I'm definitely ready for my spring break traveling! After tomorrow, I just have 2 more weeks. It can't get here any faster. The sad part is that it will be over before I know it.
I'm somewhat in denial that I probably won't take a summer vacation this year. I mean it's really tough considering I spent more than 2 weeks in Alaska the last 2 summers. I love that place and would do anything in my power and budget to get back there this summer but I just don't think it is going to happen. Sad! Maybe I'll figure out something equally fun. Alaska is hard to top unless it's Europe and that's certainly not happening this summer.
I guess I'll keep my eyes focused on Colorado right now because like I've said before I absolutely love the beauty of that place. I'll get to see large amounts of snow without me having to make up any days of school and that makes me happy. Even though there will be no moose sightings, I get to see the mountains and good friends. What more could I ask for?
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Happy New Year!
2011 was a wonderful year! I got to experience a lot of new places and go back to some old places. I checked off some things from my bucket list and added a few more places to my bucket list....ok well a lot more places. I thought I would do a short recap of the fun places I went and my favorite people that I got to experience these places with.
1. Vegas : I wanted to do something fun for my 30th birthday. I thought about going to Vegas the weekend I turned 30 but I thought it would be more fun to go nor NYE so me and 2 of my besties (and one of their husbands) made our way to Vegas. It wasn't my first Vegas experience but it was my first with friends. One of my dear friends lives in Vegas now so she got to join in the fun. We had a blast ringing in the new year in Vegas.
2. Italy : The planning started back in November 2010. One of my dear friends who also happens to live in Vegas wanted to do something fun for her 30th so Italy it was. We did a lot and made the most of our time. We had a private tour guide to show us Vatican City, experienced true Italian cuisine, went to Wine School in Siena, saw some beautiful things in Florence, relaxed and hiked in Cinque Terre, saw the incredible Swiss Alps on the way to Zurich, and experienced the high prices in Switzerland. The trip was definitely a trip of a lifetime!
3. Alaska : What an adventure! As you remember I got to share the experience with my mom. Those are some of the best memories I have with my mom. I will remember that trip forever. We saw parts of Alaska that a lot of people never experience. It was beautiful! The weather was wonderful compared to what we were hearing about back home. We saw some neat wildlife including moose, bears, caribou, and a few reindeer :) I could never list all that we did because they pretty much cram packed in everything into the 10 days we were on the tour. I will say though that going to Denali was one of my absolute favorite parts of the trip. It was gorgeous! I would love to go back and it's definitely on my bucket list!
4. NYC : How could I leave out Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade adventure. One of my besties that was mentioned earlier endured the early morning cold weather to score a front row seat to see the parade. Another experience I will never forget for sure. We also were among all the black friday shopping in NYC. I would most certainly go back for this annual event even though we were up early for the parade.
It was a wonderful year! I'm hoping 2012 is just as good and even better. Here are some goals for my year(I don't make resolutions)
1. Go somewhere that I have never been before.
2. Go somewhere that I have been before.
3. Leave the country for a vacation.
4. Take a trip with a friend or friends.
5. Take full advantage of airmiles and travel rewards.
6. Make the most of every opportunity I get to travel.
Hopefully I'll check off a few places from my bucket list. I guess I need to post said bucket list so you can all hold me accountable.
Thanks to all of you that encourage me to travel and go with me on all of my adventures. Thank you for following along with me.....I feel loved! :) I just want to make the most of life and experience as much as I can.
Stay tuned for more fun this next year! I'll see ya when I see ya! Hopefully sonner rather than later :)
1. Vegas : I wanted to do something fun for my 30th birthday. I thought about going to Vegas the weekend I turned 30 but I thought it would be more fun to go nor NYE so me and 2 of my besties (and one of their husbands) made our way to Vegas. It wasn't my first Vegas experience but it was my first with friends. One of my dear friends lives in Vegas now so she got to join in the fun. We had a blast ringing in the new year in Vegas.
2. Italy : The planning started back in November 2010. One of my dear friends who also happens to live in Vegas wanted to do something fun for her 30th so Italy it was. We did a lot and made the most of our time. We had a private tour guide to show us Vatican City, experienced true Italian cuisine, went to Wine School in Siena, saw some beautiful things in Florence, relaxed and hiked in Cinque Terre, saw the incredible Swiss Alps on the way to Zurich, and experienced the high prices in Switzerland. The trip was definitely a trip of a lifetime!
It was a wonderful year! I'm hoping 2012 is just as good and even better. Here are some goals for my year(I don't make resolutions)
1. Go somewhere that I have never been before.
2. Go somewhere that I have been before.
3. Leave the country for a vacation.
4. Take a trip with a friend or friends.
5. Take full advantage of airmiles and travel rewards.
6. Make the most of every opportunity I get to travel.
Hopefully I'll check off a few places from my bucket list. I guess I need to post said bucket list so you can all hold me accountable.
Thanks to all of you that encourage me to travel and go with me on all of my adventures. Thank you for following along with me.....I feel loved! :) I just want to make the most of life and experience as much as I can.
Stay tuned for more fun this next year! I'll see ya when I see ya! Hopefully sonner rather than later :)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
On my list of places that I would like to experience...
Let me start with places in North America in no particular order.
1. Chicago
2. Napa
3. Niagara Falls
4. Yellowstone National Park
5. Lake Tahoe
6. Oregon
7. Whistler
8. Grand Canyon (I've only flown over it.)
9. Mall of America
10. Hawaii
Places in North America I want to go back to are...
1. NYC
2. Seattle
3. Alaska (more specifically Denali)
4. Vacouver
I guess I could take a road trip this summer. Who wants to join???
1. Chicago
2. Napa
3. Niagara Falls
4. Yellowstone National Park
5. Lake Tahoe
6. Oregon
7. Whistler
8. Grand Canyon (I've only flown over it.)
9. Mall of America
10. Hawaii
Places in North America I want to go back to are...
1. NYC
2. Seattle
3. Alaska (more specifically Denali)
4. Vacouver
I guess I could take a road trip this summer. Who wants to join???
Monday, July 25, 2011
Alaska Cruise Tour Review
After being home for almost a month from my recent Holland America Line Cruise Tour 28, I felt it was time to share my experience with others who might be doing the same tour or one similar to it in the near future. Maybe some of you are trying to decide whether or not you should book a cruise tour so hopefully I can give you a small glimpse of what a cruise tour actually entails. I went on this tour with my mom and we both had a wonderful time. The review is long but I wanted to make sure I covered everything.
Vancouver to Whitehorse
Technically our first day started with an overnight in Vancouver. We stayed at the Fairmont at the airport. The next morning was when we had our flight out to Whitehorse to meet our tour concierge. That morning we had to have our bags ready by 8am inside the hotel room. They came and gathered our things for us and took them downstairs so that we didn't have to worry about getting them down the elevators. They had them loaded up for us on little airport pushcarts which was wonderful. Trying to drag all of our luggage to the hotel after baggage claim when we arrived in Vancouver was not my idea of fun. We took our luggage down to the far end and checked in at Air North. We were surprised that we did not have to pay extra to check our bags. We made our way to our gate to sit and wait. The flight was quite nice. It wasn't full so we got to spread out. They also gave us a meal on the plane. It wasn't a huge meal but it was nice to be given more than a 2 oz glass of soda. They came through after our meal with fresh warm cookies. I don't think I've ever been on a flight that does that in COACH.
When we arrived in Whitehorse, we were greeted by someone at the airport telling us which group to go with. The amount of people on tour 28 was so big that they had to divide us into two groups. So the lady with the clipboard told us that we were in group 28 A. I'm not sure how they decided who was in which group. So we went over and checked in. Our tour director gave us our bright yellow luggage tags and we went over to find our luggage. As our luggage came off we were told to put our tags on. As soon as the HAL people saw that our luggage had a tag on it, they took it away. They didn't wait for us to have all of our luggage but took it as it was ready. We didn't see it again until we arrived at the hotel in Whitehorse. We only had to wait about 5-10 minutes after all the luggage had been claimed for our bus to be ready to go. Once it was ready we got on and headed to the hotel which was about a 10 minute ride (from what I remember....that was all a blur so I don't remember much). I just remember thinking it was my lucky day because we ended up in the group with the cute tour director....how did I get so lucky :) On the bus our tour director, Tom, was giving us information we would need to know when we arrived. I'm not even sure I remember what he told us. I know he told us what time we needed to be downstairs for our Welcome Dinner. He also gave us an information sheet to fill out as to our room preferences such as how many beds we preferred, if we had trouble walking stairs, passport # to expedite crossing the border. As we got off the bus, he gave us our room keys and our schedule for our time in Whitehorse was on the room key envelope.
We stayed at The Westmark. The hotel was decent. It was clean and they had working elevators. There was no air conditioning but it didn't seem to be a problem. We were able to open the windows and we were just fine. There was a fan in the room too so that helped. We also had free wifi. There was also a fridge in the room. When we walked into our hotel room the first thing we noticed was the lack of one bed. They had given us 1 big king. We needed 2 doubles instead. I was just going to make due at this hotel but then I remembered that we were going to be there 2 nights. So when we went back downstairs later, we told Tom about our situation and he quickly checked and they had a room that we could be moved to. It happened to be a suite so that was even better. The staff that worked at the front desk was friendly and helpful. The welcome dinner was nice. We met some very nice people from New Zealand that sat with us. They became our fast friends throughout the trip. They seemed to sit near us on our bus rides and two of them were on an excursion with us.
We opted to get the prepaid meal plan on our tour. We weren't familiar with the cities/towns we were going to or what time we would be arriving. We wanted to make it easy to get something to eat. I'm not picky so this seemed to be the best option. I'm not sure if the value was worth it. I know that we probably could have eaten cheaper if we had tried to go to cheaper restaurants but the convenience was nice and it was already paid for. Therefore, we didn't need to have extra cash on us or have extra credit card charges that we didn't think about. The food at most places was decent.
The next day we did an excursion to Kluane National Park that lasted quite some time. Then when we got back we did a few more store/gift shop visits on main street in Whitehorse. That night we went to a Frantic Follies show that was alright. It was about 2 hours long. There was some cheesy stuff in the show but it was all in fun. They had a ton of people crammed into the show room but we all survived. We were worried after the show that we would have to wait a long time to get an elevator back up but we didn't have to wait at all.
On the Road...Destination: Dawson City
The next day was our travel day to Dawson City. I was looking forward to being in a new place but not looking forward to the full day on the road. It wasn't as bad as I expected. They had a bottle of water in our seats for us as we boarded the bus. After we were all on the bus and heading to our next destination, Tom brought around a piece of paper that told about our next stop and it would say the places we would be visiting that day. It also had a map on it. We got one of these on each of our travel days. They stopped every 1.5 hours or so for a "coffee" break. Our first stop was at Braeburn Lodge. When you think of a "lodge" you aren't going to picture this place. They are known for their enormous cinnamon rolls. They were enormous and pretty decent. If someone tells me some place is known for something, I'm the first one in line to try it. Just a little piece of advice that we were told when we arrived.....don't mess with the dogs. The man that owns the place is particular about his dogs. After that we moved on. Our next stop was for lunch at Minto Resort. Again when you think of a resort, you are not going to picture this place. As we were pulling up, Tom kept telling us that the workers were really good looking. Then he ran off to see if they were ready. Guess who the server was......yes, it was Tom....haha! He was right! The food was an all you can eat one time through buffet (sandwich type buffet). There were small rolls wrapped in saran wrap followed by desserts and salad and lunch meat. There was no bread. We asked about the bread and you were supposed to use the rolls to make your sandwich. That was all fine and dandy but it would have been nice to know that when we started through the line. After we ate, we went outside and enjoyed the scenery and waited until time to move on. We also stopped that afternoon at Moose Creek Lodge for another coffee break. We took a few picture stops too....or it might have been just one, I don't remember. We finally made it to Dawson around 5pm. I forgot to add that along the way, our bus driver was telling us all about the things that we were seeing. From what I remember we also watched a few DVD's about Alaska. Don't ask what they were about. I have a problem falling asleep during anything on TV.
Dawson City is smaller than Whitehorse. Such a cute little town. The sidewalks weren't sidewalks but they were boardwalks. The roads weren't paved, they were dirt roads. We had no phone service so I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. It took us quite a while to get there or at least that's what I remembered. We chose not to go on any excursions on our free day. We did however go to Diamond Tooth Gerties the night that we arrived. It was a gambling hall and they put on a show 3 times a night. It was similar to the Frantic Follies but I thought it was better. We got there early and went upstairs to sit in the balcony. I suggest if you want to steer clear of being picked on, the balcony is the best place. I didn't buy much to drink on the land tour or the cruise for that matter. I did however decide that I wanted a glass of wine at Diamond Tooth Gerties. A glass was about the cost of the bottle in the US. I should have passed it up, but I really wanted wine. Something you must do while you are in Dawson is go to the Sourdough Saloon at the Downtown Hotel and enjoy your Sourtoe Cocktail. Only 40,000 something people have had theirs. It's not for the faint of heart that's for sure but it is something you have to do. I was the only person on my tour to have the cocktail but I was also the youngest and probably most daring/adventurous in the group. You pay for a shot of whatever you choose at the bar...I had what they gave me which I think was Whiskey. Then you take it over to the table to the Captain and you pay him $5 for the toe. You sign the book, he fills out your card and certificate and then he says his little spiel. "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow. But your lips have gotta touch the toe." So don't miss out on that.
The Westmark Inn in Dawson was once again decent. It was just a regular hotel. They did have air conditioning in the room and a ceiling fan. There was no fridge in our room. There was also no elevator but we were on the first floor so that wasn't an issue. We did not have wifi in the room but we did have it in the lobby of our specific hotel building. There were 2 different hotel buildings so I'm not sure if the other one that was closer to the main building had a better wifi connection or not. The food was pretty good in the restaurant. They had a lounge area and you could order the same food that was offered in the restaurant in the lounge.
The next day before leaving Dawson City, they took us down to the Yukon River and put us on a river cruise up the Yukon. We were supposed to be taking a longer river cruise up to Eagle, AK but the roads from Eagle to Tok were not safe so we did a roundtrip 3 hour river cruise and came back to Dawson and then went to Tok straight from Dawson. On the River Cruise they gave you a small meal. I think we ate around 10am. You had your choice between a bagel with stuff on it....I wish I remembered what OR a breakfast burrito. I had the bagel and it was decent. Not super high quality but you have to remember that we were in the Yukon and I had a petrified toe in my drink the night before. On the boat you did have the option to go out onto an open deck to get pictures. I was quite comfortable in my seat so that is where I remained most of the time.
Traveling to Tok
After the our river cruise we got back on the bus and took a ferry across the Yukon River so we get on the Top of the World Highway. Our driver Lori did an awesome job getting us to Tok safely and entertained us along the way. I know we stopped a few times (I think). One place that I do remember was Chicken, AK. I had heard about Chicken last year and I was hoping we would get to make the stop. It's a tiny little area with stinky bathrooms and a fun little store. We only had about 20 minutes here. I was able to quickly buy my souvenir t-shirt and write 3 postcards and have a quick snack and get back on the bus. Then we moved on rather quickly. This was our really long travel day so they did give us a small snack on the bus at one point. I don't remember where on our journey they gave it to us, but I was very appreciative. They also gave us a bottle of water (I think).
We arrived in Tok around 7pm I think. I could be totally off on the time there but I just remember that I was really tired. We stayed at the Westmark Hotel here as well. In case you didn't know, HAL owns Westmark Hotels. We walked into our room in Tok to find 3 twin beds all in a row. It was a sight I had never seen before. The bathrooms were tiny but the beds were super comfortable and it was clean. Really the only thing we had time to do in Tok was eat dinner and breakfast, sleep, and then get ready to move on the next day. The people in Tok were really friendly and the service was pretty good in the restaurant. It was love week when we were there so everything was decorated for what looked like a summer Valentine's Day. They picked a couple from our bus to be the love couple.
On to Fairbanks
When we left Tok, we were heading towards Fairbanks. We stopped at Rika's Roadhouse along the way. When you think of roadhouse, you probably aren't going to picture Rika's. It reminded me more of a lodge type place that was back in the woods. They had really good bear claws. If you ask them, they will even warm it up for you. Several people on our tour also got some inexpensive but appeared to be decent quality jackets in the gift shop. They always had them on. So if you feel like you might need a jacket when you stop at Rika's, this might be the place to go ahead and pick one up. We had about 30 minutes at this stop. There were some nice things to take pictures of if you are into photography so take your camera off the bus with you. We stopped also at one point to get a picture of the Alaska Pipeline. We were very close to it and able to get some great pictures from the ground.
Another stop we made was probably one of my favorites. We stopped at North Pole, AK. They had said that if we left 15 minutes earlier from Tok than we were supposed to (which meant we had to leave at 7:45am), then we would have time to stop. I kind of wonder if they make this stop on every tour. Maybe they don't. I was glad we did. Santa was there and we were able to sit in his lap, and take pictures with him. I plan to print the picture out and frame it for my students to see at school. I'm sure they will think it's cool that their kindergarten teacher sat in Santa's lap. I had to rush around in the store to find a shirt I wanted....there was no time to stop and think.
When we left Santa Clauses House, we went to Gold Dredge No. 8. The lunch there was served family style. It was very good but not that filling if you happened to not get much meat in your stew. They will refill the pot so ask them if you want more. We had Miners Stew with biscuits and I think there was dessert included too. They had a place you could go purchase ice cream as well. They were giving tours of the gold drudge after we finished our lunch. The tour lasted maybe 15 minutes and then we had some time to look around and take more pictures. We were only at the place for 1 hour. Then we moved on. Next they took us to El Dorado Gold Mine. We got on a train, went through a tunnel and listened to some people talk about gold mining. Then we watched a gold mining demonstration (in the rain). They did provide umbrellas because of the rain. They escorted us to the next place at El Dorado. They gave everyone a bag of dirt/rocks with some tiny flakes of gold. We had to pan for gold to see how much we had. Then after we had gathered our gold, we put it in a little canister and took it inside so that they could weigh it and tell us how much we had. They had warm cookies and warm beverages inside that were being served....well it was more of a help yourself kind of service. We had about 30 minutes inside the big gift shop before we were instructed to get back on the train to pull us back around to our buses.
Once we were back on our bus, they drove us to our hotel. We stayed at the Westmark. We had free wifi in the room and the room was nice and roomy. I'm not sure if all the rooms were suites or if we just had one because we were in a suite on the ship, but it was nice to be in a bigger room. One thing that Tom told us before we got to Fairbanks was that there were going to be a lot of people when we got off the bus in Fairbanks. A lot of tours meet up in Fairbanks and end in Fairbanks so there were tons of people. It would have been a bit overwhelming had he not told us that. It was still slightly overwhelming so I'm was glad I was mentally prepared. Large crowds of people who are aimlessly wondering around isn't my preference.
That night we had an excursion to Chena Hot Springs. We had realized on the bus ride to Fairbanks that our particular excursion had a meal included. If you remember from before, we had already pre-purchased the meal vouchers. We wanted to see what our excursion would include so we asked and they informed us that it would be prime rib and halibut. We opted for that meal instead of the hotel food. However, that left us with one extra meal voucher that we were not able to use. Tom went to ask them if we could use it for lunch another day (a less expensive meal than dinner would have been) but they wouldn't allow it. I guess it's a good thing though that they didn't because of all the places that we went on our journey, the food at the Westmark in Fairbanks was our least favorite. The breakfast buffet was not good. There was not a very good variety and no fresh fruit. So if you want fresh fruit, I suggest you get it elsewhere. I know some people took a cab to the grocery store while we were there to get fresh fruit. I should have gone with them.
While we were in Fairbanks we took another included excursion along the Chena River. It was a river cruise. There were a lot more people on this excursion than the river cruise that we took in Dawson City. The cruise in Dawson City was just Tour 28. This Chena River Cruise was people on our tour and lots of other tours as well. I wish I could tell you more about this tour but this was after we got in really late from our night excursion and had to get up early for this tour....therefore, I don't remember much. One piece of advice is to sit on the left side of the boat. We stopped several places along the way and people that were part of the tour were on the bank of the river doing demonstrations. You will have a much better view if you sit on the left side, assuming the boats are going the same direction as ours did. We were thankful that our tour director gave us that little bit of information. Once we got down to a certain point, everyone got off of the boat and listened to 3 different talks about the Athabascan Indian Culture. It was a rainy day but they gave everyone little seat cushion things so we didn't have to sit on the wet benches. The excursion was a great excursion....I wish I wasn't so tired because I know I would have enjoyed it much more.
We went on an excursion later on that evening. It was a flight over the Arctic Circle. They picked us up and took us to the airport. On the way they offered us a sack lunch we could eat along the journey at some point. We didn't buy it because we had just eaten and we didn't feel that we would need it. We flew across the arctic circle and landed in Coldfoot. The flight up was very turbulent. I'm not sure if it is always that way, but it was enough for me to feel sick. Once we arrived they piled us into a 15 passenger van and took us about 15 miles to a little village called Wiseman. If you weren't aware already there are plenty of mosquitoes in Alaska. There were so many in Wiseman that they gave us mosquito nets to wear over our heads. They were really bad. They also had bug spray available. And if you need to go to the restroom, be prepared to use the outhouse while mosquitoes are simultaneously flying around trying to eat you for dinner. The flight back from Coldfoot was much better than the flight there. I would recommend the excursion if you get a chance. The pilot told us when we were going to be flying over the Arctic Circle so that we could take pictures of the whatever you call it in the plane where it tells you where you are in the sky.
McKinley Explorer to Denali
The next morning was our train ride to Denali aboard the McKinley Explorer. The train left around 8am. The seats were comfortable. The cars were dome cars so that we had a great view. Below our level was the dining area. We did not eat breakfast on this ride. The whole ride was about 4 hours so it actually went pretty fast. It was nice to be able to go out on the platform and get pictures of the scenery without a glare on the window. Here's a little information to those of you who have never been on a train like that. I learned something very quickly about the doors that lead out to the platforms. There is a button you push to open the door. It was well labeled. The door will close automatically on it's own so there is no need for you to begin pulling on the door to try to close it. I stood there and tried to pull the door closed and felt silly when I realized how it worked. Oh well....how was I supposed to know. Also, ask your tour director how to get out to the back platform where you can see the train tracks out the very back of the train. I didn't know that was an option until our train ride from Denali to Anchorage. Of course on this train ride we weren't exactly really close to the back so I don't even know if I would have been able to get to the back of the train easily.
Once we arrived in Denali we were loaded onto a bus and taken to our hotel. We stayed in the McKinley Chalet Resort. The hotel was nice and clean. There was free wifi in the lobby. I think if our room would have been closer to the lobby we might have been able to pick up a signal in the room but we couldn't. Our iPhones also didn't work very well in our room as far as getting data on our phone. There was no checking facebook or email in my room using my data on my phone. It was too slow and basically never worked. Oh well....why did I need to check facebook on vacation? The food in Denali was not included in our meal voucher plan that we had purchased because HAL doesn't own any of the restaurants....that's the way I understood it. I remember the food at the hotel to be pricey. We only ate breakfast there once and then had one snack.
That evening we had an excursion: Jet Boat Safari. I enjoyed it even though I was extremely exhausted. The views were absolutely beautiful! The sky was so blue! The bus ride there was about 45 minutes. Be on the lookout for moose because we saw some. Also, we didn't just ride a jet boat. We did a little panning for gold and got to see some reindeer with optional feeding, which of course I did.
The next morning we had our included Tundra Wilderness Tour. I was excited about going into Denali but I was a little anxious because of all the reviews I had heard about people on the modified school buses trampling each other when they saw anything with a heartbeat moving outside the bus. I'm here to tell you that it was not bad at all. When we got on, we chose our seats and each seat had a boxed lunch in it. I honestly don't remember what was in the box lunch but I do remember that I didn't eat it. I think there were chips and maybe some cheese and maybe some kind of meat or something. I brought snacks with me like peanut butter crackers, nuts, beef jerky, and some extra water. The excursion is supposed to last 7-8 hours. Ours lasted more like 8-9 hours because we saw tons of wildlife. We saw grizzly bears, caribou, dall sheep, etc. We would stop about every 1.5 hours for a restroom break or picture stops. Even though the bus is a modified school bus, it's much more comfortable than any school bus I've ever been on. I forgot to mention that these tours start at 5:30 am. Ours didn't leave until 6:10 am. I'm glad it started early because we had a chance to see Mt. McKinley before the clouds rolled in. I mean I guess it could have been covered by clouds any morning so you never know. But it was nice to be out and moving so early....I am a morning person so I'm sure that helped a bit.
Later that same day we rented a Jeep. We originally tried to get out of it, but it was too late to cancel by the time we decided to cancel. So we went exploring some with the map they gave us. We had already been down several of the roads on the map so we just went down the ones that we hadn't seen. After we did some discovering, we went to eat dinner. We went to 49th State Brewery in Healy. It took us a while to get some service but once we finally got someone to wait on us, the food was so good! The portions were huge! I couldn't even eat half of mine. So if you get a chance to get out and you want to get away from the touristy stuff, Healy is an option. It's only like 11 miles up the road. Be on the lookout for moose because they were out there just hanging out. We were in the parking lot and a moose walked right in front of our jeep. That's as close as I ever want to be to a wild moose.
The next morning I did a rafting adventure down the Nenana River. I wasn't going to but I decided that when would I get a chance to do it again.....I don't know if/when I'll be back, so I better go ahead and do it. They put you in a dry suit and the only part of you that gets wet is your face. I would recommend wearing really warm socks or wearing 2 pairs. The water is cold.....after all, it is glacier water. They do take pictures of you and you have the option to buy them but they are extremely overpriced. Just buy a water camera before you get there or they sell them in their little shop, and get someone to get a picture of you that is on your boat. It's a lot cheaper.
Train to Anchorage
We left around noon on the train from Denali to Anchorage. That train ride was 8 hours but so picturesque. I got some amazing pictures! We got to the train station early and I'm glad we did, because I was able to get close up to the railing and wait for the train to come in and I got a great picture of the train coming in. This was the train ride that our tour director told me how to get to the back platform. There was only one car behind us, so it was quite easy to get back there. Not many people knew about the back platform until someone announced it. Then it got really crowded back there. At first it was a little confusing because you had to go down some stairs and immediately back up other stairs. I almost felt like I was going to go in the kitchen of the dining area. We did eat in the dining car for lunch and dinner. The food was ok, I've definitely had better food. There were only 2 of us, so they sat us with other people, which was fine. We met some nice people that said they didn't have a tour concierge and they felt somewhat lost. That made me appreciate ours. We would have been lost without ours. The train did stop in Talkeetna to unload some people and pick up some others. We were there for about 15-20 minutes I think. I didn't time the stop. We also went through Wasilla. If you are like me, you will want a picture of a Wasilla sign. There were a few. Just go out on the platform for a better chance at getting one and make sure you have your camera ready.
We got to Anchorage around 8pm. I thought they would take us straight to our hotel, but unfortunately they didn't. They drove us around for about 30 minutes while our luggage was being delivered and they were staggering all the buses that were going to the Hilton. Of course they couldn't take us all there at the same time or it would be very chaotic in the HAL lobby. However, we were ready to be there and did not want to be driving around. If you are into photography, you will want to have your camera ready. There was one photo opportunity that I missed because I was tired and ready to be at the hotel. The Anchorage Museum is mirrored so when you drive by and you are on the right side (as in the appropriate side) to get a good picture you can get a neat bus reflection picture on the side of the building. Anyways, when we arrived at the hotel, we went to our room and our luggage was there. .
I can't say much about the food at the hotel. We only ate the free Hilton Honors breakfast because of our Hilton status. That was very good, but you only have access to that if you have status and then you have to ask at the front desk about it. The hotel itself was nice. It was definitely one of the nicer hotels but what do you expect.....it was a Hilton. I don't know if I have ever stayed in a Hilton I didn't like.
Last Bus Ride of the Tour
The next morning we met in the HAL lobby at 8am. At that time we loaded the bus and then rode about 2 hours or so to Seward. If you sit on the right side of the bus, you will see water and have a better chance of seeing marine wildlife. I didn't see any. If you sit on the left side, you will see land. Once we got to Seward, we said goodbye our tour concierge (tear, sniff, sniff) and headed down to the dock to get on our Kenai Fjords tour. It was basically like a big tease because we could see our ship but they would not let us get on. I think one person from our tour ended up going ahead to the ship because she was sick. However, the rest of us went to our boat for our included tour. The set up in the boat is tables. I can't really recommend a good side to sit on because you never know when the wildlife will appear. They made sure that we saw the animals they had control over. Make sure you take some kind of medicine if you are prone to motion sickness. The boat did move around a lot and I probably would have not done good if I didn't take medicine ahead of time. They did provide a lunch on the boat. I think we had a caesar wrap and some carrots and maybe chips. They brought around warm cookies a few hours lately. I fell asleep on the boat because I was so tired, but the smell of the cookies baking woke me up. They had a snack bar that you could get drinks and other snacks at for a fee of course. They did have restrooms on the boat but of course that is probably expected since the tour is about 6 hours long.
Once we finished our tour they brought us back to the dock and we went and got back on a bus that would take us on a short 2 minute ride up to the ship. At that point, we were on our own and ready to completely relax. Keep in mind that after our Kenai Fjord boat cruise ended and we made it to the ship, it was already past the start of dinner at 5:45pm. We would not have made it to our assigned dining time had we not had suite passenger check in. We were late to dinner, but they let us in.
Luggage
As far as luggage goes, I know some people are unclear as was I when the trip started. I packed a larger suitcase and left some room in it. I also packed a smaller suitcase that included the things I was planning to wear on the cruise ship. I wore many of the things on the cruise that I also wore on land but there were things that I packed only for the cruise. We had our bags with us the whole time until we left Fairbanks. At that time, we had to choose the bag that we wanted to send on to the ship and put the "Join Me On Board" tag on the luggage. The other luggage (which was one piece each) went with us to Denali and then from Denali to Anchorage. We never saw that other piece of luggage until we got to our stateroom. So when we left Fairbanks, I re-evaluated my luggage and decided what I would not need until I got on the ship. I ended up putting my souvenirs and things that I had not used that I thought I would use but never did in my smaller suitcase. It all worked out.
Overall, I thought the cruise tour was very well organized and we ALWAYS knew what was going on. On the coach travel days they had our stops spread out and plentiful so that we had time to stretch out legs and walk around some. I tried to cover everything I possibly could and if you made it this far, you now know a little more of what to expect on your cruise tour. I highly recommend you go on a tour if you are debating whether to go on one. It is well worth the time and money, in my opinion. If you have any other questions, ask away!
Vancouver to Whitehorse
Technically our first day started with an overnight in Vancouver. We stayed at the Fairmont at the airport. The next morning was when we had our flight out to Whitehorse to meet our tour concierge. That morning we had to have our bags ready by 8am inside the hotel room. They came and gathered our things for us and took them downstairs so that we didn't have to worry about getting them down the elevators. They had them loaded up for us on little airport pushcarts which was wonderful. Trying to drag all of our luggage to the hotel after baggage claim when we arrived in Vancouver was not my idea of fun. We took our luggage down to the far end and checked in at Air North. We were surprised that we did not have to pay extra to check our bags. We made our way to our gate to sit and wait. The flight was quite nice. It wasn't full so we got to spread out. They also gave us a meal on the plane. It wasn't a huge meal but it was nice to be given more than a 2 oz glass of soda. They came through after our meal with fresh warm cookies. I don't think I've ever been on a flight that does that in COACH.
When we arrived in Whitehorse, we were greeted by someone at the airport telling us which group to go with. The amount of people on tour 28 was so big that they had to divide us into two groups. So the lady with the clipboard told us that we were in group 28 A. I'm not sure how they decided who was in which group. So we went over and checked in. Our tour director gave us our bright yellow luggage tags and we went over to find our luggage. As our luggage came off we were told to put our tags on. As soon as the HAL people saw that our luggage had a tag on it, they took it away. They didn't wait for us to have all of our luggage but took it as it was ready. We didn't see it again until we arrived at the hotel in Whitehorse. We only had to wait about 5-10 minutes after all the luggage had been claimed for our bus to be ready to go. Once it was ready we got on and headed to the hotel which was about a 10 minute ride (from what I remember....that was all a blur so I don't remember much). I just remember thinking it was my lucky day because we ended up in the group with the cute tour director....how did I get so lucky :) On the bus our tour director, Tom, was giving us information we would need to know when we arrived. I'm not even sure I remember what he told us. I know he told us what time we needed to be downstairs for our Welcome Dinner. He also gave us an information sheet to fill out as to our room preferences such as how many beds we preferred, if we had trouble walking stairs, passport # to expedite crossing the border. As we got off the bus, he gave us our room keys and our schedule for our time in Whitehorse was on the room key envelope.
We stayed at The Westmark. The hotel was decent. It was clean and they had working elevators. There was no air conditioning but it didn't seem to be a problem. We were able to open the windows and we were just fine. There was a fan in the room too so that helped. We also had free wifi. There was also a fridge in the room. When we walked into our hotel room the first thing we noticed was the lack of one bed. They had given us 1 big king. We needed 2 doubles instead. I was just going to make due at this hotel but then I remembered that we were going to be there 2 nights. So when we went back downstairs later, we told Tom about our situation and he quickly checked and they had a room that we could be moved to. It happened to be a suite so that was even better. The staff that worked at the front desk was friendly and helpful. The welcome dinner was nice. We met some very nice people from New Zealand that sat with us. They became our fast friends throughout the trip. They seemed to sit near us on our bus rides and two of them were on an excursion with us.
We opted to get the prepaid meal plan on our tour. We weren't familiar with the cities/towns we were going to or what time we would be arriving. We wanted to make it easy to get something to eat. I'm not picky so this seemed to be the best option. I'm not sure if the value was worth it. I know that we probably could have eaten cheaper if we had tried to go to cheaper restaurants but the convenience was nice and it was already paid for. Therefore, we didn't need to have extra cash on us or have extra credit card charges that we didn't think about. The food at most places was decent.
The next day we did an excursion to Kluane National Park that lasted quite some time. Then when we got back we did a few more store/gift shop visits on main street in Whitehorse. That night we went to a Frantic Follies show that was alright. It was about 2 hours long. There was some cheesy stuff in the show but it was all in fun. They had a ton of people crammed into the show room but we all survived. We were worried after the show that we would have to wait a long time to get an elevator back up but we didn't have to wait at all.
On the Road...Destination: Dawson City
The next day was our travel day to Dawson City. I was looking forward to being in a new place but not looking forward to the full day on the road. It wasn't as bad as I expected. They had a bottle of water in our seats for us as we boarded the bus. After we were all on the bus and heading to our next destination, Tom brought around a piece of paper that told about our next stop and it would say the places we would be visiting that day. It also had a map on it. We got one of these on each of our travel days. They stopped every 1.5 hours or so for a "coffee" break. Our first stop was at Braeburn Lodge. When you think of a "lodge" you aren't going to picture this place. They are known for their enormous cinnamon rolls. They were enormous and pretty decent. If someone tells me some place is known for something, I'm the first one in line to try it. Just a little piece of advice that we were told when we arrived.....don't mess with the dogs. The man that owns the place is particular about his dogs. After that we moved on. Our next stop was for lunch at Minto Resort. Again when you think of a resort, you are not going to picture this place. As we were pulling up, Tom kept telling us that the workers were really good looking. Then he ran off to see if they were ready. Guess who the server was......yes, it was Tom....haha! He was right! The food was an all you can eat one time through buffet (sandwich type buffet). There were small rolls wrapped in saran wrap followed by desserts and salad and lunch meat. There was no bread. We asked about the bread and you were supposed to use the rolls to make your sandwich. That was all fine and dandy but it would have been nice to know that when we started through the line. After we ate, we went outside and enjoyed the scenery and waited until time to move on. We also stopped that afternoon at Moose Creek Lodge for another coffee break. We took a few picture stops too....or it might have been just one, I don't remember. We finally made it to Dawson around 5pm. I forgot to add that along the way, our bus driver was telling us all about the things that we were seeing. From what I remember we also watched a few DVD's about Alaska. Don't ask what they were about. I have a problem falling asleep during anything on TV.
Dawson City is smaller than Whitehorse. Such a cute little town. The sidewalks weren't sidewalks but they were boardwalks. The roads weren't paved, they were dirt roads. We had no phone service so I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. It took us quite a while to get there or at least that's what I remembered. We chose not to go on any excursions on our free day. We did however go to Diamond Tooth Gerties the night that we arrived. It was a gambling hall and they put on a show 3 times a night. It was similar to the Frantic Follies but I thought it was better. We got there early and went upstairs to sit in the balcony. I suggest if you want to steer clear of being picked on, the balcony is the best place. I didn't buy much to drink on the land tour or the cruise for that matter. I did however decide that I wanted a glass of wine at Diamond Tooth Gerties. A glass was about the cost of the bottle in the US. I should have passed it up, but I really wanted wine. Something you must do while you are in Dawson is go to the Sourdough Saloon at the Downtown Hotel and enjoy your Sourtoe Cocktail. Only 40,000 something people have had theirs. It's not for the faint of heart that's for sure but it is something you have to do. I was the only person on my tour to have the cocktail but I was also the youngest and probably most daring/adventurous in the group. You pay for a shot of whatever you choose at the bar...I had what they gave me which I think was Whiskey. Then you take it over to the table to the Captain and you pay him $5 for the toe. You sign the book, he fills out your card and certificate and then he says his little spiel. "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow. But your lips have gotta touch the toe." So don't miss out on that.
The Westmark Inn in Dawson was once again decent. It was just a regular hotel. They did have air conditioning in the room and a ceiling fan. There was no fridge in our room. There was also no elevator but we were on the first floor so that wasn't an issue. We did not have wifi in the room but we did have it in the lobby of our specific hotel building. There were 2 different hotel buildings so I'm not sure if the other one that was closer to the main building had a better wifi connection or not. The food was pretty good in the restaurant. They had a lounge area and you could order the same food that was offered in the restaurant in the lounge.
The next day before leaving Dawson City, they took us down to the Yukon River and put us on a river cruise up the Yukon. We were supposed to be taking a longer river cruise up to Eagle, AK but the roads from Eagle to Tok were not safe so we did a roundtrip 3 hour river cruise and came back to Dawson and then went to Tok straight from Dawson. On the River Cruise they gave you a small meal. I think we ate around 10am. You had your choice between a bagel with stuff on it....I wish I remembered what OR a breakfast burrito. I had the bagel and it was decent. Not super high quality but you have to remember that we were in the Yukon and I had a petrified toe in my drink the night before. On the boat you did have the option to go out onto an open deck to get pictures. I was quite comfortable in my seat so that is where I remained most of the time.
Traveling to Tok
After the our river cruise we got back on the bus and took a ferry across the Yukon River so we get on the Top of the World Highway. Our driver Lori did an awesome job getting us to Tok safely and entertained us along the way. I know we stopped a few times (I think). One place that I do remember was Chicken, AK. I had heard about Chicken last year and I was hoping we would get to make the stop. It's a tiny little area with stinky bathrooms and a fun little store. We only had about 20 minutes here. I was able to quickly buy my souvenir t-shirt and write 3 postcards and have a quick snack and get back on the bus. Then we moved on rather quickly. This was our really long travel day so they did give us a small snack on the bus at one point. I don't remember where on our journey they gave it to us, but I was very appreciative. They also gave us a bottle of water (I think).
We arrived in Tok around 7pm I think. I could be totally off on the time there but I just remember that I was really tired. We stayed at the Westmark Hotel here as well. In case you didn't know, HAL owns Westmark Hotels. We walked into our room in Tok to find 3 twin beds all in a row. It was a sight I had never seen before. The bathrooms were tiny but the beds were super comfortable and it was clean. Really the only thing we had time to do in Tok was eat dinner and breakfast, sleep, and then get ready to move on the next day. The people in Tok were really friendly and the service was pretty good in the restaurant. It was love week when we were there so everything was decorated for what looked like a summer Valentine's Day. They picked a couple from our bus to be the love couple.
On to Fairbanks
When we left Tok, we were heading towards Fairbanks. We stopped at Rika's Roadhouse along the way. When you think of roadhouse, you probably aren't going to picture Rika's. It reminded me more of a lodge type place that was back in the woods. They had really good bear claws. If you ask them, they will even warm it up for you. Several people on our tour also got some inexpensive but appeared to be decent quality jackets in the gift shop. They always had them on. So if you feel like you might need a jacket when you stop at Rika's, this might be the place to go ahead and pick one up. We had about 30 minutes at this stop. There were some nice things to take pictures of if you are into photography so take your camera off the bus with you. We stopped also at one point to get a picture of the Alaska Pipeline. We were very close to it and able to get some great pictures from the ground.
Another stop we made was probably one of my favorites. We stopped at North Pole, AK. They had said that if we left 15 minutes earlier from Tok than we were supposed to (which meant we had to leave at 7:45am), then we would have time to stop. I kind of wonder if they make this stop on every tour. Maybe they don't. I was glad we did. Santa was there and we were able to sit in his lap, and take pictures with him. I plan to print the picture out and frame it for my students to see at school. I'm sure they will think it's cool that their kindergarten teacher sat in Santa's lap. I had to rush around in the store to find a shirt I wanted....there was no time to stop and think.
When we left Santa Clauses House, we went to Gold Dredge No. 8. The lunch there was served family style. It was very good but not that filling if you happened to not get much meat in your stew. They will refill the pot so ask them if you want more. We had Miners Stew with biscuits and I think there was dessert included too. They had a place you could go purchase ice cream as well. They were giving tours of the gold drudge after we finished our lunch. The tour lasted maybe 15 minutes and then we had some time to look around and take more pictures. We were only at the place for 1 hour. Then we moved on. Next they took us to El Dorado Gold Mine. We got on a train, went through a tunnel and listened to some people talk about gold mining. Then we watched a gold mining demonstration (in the rain). They did provide umbrellas because of the rain. They escorted us to the next place at El Dorado. They gave everyone a bag of dirt/rocks with some tiny flakes of gold. We had to pan for gold to see how much we had. Then after we had gathered our gold, we put it in a little canister and took it inside so that they could weigh it and tell us how much we had. They had warm cookies and warm beverages inside that were being served....well it was more of a help yourself kind of service. We had about 30 minutes inside the big gift shop before we were instructed to get back on the train to pull us back around to our buses.
Once we were back on our bus, they drove us to our hotel. We stayed at the Westmark. We had free wifi in the room and the room was nice and roomy. I'm not sure if all the rooms were suites or if we just had one because we were in a suite on the ship, but it was nice to be in a bigger room. One thing that Tom told us before we got to Fairbanks was that there were going to be a lot of people when we got off the bus in Fairbanks. A lot of tours meet up in Fairbanks and end in Fairbanks so there were tons of people. It would have been a bit overwhelming had he not told us that. It was still slightly overwhelming so I'm was glad I was mentally prepared. Large crowds of people who are aimlessly wondering around isn't my preference.
That night we had an excursion to Chena Hot Springs. We had realized on the bus ride to Fairbanks that our particular excursion had a meal included. If you remember from before, we had already pre-purchased the meal vouchers. We wanted to see what our excursion would include so we asked and they informed us that it would be prime rib and halibut. We opted for that meal instead of the hotel food. However, that left us with one extra meal voucher that we were not able to use. Tom went to ask them if we could use it for lunch another day (a less expensive meal than dinner would have been) but they wouldn't allow it. I guess it's a good thing though that they didn't because of all the places that we went on our journey, the food at the Westmark in Fairbanks was our least favorite. The breakfast buffet was not good. There was not a very good variety and no fresh fruit. So if you want fresh fruit, I suggest you get it elsewhere. I know some people took a cab to the grocery store while we were there to get fresh fruit. I should have gone with them.
While we were in Fairbanks we took another included excursion along the Chena River. It was a river cruise. There were a lot more people on this excursion than the river cruise that we took in Dawson City. The cruise in Dawson City was just Tour 28. This Chena River Cruise was people on our tour and lots of other tours as well. I wish I could tell you more about this tour but this was after we got in really late from our night excursion and had to get up early for this tour....therefore, I don't remember much. One piece of advice is to sit on the left side of the boat. We stopped several places along the way and people that were part of the tour were on the bank of the river doing demonstrations. You will have a much better view if you sit on the left side, assuming the boats are going the same direction as ours did. We were thankful that our tour director gave us that little bit of information. Once we got down to a certain point, everyone got off of the boat and listened to 3 different talks about the Athabascan Indian Culture. It was a rainy day but they gave everyone little seat cushion things so we didn't have to sit on the wet benches. The excursion was a great excursion....I wish I wasn't so tired because I know I would have enjoyed it much more.
We went on an excursion later on that evening. It was a flight over the Arctic Circle. They picked us up and took us to the airport. On the way they offered us a sack lunch we could eat along the journey at some point. We didn't buy it because we had just eaten and we didn't feel that we would need it. We flew across the arctic circle and landed in Coldfoot. The flight up was very turbulent. I'm not sure if it is always that way, but it was enough for me to feel sick. Once we arrived they piled us into a 15 passenger van and took us about 15 miles to a little village called Wiseman. If you weren't aware already there are plenty of mosquitoes in Alaska. There were so many in Wiseman that they gave us mosquito nets to wear over our heads. They were really bad. They also had bug spray available. And if you need to go to the restroom, be prepared to use the outhouse while mosquitoes are simultaneously flying around trying to eat you for dinner. The flight back from Coldfoot was much better than the flight there. I would recommend the excursion if you get a chance. The pilot told us when we were going to be flying over the Arctic Circle so that we could take pictures of the whatever you call it in the plane where it tells you where you are in the sky.
McKinley Explorer to Denali
The next morning was our train ride to Denali aboard the McKinley Explorer. The train left around 8am. The seats were comfortable. The cars were dome cars so that we had a great view. Below our level was the dining area. We did not eat breakfast on this ride. The whole ride was about 4 hours so it actually went pretty fast. It was nice to be able to go out on the platform and get pictures of the scenery without a glare on the window. Here's a little information to those of you who have never been on a train like that. I learned something very quickly about the doors that lead out to the platforms. There is a button you push to open the door. It was well labeled. The door will close automatically on it's own so there is no need for you to begin pulling on the door to try to close it. I stood there and tried to pull the door closed and felt silly when I realized how it worked. Oh well....how was I supposed to know. Also, ask your tour director how to get out to the back platform where you can see the train tracks out the very back of the train. I didn't know that was an option until our train ride from Denali to Anchorage. Of course on this train ride we weren't exactly really close to the back so I don't even know if I would have been able to get to the back of the train easily.
Once we arrived in Denali we were loaded onto a bus and taken to our hotel. We stayed in the McKinley Chalet Resort. The hotel was nice and clean. There was free wifi in the lobby. I think if our room would have been closer to the lobby we might have been able to pick up a signal in the room but we couldn't. Our iPhones also didn't work very well in our room as far as getting data on our phone. There was no checking facebook or email in my room using my data on my phone. It was too slow and basically never worked. Oh well....why did I need to check facebook on vacation? The food in Denali was not included in our meal voucher plan that we had purchased because HAL doesn't own any of the restaurants....that's the way I understood it. I remember the food at the hotel to be pricey. We only ate breakfast there once and then had one snack.
That evening we had an excursion: Jet Boat Safari. I enjoyed it even though I was extremely exhausted. The views were absolutely beautiful! The sky was so blue! The bus ride there was about 45 minutes. Be on the lookout for moose because we saw some. Also, we didn't just ride a jet boat. We did a little panning for gold and got to see some reindeer with optional feeding, which of course I did.
The next morning we had our included Tundra Wilderness Tour. I was excited about going into Denali but I was a little anxious because of all the reviews I had heard about people on the modified school buses trampling each other when they saw anything with a heartbeat moving outside the bus. I'm here to tell you that it was not bad at all. When we got on, we chose our seats and each seat had a boxed lunch in it. I honestly don't remember what was in the box lunch but I do remember that I didn't eat it. I think there were chips and maybe some cheese and maybe some kind of meat or something. I brought snacks with me like peanut butter crackers, nuts, beef jerky, and some extra water. The excursion is supposed to last 7-8 hours. Ours lasted more like 8-9 hours because we saw tons of wildlife. We saw grizzly bears, caribou, dall sheep, etc. We would stop about every 1.5 hours for a restroom break or picture stops. Even though the bus is a modified school bus, it's much more comfortable than any school bus I've ever been on. I forgot to mention that these tours start at 5:30 am. Ours didn't leave until 6:10 am. I'm glad it started early because we had a chance to see Mt. McKinley before the clouds rolled in. I mean I guess it could have been covered by clouds any morning so you never know. But it was nice to be out and moving so early....I am a morning person so I'm sure that helped a bit.
Later that same day we rented a Jeep. We originally tried to get out of it, but it was too late to cancel by the time we decided to cancel. So we went exploring some with the map they gave us. We had already been down several of the roads on the map so we just went down the ones that we hadn't seen. After we did some discovering, we went to eat dinner. We went to 49th State Brewery in Healy. It took us a while to get some service but once we finally got someone to wait on us, the food was so good! The portions were huge! I couldn't even eat half of mine. So if you get a chance to get out and you want to get away from the touristy stuff, Healy is an option. It's only like 11 miles up the road. Be on the lookout for moose because they were out there just hanging out. We were in the parking lot and a moose walked right in front of our jeep. That's as close as I ever want to be to a wild moose.
The next morning I did a rafting adventure down the Nenana River. I wasn't going to but I decided that when would I get a chance to do it again.....I don't know if/when I'll be back, so I better go ahead and do it. They put you in a dry suit and the only part of you that gets wet is your face. I would recommend wearing really warm socks or wearing 2 pairs. The water is cold.....after all, it is glacier water. They do take pictures of you and you have the option to buy them but they are extremely overpriced. Just buy a water camera before you get there or they sell them in their little shop, and get someone to get a picture of you that is on your boat. It's a lot cheaper.
Train to Anchorage
We left around noon on the train from Denali to Anchorage. That train ride was 8 hours but so picturesque. I got some amazing pictures! We got to the train station early and I'm glad we did, because I was able to get close up to the railing and wait for the train to come in and I got a great picture of the train coming in. This was the train ride that our tour director told me how to get to the back platform. There was only one car behind us, so it was quite easy to get back there. Not many people knew about the back platform until someone announced it. Then it got really crowded back there. At first it was a little confusing because you had to go down some stairs and immediately back up other stairs. I almost felt like I was going to go in the kitchen of the dining area. We did eat in the dining car for lunch and dinner. The food was ok, I've definitely had better food. There were only 2 of us, so they sat us with other people, which was fine. We met some nice people that said they didn't have a tour concierge and they felt somewhat lost. That made me appreciate ours. We would have been lost without ours. The train did stop in Talkeetna to unload some people and pick up some others. We were there for about 15-20 minutes I think. I didn't time the stop. We also went through Wasilla. If you are like me, you will want a picture of a Wasilla sign. There were a few. Just go out on the platform for a better chance at getting one and make sure you have your camera ready.
We got to Anchorage around 8pm. I thought they would take us straight to our hotel, but unfortunately they didn't. They drove us around for about 30 minutes while our luggage was being delivered and they were staggering all the buses that were going to the Hilton. Of course they couldn't take us all there at the same time or it would be very chaotic in the HAL lobby. However, we were ready to be there and did not want to be driving around. If you are into photography, you will want to have your camera ready. There was one photo opportunity that I missed because I was tired and ready to be at the hotel. The Anchorage Museum is mirrored so when you drive by and you are on the right side (as in the appropriate side) to get a good picture you can get a neat bus reflection picture on the side of the building. Anyways, when we arrived at the hotel, we went to our room and our luggage was there. .
I can't say much about the food at the hotel. We only ate the free Hilton Honors breakfast because of our Hilton status. That was very good, but you only have access to that if you have status and then you have to ask at the front desk about it. The hotel itself was nice. It was definitely one of the nicer hotels but what do you expect.....it was a Hilton. I don't know if I have ever stayed in a Hilton I didn't like.
Last Bus Ride of the Tour
The next morning we met in the HAL lobby at 8am. At that time we loaded the bus and then rode about 2 hours or so to Seward. If you sit on the right side of the bus, you will see water and have a better chance of seeing marine wildlife. I didn't see any. If you sit on the left side, you will see land. Once we got to Seward, we said goodbye our tour concierge (tear, sniff, sniff) and headed down to the dock to get on our Kenai Fjords tour. It was basically like a big tease because we could see our ship but they would not let us get on. I think one person from our tour ended up going ahead to the ship because she was sick. However, the rest of us went to our boat for our included tour. The set up in the boat is tables. I can't really recommend a good side to sit on because you never know when the wildlife will appear. They made sure that we saw the animals they had control over. Make sure you take some kind of medicine if you are prone to motion sickness. The boat did move around a lot and I probably would have not done good if I didn't take medicine ahead of time. They did provide a lunch on the boat. I think we had a caesar wrap and some carrots and maybe chips. They brought around warm cookies a few hours lately. I fell asleep on the boat because I was so tired, but the smell of the cookies baking woke me up. They had a snack bar that you could get drinks and other snacks at for a fee of course. They did have restrooms on the boat but of course that is probably expected since the tour is about 6 hours long.
Once we finished our tour they brought us back to the dock and we went and got back on a bus that would take us on a short 2 minute ride up to the ship. At that point, we were on our own and ready to completely relax. Keep in mind that after our Kenai Fjord boat cruise ended and we made it to the ship, it was already past the start of dinner at 5:45pm. We would not have made it to our assigned dining time had we not had suite passenger check in. We were late to dinner, but they let us in.
Luggage
As far as luggage goes, I know some people are unclear as was I when the trip started. I packed a larger suitcase and left some room in it. I also packed a smaller suitcase that included the things I was planning to wear on the cruise ship. I wore many of the things on the cruise that I also wore on land but there were things that I packed only for the cruise. We had our bags with us the whole time until we left Fairbanks. At that time, we had to choose the bag that we wanted to send on to the ship and put the "Join Me On Board" tag on the luggage. The other luggage (which was one piece each) went with us to Denali and then from Denali to Anchorage. We never saw that other piece of luggage until we got to our stateroom. So when we left Fairbanks, I re-evaluated my luggage and decided what I would not need until I got on the ship. I ended up putting my souvenirs and things that I had not used that I thought I would use but never did in my smaller suitcase. It all worked out.
Overall, I thought the cruise tour was very well organized and we ALWAYS knew what was going on. On the coach travel days they had our stops spread out and plentiful so that we had time to stretch out legs and walk around some. I tried to cover everything I possibly could and if you made it this far, you now know a little more of what to expect on your cruise tour. I highly recommend you go on a tour if you are debating whether to go on one. It is well worth the time and money, in my opinion. If you have any other questions, ask away!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Cruise is over and on to Seattle
Our cruise ended yesterday morning. We took a transfer to Seattle from Vancouver. It was NOT FUN! Read Mom's blog if you want to know more about it. Once we got to Seattle we realized it was gay pride day or something. There were some crazy people around. We went to REI, Top Pot, and Palace Kitchen. We didn't have time to do much more.
Our flight left out this morning at 7am. We are in coach with the commoners. We are managing. The wifi(not free) is helping. At least it was only $10. I will be glad to be back home at least for a while and then I'll be ready to go again.
I hope you have enjoyed my adventure just as much as I have. I will be back in the next few days with a Top 10 list of the best things about our trip. Check back!
Our flight left out this morning at 7am. We are in coach with the commoners. We are managing. The wifi(not free) is helping. At least it was only $10. I will be glad to be back home at least for a while and then I'll be ready to go again.
I hope you have enjoyed my adventure just as much as I have. I will be back in the next few days with a Top 10 list of the best things about our trip. Check back!
Inside Passage
When we were in the inside passage, I don't really remember doing much. I think we went to a disembarkation talk and then after that it was about time for Mom's mariners reception and then the mariners lunch. Mom went into more detail in her blog so if you really want to find out what happened, you are more than welcome to check out her blog. There is a link in the side section of my blog. I do remember going to play bingo and I didn't win. I was happy though that we ran into our New Zealand friends. We hadn't seen them during the whole trip, so I was glad to finally see them. They were so nice! That's about all we did besides pack up. Oh and this was the night of the master chefs dinner. They do a little dance kinda thing. It's kinda goofy but it's fun. For desert they serve Baked Alaska. I'm not a fan of Baked Alaska...I don't like strawberry ice cream or the cherry sauce they put on it, so I opted for chocolate cake. It took quite some time to get my desert but it was certainly worth the wait. I'm serious about my chocolate cake :)
Ketchikan, AK
It looks like I'm a little behind in my blogging. I'm flying on AA with wifi access so why not spend my time catching up on my blog.
So when we were in Ketchikan, we went to a lumberjack show. It was a lot of fun! I was hoping to find me a lumberjack but I wasn't too interested in any of them, hehe! We didn't really do much else during our stay in Ketchikan besides look in little gift stores. We have been there before and see all we wanted to see.
I can't really remember much more besides our spa evening, but we spent every evening in the spa so thats not saying much.
So when we were in Ketchikan, we went to a lumberjack show. It was a lot of fun! I was hoping to find me a lumberjack but I wasn't too interested in any of them, hehe! We didn't really do much else during our stay in Ketchikan besides look in little gift stores. We have been there before and see all we wanted to see.
I can't really remember much more besides our spa evening, but we spent every evening in the spa so thats not saying much.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Juneau
Today we pulled into Juneau. We had an excursion at 9am to go see Mendenhall Glacier. Last year I was sick when we docked in Juneau. The doctor later diagnosed me with strep throat but I don't think thats what it was. Well this year Mom came down with a cold yesterday so she was sick. I told her we need to come back again so we can visit again when we are both well.
Our excursion was good. We went to Glacier Gardens and then on to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier was neat. They had a path to hike to a waterfall at the glacier. I was going to remember the name of the waterfall but as much as I tried to remember, I forgot the name. It was really neat! I know I didn't describe it much but you've gotta see it to understand it. So you need to visit Mendenhall Glacier.
This afternoon is when I had my spa treatment. The massage, like I said, was wonderful! I was planning to take it easy this afternoon. The morning started off a little dreary so I didn't think I would want to go up on the Tramway in Juneau. But it started clearing up so I decided once I got back after the massage that I had enough time to go back out and make my way to the Tramway. I'm so glad that I did. The view was great! The only thing I wish I had time to do was hike to the top of Mt. Roberts. I didn't know how long it would take me and I was by myself so I didn't want to take any chance of missing the ship. I DID NOT want to be stuck in Juneau all by my lonesome!
Tonight was also Le Cirque. The food was great! And I ate almost every bit of it. I didn't eat much during the day and I did a lot of hiking, therefore, I had plenty of room for the deliciousness that was served in the Pinnacle.
It's another slow relaxing evening around here. We are still worn out from our land adventure and still recovering. Tomorrow we are in Ketchikan from 11-7. We are going to see a lumberjack show. That should be fun! :)
Our excursion was good. We went to Glacier Gardens and then on to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier was neat. They had a path to hike to a waterfall at the glacier. I was going to remember the name of the waterfall but as much as I tried to remember, I forgot the name. It was really neat! I know I didn't describe it much but you've gotta see it to understand it. So you need to visit Mendenhall Glacier.
This afternoon is when I had my spa treatment. The massage, like I said, was wonderful! I was planning to take it easy this afternoon. The morning started off a little dreary so I didn't think I would want to go up on the Tramway in Juneau. But it started clearing up so I decided once I got back after the massage that I had enough time to go back out and make my way to the Tramway. I'm so glad that I did. The view was great! The only thing I wish I had time to do was hike to the top of Mt. Roberts. I didn't know how long it would take me and I was by myself so I didn't want to take any chance of missing the ship. I DID NOT want to be stuck in Juneau all by my lonesome!
Tonight was also Le Cirque. The food was great! And I ate almost every bit of it. I didn't eat much during the day and I did a lot of hiking, therefore, I had plenty of room for the deliciousness that was served in the Pinnacle.
It's another slow relaxing evening around here. We are still worn out from our land adventure and still recovering. Tomorrow we are in Ketchikan from 11-7. We are going to see a lumberjack show. That should be fun! :)
Haines
Yesterday we went to Haines. Our ship docked early....at 7am....too early for me to get off the ship after all those early mornings on the land adventure. I woke up to eat and then took a morning nap. Mom went out to explore with Chase and Lauren but I was just fine taking a nap. She got back and I was just getting up to get ready for the day. We had an excursion in old motor cars. The cars were fun and the tour was short. We ended the tour with a visit to a hammer museum. It was quite interesting. Basically after that we went back to the ship. I don't even remember what we did. I do remember eating bread pudding for lunch. That is basically my staple lunch on the ship. It's just enough to keep me from getting hungry before dinner and not too much so that I'm too full to eat dinner. I seem to be eating less than I have on previous cruises. I think it's because the food isn't as good as it has been in the past. We also went to the spa drawing at 5pm yesterday. Last year Mom and I were both lucky. Well yesterday was my lucky day because I WON! I won a massage and had it today.....it was heavenly. Last night we didn't do much. Just went to dinner and relaxed at the spa. Then when we got back, I relaxed on the balcony because the weather was so nice. Our neighbors got really loud on their balcony so I ended up coming because in because I didn't want to listen to them. I'm not sure if I mentioned them before but we went on this excursion in Denali and there were these 4 women in the back of the bus that complained that they couldn't hear the bus driver. Well the reason they couldn't hear is because they wouldn't stop talking.....go figure. So lucky of us to be right next door to them :) Anyways, then we moved on during the night to Juneau.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Quick Update
I've gotta be fast because we don't have that many internet minutes so you are getting a list of yesterdays exciting events and then todays as well.
Anchorage to Seward
1. Bus to Seward with scenic views.
2. Boat ride through the Kenai Peninsula.
3. Whale watching and other sea animals were spotted.
4. Sleeping on the boat because I was so tired.
5. Getting on the ms Zaandam just in time to eat dinner.
6. Free bingo and Mom won $250.
7. Look around the ship a bit and then to bed (I was tired!).
College Fjords
1. Slept through the glacier sightings because I was tired.
2. Breakfast in the Pinnacle
3. Signed up for Thermal Suite package to soak in the spa every night.
4. Lame suite luncheon. Wasn't really lunch....more like snacking. Last year it was much better but this year it's a shorter cruise.
5. Wine tasting.
6. Blog time.
Later on.....
7. Formal Night
8. Spa time = relaxation
I definitely feel the ship moving....it just puts me to sleep. I'm ready for a nap now.
Anchorage to Seward
1. Bus to Seward with scenic views.
2. Boat ride through the Kenai Peninsula.
3. Whale watching and other sea animals were spotted.
4. Sleeping on the boat because I was so tired.
5. Getting on the ms Zaandam just in time to eat dinner.
6. Free bingo and Mom won $250.
7. Look around the ship a bit and then to bed (I was tired!).
College Fjords
1. Slept through the glacier sightings because I was tired.
2. Breakfast in the Pinnacle
3. Signed up for Thermal Suite package to soak in the spa every night.
4. Lame suite luncheon. Wasn't really lunch....more like snacking. Last year it was much better but this year it's a shorter cruise.
5. Wine tasting.
6. Blog time.
Later on.....
7. Formal Night
8. Spa time = relaxation
I definitely feel the ship moving....it just puts me to sleep. I'm ready for a nap now.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Denali to Anchorage Via Train
I guess I left off before we did our jeep rental yesterday. Well, we rented the jeep and went to Healy, which is right outside of Denali about 10 miles. We drove down several roads and got some great views and took some great pictures. Then we went to eat at 49th State Brewery (I think that was the name of it). As we were sitting in the parking lot deciding if we were going to go in, a moose walked right out in front of us and we got some great pictures! We didn't drive too many more places after that because we were done and ready to go to bed.
This morning I got up early to go river rafting. They put us in dry suits so we wouldn't get wet. Then we got all geared up and listened to that safety speech twice because we had some late comers and then we were on our way on the Nenana River. The rafting was a lot of fun! It was really cold and my feet froze even with 2 pairs of socks but it was so much fun! I would highly recommend rafting at Denali.
We took the train to Anchorage from Denali at noon today. It was a long train ride but actually went very fast. I took tons of pictures! Our tour guide told me how I could get to the very back car so I could get some great pictures off of the last rail car. I got some great pictures off of the back. I probably spent about 4 hours total outside taking pictures. I was rarely in my seat.
Once we got to Anchorage we were ready to go to our hotel by they weren't ready for us so they took us on a lame "city tour" to waste time. We finally got to our hotel and got situated in our room and then Chase and Lauren arrived shortly after. I'm glad they made it in one piece.
We had a little get together with our tour group with our tour director tonight and we just visited with Chase and Lauren and our director made his rounds to visit with people. All in all it was a good evening and we are glad that Chase and Lauren are here and we are both ready to get on the ship.
This morning I got up early to go river rafting. They put us in dry suits so we wouldn't get wet. Then we got all geared up and listened to that safety speech twice because we had some late comers and then we were on our way on the Nenana River. The rafting was a lot of fun! It was really cold and my feet froze even with 2 pairs of socks but it was so much fun! I would highly recommend rafting at Denali.
We took the train to Anchorage from Denali at noon today. It was a long train ride but actually went very fast. I took tons of pictures! Our tour guide told me how I could get to the very back car so I could get some great pictures off of the last rail car. I got some great pictures off of the back. I probably spent about 4 hours total outside taking pictures. I was rarely in my seat.
Once we got to Anchorage we were ready to go to our hotel by they weren't ready for us so they took us on a lame "city tour" to waste time. We finally got to our hotel and got situated in our room and then Chase and Lauren arrived shortly after. I'm glad they made it in one piece.
We had a little get together with our tour group with our tour director tonight and we just visited with Chase and Lauren and our director made his rounds to visit with people. All in all it was a good evening and we are glad that Chase and Lauren are here and we are both ready to get on the ship.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Must Update Now
I haven't updated in the past few days because we have been so busy. I had a two options.....blog OR sleep! Those of you who know me, know how much I love to sleep, so my lack of sleep hasn't been so great but I will admit, it's been totally worth all that we have seen and done. I'm playing catchup in this blog so I will have a few posts about the last few days.
Tok to Fairbanks
Our flight was delayed leaving Coldfoot so we got to go check out Coldfoot Truck Stop. I purchased my arctic cycle tshirt and we hung out for a little while until our flight was ready to leave. Once again, it was a late night/early morning. We got back in at about 2am. The inconvenience of a delay was completely worth it all.
Tok to Fairbanks
Our morning started early as usual. I don't even remember what time we had to be ready but I know it was early. The bus rides aren't really that bad. They take breaks and show DVD's about "Alaskan" things. Anyways, this was the day that we stopped at Rika's Roadhouse. It was a cute little place. We had only about 30 minutes there to try a bear claw and visit the gift shop. Then later on the drive to Fairbanks, we stopped at North Pole, AK. I had asked Mom if we could go there during our free time but we figured out that we probably wouldn't have enough free time to do much. So when I heard that we were going to be making the stop, I was so excited! I was hoping that Santa would be there. I really wanted to sit in his lap so that I could have it to show my students each year. Well I lucked out, because he was there and I sat in his lap. He acted like he knew who I was. I guess he remembers all the "good girls and boys." We had to rush to look around and I didn't have as much time as I would have liked but I'm glad I got to sit in his lap and snap the picture.
After we left there we headed for lunch. We stopped at some place that I have no idea what the name is...we've done too much for me to remember. We had miners stew, biscuits, and crumb cake. It was good but not very filling. We had a little bit of time to tour the place. After that we went to a gold place. We watched them demonstrate how to pan for gold. I was not actually looking forward to panning for gold. I've done it before and I feel like I'm going to pour out all the gold. Mom and I both ended up getting the people there to help us do the panning and finishing it out for us. I ended up getting about $17 worth of gold. I guess I can save it and when times are tough, I can sell it. Lucky for me though, we were sitting in the hotel yesterday afternoon and I looked down and their was a canister of gold. Well it wasn't mine or Mom's. So I opened it and it it was someones gold that they had put in a charm at the Eldorado Gold Mine place.
Once we got into Fairbanks, we had a tour to Chena Hot Springs. It was a resort about 1.5 hours away. It started with a tasty and filling dinner. We had prime rib and halibut. Then we went over to the ice museum. It was pretty cold so we didn't stay in there long. We then went over to the hot springs. It was very relaxing but we couldn't stay in more than 20 minutes because we were burning up. We had to be back at our bus by 11pm and then we arrived back at the hotel at 12:30am. I didn't get into bed until 1:30am ish. It was a late night but in the grand scheme of things, it was totally worth the late night and early morning the next day.
Day in Fairbanks
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| Paddle Boat Ride on Chena River |
This morning we had to be ready for our tour that was included with our land tour portion of the trip. We went on a paddle boat discovery tour. We saw some interesting things on the Chena river. We went to a little indian village that they had little presentations about things that the indians would do and their heritage. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. When we were getting off the coach bus at the paddle boat tour, our awesome tour guide said that if it was him, he would sit on the port side. So, that's exactly what we did. I'm glad we followed his recommendation because we really had a great view on everything. The boat would pull up beside little places and different people would be hooked up to a microphone that was hooked up to our boat so we could hear them talking about the things they were doing. Even though I was tired, I enjoyed it.
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| Looking For Gold! |
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| There were tons of mosquitoes in Wiseman. |
After we arrived back at the hotel, we had the afternoon and evening free, so that we could do our own thing. We went to eat and then came back and rested. We had to eat dinner right when they opened that evening because we had our Arctic Circle Air Adventure tour. I really enjoyed the tour. It was incredible all we got to see from the air. We saw incredible rainbows, the Alaska pipeline and probably some wildlife, but we were so far from it, it looked like little dots. Once we landed we road to a neat little village called Wiseman. Only 13 people live there year round. I think they said it goes up to 17 in the summer. I'm not sure that I could live like that for the year when the weather gets as cold as it does. It's tough enough if it manages to get into the low teens in Texas, which we all know can happen and sometimes does.
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| Alaska Pipeline |
Our flight was delayed leaving Coldfoot so we got to go check out Coldfoot Truck Stop. I purchased my arctic cycle tshirt and we hung out for a little while until our flight was ready to leave. Once again, it was a late night/early morning. We got back in at about 2am. The inconvenience of a delay was completely worth it all.
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| The Midnight Sun |
Early Morning and Train to Denali
This morning we had to have our luggage out at 6am which meant we had to be dressed and ready to go at that time. Considering the fact that I went to be at about 2:45am, it was tough to get up at 5:15am. I'm not usually able to function on 2.5 hours of sleep. It was an exhausting day.....not because of all that we did but because I was so tired.
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| Train Ride to Denali Our transfer to the train was at 7am ish. Once we got to the train, we found our seats and I was ready to go to sleep but I stayed up a while. I did, however, remember to download some "quiet music" as I like to call it in my class with my students. It was very relaxing but I could still hear everyone talking. The ride was pretty uneventful for the most part. We did stop at once and no one knew why. We realized later that it was because they had an earthquake near Anchorage and whenever their is an earthquake, they stop all the trains, or something like that. About 1.5 hours before the train got to Denali I went downstairs to the outside platform. I got some great pictures! I forgot to mention that our train was one of those domed cars that was 2 stories and we were on the top level and the dining level is the first level. The whole dome on the top was windows. The views were great but on the platform they were even better. |
Once we got Denali, and found our room, we were on our way to the Safari Jet Boat Tour. It was only 3.5 hours and it was pretty interesting. The only thing that I did not like was the panning for gold part. We didn't know we were going to have to do that, but we did, so we were good sports and participated. Mom ended up having me finish hers up for her because she was not enjoying it. Who knows how much gold we got, but once again, I guess I'll save it for when times get tough and I can sell it for some extra money :) We didn't see any wild life, but it was still a lot of fun. Oh wait, actually on our bus ride back to the hotel, we did see a few moose by the side of the road.
We went to bed early last night because we were tired and we knew we were going to have to get up super early this morning.
Tundra Wilderness Tour to Denali and ANOTHER Early Morning
This morning we had to be ready for our tour at 6:10am. I was excited but at the same time I was dreading it. I was dreading the early morning that we were going to have, BUT I knew that we would probably have a better chance of seeing more wildlife and an amazing view of the mountain.
We left on "modified school buses." That's what they like to call them. I wasn't looking forward to that after being on all those nice coach buses, but it wasn't too bad. The seats were decently comfortable and it wasn't as bad as a school bus. We saw a ton of caribou and dall sheep. We got lucky enough to see 4 different grizzly bears as well as some little squirrels, one moose, maybe a fox or wolf, and a few golden eagles. The view of the mountain was INCREDIBLE! We could see the mountain in it's entirety and I can't even describe it to you. You have to see if yourself to know what I am talking about. The tour was 7-8 hours long but I'm pretty sure we got back around 2:30pm which is definitely a good thing because it meant that we kept stopping to see the wildlife.
I would say the highlight of the trip was the first bear that we saw. The first time we saw it, it was on the other side of the bus and kinda far so I couldn't even get a decent picture of it. Then when we turned around and came back about 30-45 minutes later, it was right by the road, ONE MY SIDE!!! I got some wonderful pictures of the bear thanks to my rockin' awesome camera that I am so glad that I bought.
Now we are relaxing a bit before our tour tonight. Well it's not really a tour. It's just a self drive jeep tour. That basically means it's a jeep rental to go into Denali by ourselves. I'm not sure where we are planning to go on our little self drive adventure. We actually tried to cancel it because we had so much other stuff planned that we didn't realize that we needed some chill time.
Tomorrow I am going river rafting at 7:30 in the morning which means I'll have another early morning that wouldn't be early if I didn't have that. We don't have to have our luggage out until 9am but in my case I'll have to have it out more like 7am because of my tour. Oh well....when will I get a chance to raft down the Nenana River again.
I'm so ready to get on the ship and just relax. I am dreading going back to the Texas heat......I just can't stand it, or my heating bill. Oh well.
I'll try to do better about posting but I can't promise anything. It looks like I'm caught up to this point, but I'll have more to blog soon. Stay tuned for more!
***I apologize for the font on this post. I can't figure out how to get it like the other font in my previous posts. I wanted it to look cute, but oh well :)
***I apologize for the font on this post. I can't figure out how to get it like the other font in my previous posts. I wanted it to look cute, but oh well :)
Monday, June 13, 2011
Day on the Top of the World Highway....Or Something Like That
1. Woke up early too early!
2. Ate breakfast and loaded up at 8:15am.
3. Went on a river cruise down the Yukon River.
4. Then after 3 hours, transferred back to the coach and began our journey from Dawson City to Tok, AK.
5. Stopped for border patrol at the US/Canadian border.
6. Stopped for tour group picture near the Welcome to Alaska sign.
7. Continued on towards Tok and stopped in Chicken for a "coffee" break. I bought a shirt while I was there.
8. Fell asleep a few times.
9. Finally arrived in Tok, AK.
10. Ate dinner.....we had some really good mexican food.
11. Ready to crash! I didn't sleep too good last night.
*Tomorrow we leave at 7:45am which is earlier than expected so that we can stop at North Pole, AK.
2. Ate breakfast and loaded up at 8:15am.
3. Went on a river cruise down the Yukon River.
4. Then after 3 hours, transferred back to the coach and began our journey from Dawson City to Tok, AK.
5. Stopped for border patrol at the US/Canadian border.
6. Stopped for tour group picture near the Welcome to Alaska sign.
7. Continued on towards Tok and stopped in Chicken for a "coffee" break. I bought a shirt while I was there.
8. Fell asleep a few times.
9. Finally arrived in Tok, AK.
10. Ate dinner.....we had some really good mexican food.
11. Ready to crash! I didn't sleep too good last night.
*Tomorrow we leave at 7:45am which is earlier than expected so that we can stop at North Pole, AK.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
59 days and counting
I've already started counting down the days until we leave for Alaska. I'm so excited about seeing more of Alaska besides the coast. We will be spending lots of time traveling from place to place but it will be worth it to see all of the different parts of Alaska. In the next week or two I will try to get our itinerary up of the places we will be. We start out in Vancouver and end up there too. This includes 12 days of a land tour and then 7 days cruising. Then we are spending once extra day in Seattle. After we dock in Vancouver at the end of our trip, we are taking a bus (with HAL) down to Seattle. I'll be updating along the way as I get ready for my trip, gathering things that I need, researching the places we are going and then packing up right before we leave. I CAN'T WAIT!!!
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