Fairbanks Bus Tour

 Today, there were seven of us that went on a bus tour. Our first stop, was the museum just a few blocks from our hotel. Here we saw Alaskan artifacts a second stop with the Alaskan pipeline. This was pretty cool to see they are 800 miles of pipeline and we saw a diagram of its path and we saw a cut out. It’s actually pretty big one thing that impressed me with the fact that he could shift left and right and forward and backwards shut the Earth move even a little bit our last and final stop where is the Santa house in North Pole Alaska. Lots and lots and lots of Christmas decorations, reindeer outside, a soda shop fountain with ice cream and candy, and the big man himself we took several cheesy photos, and Santa even get a video for the kids. It was whispered that Santa was on the sauce, and I would imagine if you had to be in this environment every day, it would be understandable.

Discovery III Riverboat

 Today we rode the discovery, three river boat in Fairbanks Alaska. It’s a large paddle boat that has been a family business for generations. After embarking on the boat, we had blueberry donuts,  The captain giving the tour today, apparently was giving his last tour after many decades of service. Also on the boat was a 92-year-old woman who was married to the original founder of the company. Riverboat business or Alaska people because she did not even look 92 years old. we first watched a small biplane takeoff in the river in front of us. The pilot was able to talk to the captain through a radio we then passed by the dog mushing center started by Susan Butcher a  four time Iditeraod winner. These dogs looked a lot huskier, then the CVs sled dogs. Susan Butcher has since passed away from cancer but the center is still managed by her husband and daughter. We then went to an Alaskan Indian village and saw what Alaskan life was. Like. On the boat. We sampled a salmon and cream cheese spread that was very good. when we got back to our hotel, it was so early in the day and we laid down as it was raining outside and the constant motion must’ve gotten up to us because we took short naps for dinner. We walked close to a mile to the chowder house. It was obvious that this is a favorite of the locals, and we knew we had just selected a good restaurant, I had smoked salmon chowder and Scotty had a Halibut Current Chatham youre. Both were excellent. Scotty had a crab salad sandwich, and I had a smoked salmon sandwich. For dessert, we shared a piece of big fat chocolate cake. It was an excellent dinner. 

Sled Dogs & Horseshoe Lake Trail

 Today we rode the Park bus up to the park, sled dog lodge. We saw the sled dog demonstration, and noticed that these dogs are bigger than see the dogs that is because these dogs are meant more for carrying supplies they are used to reach the Rangers throughout the park, it’s obvious the Rangers love their jobs and the dogs love their life.we rode the bus back down towards town to Carsten’s restaurant. We each had a fish sandwich and then we went off to hike.we hiked horseshoe Lake trail for almost 4 miles. It went down into the valley around the lake and then we had to go back up to reach the visitor center. It was a beautiful hike around the lake. We boatded the train at 4:15 and rode the train from Denali to Fairbanks. On this ride, I even saw a moose back behind the trees near some water. As usual the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We checked into the Springhill suites, which was a very nice room, and then we walked down the street to a brewery where we each had a hefeweisen. 

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Oxbow Trail, Denali Tour, Thai Food

 We started the day with a hike on Oxbow Trail. This trail started right from our hotel across the bridge and onto the island in the middle of the river. What made this hike so spectacular was that we started off with a really misty morning. It made for a beautiful hike. 

we then boarded in Denali Park bus, which took us on. Almost a 100 mile ride into the park. There’s basically only one road out into the park. I think we lucked out by the time of the year we can because the season was late in the fall colors were showing the scrub brush was red. The birch trees are yellow, and the mountain tops for capped with white snow. We did see some moose a few times, but they were back in the brush and hard to see from the bus. The Driver was very knowledgeable and gave a lot of history and information about the park, the animals, and the vegetation. It was an enjoyable ride. Denali is 6,000,000 acres and an absolutely gorgeous national park. I’m so glad we came on this trip. 

When we got back to the lodge, we hiked across the street to the other campground where there was a food truck. We ordered two orders of Thai food, which was a lot of food. It was excellent, and we end of the day with full bellies!

Denali Star

 Today we rode the train from Talkeetna to Denali. It was almost a 5 hour train ride, and the views were spectacular. The leaves are starting to turn yellow, and they provided a beautiful backdrop to the many rivers we rode beside.

Once in the alley, we checked into the Denali Village Lodge, where we have it small room with two double beds that overlooks the river. Because we had booked our excursion late we did not have tickets for the dinner show. We had met another couple on the train and roll had two extra tickets because their traveling companions had to leave, so we bought their tickets and had dinner and a show at the village. It was family style, eating and the highlights of the meal for salmon and a four berry cobbler. At the end. The entertainment was good and we learned some Alaskan history through the song and dance show 

Mahays Airboat

 Today we rode the Dinali star from Anchorage to Talkeetna. once in Talkeetna, we decided to head down to the village and walked around. It’s a very small village, and obviously caters to the tourist. We ate at the Denali Brewpub, where we had halibut, fish and chips that were excellent. We ate outside near the fire, and it was a great atmosphere from there. We headed over to the airboat our captain was captain. Israel, he said he had grown up in the area and his father before him was also a boat captain. He obviously loved his job, and it was a fantastic day on the boat we saw a new less than 20 bald eagles along the ride, we also saw a coyote Creeping along the shore, and then he hid among the brush. This was an airboat, and he said that it could go into a minimum of 14 inches of water. As the water is continually changing the river flow, he had to be aware of where he steered. Their boats have been shut down for almost 2 weeks before we got there due to flooding, and we did see trees and debris along the banks in the middle of the river, at one point we got out and walked along the shore. We are Kaliyah the tour guide, told us about the Alaskan encampment. We saw animal hides, and an example of a hut and a salmon Holden pit. We were on the river for almost 4 hours and we really really enjoyed it.

Seaveys Iditerod

 We awoke to a rainy, misty morning, and after breakfast, did a quick walk around in Seward. From there, we took her suitcases over to the train depot. We were picked up by Ken withSeaveys Iditerod i’m headed over to the dog kennels. This is a really well run operation and we learned a lot about Iditarod. We saw the outdoor kennels where they house about 40 to 50 dogs at a time just at this location. We were split into two groups in our group 1st had the chance to meet the new puppies one litter was two weeks old and the other litter was about two months old. They told us some of the history of this family, and how they were instrumental in starting  the Iditeraod in the early 70s. This family has won quite a few of the races, and it looks like their run will continue. The 12 year old girl that gave part of her to work has high hopes to enter the races and she turns 14 I’ll be rooting for Emily. Next six of us got on the summer, Slaven spears and 14 dogs pulled us through the woods. It was very very cool after they were hitched up. The dogs started to talk and whine and how – they were ready to go. This was really a fun excursion and I would recommend it others.

 

We then went to lunch with Scotty, had seafood chowder and a BLT, and I had a walnut salad with a piece of salmon on top. The salmon tasted great from there. We headed over to exit glacier, and we did a 2 mile round-trip hike up to see the glacier , the thing that made the most impact on me was seeing the signs of how the glacier has regressed over the years. The last time was dated 2010 in the glacier was still far away from their showing that receded even more. From there our driver took us to a small stream, where we could see lots and lots of salmon in their eggs in the shallow water. He then yelled for everyone to get on the bus, as there was a bear up on the road if anything, Alaska is a very dramatic state.

Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise

 After breakfast at our hotel, we took our suitcases to the train station and boarded the train. We went from anchorage to Seward and it was a beautiful ride. It was an overcast day with. Misty clouds, Mr. way we sat in the last car, the train, which is fortunate because I was able to jump up and down going to the back door and taking pictures from the back. 

Once in Seward Reedy barked and walked over to DMT cruise ship. We went on a six hour flight ride through Kanhai Ford’s national park as we rode out through the harbor. We first had a boxed lunch then once out into the water we saw much of wildlife, we saw at least 30 see lions resting on the rocks and we could hear the roars from the shore. We saw puffins flying, and also in the water we saw a red jellyfish, white jellyfish and clean jellyfish. We stopped in front of the Holgate glacier where we could hear chunks of glacial, ice breaking off , but the highlight of the trip was seeing the orca whales was a huge pod that surrounded us, and we could see them on both sides of the ship. I truly live in a magnificent world.