to Alaska.  The other young lady that joined us works at the hot springs.  She was one of those people who is not sure what she wants to do in life so is trying everything.  Her last job was in Hawaii working for a Boys and Girl's Club and now she is working at the desk at the resort on the hot springs property.  At any rate, we had dinner when we arrived (around 8 PM).  The salad was very fresh as the veggies are grown hydroponically in the greenhouse on the property.  Dave and I had halibut for our main course while the rest of our group had salmon.  Have I ever mentioned that Lana is the Salmon Queen?  She eats it at every opportunity - she even had a salmon omelet for breakfast yesterday morning!  After dinner, we toured the Ice Museum.  We donned parkas and saw the workshop where the ice sculptors (a husband and wife team) work.  There were tons of ice blocks being stored in there also.  The next room highlighted some of the art work - all made of ice!  There were full-sized statues of horses, knights, samuri, animals, etc.  There was also a bar all carved of ice where you could sit on an ice stool (covered with reindeer hide) and sip appletini's poured into glasses carved from ice.  Lana and Kelly tried them out - very cold, especially on the lips!  At the back of the museum were hotel rooms carved into the ice.  You can stay there for $200 a night.  Of course, the beds would be covered with reindeer hide and heavy down comforters!  There was even an ice outhouse in the room!  I was happy to get back outside after the tour to warm up!  The setting here is quite woodsy and the mosquitoes were out in force - some of them were quite large (in fact, the mosquito is the unofficial state bird).  From the ice house, Kelly and I went to the hot springs, which felt wonderful!  The funniest thing happened though.  As we walked down the ramp to enter the hot springs, there was a goose on the other side of the fence who honked as we went by - it seemed that he was laughing at us in our bathing suits!  What a rude bird!  We hopped back into the van and arrived back at our hotel at about 1 AM - yikes!  It was still light out though.  It doesn't ever really get dark.  In Fairbanks, you can golf and play baseball at midnight!

This morning, we got up early and had a welcome breakfast where we met our guide for land tour as well as our fellow passengers.  We then boarded a bus and visited a goldmine that was active until the 1950's.  It is now a tourist attraction and quite well done.  We had a talk about the Alaskan pipeline (Aleyska, meaning great land).  We could see a bit of it right near the mine.  There are 800 miles of pipe that runs both above and below ground and presently carries about 600,000 barrels of oil per day.  They have something they call a stupid pig, which runs through the pipe scraping the sides to loosen the petroleum products that clog the progress of the oil.  When they run through the pipe, it is the only time you will hear any noise emanating from the pipes.  There is also a smart pig, which runs through and takes measurements and images to make sure the pipe is not damaged in any was.  The above ground portions of the pipeline are situated so that they can take an 8.5 earthquake and not be damaged.  It was very interesting.  Each Alaskan gets a subsidy from the pipeline of between $300 - $2200 each year.  We then took a train to the mining operation.  On the way, various methods of mining through the years was described and demonstrated from the used of pick-ax and shovel to the dredge method.  We were each given some gravel to pan at the sluice way.  Everyone found at least a few flakes of gold.  Each of our findings was weighed.  Lana and I each found $6 worth, Kelly found $9 and John was the big winner with $21!  It was great fun and Lana and Kelly purchased glass pendants, which included the found flakes.

Our next stop was to the stern-wheeler (five decks high) on the Chena River.  We had lunch of miner's stew, cheddar and ale soup or vegetable pasta and then boarded the boat for a ride on the river.  Along the way, we had a demonstation of a small sea plane take-off and landing right next to the boat.  Small planes are very important in Alaska as there are people who live in isolated places with no roads.  We also stopped along the banks at a dog training facility where sled dogs are trained.  There were a couple of 5-week old puppies (absolutely adorable) who were trying to climb over a log on command - very amusing.  The older dogs gave a demonstration by pulling a tractor. They were very excited to be pulling and were extremely fast.  The woman who won the Iditarod Trail sled dog race an unprecedented four times with her dog Granite lived there until her death a few years ago.  Granite was a shy, scraggley pup, but Susan Butcher, the handler, believed in Granite and trained him to realize his potential.  His winning the race justified her time and patience.  Susan's husband continues with the training and has written a book about Susan and Granite.  We continued down the river and then turned around to head back.  We stopped at a mock-up of a native Alaskan village and fish camp.  Some high school aged native Alaskans gave demonstrations and talked about the life of their forefathers.  They all did a wonderful job.  We paddled back up the river, which is high at this time of year, past a variety of housing from small cabins to palatial homes until we got back to the dock.

Dinner tonight was quite fancy and featured five different types of wine - all of whom were described by the resident wine expert.  The meal consisted of salad, halibut in wasabi and coconut sauce, beef tenderloin, vegetables, fingerling potatoes and Bananas Foster.  I think the key here is to just have a taste of everything as there is just too much food!  Tomorrow we will head to Denali National Park so hope to see some wildlife.

6/6/13 Fairbanks

Despite being exhausted from the air travel, I woke up at 4 this morning.  It was, of course, bright sunshine.  I actually woke up for a bit at 2 AM and took a peek outside.  It was dusky out, but not at all dark.  In the winter they get a mere 3 and 1/2 hours of sunlight - I don't think I could stand it.  At any rate, Dave and I took a walk along the Chena River which runs right behind our hotel.  I snapped a picture around 9 PM last night (see photo).  As you can see it is still quite light out.  The other picture of the river shows a road next to the hotel.  When the river is frozen in the winter, cars drive across - it saves about 4 miles to go that way.  According to our bus driver, the road stays open until the first car falls in the river!  We met up with John, Lana, and Kelly and had breakfast at 7.  Everything was very good and Dave even tried the reindeer sausage (I took a small taste).  We then took the shuttle into Fairbanks, downtown.  Our first stop was the Visitor's Center.  The exhibits were quite well done and we saw a short movie on the Aurora Borealis, which was very informative.  We are not here at the right time of year to enjoy it, so it was nice to see the film of such a spectacular display.  We each had our pictures taken under the moose arch (shades of Jackson Hole, WY) and then walked along the river into town.  We visited a so-so craft shop and then a very nice art gallery.  The weather here changes faster than in New England (obviously, Mark Twain never visited Alaska).  We had bright sunshine one minute and then rain the next.  Fortunately, we were aware that this could happen and had packed our raingear with us.  We ate lunch in a little sandwich shop called the Fudge Pot and then walked over to the dog sled exhibit (see the parking sign).  We hopped back on the shuttle bus and went back to the hotel.  We will go out tonight to the Chena Hot Springs and Ice Museum.  I will let you know how it went tomorrow.  Apparently, I am having difficulty putting the photos on the blog.  I will try to correct this.  Okay, I think I have it fixed now.  Talk to you tomorrow.