Alaska Bound!!!

[Nemo14]

A few more pictures from the gardens and greenhouse:






The greenhouse at the base of the mountain was nice and they had a live camera on the eagle nest outside so you could watch the eaglet there as he prepared to fledge.

After returning to Juneau, we did a little walking through the city til the rain got the best of us. I liked the decoration here:

 

[Nemo14]

We arrived in Skagway the next morning with cloudy skies:


Skagway was a stop during the Gold Rush days and was home to many an entrepreneur trying to make a fast buck or two, among them was the grandfather of our current POTUS. Today it's mostly a tourist town famous for the White Pass & Yukon railroad.


We rode the train to the top, passing into Canada, then took a bus down. I know @Batman posted pictures from there, so here's a few more. It was pretty foggy and hazy for most of the climb, but still a fun way to spend a rainy day:

 

[Nemo14]

As we left Skagway, the captain told us to be sure to be up early the next morning since we were in for a huge treat. WE grabbed some coffee around 5 AM and headed for a space on the deck. The scenery we passed was amazing...




but nowhere near as awesome as our first glimpse at the Hubbard Glacier:



I know @Batman posted a couple of my favorite photos from there, but I just have to say that no photos do justice to the beauty of this place. We watched and heard the groans of calfing as the cracks in the ice moved closer to the water. It was just amazing!!!





The rest of the morning was spent cruising to Seward, our departure point where we began 3 days of "land cruising".

 

[Nemo14]

We left the ship for our final time in Seward where we were met by our new guide and bus driver, both long-time Alaska residents. They were fun, particularly the bus driver, a semi grizzled lady who was just so thrilled to be doing her job. Our first stop was at the Wildlife rescue place, and I know you saw several pictures from there. Here's a few others and some scenes along the way:







bear in the tree as we were leaving...

 

[Nemo14]

We had lunch in Anchorage, where this somehow reminded me of a certain poster here (@rsoxguy)







and had a moose sighting...



then rode by bus to the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. The place was beautiful, and had the sky been clearer we would have been able to seee the Northern Lights from our room!

 

[Nemo14]

Our next destination was what we had all been anxiously waiting for - Denali National Park. The park is huge andd largely wilderness. There are no trails to hike, but hiking permits are available to explore the area. We took a park bus through the only road there, and it was just incredible, even with the cloudy/rainy weather. The driver would stop whenever anyone saw wildlife at all, and I must say we had some excellent spotters on our bus. For those who couldn't see things too far away, the driver had a camera hooked up to the video screens in the bus, and he'd zoom on to the animals so everyone could see. Our director asked the driver to save the front seat for us because DH has such long legs, so we had just an amazing view throughout the trip.
First (of many) moose:



a willow ptarmigan, state bird of Alaska


first bear!





Caribou!







Dall sheep - high up on a mountainside:

 

[Nemo14]

More random wildlife and views of the park:

 

[Nemo14]

Polychrome Pass

 

[Nemo14]

The one thing that we didn't see was Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley) itself. The weather there prevents most people from seeing it, in fact only 30% of visitors to the park actually get to see the mountain. So we were a little disappointed about that except for the next morning, when she showed a little of herself to us when our tour bus stopped for a break.







OK - it doesn't make us 30%ers yet, but next time.....

 

[Nemo14]

Our trip concluded with a trip on the Wilderness Express from Talkeetna to Anchorage. It's a glass-domed train where you're seated in the upper level and dine in the lower level. It was fun, and a nice way to spend our 34th wedding anniversary.

 

[Nemo14]

We stayed in Anchorage that night, flew to Seattle, then to Baltimore, then home. Long day of flying, but we'll be back!

 

[Nemo14]

Final thoughts:
As I mentioned, we do plan to go back to Alaska, but I wouldn't do it by cruise again. Maybe it's the Titanic thing, but DH and I are just not "cruise people" and the least enjoyable part of the whole trip was actually the time spent on the ship. The crew was wonderful and took very good care of us, but we both felt like fish out of water on board. The ports were nice but definitely tourist-oriented - how many diamond shops does one person need?!!! Anyway, our plan is that next time we'll fly to Anchorage, rent a car, and tour where we want when we want. It's more our style!

 

[Songbird76]

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
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The climbing wall and water slide
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Pools
View attachment 224526 View attachment 224527

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:
View attachment 224529

Wow...how old was she when she was on Titanic?

Waterslide looks fun..did you go on it?

 

[Nemo14]

Wow...how old was she when she was on Titanic?

Waterslide looks fun..did you go on it?

She was 22 or 23 - on her way to start a new life in America.

I didn't even bring a swimsuit because I figured it would be too cold, but DH did and said the pools were very nice.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Thanks so much for your Alaska posts! I really enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing about your adventures. I'm so glad that you and your hubs had such an amazing experience!

 

[Jedi Stitch]

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!

I wish you had more time to see Seattle, you would have enjoyed some of the Downtown things to do. Glad to hear that you made your train. Mt. Rainier is always a site to behold flying into and out of Sea-Tac.

 

[Jedi Stitch]

Way cool trip. We have been tossing around doing a cruise to Alaska too. We can do a Norwegian from Seattle, or we can take the new Disney Cruise from Vancuver, B.C.

 

[Nemo14]

I wish you had more time to see Seattle, you would have enjoyed some of the Downtown things to do. Glad to hear that you made your train. Mt. Rainier is always a site to behold flying into and out of Sea-Tac.

We watched the eclipse from SeaTac - does that count?

 

[Nemo14]

Way cool trip. We have been tossing around doing a cruise to Alaska too. We can do a Norwegian from Seattle, or we can take the new Disney Cruise from Vancuver, B.C.

It's pretty easy to take the Amtrak to Vancouver and saves you some time at sea.

 

[Tiggerish]

I have booked a Disney Cruise to Alaska for next August, so I found this report tremendously helpful! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.