Mt. McKinley, Alyeska Tram, Exit Glacier, and the Alaska Conservation Center.

Nathan had wanted to see Mt. McKinley (the highest mountain in North America) but we didn’t want to go all the way north to Denali Park so we drove to Talkeetna and hoped for a clear day to see the mountain.  Talkeetna, itself is a pure tourist trap but we were able to get a good shot of Mt. McKinley.

There was a small museum which had a great  room size topical map showing all of the peeks and how they people try to climb Mt. McKinley.  Not something I would care to do but it seems like a lot of people like that kind of thing.  While talking, the quide told us about a site seeing plane that had tried to fly over Mt. McKinley and the weather turned bad.  The plane had to land and the tourists had to stay in the base camp for several days.  Scary.

On the walk down to the river to take the picture.  There were flowers everywhere.  Going back to Anchorage we stopped and ate dinner.  No problems, several hours later we got back to the hotel and found I didn’t have my purse.  Kind of panicked me.  No wallet, phone, ID.  We backtracked in our minds  and could only come up with the restaurant, luckily Glenn had the receipt and they had found it!  Yeah, for honest people.  Glenn and Nathan turned around and went back and retrieved it.  My hero’s.  The next day we headed back south to pick up our fish.  It was our last day and our plane didn’t leave until 12:30 a.m.  We wanted to put as much into it as we could and arrive very tired at the airport so that we could sleep on the way home.  So much for our plans – but that is later.  We headed down to Girdwood, which is a small skiing area. Very pretty and I would imagine very expensive.  We rode a tram up to the top of the Alyeska mountain.  It was beautiful and very peaceful.  On the way up we saw beautiful mountains all around us.

Seen from the air – a mother moose and her baby resting by a pond. 

While we were up there, helicopters were everywhere.  They were removing/replacing chairs lifts and so we had to have pictures, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

The Aleskya Lodge.  That is one beautiful building.  I felt like I was in a very, formal English hunting lodge. 

 

The tram from above.

 

 

A glacier from the top.  It was a well worth going up to seeing the surrounding mountains.  Next, we went to see Exit Glacier.  Interesting as it is the same glacier that Asia and Kathie and Glenn and I went to see 13 years ago. 

 

The glacier is really a blue color.  It has to do with the minerals it picks up as it kind of slowly crashes down the mountain.

As we came out from the walk to the glacier there was huge rock.  What do boys do, when they see rocks?  Climb them, of course!

and

   down  he

 

 

 

COMES!

 

 

The last place we visited before we headed to the airport was the Alaska Conservation Center.  I really forget how young Alaska is.  So many of the centers and museums are new or still in progress.  The Center was the same way.  As we rode around there were plaques of things that were planned.   They take orphaned or injured animals and try to rehabilitate and then release.  They also try to educate  the public.  They are the only place in the United States that have Wood Bison.  This type of bison was considered very endangered, in fact they were thought to be extinct and several were found and since then the wood bison are doing well here.  I don’t think there are any wild ones anywhere.

The herd with little ones.

A close up of one of the babies.

 

 

 

They also had musk oxen.  Which we had never seen.  It is summer and so they are losing their winter coats. This is a little one, the one below isn’t little!.

slowly, walking away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had several large brown bears that had been orphaned and are being raised here.  They are separated into large, electrified areas.  Reminded me a little of Jurassic Park.

Taking a nap in the sun.  They also had eagles.  Not sure how they kept the eagle there, as they could readily fly away.

They also had some fabulous elk and a eagle that was shot by a farmer and lost his wing.

Thus ended our Alaskan vacation.  We drove back to Anchorage, dropped off our rental car and checked in.  The flight went ok, except that instead of being a nonstop flight, we stopped in Seattle.  Everyone had to get off the plane even though we got right back on the same plane and flew to Houston.    We had a great time and would love to go back.

Trains, boats and birds, oh yeah!

We actually didn’t plan this next part well.  We planned on driving  down to Seward to go on our cruise, ok and the next thing was to go fishing and that also went out of Seward.  It is 3 hours drive through mountains to get from Anchorage to Seward.  Beautiful drive but too long for Glenn and Nathan to take off by 6 a.m.  So, after thinking about it, we decided to stay in Seward on Tuesday night.  The only problem was that July is the height of the tourist season and we called basically, oh the day before!  We did get reservations at a bed and breakfast but then they called us back and said they had double booked the rooms.  Sigh.  The lady then suggested another place and Glenn said fine.  So, after we arrived back in port from our cruise, we looked for some where to eat.  I asked Glenn if we shouldn’t check into our hotel and he said we would do it after dinner.  Umm.  Then we had dinner and I again said “why don’t we check into our hotel”?  Glenn said, “Well, why don’t we go find out where we can get some sandwiches for tomorrow.” Umm?  What is wrong with our hotel?  We went to the Safeway and arranged to have sandwiches ready by 5:30 a.m. and then again I said, “Hotel”.  We had driven by a odd railroad car going in and it hadn’t looked very clean.  Well,  that’s where we were going.  I promptly said – I’m driving back to Anchorage, have a good time!.  Anyway, we agreed to check out the place.  Didn’t look promising as we couldn’t get the door open as it had a number lock.  This is what it looks like from the outside.  The owners had developed it by buying 3, 1945 railcars and putting them in a triangle and building a porch in the middle.  The car on the right, is a restaurant, left is a bicycle rental and repair shop and straight across the opening is a long railcar divided into two rooms. So, we stayed in the left side of the Whistle Stop Lodging.  Once we actually got to the place and looked at it, we decided we would stay. Here is part of the railcar – You are looking from the front door.  To the right is the first bed, on your left was a small refrigerator and microwave and heater. To the right, where many is sitting is a table that folds to sit 2,3 or 4 people.  Farther back on the left is a queen bed and then you can see the bathroom at the back.  It was clean, no frills but quite adequate.  One thing was rather neat, when my Mother was little, her family moved into an area where there wasn’t any houses but jobs.  Someone, moved railcars down and that’s where they lived.  No indoor toilets, in fact no kitchen but that’s where they lived for around a year.  So, this was kind of  neat to see what it might have been like.

 

 

   The view from our train car.  They had blinds and you could pull them up and watch the harbor.  So, all in all it was a nice place to stay.

There were three families that went out.  Here is their catch.  They were gone from 6 a.m. to around 5:30 p.m.  Two very tired guys but they had a wonderful time.  While the guys fished Mandy and I went to explore the rest of Seward.  Which, by the way, is quite small.  We ate lunch at a place called “Nellie’s Cafe” and went to the Sea Life Center which was very well done.  The Center rehabilitates injured otters, sea lions, birds, etc.  It was neat to see there wall of released animals, after they had recovered.

 

 

Outside the Center.

 

 

 

 

  

a guillermot  and a duck in the outside area for the birds. 

 

Mandy’s first picture with our new camera.  Aye, Aye Captain!

Sailing away.  Another fun day in Alaska.

Our cruise on the Nunatak

We decided to take a cruise out of Seward.  It cruised around Resurrection Bay and stopped at Fox Island, where we had a yummy salmon and prime rib dinner.

Seward harbor  in the background, right before we boarded our ship, the Nunatak.

Views as we headed toward Resurrection Bay.

 

 

 

My favorite picture of Mandy on the trip.  she thoroughly enjoyed being on the ship.  It was cold as the ship cruised along but she stayed out most of the time.   Our first sighting of whales along the ship.  The ship captain was very careful about slowing down and not bothering the whales.

 

 

 

We stopped at Fox Island for lunch.  It was a very nice buffet and I believe Nathan went back 5 times!  The cheesecake for dessert was delicious.

 

Our ship docked and waiting for us.  We were on the island for an hour.

 

 

 

We had a Ranger give us a talk after dinner and they had an orca skull (above) and other selected skulls.

 

 

 

 

Looking for stones to skip on the beach. Across from the dock.

 

 

 

 

 

a glacier seen from the ship.  We asked how many glaciers are in Alaska and the answer was that they haven’t been counted but close to 100,000.  Next we went to Emerald Bay, named because the water is this dark green.  It is full of nutrients and the bird and seal populations come there to eat.  Picture below – at the top you can see a WWII bunker.  Alaska was actually quite involved in WWII.  They have bunkers that soldiers climbed up and stayed for a week at a time.  They watched the bay for enemy planes and boats.

The birds had nests in all of the little coves and crannies.

 

puffins swimming on the water.  They are water birds and aren’t very graceful while flying.  Puffins on the rocks.

 

Seals sunbathing.  The taller one toward the back is the male.  The others are females.

 

The captain said the number of seals, otters, and whales were down a lot from the past. 

 

 

My camera doesn’t do justice to the scenery.  I understand how many could live here – although I surely don’t understand how they can.  The prices are unbelievable.

As we headed back we saw a little otter just floating along.  They float on their backs with they little paws out of the water.  I couldn’t get close enough to get a wonderful picture but there he is. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan on board.  He spent most of his time on board talking to the captain and asking a million questions. 

Heading back to port.  We saw our only eagle.  He/she was sitting on a nest high in the tree tops. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all really enjoyed the cruise and seeing the beautiful creatures and mountains.