Alaska Cruise - Part II

Part II of the Alaska Cruise Tour was a land tour.

After landing in Seward, Alaska, you should take the shuttle into town.  It’s nothing special, but you can pick up a few remaining souvenirs.  Seward was mile 0 of the original 938 mile trip to Nome that later became the Iditarod Race.  After lunch back on the cruise ship, we boarded the bus to Anchorage.  The bus driver did stop a few times for us to stretch and take pictures. 

At this point, we noticed we were the youngest on the bus.  When they found out that we were in Alaska for my 30th birthday, they were pretty shocked at how old I was because they thought we were in college! YEAH! 

When you arrive, be sure to take a walk around town in Anchorage.  During our walk, we found a kiosk that was selling Reindeer dogs – dinner - yummy!  We also found a sign telling us how far we were from various towns around the world (3322 miles from home!). 

Because we were so far north, the sun never went down.  We had a dusk and a dawn, but never a dark.  During our land tour, there was 19 ½ hours of sunlight each day.  The hotel rooms had room darkening shades though so don’t worry about that.

The next morning, we were up and out early to get on the McKinley Explorer Rail for a train trip to Denali National Park.

The train car had glass all around so you had an amazing view of the beautiful scenery.

The best part of the train trip was seeing Mount McKinley which only 33% of the people that come to this area get to see!

The worst part of the train trip was the food service.  It was super slow and the food was fair.  They do have alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and some had Alaskan names like the one I had was called “Moose Kiss.”  Once we arrived at the McKinley Chalet, we walked around the resort area, got dinner, and saw yet another sign telling us how far we were from various towns around the world.

We started the next morning with the Natural History Tour of Denali.

Denali is HUGE so you won’t be able to conquer it in 1 day, but we got a nice taste of it and saw a few animals – a moose, a red fox, and some caribou. 

There are other tours that you can choose from that go further into Denali but they are much longer trips.  Many that went on those tours saw much more wildlife than we did.

At the end of the tour, we got to see the park’s sled dog camp.  Then, it was time to board the train again, this time bound for Fairbanks.  Once we got there, we toured the town.  It seemed almost deserted, but alas we saw yet another sign telling us how far we were from various towns around the world and within Alaska.

Our last day in Alaska started off with a cruise on a sternwheeler riverboat.  Four-time defending Iditarod champion, Lance Mackey, was waiting for our boat when we got back to the dock!  We got our picture with him, his sled, and 1 of his dogs. 

Then, we boarded the bus to the Gold Dredge No. 8 where we got a tour and panned for gold. 

Next, we got to pull over and touch a piece of the Alaskan pipeline. 

Then, we were off to North Pole, Alaska for some Christmas ornament shopping and to sit on Santa’s lap.

We arrived back at the hotel to say goodbye to our new friends before jumping on the airport shuttle for our 1 am flight home.  The end of an amazing trip!

You’ve got to go to Alaska!  After my first Alaska post this week, I actually heard from one of our friends that we met on the cruise, Chris from Belgium.  He's a facebook friend and he's been reading this blog.  He's a great photographer and offered some of his pictures for this blog.  Thanks Chris.  Here are just a few of the pics I I wanted to share.

Photo taken by Chris

The glacier was falling into the bay while we were there.  Photo by Chris.

He actually saw whales up close and a lot of them.  We didn't see them this well.  Photo by Chris.

The Statendam - Our Cruise Ship.  Photo by Chris.

If you know of anywhere else in Alaska we should check out, please leave a comment below.  See you next week when we explore what’s just round the corner in Arizona.

**Photos by Lori or me unless otherwise noted.

Alaska Cruise - Part 1

Alaska shouldn’t be the last state you visit.  It’s magnificent and beautiful!  But, to see it in all it’s beauty, you have to get on the water.  My friend, Lori, and I chose a Holland America Cruise Tour that took off from Vancouver, Canada (that’ll have to be another post).  The cruise was full of funny towel animals, dancing, changing elevator carpets showing us what day it was, and socializing with our new friends of all ages from Texas, Oklahoma, New Zealand, Belgium and Singapore.

There's me with the Sunday carpet in the elevator

As we cruised up the Inside Passage, our 1^st stop was Ketchikan (Salmon Capital of the World).  We visited the Saxman Village Totem Pole Park (I wouldn’t suggest it), the Libby Salmon Cannery tour (very interesting), a wildlife cruise on George Inlet where we saw a bald eagle (lots of fun), and ended on Creek Street (a nice shopping area that used to be their red light district).

The Salmon Cannery

Our next port was Juneau – state capital - on my 30^th birthday!  Stop by the public library for free internet – it’s expensive on the ship.  We visited the Mendenhall Glacier (pretty cool – be sure to walk up to the glacier – my only regret on this trip), a whale watching cruise on Auke Bay with a salmon lunch at Orca Point Lodge (a lot of fun! totally recommend), and the state capital building.

Mendenhall Glacier

Two Bald Eagles we saw on the Whale Watch

Skagway was port number three.  They have a Radio Shack downtown if you need any electronics/batteries.  It’s much cheaper there than on the ship.  A van took us to Carcross, Canada in the Yukon Territory. 

Me in the Yukon

No one else was in the van so the driver would let us jump out whenever we wanted a picture and he became our personal photographer.  This was a perfect reason why it’s good to check out other tour companies – not just the cruise ship’s excursions that might fill up.  We even got to stop and take a picture of the Welcome to Alaska sign.  In the Yukon, we visited the Emerald Lake, Caribou Crossing Restaurant, and got a dog “sled” ride (our rugged golf cart was pulled by the dogs).  Playing with the Husky puppies was so fun!  On the van ride from the dog sled ride, we saw a bear!  This was one time we did NOT jump out and take a picture.  Then, it was time for the trip home on a train!  The White Pass and Yukon Railroad is a must do– so beautiful!

Welcome to Alaska!

scenary along our ride

My puppy

The Bear!

White Pass Train Ride



The next day, we spent the day floating in Glacier Bay!! Amazing! 





Then, we pulled into Seward and it was time to say good bye to our new friends and our home away from home. 

At every port we discovered that it’s a good idea to allow time to venture around town.  Don’t stay on an excursion from landing to pulling out.  The spa on the ship did have ½ price deals on the days when we were in port, however, don’t spend your whole time on the ship either – get out and see Alaska.

We found that many of the ports had the same souvenirs so if you’re not sure if you want it, no problem, it’ll be at the next port.  There are a lot of jewelry stores at each port – don’t get sucked in.

This is only half the story!  Part of the Cruise/Land Tour was a week on land.  I’ll save that for the next post so stay tuned.

**All photos taken by Lori and myself on our trip**