Alaska Bound!!!

[Nemo14]

We spent most of today on a bus. Had lunch in Anchorage after visiting a really neat animal rescue/rehab place. I'll try to send some pics to @Batman in a few minutes. We're spending tonight at the beautiful Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, where we have a view of the mountains in the distance (including Danali) if the clouds lift soon, and a possibility of seeing the Northern Lights tonight. I'm giddy with excitement!

 

[Tick Tock]

Got some Nemomail to share from the past couple days!

From 8/17/17:

Here's a couple I took yesterday as we approached the port of Skagway

 

[Tick Tock]

Here's a few from the train. Unfortunately since I took them through a window so there's reflections in some of them. We actually crossed into Canada on the train so we had to go through customs.

 

[Tick Tock]

We spent a couple of hours here this morning - absolutely breathtaking!

 

[Tick Tock]

These pictures are amazing, @Nemo14 . Hope this trip is being everything you thought it would be. Looks beautiful.

 

[Nemo14]

These pictures are amazing, @Nemo14 . Hope this trip is being everything you thought it would be. Looks beautiful.

We're already talking about coming here again - probably not next year, but soon.
Thanks @Batman for assisting me with this.

 

[Tick Tock]

Sending you a few pictures from the animal rehab place - it was way cool!

and we saw a moose in the wild today!!!!! No pics of that since we were doing about 55 on the bus at the time, but we saw him,,,,and a few eagles!

 

[Tick Tock]

Animal rehab place continued:

 

[Nemo14]

That place was awesome - they take in animals that have been shot or hit by a car or whatever, or young animals who have lost parents in similar situations. Some are able to be returned to the wild, but some never would survive that way, so they keep them there for the rest of their lives. Those bears in the first set of pictures were sleeping - honest!

 

[Tick Tock]

That place was awesome - they take in animals that have been shot or hit by a car or whatever, or young animals who have lost parents in similar situations. Some are able to be returned to the wild, but some never would survive that way, so they keep them there for the rest of their lives.

My Dad & Uncle visited a place similar to this near Yellowstone several years ago, and it cared for wolves and grizzlies.

 

[Nemo14]

Tomorrow we're going to Denali National Park, and doing a 6 to 8 hour trek by school bus into the wilderness there. We'll be staying in the lodge there which might not have internet, so probably no more pics til we get home.

 

[MinnieM123]

That place was awesome - they take in animals that have been shot or hit by a car or whatever, or young animals who have lost parents in similar situations. Some are able to be returned to the wild, but some never would survive that way, so they keep them there for the rest of their lives. Those bears in the first set of pictures were sleeping - honest!

What a great place. Love the photo of the lynx. That would look good in a frame. I've always thought that lynx are beautiful (similar to bobcats in the Northeast). The black tufts behind the ears identify them as lynx (other than that, both animals are very similar, and are often mistaken for one another).

Special thanks to @Batman for posting all the great photos from Nemo.

 

[Nemo14]

So no Northern Lights last night, but that's OK. The hotel has a service here that they will call your room if you want them too if the Northern Lights are visible. So we were able to get a good night's sleep, and now on to Danali!

 

[JenniferS]

So no Northern Lights last night, but that's OK. The hotel has a service here that they will call your room if you want them too if the Northern Lights are visible. So we were able to get a good night's sleep, and now on to Danali!

Have fun! Great pics.

 

[Songbird76]

That place was awesome - they take in animals that have been shot or hit by a car or whatever, or young animals who have lost parents in similar situations. Some are able to be returned to the wild, but some never would survive that way, so they keep them there for the rest of their lives. Those bears in the first set of pictures were sleeping - honest!

There's a wildlife refuge near Laramie in Wyoming....it's great. Your pictures make me miss Wyoming and the mountains!!

 

[Nemo14]

Last night we stayed at a Hampton Inn. The staff there was wonderful, and helped us out tremendously. ...with one small exception...
We had checked with the lady at the front desk about what was the best way for us to get to the Amtrak station by 7:30 this morning, and after weighing our options, it seemed like a town car was our best bet, so she offered to arrange it for us, with a pick up time of 6:30. So this morning we waited in the lobby patiently, but no town car showed up. Another person at the desk noticed our anxious faces and checked with the towncar company, and they said that they had no record of a call. They sent a young man over right away, and thankfully he got us to the station just in the nick of time. *phew* (We did get to see Starbucks headquarters, the Mariners stadium, the Seahawks stadium, and the Space needle in kind of a blur though).

The train ride from Seattle to Vancouver was nice though, with some really pretty views along the coast. We checked into our hotel a while ago - it's very quaint (no elevator) in the heart of a restaurant district here so we had our choice of a variety of venues. We ended up settling for a Greek restaurant with some pretty tasty food, then we took a walk around the area. We saw the stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 winter Olympics were held, which was kind of neat. Tomorrow we board the ship and head for Alaska!

Again, thank you to @Batman for posting assorted pictures for me. The internet on the ship was pretty weak, but I could e-mail them, given enough time. So anyway, here's some pics from our ship, Radiance of the Sea:

The Central area where there was a lot of music and dancing every night


The climbing wall and water slide


Pools


DH's grandmother was a Titanic survivor, and there were often times we thought of that ship, so here's a little homage to that:

 

[Nemo14]

Our first stop was the port of Ketchican. Some of these pictures you've seen already, but I'll give you a little explanation for them.
I'm an early riser anyway, and the 4 hour time difference between home and Alaska really messed with my sleep schedule, so every morning I'd go up on one of the decks to watch our approach to the town. Here's Ketchican waking up:


It's a cute little tourist town, so we checked out a few shops then started walking to the outskirts when I spotted this guy on a radio tower:


Eventually he took off from there and flew directly over us screaching. It was sooooooo cool!


I had seen this road from the ship so we had to go check it out: yes, it's that steep!!!!


A few totem poles:




Salmon were running here and in almost every stream:


We had tickets to the local lumberjack show, which was cute in a touristykind of way:

 

[Nemo14]

It had been misty most of the day, so when it turned to full fledged rain, we headed back to the ship and changed for dinner, as the ship prepared to set sail again bidding good-bye to Ketchican:


One last eagle sighting:

 

[Nemo14]

Our next port was called Icy Straits Point in the village of Hoonah. It was my favorite port for a number of reasons. It is home to about 800 members of the Tlingit tribe, whose ancestors were survivors of a rapid glacial advance in Glacier Bay as well as a landslide-induced tsunami. They were very friendly and hospitable, and the atmosphere there was quite different from the gift-shop lined streets of the rest of the ports. We did a whale watch there and were lucky enough to see not only humpbacks, but orcas as well.

Humpbacks can be spotted by watching for that cloud of mist:




The 6 foot fin sticking up was a clue that orcas were nearby:









Hoonah was just lovely with scenic views everywhere:





The weather went from sunny to rainy and back to sunny in minutes, so I looked for a rainbow and found this, right on the water. It was quite mystical:



As we left Icy Straits we spotted this guy:

 

[Nemo14]

Our next stop was Juneau, the capital! we were quite surprised at how small a city it is, but it was very pretty. We had reserved spaces on a flot trip to the Mendanhall Glacier, but it was raining fairly steady that morning, so we reluctantly decided to cancel that and do a tour of the Visitor center and nearby gardens instead. This is what we would have been on...(Next time!!!!)


and here's Mendanhall Glacier: It was pretty impressive, but our time there was limited, so we didn't get to hike out to the waterfall








The gardens were pretty, and they took us to the top of the mountain there by golf cart...in the rain...