Alaska - Denali Day

Today we left Fairbanks and headed to the Princess Lodge in Denali.

We rode on the nice buses again with the same young driver from Logan.

This is the Nenana River.

These are pictures that Fred took while I stood in line for the ladies room for the entire break.

So these are the things that were of interest at the little tourist stop there for Fred.

He could tell you about it. I can't. 

It's pretty well known that it's freezin cold in Alaska in the winter and this river freezes over.
In Nenana they have an official Nenana Ice Classic which is basically a lottery to bet on when will the ice break that winter. People from all over come and place a bet for $2.00 - the winner gets all the money. If there are multiple winners, they split the pot. Here is the website if you want to check it out. The driver encouraged us to place a bet while we were there. You don't have to be present to win.
http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com 

Here we are at the lodge. It was a huge complex. It really was gorgeous and I wish we could have stayed here longer. The weather was pretty miserable for the time we were here, but I really loved it here. We walked across the street for a Subway sandwich. 

We had a little bit of time to wander around before our bus tour into Denali National Park.

We were in Lodge 'G' - our room is right at that letter 'G' on the end.

All of these pictures were taken from outside the door of our room.

These were our chariots for the tour into Denali National Park. They look kind of rough, but there were actually pretty comfortable. 

It was a 5 hour tour which I did not want to go on. It sounded miserable, but it was really enjoyable. We first stopped at a visitor's center for a movie which was really good and then it was a slow meandering drive looking for wild life and the guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. It wasn't boring at all. We stopped after a bit and walked along a trail.

We walked to this cabin which was built back when they were building the roadway for Denali National park. 

Basically in Alaska the fall colors are yellow. The landscape was somewhat dreary.

We didn't see any wildlife up close while we were in the National Park, but on the way back to the Lodge right along the road we saw this Momma Moose and her two babies. 

Juneau Alaska

Actually - I posted this one out of order. This was our second port. I'm totally out of order here. 

Today we went to the Mendenhall Glacier, Glacier Gardens Rain Forest and the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery.

It started out as a rainy day. The buses were located directly off the ship though, so it was pretty slick. Loved the tour buses on this cruise. All of them were really nice and comfortable. 

Here is Mendenhall Glacier. Glaciers did not look like all the pictures I have seen. They are dirty. Like the snow in Bremerton at the side of the road. I suppose in the middle of the season the glaciers might be clear and white.

Definitely it is still beautiful to look at though.

There is a look out area for people to take pictures. Too bad Fred closed his eyes. 

After looking at the glacier, we headed to a short trail. We were warned about bears....of course, we saw nothing.

After a short bus ride, we arrived at the Glacier Gardens. A short part of the history was while the husband was clearing the area he dropped a big tree and while explaining his blunder to his wife he said they could plant flower gardens in the root base. Now throughout the gardens you see these beautiful "flower towers". 

We took a couple pictures of their Japanese maples - nothing to compete with our Japanese maple back on Rimrock.

The switchback trail that the tram we rode on was pretty hairy. This is a log road way made for part of the way to travel along.

Here is one of the trams.

Before the clouds broke up - here is the sky.

Here is the view from the top of our tram ride. That's Juneau down below.

Another view.

We had to wait a long time for our turn at the photo spot.

These branches growing off these trees are called widow makers - because when the lumberjacks were cutting down the trees these would break off and fall on the lumberjacks and kill them.

Here is another wanna be Japanese Maple.

Finally a successful Salmon Hatchery Tour kids. It was interesting. Wish you could have been there!!!

We had to take pictures of the food tonight. It was delicious and beautiful presentation too!

These are our table mates for the cruise. Two brothers and their sister with their spouses. All members of the church. One of the brothers is a friend of our good friends the Hubsmiths from home. That's how we got booked at the same table. Originally we were going to be cruising with the Hubsmiths and this couple was also going to be joining us and things went from there.