This posting on our blog will give you an overview of our trip to Alaska. It will be broken down by individual days.
MAY 21, FRIDAY
We closed up the RV and gathered our bags for our trip to SEATAC Airport (Seattle-Tacoma). We arrived via a limo that was once owned by Kelsey Grammer. Clint, our driver is also our neighbor at the RV campground where we are staying and will be keeping an eye on our RV while we are on vacation. We ate a light lunch before boarding our plane. We were surprised they fed us a salad and cheeseburger on the flight. Had a nice chat with two young ladies who were meeting their husbands in Alaska. The flight was great and we had a window seat which allowed us to take some pictures.
Our land tour and cruise were booked through Princess Cruise Line. Their bus picked us up along with a number of other people and took us to our very nice hotel. (Captain Cook Hotel). Immediately on leaving the airport the road went through a short wooded area where we saw our first large moose. No pictures though. I guess he was greeting us as we arrived in Alaska. Our accommodations at the hotel were excellent. We had a suite with a great view of downtown Anchorage.
It did not get dark until 11pm as they are having about 4 hours of darkness at this time of year.
MAY 22 SATURDAY
We ate breakfast at a cafe that locals and hikers frequent. We boarded the bus which took us to our next stop - Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge. While traveling on our 3 hour ride the bus driver was very informative of points of interest along the way. Being out of shape and in a much higher elevation, the walk to our room up the hill found us huffing and puffing. It was also a nice room, not a suite, but we did have a view of the mountains. The weather was unusually beautiful with no rain so we were able to view Mt. McKinley the entire stay. We sat outside of the lodge and soaked up the view of the snow covered mountains.
Breathtaking!.
Spectacular! We were 40 miles away from the mountains but they looked so much closer.
MAY 23 SUNDAY
We boarded a bus to our next lodge which was about 2 1/2 hours away, got a bite to eat and boarded another bus that took us to Denali National Park.
We saw two grizzly bears, several caribou, moose, Dall sheep all from a distance. We got some pictures but they are very hard to recognize. Maybe Allan's camera will have better pictures when we get them developed. We listened to a talk by an Alaskan Indian from the Tlingit tribe.
We could still see Mount McKinley from a different direction. The weather has been cool and clear.
MAY 24 MONDAY
We woke up to another bus ride, this one being only a short distance to the train station. We saw a moose on the way but too quick to get a picture. Our other bus driver had told us there was an older cow moose that hung around the area. Maybe this was her giving us a send off. We were assign a domed observation passenger car just behind the engine.
Below us was the dining room.
Our train ride took us though gorgeous countryside and small towns.
We were able to see Mt. McKinley again today and saw more wildlife. We went through Wasilla, where Sarah Palin lives. We passed the store that sells the most duct tape of all the Wal-Marts. Our ride lasted about 11 hours. There were several delays. Some were traffic related, but one was a medical emergency. The train had to back up a long way to get to the nearest road so the ambulance could pick up a person from our train. We arrived in Wittier, Ak. a town of about 300 population. Everyone lives in one large condo-type building. There weren't many buildings in the town. It was strange that we had been in such beautiful weather but as soon as we went through the tunnels and entered the town the weather completely changed to cloudy and cold.
They say the weather is like that almost all the time. We had to go through security checks before entering the ship, the Island Princess. We had balloons at our door with a happy anniversary sign. Our room was nice with a balcony.
The feasting begins.
2 comments:
Your trip looked fabulous! Great pictures!
Ugh! Hope the ankle is feeling better. Would love to hear more about your work at Silver Lake Camp. Is it similar to NOMADS?
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