Friday, June 26
We are up at 6am, load car, and drive to Mary Alice and Jim's
house in Royal Oak. Jim takes us to the airport. Our flight to
Seattle is a little late boarding and leaving, but actually
arrived early to Seattle. Dale, Nancy, and Amy sat together, I
was across the aisle. My seatmates were a delightful Dearborn
couple, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a circle
tour of the Pacific Northwest. The kids were great on the
flight, had some exciting Pass-the-Pigs games. Dale loved the a
la carte breakfast, getting one of everything. In Seattle, we
shuttle to another terminal in the poorly marked airport for our
Alaska Air flight to Vancouver. Again, a little late leaving.
The flight is a quick up and down. Customs/Immigration is fast,
but at baggage, Dale's bag (including most of our camera
equipment) fails to show. After filing a claim, we pick up our
rental car and drive to Holiday Inn Downtown. The kids watch TV,
Nancy and I walk around and change some money. Our neighborhood
bustles with coffeeshops, pubs, plus a couple adult bookstores
and bodypiercing establishments. The real downtown and the beach
park are both just a little far for convenient walking (although
Charley, Linda, Don, and Dolores strolled to the downtown docks).
Dinner was at the hotel restaurant. Then at 8:30pm PDT (11:30
EDT) Amy and Nancy go to bed while Dale and I go to the small
hotel pool and also the weightroom/sauna. We still turn in by
9:45pm.
Saturday, June 27
With the change to Pacific time, I am awake at 4:30am, finally
get up at 5:45am. Charley, Linda, Don, and Dolores (hereafter
called CLDD) are on the 7th floor, an executive floor, so I have
continental breakfast with them. Nancy uses our breakfast
voucher at the restaurant later. Interestingly, the paper said a
Regal Princess sailing was just canceled due to high incidences
of gastrointenstinitis (we later heard e-coli) the last 3
sailings. I recall our Sun Princess has received an
exceptionally high health rating last inspection. Still in the
morning, Dale and Amy do some swimming, then sauna and pump iron
in the health club. Just as things seemed bleak for Dale's
luggage and our camera equipment and we make plans to go shopping
for clothes for Dale, we get a phone message that the suitcase is
found and will be sent to the hotel. At 10:30, CLDD store their
luggage and walk to the Gaslight District for sightseeing. We
walk on Granville and Howe streets to shop at Vancouver Place and
Eaton's. We check out at noon and drive to famous Stanley Park.
It has lush flora, walking trails, and sights of the harbor.
There is so much wildlife (geese, gulls, raccoons, coyotes) there
are fines for feeding them. The park is huge (999 acres, but
crowded and parking is at a premium). We turn in the rental car
and are shuttled to Ballantyne Pier (nice amenity by National Car
Rental). Ballantyne is much less congested than the more
centrally located Canada Place pier. Check-in is smooth (15
stations, little waiting), the kids are excited that their
"credit card-room keys" have charge privileges. We arrive at
cabin D607 on Dolphin (#8) deck at 4pm. Our cabin is aft of the
Casino and the Pizza Lounge. It is an "obstructed view" cabin,
which means we are looking outside through windows on either side
of a lifeboat. We meet our cabin steward Dennis (from the
Philippines), have a buffet snack at Horizon Court (deck 12
forward) at 4:30, and have lifeboat muster at 5pm. We meet
briefly Don and Dolores, then unpack and join CLDD on topmost
Lido (#14) deck to enjoy the sail-off at 7pm. Pleasant views of
Vancouver harbor. Our 2nd seating dinner is 8:30pm. Our waiter
is Alonso (from Mazatlan, Mexico), our junior waiter is Calin
from Romania. The head waiter for our section of the dining room
is Luigi, from Italy. After dinner, Dale goes with CLDD to a
movie, while Nancy, Amy, and I enjoy the warm aft pool and hot
tub. Amy is in heaven. (There are 3 pools and 5 hot tubs on the
ship, the pools are 91F, the hot tubs even warmer.)
Sunday, June 28
I am up at 6:30am and find coffee on Lido deck forward. We are
cruising the calm Inside Passage. Tree-covered rocky headlands
and mountains on either side. Clouds cover the mountain tops.
Later in the morning, the clouds break up and we have a gorgeous
clear day. The British Columbia coastline is fantastic and
unspoiled. There is nearly all wilderness, with no cottages or
developments, just an occasional fishing village. We do
shipboard things: swim in every pool, play shuffleboard, Charley
and I play 4 vs. 4 volleyball in the net-enclosed sport court on
deck #15. Dale plays the small video arcade, bored at first,
then finally enjoys himself after going on a Kids Fun Zone
signature hunt with other boys his age. Nancy, Dolores, and
Linda do wine tasting, and I walk a mile (3 laps = 1 mile) on the
Promenade Deck, #7. Amy and I then watch a movie on our
stateroom TV. Our TV has 8 or so channels, such as Headline
News, ESPN, a shipboard movie channel, and shipboard orientation
channel, and a videocam mounted on the bow. Tonight we dress
formally for dinner (a little tricky for 4 people dressing at
once in our cabin) and people-watch at the Captains Reception in
the 4-story Atrium (decks 5-8). The after-dinner entertainment
is singer-impressionist Wes Epae in the Vista Lounge. Dale
splits a gut laughing at his more sophomoric antics. Amy enjoys
it too, but falls asleep and I carry her back to the room at
11:30 PDT (10:30 Alaska Daylight).
Monday, June 29
Nancy and I watch the docking in Ketchikan during breakfast on
the Horizon Court between 6 and 6:30am. The Rain Capital of
North America (300 days of rain, 12.5 ft/yr rainfall) is sunny
and absolutely clear blue skies. The cruise dock is right in
downtown Ketchikan. We wake the kids and send them to breakfast
while Nancy and I investigate excursion possibilities at the
dockside Visitor Center. (At dockside, we see lots of luggage
taken aboard from people who lost luggage coming here, or had
delayed airflights and missed the sailing. I'm thankful again we
went to Vancouver the day before the sailing.) Because it is a
beautiful day, we sign up for Misty Fjords floatplane trip with
Tagua Air. It is $135, slight cheaper than the ship-board price
of $167. The FRS radios are handy here and at other shipboard
times to call the kids and tell them plans. (In general, the FRS
radios are fine on ship but can be shielded by multiple decks of
steel. For instance, I can call our cabin in deck 8 from topmost
deck 14 if I am on the same side of the ship, but not from the
opposite side of the ship.) In town, we mail letters at the
P.O., shop a little (I buy my one souvenir of the whole trip, a
wolf-print tie), then walk to the plane dock. The flight and
lake-landing are indescribable - fjords, snow-capped mountains,
brown muskeg bogs, 1000-ft waterfalls, grazing mountain goats,
wow. We land at Punchbowl? Lake and the engine is feathered to
beach by a waterfall. Dale and I select a small piece of granite
for Dolores' rock garden. The whole planeflight took a lot of
film. Our other Ketchikan adventure was a hike through town
(huge flowers everywhere) to the Totem Heritage Center. Our
native Indian narrator described the main 5 160-year-old totems
recovered from abandoned Indian villages (Tlingit, Haida,
Athabascan peoples). Totems can be story-telling, commemorative
of a death, birth, wedding, or mark a potlatch party, but are not
religious. We do a little more shopping (beer prices much better
in Alaska than in Canada), then back on the boat at 1:30pm for a
2pm sailing. We swim and hot tub, Dale goes to the Fun Zone and
gets a medal for putting (one of 5 medals he gets during the
week). Later Amy and I nap. Dale goes to a kids-only dinner at
the buffet and skips our 2nd seating dinner. We console waiter
Alonso on Mexico's 1-2 loss to Germany in second-round World Cup
action. The entertainment tonight is the "Pirates" production
number with singing, dancing, and acrobatics.
Tuesday, June 30
We got up after 6:30am, so we had already docked in Juneau.
Again, Nancy and I ate buffet ourselves. The kids slept, then
Amy went to Horizon Court and Dale ordered room service cookies.
We walked the 0.2 mile to the Visitor Center/Tramway building to
check out the excursion vendors. We decided on sea kayaking at
1pm. We then grabbed the kids and walked the shops near
downtown. Obviously, this place depends on cruiseships to fill
the shops. There were 3 or 4 ships in today. Besides the Sun
Princess, there was Celebrity Cruises' "Mercury" and Holland-
America's "Noordam". We also went to the Alaska State Museum, a
combination state history, native culture, natural history, and
contemporary art museum. At 1pm, 18 tourists were bussed to
Fritz Bay, below the Mendenhall Glacier for kayaking. The other
14 were off the Mercury. We were "OTC" (over-the-counter).
After orientation and lesson, we were off. Dale and Nancy were
together and Amy and I were together. All the kayaks were
tandems except for the two guides. The first stretch was a
rather long paddle across the Bay to get to the opposite
shoreline. Amy's paddle was quite short, so she couldn't get an
efficient stroke. I told her she didn't have to paddle, so she
only occasionally did some strokes. Dale was in the stern of
their kayak, because he wanted to be in control (he considered
himself to be in competition with the other kayaks to a finish
line). Once across the Bay, we paddled along mud flats at mid-
tide and saw a few bald eagles on foraging perches or flying
along the shoreline looking for fish. We also saw salmon
jumping, a harbor seal, and were shown king crab, snow crab, and
Dungeness crab taken from a trap in the bay. Returning to
Juneau, our driver talked about Juneau, blowing up old mines at
5:30am on a Sunday, and why both Reagan and Clinton were no good
for the country. We then rode the Mount Roberts tramway. It
must have been built to be a tourist rip-off at $18/adult, but a
great view from the top. I would do it again. There were some
hiking trails at the top with nice scenery and plants. Two more
eagles were also spotted here. There is a trail to the bottom,
but warning signs say steep, treacherous, don't go. At the
bottom (by tram) the kids return to the ship and Nancy and I
explore more stores before returning. We then swim, hot tub,
have dinner, and see the Klondike show. At 11:45pm, we see the
departure from Juneau. It is still twilight out. We have a new
cabin steward, Ian Michael. He explained that he had been ill
and just rejoined the ship. (But a day or two later, Dennis was
back as our steward, don't know why.)
Wednesday, July 1, Nancy's birthday
Amy fell out of her bunk at 3:15am. I saw her hanging over the
side and helped her back. Next morning, she didn't remember it
at all. Sunrise is 3:48am, sunset about 10:30pm. We docked in
Skagway before getting up for breakfast. Another mostly blue sky
day. After breakfast, we walked downtown (about 1/4 - 1/2 mile)
with Don and Dolores, then checked out helicopter flights. The
four of us could leave immediately (10:30am), so we went for it.
We got a half-price kid's rate ($80) which Princess didn't offer.
It was an awesome trip past the Dyea valley, through black-spruce-
covered valleys and scoured mountains to the snow and ice fields,
finally landing at West Creek glacier. We were in a convoy of 3
helicopters, each with 6 passengers. Our seats were assigned per
weight distribution. Dale and I were fortunate enough to be
sitting in front with the pilot. Nancy and Amy unfortunately had
inside back seats. We walked around the glacier for 20 minutes.
We were shown crevasses, milled holes, and freshwater streams.
The ice is jagged and granular, and gave good traction with the
boots we were issued. I cut my finger on a needle-sharp ice
crystal. The 3 copters returned with new passengers and picked
us up for a return trip. We returned to the ship. The kids had
room-service lunch, while Nancy and I went to the dining room.
We sat with a couple from Tennessee. Dale and Amy stayed aboard
and Nancy and I went on a 2-1/2-hour bus tour of Skagway and the
Klondike highway, which parallels the White Pass Railroad. Trip
highlights included Pitchfork Falls, International Falls, Summit
Creek, Bridal Veil falls, and Skagway overlook. Skagway downtown
has been restored to a great old-fashioned appearance. Most
buildings are from 1898-1900, but brightly painted. Private land
is scarce, even dumpy houses cost >$150K. Back at the ship, I
take Amy to the "America's Music" pre-dinner show and Nancy signs
Dale into the Fun Zone. Another fine dinner, then Nancy gets a
birthday cake.
Thursday, July 2
Day begins cold, windy, and foggy in lower Glacier Bay, but lifts
and becomes gorgeous as we get to the upper Bay. We first view
the 250-foot high, white Marjorie Glacier, next to the wide,
dirty Grand Pacific Glacier. We take lots of photos of glaciers,
try to capture some ice-calving photos, and see wildlife (harbor
seals, puffins and other birds, and eagles). There were
humpbacks and orcas spotted, but I missed them this time. The
immense scale of the glaciers and the land is hard to comprehend,
because there is no familiar man-made objects next to the glacier
to provide scale. Dale and Amy watched some, but don't have the
interest of the adults. Dale is also occasionally a real snot
at times on many days. Later we cruise past the blue Lamplugh
Glacier, the Reid Glacier, and the wide Johns Hopkins Glacier.
We don't get close to the Johns Hopkins because 3000 harbor seals
are in its ice-filled bay, with many females calving on the ice
floes. We lunched with Don and Dolores in the dining room, then
some sat on deck chairs on the Promenade and I did walking. In
the lower Bay, we saw orcas and just outside the bay we saw
humpback whales feeding. the weather became cloudy, then windy
and cold, but we hearty mid-westerners continued to use the pool
and hot tub, both in the late afternoon and after supper. Our
dinner was formal again. Nancy put curls in Amy's hair which
made her happy. Dale's white shirt and dark vest made him look
like an assistant waiter, so he posed for pictures with Alonso
and Calin.
Friday, July 3
Nancy and I got up later than usual, 8am. Calm seas but still a
noticeable ship roll now that we are in the Gulf of Alaska.
Mountains in the distance are cloud-covered. We make a turn into
calmer Prince William Sound. We see more and more fishing
vessels, plus some pleasure craft. Again a whale or two is
spotted, including a fluke-slap-happy baby humpback. The bay
narrowed and the mountains are impressive, but some tops are
cloud-covered. Close to College Fjord, we see groups of sea
otters floating on their backs. Julie the ship-board Naturalist
has a narration for the first 2-1/2 hours in College Fjord. Amy
watches a little, then goes to see moose-racing in the Vista
Lounge, followed by the passenger talent show. Dale is in the
Kids Zone for the duration today, 9am-noon, 2-5pm, and 7-10pm.
The fjords are neat. We saw Amherst, Wellesley, Vassar, Smith,
Harvard, and Yale. Seven of us were together in the aft hot tub
while leaving the Fjord. Before supper, Dale and Amy went to the
Fun Zone, Amy for the first time in the trip, but she stayed only
an hour. Dale stayed for the Kids Disco and pizza party in the
Shooting Stars dance lounge. The rest of us went to the final
cruise dinner: 6 of us had king crab legs and Don had prime rib.
We saw dolphins during dinner. Alonso sent carryout crab legs
for Dale. The baked Alaska dessert finale had a macarena theme.
At 10:30, the "Odyssea" production show started. We think they
slowed the ship down during the show to benefit the dancers and
acrobats, because of the rolling in the Gulf of Alaska. The
dancing, costumes, and body glitter were impressive. Amy thought
the plot was weak. Returning to our stateroom, the last two bags
that we had put out before supper had been picked up.
Saturday, July 4
We awoke in Seward, with low-lying clouds covering the hills and
mountains. Our last shipboard meal is our only breakfast in the
Regency dining room, with both Alonso and Calin there. The corn-
flake-crumb french toast was good. People were called by colored
baggage tags to disembark, some as early as 6:30am to catch
flights out of Anchorage. We "independents" leave at 9:30am.
Our baggage is in a tent by the gangplank. Charley and Linda
call the local Hertz office and a van picks us up and takes us to
our 2 rental vehicles (4-dr Taurus and Windstar minivan). We
can't check in to the Seward Windsong Lodge until 2pm, so we head
downtown. The town of 3000 is jammed with 30,000 people for the
4th of July activities and Mt. Marathon mountain race. We even
hear someone on our FRS radio channel, so we change frequencies.
The object of the Mt. Marathon race is to run to the top of the
mountain and back. This involves scrambling over a lot of loose
rock and ice, with no trails, so many participants arrive back
scrapped, bloody, and muddy. We went to the brand-new Sealife
Center. It is very nice for a facility only 2 months old. The
harbor seals, Stellar sea lions, king crab, and puffins were the
best exhibits. Amy attracted a harbor seal pup in a glassed,
underwater case with a scarf. The puffins were interesting to
watch doing dives. They shake all the air out of their feathers
to dive deep, then shake again back on the surface to put the air
back into their feathers. We then wandered the crowded downtown,
ate at a food stand (gyros are pronounced "jy-ros" here), watched
the women's race finish, then saw the parade. We drove back to
the Windsong Lodge, 3-1/2 miles out of town, on Exit Glacier
road. The rooms were excellent, brand new and very spacious. We
drove up Resurrection River to Exit Glacier to hike next to its
face and touch it. A light rain fell during much of the trip.
Signs marked how far the terminus had receded over the years. I
estimate over a mile to the 1790 sign. We had supper at the
Lodge and did a little grocery shopping. We were in bed before
the 11:15pm sunset or the midnight fireworks, which would have
been interesting to watch given the very low altitude cloud
cover.
Sunday, July 5
I got carryout Burger King breakfasts before we drove to the
Kenai Fjords wildlife cruise aboard "Greatland". On arriving we
were notified that due to heavy seas outside Resurrection Bay, we
probably couldn't reach the Park or the glacier, so it would be a
shorter cruise. A few people departed. We started in low clouds
and light rain. Great wildlife viewing in Resurrection Bay:
bald eagle, sea otter, then a spectacular view of a humpback
whale lunge-feeding. We had a salmon bake at a wilderness lodge
on Fox Island, then continued the cruise. We spotted both tufted
and horned puffins, and many other birds listed in the wildlife
guide. (Here is the full list: cormorants, bald eagles, black
oystercatchers, black-legged kittiwakes, murres, puffins, surf
scoter, mew gull, glaucous-winged gull, arctic tern, pigeon
guillemot, marbled murrelet.) We saw a large colony of Stellar
sealions. On the return trip, we saw mountain goats (mother and
kid) and two humpback whales. Back in Seward, we bought more
film, fearing our 16 rolls wouldn't be enough at the current burn
rate. We then hiked with Don and Dolores along the roadside near
our Lodge, looking at wildflowers: goat's beard, cow's parsley,
lupines, and moose droppings (not a flower). For supper, we
drove to a Seward waterfront restaurant, Chinook's. It had
interesting woodcarvings of salmon and wolves, plus whale baleen
(6-foot-long strainer teeth) on display.
Monday, July 6
We left Seward about 9:30am, still in clouds and light drizzle.
We drove on the Seward and Sterling Highways to Kenai, about 90
miles. Some blue sky in Kenai. At Merit Inn, we had a message
from Melody that Grandma Helen had a slight stroke and was in
Macomb Hospital. Fortunately she was stable. We walked to the
Visitor Center (nice displays of Indian history, early settler
history, natural history, wildlife mounts and molds, and a cool
1200-fishing-lure snag pulled out of the Kenai River. We learn
that there is little or no salt-water fishing here (our original
plan), only river fishing. Cook Inlet is too silty here, Homer
or Ninilchik are much better. We walk to Bluff View (where the
Kenai River meets Cook Inlet) by way of Burger Bus (lunch for
kids), to look for Beluga whales following salmon into the river
at high tide. None seen today. Nancy, Amy, and I go to the
Russian Orthodox Church to take photos, then to an art & craft
store. For supper, Dale and Amy get carryout at Burger King in
our room, while the six adults look for moose on Kalinforski
Beach Road (Dolores spots one). We have supper at Tustumena
Lodge, a bar with only one menu item that night: $8 prime rib
dinner. The decor is unusual, 15,000 hats covering the walls
and ceiling. No moose spotted on the return trip, but we stop at
a beaver dam and the Kenai Flats.
Tuesday, July 7
We have continental breakfast at the motel, then leave Kenai. We
see a moose between Soldotna and Sterling, but no pictures. We
took the Skilak Lake Loop Road off the Sterling Highway, in hopes
of spotting more moose. Only Linda spotted one, but we had nice
lake views and saw some forest fire areas with new growth, plus
loons. Our sunshine disappeared. Back on the Seward Highway, we
drove around Turnagain Arm inlet, seeing huge tidewater flats in
low tide. We spot 6 mountain goats or female Dall sheep at
Chugach State Park. We have pizza lunch in an Anchorage shopping
mall, then drive out on the Glenn and George Parks Highways
toward Denali. We need to go to the 238 milepost from Anchorage.
The Milepost book is helpful, pointing us to a wildlife art
gallery (Dave Totten), service station, and a fiddlehead fern
farm near Talkeetna. The proprietor, Mary Carey, cooked up a
fern appetizer with cheese and crackers. The closer we get to
Denali, the more clouds and rain. McKinley (I use "Mt. McKinley"
and "Denali" interchangeably) is not visible at all and adjacent
mountains only show their lower elevations below the clouds. But
Nancy sees a moose! It is the first one that cooperates for
photos. We arrive at the Denali Windsong Lodge, tucked in a
short stretch of road near the Park entrance that is filled with
accommodations, eateries, and activity concessions. Supper is at
the Princess Lodge cafeteria next door, then we do some grocery
shopping at the expensive convenience stores.
Wednesday, July 8
Today started out with a fair amount of blue sky, much nicer than
yesterday. We dragged the kids out of bed and to the McKinley
Chalet Lodge for the tour bus at 7am. We had a bus of 52,
including 20 or so from a tour group. Nancy and Dale sat on the
opposite side from Amy and I so we wouldn't miss photo shots.
Our driver/guide was Gary Whittemore, a 24-year guide, 9-year
Iditarod racer, and year-round resident of Cantwell, just outside
the Park. He emphasized the impact the 8-month-long winter has
on what we will see during our visit in the short summer season.
After climbing out of the spruce-willow forest, we passed through
tiagra ("little sticks" in Russian) where the trees are
miniature, then higher to the grasslands-tundra where the
permafrost may only be a few inches below ground. Our first
wildlife sighting was our best - a mother grizzly bear and 2-1/2-
year-old cub playing near the side of the road. They were grass-
feeding in this area. (While grizzlies are omnivores and will go
after everything from moose to ground squirrels, in this habitat
85% of their diet is plants.) We took numerous scenery shots,
mostly with blue sky except by Denali, which was 20% visible. In
various shots, we saw one peak, part of the middle, and much of
the base. Incidentally, "Denali" is Athabascan meaning "the High
One". Other wildlife spotted: caribou, willow ptarmigan (Alaska
state bird), hoary marmot, Dall sheep, Arctic hare, and golden
eagles. We also see the little blue Alaska state flower, the
forget-me-not. Our furthest point on this 8-hour tour was Stony
Hill, at the 60-mile mark into the Park. We got back to Windsong
and rested before driving 10 miles to Healy for supper. On the
return drive, we briefly saw a lynx crossing the road. We were
told several times that this is an extremely rare sighting.
After 9pm, Linda, Nancy, and I drove to the Park for a short 1-
hour hike to Horseshoe Lake. There is a nice overlook above the
Lake. We saw 3 moose at the lake: 2 females and 1 calf. There
were many fish jumping for insects on the lake surface. I think
the fish were arctic grayling. We returned to the Lodge at 11pm, but
still light outside because sunset is after midnight with sunrise
before 4am.
Thursday, July 9
We let the kids sleep in and Nancy and I walked to the Sourdough
Cafe for all-you-can-eat pancakes. This morning is mostly clouds
with a little blue sky. We make horseback riding plans for
11:45am, so the morning is pretty much wasted. Don and Dolores
decide on a flight-seeing trip. For our trailride, we were
shuttled to the north end of Mt. Healy, on the northeast side of
the Park near Healy, at Crippled Creek Ranch). Our trail guide
(wrangler) is Jay from Jackson, MI, who spends summers in Alaska.
He had a western-style revolver in holster, in case of grizzlies
(one was seen a week earlier). The only other riders were a
couple from Pittsburgh who were staying at the Princess Lodge.
Our 1-1/2-hour ride went through quaking aspen woods (saw bark
stripped by moose, and moose bones from a grizzly attack last
year) and open areas (could see Jumbo Dome - a semi-active
volcano after the '64 quake, Bear Claw Ridge, and Black Diamond
mine). We take a trail named The Salad Bar, because horses stop
so often to graze on the grass and berries, and see a 1930's
trapper cabin. Our horses' names: Nancy had Major, I had Chief,
Dale had Chico, Amy had Wrangle. We saw no wildlife, but it was
still a nice ride and I would recommend it. Back at the services
village, we went to Lynx Pizza for lunch. Then the kids stayed
with Don and Dolores while Charley, Linda, Nancy, and I went for
a hike to Mt. Healy Overlook, elev. 3425 ft. The trail is listed
as 5 miles round-trip with a 1700 ft. elevation change. The
trail surface is easy-walking gravel, with a slope going from
gentle to steep, to steeper. There are frequent overlooks among
the wooded areas, which I like on these kinds of trails. The
trail seemed to endlessly go upwards, finally getting above the
tree line, only to have us stare at steep talis-strewn slopes and
a high prominence. Linda, Nancy, and I pressed on (Charley
wasn't feeling well the last couple days). The final trail
wasn't all that bad, and we reached the windy overlook two hours
after starting the whole trek. Views of the Park Road valley and
the George Parks Highway valley, including Cantwell, were
magnificent. Just as our Harney Peak hike was a highlight of
last year's South Dakota trip, our strenuous Mt. Healy hike is an
Alaska highlight. The way to appreciate Alaska is from on high.
We had done floatplanes and helicopters, now we climbed a
mountain in Denali Park. At the top, we also appreciated the
miniature wildflowers clinging to a short-season existence and
the plentiful ground squirrels. One squirrel came and nibbled on
Nancy's walking stick. On the downhill hike, we spot some spruce
grouse and a gray jay. It was already a full day, but we did
still more. We skipped supper. I took Dale and Amy to Horseshoe
Lake to try fishing. The others drove to the Savage River
turnout at the 15-mile mark on the Park Road, the furthest that
can be driven by private vehicles. We couldn't catch any fish,
even though they were jumping all over the lake. I didn't have
any appropriate lures for fly fishing. Earlier, moose and beaver
were spotted at the Lake, but there were too many people during
our visit. We left at about 9:30pm and headed for Savage River
to meet the others. On the way, we had a spectacular view of
Denali from the 10-mile mark, with the low sun painting a red
glow onto the snow-covered, cloudless slopes. Alas, we only had
the 50-mm lens for the camera. We also saw a moose. At Savage
River, a fox walked with a few feet of our party, then crossed
the bridge while being harassed by a seagull. Dale and Amy spend
time scrambling around the rocks below a promontory. On the way
home (11:30pm - 12:30am), we photograph Denali in twilight,
moonrise over some mountains, and a red-sky post-sunset.
Friday, July 10
Three of us slept in while Nancy returned to the Park at 7am and
saw Denali again clearly. We pack and leave before 11am, stop at
the Park one more time, but the mountain is cloud-covered.
Driving down the George Parks Highway, the clouds gradually clear
and we get better and better Denali views. We have frequent
stops for photos of Denali and other scenery. I try to take the
photos we couldn't get 3 days ago on this stretch of road due to
rain and clouds. Dale and Amy barely tolerate all the stops, but
can be bribed with candy and drinks at our fuel stops. We pull
into Talkeeta a little after 4pm to look at gift shops and eat.
Talkeeta is celebrating its Moose Dropping Festival. We eat at
the West Rib Inn. I have musk ox burger, Nancy and Amy try
caribou burger, and Dale has regular hamburger. We leave after
7pm in clouds and drive straight to the Puffin Inn in Anchorage.
The adults later stroll to nearby Lake Strenard, a small lake
that is entirely floatplane slips. The wives take some
wildflower clippings growing in the vacant lots and boulevards.
Our room is pretty small, especially since we brought most of our
luggage up to repack.
Saturday, July 11 and Sunday return
We sleep in since it will be a long day, getting up after 8am.
We do a major repack to get ready for our flight home this
evening, then start exploring downtown Anchorage. (The kids
opted for in-town activities as opposed to an Alaska Railroad
experience.) The first stop was the Saturday market. It has
lots of stalls: native arts, crafts, jewelry, art, food,
vegetables, flowers. The kids buy their last souvenirs: Amy gets
a t-shirt, earrings, ring, and baleen, Dale gets bbq chicken,
pop, and candy. Nancy checks a few jewelry stores, but judges J.
C. Penney as good as anything else. We see CLDD a few times at
the market. The FRS radios are also helpful here and cover the
whole downtown area. We next head to the hand-on kids science
center called the Imaginarium. Dale and Amy spent >1-1/2 hours
here playing with puzzles, Legos, bubbles, etc. while Nancy and I
sit and relax. We next photograph the tremendous floral gardens
in Town Hall Park and see CLDD for the last time before they
leave on their flight. We have our last meal in Alaska at
Blondie's. Nancy and Dale have king crab legs, I have grilled
salmon, and Amy has a hamburger. A little more window shopping,
then we head for Earthquake Park. A few displays here about the
'64 earthquake next to the 6-foot-high fault line here. There is
also a coast-line pathway here that Nancy and I walk on. This
area had the most nuisance mosquitoes of any place on our trip,
but still better than our backyard at home. With our vacation
feeling over, we head for the airport. I turn in the rental van
with just over 1000 miles driven. Amy also figured that the 8 of
us took about 1000 photos. Our 11:30pm flight was a little late
leaving and strangely we had a supper meal service. Then the
kids watched "Titanic" inflight while Nancy and I tried sleeping.
We landed in Detroit at 10:10am Sunday and cousin Mary Alice met
us and drove us home. Amy was wiped out on the plane and the
ride home, but Dale was surprisingly perky (until he slept 14
hours that night). My weight gain for the high-calorie vacation
was 5 pounds. Not much work accomplished at home Sunday or at
work Monday.