Charlestons on the Go: Alaska Trip First Week's Land Tour

It's been a long time since I've posted on my blog, but after our Alaska trip, I am inspired to finally update this blog.

This year, Bob and I both celebrated our 70th birthdays and our 10th anniversary. Since going to Alaska has been on our bucket list, we decided this was the year to go. So we did. We joined a local tour hosted by Extra Touch Tours. They did a great job of planning for us to have a great time. We took a week long land tour and a week long cruise along the inner passage. We had great weather and had the opportunity to view many things that other tourists were unable to view because of the bad weather this summer. For example, we saw Mt. McKinley, now known as Mt. Denali, and we saw the aurora borealis, one night being especially spectacular.

Now time to join us in remembering our trip through our pictures. Enjoy.

Our first stop was Fairbanks where we stayed in a nice hotel. We were actually greeted by the Northern lights as we arrived at the hotel. No picture though.

The day we were in Fairbanks was packed with a great introduction to Alaska.

First we went panning for Gold and were educated about how gold was extracted back during the gold rush days.

We also were educated on the Alaskan Pipeline that went right thru the area where the gold dredging land was. The pipeline helped Alaska grow almost as much as the gold rush did.

Then we boarded a riverboat. First we had a demonstration of a bush pilot landing on the river right next to our ship. Then we saw some Alaskan Huskies and where they train. Also we stopped at a native village and learned about life there. They had some reindeer too, domesticated caribou.

Here's Bob pretending to starting out on the Iditarod.

On to Denali.

My most memorable moment in Denali was getting to see a spectacular view of the Northern Lights right over my head. It was breath-taking. Unfortunately I had no camera so the picture is in my head. And what a picture it is.

Here is a view of where we stayed in Denali from across the river. We took this picture while we were hiking in Denali Park on the other side of the river from our hotel. Ours is the one with the red roof, not the green one.

Our view from our room, looking across the river where we took the picture of the hotel.

Here we are taking a walk around a lake at Denali National Park.

We took a bus trip into Denali Park and got a pretty good view of Mt. McKinley or Mt. Denali.

We also toured a cabin in the park for rangers. We also had a nice talk from a native Alaskan.

We also got to see the Alaskan Huskies up close and personal, as well as, a great demonstration. Those dogs seem to LOVE to GO.

To end the last evening in Denali, we ate a bison burger for supper. Bob had eaten an elk burger another night, and eating their reindeer burger just seemed wrong.

We rode the train from Denali to Talkeetna. It was an overcast day so we didn't get to see Mt. Denali. It was a good thing we had already seen it. All aboard.

We didn't stay long at Talkeetna because it was raining. But I loved their restroom at the building where the arts and cultural council building was.

We saw a beach where 3 rivers converge. Neat. Proof we were there.

Next stop Mt. McKinley Wilderness Lodge. Rainy day. Again, no
view of Mt. McKinley.

We stopped in Anchorage on our way to Kenai Peninsula.

Days in Kenai were wet, but we made the most of them. Did a little hiking, played some cards, and enjoyed visiting with people.

Kenai is Salmon country. Unfortunately they mate and then die. But look at those fungi.

We had a nice trip on our way to Whittier where we boarded our ship, the Island Princess. We stopped at a place where the salmon were mating and still alive.