For my 60th birthday I decided to treat myself to my dream vacation - a trip to Alaska. It seemed like a natural fit since Alaska became our 49th state in 1959, the year I was born. I'll always be able to remember it is our 49th state because one of our tour guides said "Hawaii had to be 50 because Hawaii 49 just doesn't sound the same as Hawaii 50. :)
Monday Day 1 - was the day from hell. We left Knoxville around noon for a bus ride to Nashville. After stops in Kingston and Crossville we checked into Alaskan Air at the Nashville Airport. After a 4 1/2 hour flight to Seattle (were we watched Crazy Rich Asians on the inflight movie channel) we had a very short layover (enough time to run across the terminal) we took another 3 1/2 hour flight to Anchorage. We arrived around midnight Alaskan time (4 am EST). Off to our hotel, our home for the next 3 nights.
Tuesday Day 2 - We got up for a mid-morning tour of Anchorage. We were dropped off by our tour bus driver, Chris Schweigert. Chris lives in Tok, Alaska. He moved from the East Coast to live off the grid. His cabin has no electricity, running water or toilet. There were 27 people on the tour...30 if you count Chris, Betty Dedrick, our tour guide and her husband Russ. It was nice to have a small group. Always plenty of room on the bus.
This is the Anchorage Visitor's Center where we were dropped off before and after our tour. Marian and I went to see a film on the Northern Lights. It was disappointing. The footage was beautiful, but it didn't give much information and went on way too long. Both of us nodded off. Next we boarded a trolley for a tour of Anchorage. Our tour guide was a college student studying medicine. He was cute. We went by Earthquake park where an entire neighborhood was destroyed by the 1964 earthquake. The quake was the largest ever (a 9.4) and lasted 4 minutes. A street in downtown became a hill down to the railroad. We did some shopping after that. We found a quilt shop and a yarn shop. We also found the pot shop and purchased some pot gummies. We had a meal at Humpy's a local restaurant specializing in salmon. I had a taco burger that was delicious. We had the evening free but we were so tired we just went to bed. Plus they warned us about being downtown at night.
Wednesday, Day 3 - We were supposed to ride the Alaskan Railroad to Whittier to see the glaciers. However, our train broke down. :( So we were bused to Whittier. The scenery was beautiful! We saw lots of dead trees that were killed when the salt water came inland during the earthquake. The interesting thing about getting to Whittier is the only way in is through the train tunnel. And it is one lane. So the trains and cars must take turns. We missed the first time through so we had to wait. But we got through the tunnel and ended up taking a shorter boat trip to see the glaciers. We were served salmon chowder (it was okay) and we got to see lots of glaciers. It was really interesting how the weather was comfortable until you got close to the glacier. Then it got super cold.
They are bright blue because of the reflection of the light on them. We did ride the train home. We saw some bald eagles, but no other wildlife.
Thursday, Day 4 - Today we checked out of our hotel and headed for my most anticipated place - Denali. We boarded the Alaskan Railroad for our trip inland to the Denali state park.
This is what our train car looked like. It was a long trip but we got to have a nice lunch and the scenery was magnificent! We traveled through Telkeetna, Palmer, Wasilla and several other towns on our way to Denali. We were served a really nice lunch. The weather was beautiful and made for perfect viewing of Mount Denali, a site most people don't ever get to see.
We were lucky we got to see it today since tomorrow while in the National Park, we never got to see it. We saw eagles, salmon and swans along the way. For dinner that night we went to the Cabin dinner show. It was a cute show. One of the waiters was from Tennessee. We stayed at the Grande Hotel, high on a bluff with a great view.
Friday, Day 5 - We left our hotel early and headed over to the park for a morning with the sled dogs. These dogs are raised in the park and work during the winter taking supplies around the park. We got a demonstration on how they are trained. The dogs were so cute and they love to run.
There was a puppy there, too. He was adorable. Wish we could bring one home, but they are way too much dog for us.
Then we took an 8 hour drive through the park on a park bus. The bus had a camera on it so the driver could zoom in on the wildlife as we saw it. We saw 16 caribou, 1 fox, 6 grizzly bears, 3 alaskan ground squirrels, 10 snow shoe hare, 2 dall sheep and 2 moose! It was so exciting to see the wildlife in their habitat.
Saturday, Day 6 - We left Denali and drove to Fairbanks. We stopped along the way at Nenana. This is a stop on the Iditarod dog sled race. This town is also famous for a contest they have each year guessing on the day the ice will melt. They put a tripod made of wood in the middle of the river with a rope tied to a grandstand. People enter the contest from all over the world. There was a gift shop there and also Jessie from Life Below Zero. Now I had never heard of him or the show. But he is a dog sled owner and driver. He brought several of his dogs and took us on a ride on his summer sled. It was so much fun!!!! You could really feel the power of the dogs.
In Fairbanks we picked up our tour guide, Nick and he took us around the city. We saw the pipeline which was fascinating, the University of Alaska, a muskox facility. We saw the statue for the Lend Lease program where we gave planes to Russia before we got into WWII. For dinner we attended a salmon bake. I was disappointed. They were supposed to have halibut, which my friend Ginny told me to try, but they didn't. They had salmon, prime rib and fried cod. I had the cod. It was okay. Afterwards we saw a show which featured our guide, Nick. It was so funny.
Sunday, Day 7 - We started the day with a river boat ride. We stopped along the way at the kennel owned by Susan Butcher's family. She was a famous Iditarod sled dog driver until she died from cancer. Then we went into an authentic Alhabascan village. We got to see reindeer (domesticated caribou), a fish camp, how to skin animals, sled dogs and other elements of a traditional native village. It was a lot of fun. After lunch at the Pump House (not very good), we stopped at North Pole and shopped and visited with Santa. On to Tok for an overnight. Our first meal at Fast Eddie's, which thankfully was quite delicious. Our accommodations were primitive for sure. 1970s shag carpeting, barely running water and 5 channels on TV. The entire tour bus ended up watching an old Bogey and Becall movie. Thankful to leave the next morning after breakfast at Fast Eddies.
Monday, Day 7 - We drove to Chicken, so named because no one in the town could spell the state bird, ptarmigan. It looks like a chicken so the town is called chicken. There are only a handful of full time residents. 30 people live there in the summer. We had lunch there. Oh, there also are no flush toilets. We learned how to mine for gold and saw one of the machines that were developed to mine gold. They destroyed the landscape however. We drove along the Taylor Highway, which is a dirt road to the Top of the World highway, into Canada and our stop for the night Dawson City. It was mostly closed when we got there. The town is quaint. It feels exactly like it did when the town was founded due to the gold rush. We went to see the Diamond Gertie Can Can show at the casino. None of the streets were paved. Off to Whitehorse in the Yukon tomorrow.
Tuesday, Day 8 - We left Dawson City for Whitehorse. We are following the path of the gold rushers only backwards. We had lunch at a roadhouse next to the Yukon River. Then we stopped and got a huge cinnamon roll.
They started making these in pie pans because that's all they had to use. They were so popular, they kept making them that way. I loved it, but Marian didn't. I had the left overs for breakfast the next day. We found a great quilt shop in Whitehorse when we got there. We spent a lot of time driving today. Good dinner at the hotel and then we found Amazing Race Canada on TV. This is a picture of Marian at the hotel.
Wednesday, Day 9 - We left Whitehorse for Skagway. The views were beautiful. We hit the quilt and yarn shop today. The city is very much a cruise port city. Lots of jewelry stores. We were disappointed in that. I finally had halibut - fish and chips. Delish!!!!!
Thursday, Day 10 - We left Skagway for Juneau on a catamaran. We saw eagles, a black bear, harbor seals and porpoises. Marian was sick so I walked around Juneau alone. She stayed behind in the public library and slept. Typical cruise port. It is interesting that you can only get to Juneau by air or water. No roads lead into there. I had a great lunch of halibut and chips. Then our bus driver took us over to a fish hatchery. It was interesting, but so sad to see them bonk the fish on the head to kill them. Salmon die after they spawn so they would die anyway, but still hard to watch. On the way to Haines for our overnight, we saw a pod of 8 whales bubble feeding. It was AMAZING!!!
We also saw a bunch of walrus.
Friday, Day 11 - Wish we could have spent more time in Haines. It was truly a small Alaskan port city. So quaint. We road the fast ferry back to Skayway. There we had lunch at the same brewery we had eaten at before. Then we took the White Pass Yukon train up the mountain just like the gold miners. We detrained at Fraser British Columbia and back on our bus to Whitehorse. We order pizza delivered to our room. Marian still sick.
Saturday, Day 12 - Left Whitehorse headed back to Tok. We saw termination dust, the first snow on the mountains announcing the end of summer and start of fall. Lunched at Destruction Bay. We stopped at the Canada/USA border. Sat on the bench with one of us in Alaska, one in Canada.
We spent the night in Tok again but at Young's hotel. It was much nicer. Dinner and breakfast at Fast Eddie's again.
Sunday, Day 13 - Today is our last day. We drive back to Anchorage with stops along the way. Purchased a birch basket made by a local woman. Had lunch at the largest National Park in the USA - Wrangell-St. Elias. Drove by the Copper River. On the Richardson Highway, then the Glenn highway. Stopped in Palmer to see the large veggies, but they had already been taken to the State Fair. Dinner at Humpy's and then off to the airport for the long trip home. We flew to Seattle, then Atlanta and then drove home.
It was a great trip! Once in a lifetime experience.
Moose we saw as we were headed to the airport.
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