What can we say about Alaska? It is majestic, beautiful, nature at its finest. Mountains, fjords, waterfalls, glaciers, minor earthquakes everyday, and wildlife. We had a 15 day cruise and land tour, took over 350 photos, and made lots of friends and memories. We paled around with Jennie & Richard from Singapore, Janet & John from London, and several others. Once on the land tour there were 30 of us from all around the world.
I want to make this statement to everyone who vacations outside the U.S.A. What the heck are you doing? The greatest adventures and place to see are right here. As me meet people from around the world, they all say the same thing,
"You Americans are so lucky, we have nothing like this in our country." Think about people from Europe, Latin America, or the Far East. They have no Yellowstone, Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Glaciers, Giant Redwoods, Mt. Rushmore, etc. They say
"You Americans are the luckiest people because of the natural wonders you have."
Their famous places to visits are all man made. We are very lucky that our forefathers have protected our lands and set up National Parks, National Monuments, and lands in the U.S. So, below are just a small portion of what we saw and did in Alaska. We hope that all of you get a chance to go there some day. We visited Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Liarsville, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Kenai, Whittier, Wassila, Nenanna, and Fairbanks.
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| We started our adventure in Vancouver, British Columbia |
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| Our ship was the "Love Boat", the Crown Princess |
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| The Crown Princess docked at our first stop, Ketchikan, Alaska |
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| Native dancers performing at the Saxman Village |
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| Debbie in the rain, next to a totem pole |
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| The Three Bears totem pole |
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| Main Street Ketchikan, Alaska-Salmon Capital of the World |
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| Debra is ready to row out to Mendenhall Glacier |
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| Our canoe, 12 rowers, 1 guide, 5 miles round-trip |
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| At our rest stop after visiting the glacier |
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| Our guide, Mike, originally from Vermont |
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| One of many icebergs we had to avoid |
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| Our view from The Hanger at the Wharf Restaurant in Juneau |
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| We took the tram up to the top of Roberts Mountain |
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| The ship from atop the mountain |
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| Juneau from above |
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| Looking up river from atop the tram ride |
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| The White River & Yukon RR into Canada, on to Liarsville, & back to Juneau |
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| Beautiful views, streams and waterfalls in the mountains |
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| Going over a 1908 bridge & into a tunnel we go! |
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| Debbie and our host at Liarsville |
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| Debbie is ready for the Salmon Bake |
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| Our entertainers where all from Florida (Terry on the left went to UCF) |
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| Skagway |
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| Our host for the tour of the Red Onion brothel |
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| Heading to the glaciers in Glacier Bay and College Fjord |
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| One of the many glaciers in Glacier Bay National Park |
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| Blue Ice walls, hundreds of feet high |
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| A cold Debbie out looking at glaciers |
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| Blue Ice |
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| A stream flows fast, out from under a glacier |
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| Majestic Landscapes |
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| The tale of a whale |
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| Huge glaciers coming together at College Fjord |
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| A Massive Glacier |
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| Our waiter POM from Thailand and assistant IRENA from the Ukraine |
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| A women walking her pet reindeer (Caribou) in Whittier |
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| Off the ship & on the land tour-1st stop Kenai |
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| Now we have nice weather for lunch on the deck |
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| Debbie enjoys a hot tub soak |
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| Debbie & new friend Janet from London, get ready for a rafting adventure |
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| Floating down the Chena River |
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| A mature Bald Eagle sits atop a tree, ready to eat some salmon |
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| Young Eagles eat salmon. It takes 3 years to get brown feathers & the white crown |
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| A Bald Eagle in the trees |
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| Merganser Duck Mom with week old chicks |
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| The end of our 3 hour rafting journey |
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| At the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla-the race is 1000 miles |
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| A typical dog sled |
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| The dogs a bred to run and they love it |
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| The Iditarod Trophy |
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| You must keep all food (for man or dog) where bears can't reach it. |
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| Next stop, The McKinley Princess Lodge |
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| On a morning walk in little Talkeetna, food, tourist stuff and not much more |
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| Debbie says "Buy & ride a Polaris" |
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| "Hello" from Talkeetna |
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| Debbie says, :"It's too cloudy to see Mt. McKinley 70% of the time." |
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| Finally we can see Mt. McKinley, 20,320 feet high, America's tallest mountain |
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| Time to board the train to Denali National Park |
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| "All Aboard" |
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| It's cozy inside the glass domed rail car |
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| It's time for lunch |
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| Fast flowing rivers from the snow melt |
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| Debbie spotted a beaver dam, just behind that tree |
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| It is all so beautiful |
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| Snow capped mountains, billions of green trees |
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| Next stop, Denali Princess Lodge |
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| Dinner Theatre (food & fun in Denali) |
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| Our waiter and performer is Walter |
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| We start an 8 hour Tundra Tour by bus inside Denali National Park |
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| Tall mountains |
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| Rivers that constantly change channels |
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| Many different colors of rock |
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| Caribou are wild. Reindeer are Caribou that have been domesticated. |
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| This big guy is starting to molt. |
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| A female Moose on the run |
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| A ground squirrel poses for a photo |
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| 1 1/2 miles across the mountain, a bear sleeps( I zoomed in as best I could) |
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| Debbie struggles with one moose horn |
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| We are at the Alaska Pipeline, another American achievement |
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| This section floats above the permafrost, some is underground |
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| Our train to Gold Dredge # 8 |
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| We're in Alaska on an 80 degree day |
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| Gold Dredge # 8 churns up dirt, looking for gold |
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| A conveyor used to dump dirt |
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| Large buckets pull up the dirt and gold |
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| Debbie panned enough gold to make a nice necklace |
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| This nugget is worth $75,000 (we didn't fine this) |
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| Time to ride a riverboat |
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| This pilot took off and landed so that we could see how short a takeoff is. |
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| Tekla Butcher |
Tekla's mother was the famous Susan Butcher. Men said that no woman could win the 1000 mile Iditarod. Susan came to Alaska, trained her own dogs a won the Iditarod 4 times, 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990. Susan passed away at age 54 in 2006. Tekla has taken over the business and raises dogs for the big race. We got to see the dogs in their environment and saw them do a mile or so practice run.
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| They train by pulling a motor-less quad |
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| After a run, the dogs cool off in the river |
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| We learned the proper way to filet a salmon |
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| We learned about Indian culture and their beautiful clothes |
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| The menu for our Farewell dinner |
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| Our last dessert, Banana's Foster |
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| Our tour guide, Terry Ready of Aiken, S.C. |
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