Home

Finally..we are here. It was a long day yesterday, but everything went relatively smoothly. We didnt get to go and visit in LA, but here we are safe and sound.
Thanks to everyone for reading. More importantly, thanks to Tozzi for driving us to Logan Express, to the Leighs' for being willing to host us in LA, and my parents for picking us up from Logan Express. Thanks again to everyone who helped make this trip possible through your gifts, support, and prayers.
In the next day or two, Im going to try and post some more interesting pics and a few cool videos that that didnt make it into the other posts.

Update

Flight canceled shortly after 2:00 This second plane made two attempts to land but aborted each time. Right after they officially canceled, a big plane from Germany landed...go figure.
The best we could do was to catch a 1:30am flight from Fairbanks to Seattle, then catch a 7:15 am flight to JFK, then the 5:00 shuttle to Logan....sweet!
Wish us more luck. It seems to have cleared up a bit. We got a hotel room and took naps this afternoon. We will probably try and sleep some more before leaving. If this flight gets canceled there is nothing available on Friday and it will have to be Saturday.

Ruth and Art

So, it is 12:47 and we are still waiting for a plane to land so that we can leave. (Got here at 4:00) The latest was that the plane is about to land...but it overshot the runway and had to try again.

We have lots of friends here from the tour. This couple has been married 64 years. They are pretty cool.

We have been rebooked again for a 7pm flight from Seattle to LAX arriving at 10:00.

Uh oh, here is an announcement....15-30 minutes until more info. They are going to try another approach.

Ok, Im ready to leave Alaska

Delay

Got up just before 3am to put our bags out...didnt really sleep befor that though.
Caught our shuttle to be here (at the airport) just after 4 for our 6am flight...there are no planes here now. None could land yesterday We have to wait for one to land and then head out. As of now we are scheduled for an 8:45 flight to Seattle. We will miss our connection to LAX, but that has been rescheduled too. We are actually in much better shape than many others here.
Check out this article on the fire....http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/aug/05/crews-protect-remote-alaska-subdivision-wildfires-/ almost 2.5 million acres are burning. Thats more than Mass and Rhode Island combined...all on fire.
More to come...

Alaska is burning

Ill get to the title in a minute.

Up this morning and didn't have to pack! We are at the same hotel tonight.

On the bus around quarter of nine then off to our the El Dorado gold mine. Our tour director surprised us a bit with a visit to a viewing spot of the Alaskan Pipeline. Super interesting.

Gold mining was great. I far exceeded expectations. We went on a brief train ride and learned some history about how mining was originally done and how it developed. There was a guy playing guitar and fiddle that used to play with Johnny Cash and Don Ho. He was very good.

Jane got more gold than I did...$27 worth. I only got $18. But both of those were better than most in our group.

Had lunch at an Italian place in Fairbanks. I had a great ten layer lasagna and Jane had a chicken wrap that was very good as well.

We then went on the riverboat Discovery III. Kind of corny, but some interesting stuff. It lasted three and a half hours with about an hour at this interpretive site with natives explaining some of their way of life.

Then back to the hotel to drop off stuff before flying to the Arctic circle for that six hour adventure.

We went to get on the bus and got late word that it was cancelled!!! Much of Alaska is really on fire and the smoke is very thick here. It is hard to breathe and there were safety concerns about taking off or more acutely....landing. As I write this, I can barely make out the trees across the street from the hotel.

We are both kind of bummed, but understand. We are just relaxing and packing in the hotel. Had dinner here and are now watching "Don't tell mom the babysitter is dead"

We have to have our luggage our at 3am and be on our bus to the airport at 4am. We fly to Seattle, have a brief layover, then fly to LAX. We are meeting with Mike and Kristen and Jack Leighs for our overnight "layover" before catching a direct flight to Boston on Friday.

That is all assuming that our flight can get out with the smoke in the morning...think good thoughts!

Dinner Train

Slept in until 8:00 or so this morning. I got all set and stepped into the shower and turned it on...nothing came out. We had no water! The electricity was very weak as all our lights were dim and fan was running really slow. Fortunately we had a couple of cups of water so we could brush teeth and stuff. Apparently a squirrel got into a transformer and they had to shut down the pump to the well and limit other power.

Today we go on a four and half hour natural history tour of Denali by school bus. It is another great day. Saw great scenery but not much wildlife in the park. We were told that it was because the large animals were hiding from the heat.

A very nice tour including a nature walk, movie about the early history of the park, and a talk with a native who is preserving many of his tribes traditional ways while living in a modern world. He spoke alot about how he hunts bears as well. Very interesting.

After the tour had some time in the visitor center before boarding the train. It was a four hour or so ride. Dinner was very nice. Roasted pork loin, good bread, real butter, crab bisque, an a nice reindeer sausage pasta dish. No room for dessert. We ended up seeing four moose along the way to Fairbanks. Big forest fires along the way too. About 30 miles north of the park it got smoky/hazy. No fires were close to train, but you could certainly smell them.

Said our final goodbyes to the train and headed to our housing for the next two nights. http://www.pikeslodge.com/

Tomorrow is a very busy day. Riverboat tour in the morning, lunch in Fairbanks, then panning for gold then a six hour trek into the Arctic Circle. We should get in around midnight. Then need to be up at 3:00 to get our luggage ready.

Sunset is around 11pm and sunrise is around 5 takes a long time to get dark even after the sun goes down.

Lunch Train

Had a chance to sleep in this morning a bit. Woke to unbelievable view of Mt. McKinley...called Denali by natives and most locals. Took a bunch of photos.

We headed to the train depot and boarded or sweet ride. Had lunch onboard. Jane had a turkey wrap and I had a great french dip sandwich.

We arrived just outside of Denali National Park in the late afternoon. Headed out to check out the visitor center for an hour or so before going to walk "the boardwalk" to pick up some snacks for tomorrow and grab something to eat.

Dinner was terrible. Jane had a way overcooked chicken ($26) and I had a flavorless pizza. It took 45 minutes to get to us too...oh well.

Another very nice hotel. Situatied right along a quick moving stream. http://www.denaliparkresorts.com/lodging-food/mckinley-village-lodge.cfm

Into the park tomorrow.

Breakfast Train

Up early this morning. We had to have our bags in the hall by 6am to be packed in the bus. It drives us to the train station then drives to our final destination for the day and brings our bags to our room...pretty good deal, huh?

Very nice train car. The seating is on an upper level that is almost completely glass. There is a dining/cooking level below. We had breakfast on the train. Pretty nice table service with white linens and stuff...these meals are not included in our package though.

Saw a couple of glimpses of Mt. McKinley on the way. Also saw a baby moose and its mom from the bus in the morning. Talkeetna is our destination today.

Jane and I decided to hang out in town a bit and then booked a jet boat tour on three of the rivers. While waiting for that we walked down to a river with great views of Mt. McKinley and its friends. It is really impressive 20.280 ft and covered in snow. Aparently only about 30 percent of people get to see the mountain on their visits to the area. It is typically covered in clouds because it is so big, it just traps them as they go by. Even fewer people get to see it so clearly. We have been told by a few people that the view hasnt been this good since May...Did I mention that it is 75 degrees???

Jet boat tour was a blast. Got out and walked a nature trail with our guide for part of it....He carries a shotgun in the case we find some aggressive bears. Very interesting trappers cabin with cache and old native structure. The boat was wicked fast when we went back down the river (we were on three rivers during the tour) It basically skims accorss the water and only needs about a foot and a half of depth. (There were 40 of us on the boat). It is good that it can run so shallow because it was as little as two feet in some parts.

Quick dinner in the hotel. I had crab bisque and truffle mac and cheese. Jane had a nice roast chicken breast. Our hotel was awesome! We could see the entire mountain from our room! Just wonderful.

Some time here in the morning before getting on the lunch train to Denali.

Oh yeah, rode through Wasilla on the way today. Didnt see Sarah or Russia

Anchorage

No pics today...trouble with the computer

Woke up in Aleyeska. Beautiful day. Rode up the tram and did a bit of hiking. Amazing views. Had some snacks at the restaurant there. Watched two people tandem paragliding...pretty much just ran off a cliff near where we were standing.

Did some more walking around by the lodge and ate a big cinnamon roll. On to the bus to head to Anchorage.

Pretty quick ride. We were dropped off at the Saturday Market. Small market of locals selling stuff in tents. I bought some birch syrup. Very interesting. Jane got a sweatshirt.

Had some beer battered halibut and corn fritters there for lunch.

Oh yeah, there was a chopper there that OCC made for Alaskas 50th anniversary as a state. VEry cool. Apparently the episide was just on TV.

Stayed at Marriott. Nice, but nothing special. We went to http://www.glacierbrewhouse.com/home.htm Jane had a rotissery chicken and I had a great little steak with a sauce made from their homemade root beer. Very good stuff.

Up early tomorrow....have to have our bags out by 6 AM. Our first travels by train on our way to Talkeetna.

Still having computer problems, but worked around them for now.

Signs

Just some signs we have seen along the way.

Land Ho!

Actually we have seen land most of the time we were on the ship, but now we are getting off for good.

Had a quick breakfast on board before getting released and meeting our tour director of the land portion. She seems fun. We rode on the bus a couple of miles to downtown Seward. Not much going on here. We decided not to pay to go into the aquarium, so we just walked around a bit.

En route to Aleyska resort http://www.alyeskaresort.com/ we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife and Conservation Center and checked out lots of animals who are being rehabilitated to be sent back into the wild.

The Hotel Alyeska is awesome. Our state room could fit into our hotel room five times or more. Just rode the town bus around and checked out some stuff. Ended up eating at a Mexican place with very good food that was very inexpensive. We had reccomendations to eat at the 7 glaciers restaurant at the top of the tram at the ski resort, but decided it was a bit out of our price range ($60 for one of the entrees!).

Tomorrow we will ride the tram and hang out a bit here before heading to Anchorage.

Oh yeah, ate a reindeer hot dog today...pretty good