Denali - our 20th Anniversary 5/27/15 part 1

Today is our 20th anniversary and we spent the day in Denali National Park. The morning started off cool....46 degrees. We began with a french toast buffet breakfast. It was pretty good. Then Bill and I picked up our boxed lunches and headed to the lobby to meet the group. Our bus arrived at 7:10 am for our 8 hour tour which went 53 miles into Denali Park. The bus was fairly comfortable.

We headed off and after the first hour I was a little disappointed....we hadn't seen any wildlife except some weird "chicken looking bird". I wanted to see more.

The scenery was amazing! We also quickly saw Mt McKinley ...the highest mountain in North America. This is great since apparently it is very hard to see as it is mostly covered in clouds.

Then things got really fun! We saw moose, grizzly bear w/cubs, caribou, dahl sheep, golden eagle, and deer falcon. It was fantastic. Not only on the way going but coming back some of them were even closer. The grizzly w/cubs was by far my favorite. At one point she even laid back and let the cubs nurse. You couldn't ask for anything more. Here are a few pictures of the wildlife. My picture of the moose was too far for you to know it was a moose.

Travel day again 5/26/15

Today we traveled from Fairbanks to Denali. We started the day with a final breakfast buffet in the Fairbanks lodge and then boarded the bus for our 3 hour ride to Denali. I was really nervous about this because I get carsick easily. They planned a stop in the town of Nenana which was about halfway and unfortunately the entire time the tour guide and bus driver narrated. I was glad to hear some things but at some point I just wanted peace and quiet. Here are a few pictures of scenery along the way.

We did however finally make it to Denali and I am glad to report I did not get carsick. I did see a moose way off in the distance but it was quick and far away for photo op.

So here we are at Denali Princess Lodge. This is a nice hotel with a little shopping center across the street and great views in the back.

This is one of the shops I visited ....and made a purchase!

 

 Couple of goofballs we met along the way....

After shopping Pat and I went into the hot tub which overlooks the river and mountains. It was fantastic!
Then it was off to dinner at the Music of Denali dinner show. This was not even worth commenting on as it was the probably the worst dinner show I have ever seen. Food was just ok too.

Tomorrow it is another early day.... breakfast at 6am and our Tundra Wilderness tour starts at 7:10am. A long day....8 hours on a schoolbus in search of wildlife and Mt. McKinley.

We did get a faint glimmer of Mt McKinley on the bus ....here is the best picture I could get as we were traveling. Just look for what appears to be white clouds ...they tell me that it the mountain.

FAIRBANKS DAY 2 - 5/25/15

Today our tour officially started. We met as a group for breakfast where we all introduced ourselves. It was good but not so good compared to our buffet breakfast yesterday. At 9am we took a short bus ride to the Riverboat Discovery tour. A 3 hour ride on a riverboat with a few stops along the way. First we stopped to see a bush pilot take off,

then we stopped at a dog musher kennel,

and then we actually got off the boat to experience a native village.

We saw many beautiful homes along the way and some that just didn't fit in at all.

Things started off with light rain but 1/2 way through the tour it turned out beautiful.

After the Riverboat we had lunch in the dining hall....miners beef stew....another bust for Chris. The salad and rolls were good though. Then it was off to Gold Dredge 8 to pan for some gold. This was way more elaborate than we both thought. There was a lot of history on the Alaska Pipeline and gold dredging. We panned for gold but unfortunately we did not get enough to pay for our trip. But I did put my gold flakes into a cool magnet for my fridge!

FAIRBANKS DAY 1 - 5/24/15

After meeting for our buffet breakfast today we headed back to the airport to pick up a rental car for the day. Today is a free day since our tour really starts tomorrow. After driving around Fairbanks downtown we stopped to snap some photos at a small memorial park. Tomorrow is Memorial Day and there were flags along the bridge.

Next up was our first planned excursion....Tails of the Trail with Mary Shields. She was the first woman to finish the infamous Iditarod dog sled race. She also did the Yukon Quest 3 times and raced to Siberia.
I really looked forward to this excursion and it did not disappoint.
We basically went to Mary's cabin and listened to her talk about her experiences, living in Alaska, and met the dogs. It was VERY interesting. First she talked about her gardens....

Then we met the dogs. At first she had them all chained up but once we were in the pen they were let loose. She currently has 4 dogs, the oldest is 14 and one is going to give birth to pups in July. This was a great experience and THANK GOD we had the bug wipes. The mosquitos were crazy and HUGE!

After meeting the dogs, we sat around a circle while Mary explained the musher's sled, how she got into racing, and how to go about taking part in a race like the Iditarod.
We then went into the cabin where she served refreshments and told us more stories, showed us on a map where she traveled, and shared more of her life experiences with us.
I highly recommend this excursion!

After visiting with Mary we headed to the North Pole to visit Santa. We stopped for lunch at Little Richard's diner where I had the best grilled cheese! Then we went to Pioneer Park, which is a local park that has small original cabins from the early 1900's and a bunch of museum type items. It was free and a nice place for families to hang out for the day. Then dinner once again out by the river.....

The time change is finally catching up with me....It's 8:30/9pm....off to bed for another early busy day tomorrow.

TRAVEL DAY 5/23/15

After staying at the Hilton Harborside hotel in Boston Friday night we had three flights to get us to Fairbanks....

We departed at 7am from Boston to Seattle. (6hr flight) We met up with Pat and Bill in Seattle and had lunch before boarding our next flight Seattle to Anchorage.(3 1/2hr flight). Another layover where we enjoyed some drinks before we boarded our flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks (1hr flight). All in all we traveled for 14plus hours since we arrived in Fairbanks at 5:30pm which was really 9:30pm to us.

One thing I need to mention at this point is that Alaska had a very mild winter.... nothing like CT. Also they are experiencing record warmth early this year. Snow is gone, bugs have emerged, and most places don't have air-conditioning. Why on the year I decide to visit is this the case???

Once we arrived we decided to have dinner. We ate outside on their patio overlooking the Chena River. 87 degrees sunny but dry.... who would've thought?

Then although the sun only goes down from 11:30pm until 4am....we decided to try to get some sleep!

Our Itinerary

So here is what we decided on.....

The Connoisseur Tour 5/23/15 - 6/6/15

Fly from Boston to Fairbanks (with Alaska air miles only cost $5.60)
3 nights at the Princess Fairbanks Lodge
then travel to Denali
2 nights at the Denali Princess Lodge
then travel to McKinley
2 nights at the McKinley Princess Lodge
then travel by train 5 1/2 hours to the Grand Princess
stops in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan
fly home from Vancouver to Hartford

We decided on Connoisseur tour after reading several reviews on cruisecritic.com and the fact that most meals and some activities on land are included. This layout really worked for us and we felt we would have ample time at each location to see the sights.

For excursions we chose the following:

Tails of the Trail with Mary Shields in Fairbanks
Riverboat Discovery Tour
Gold Dredge #8
Tundra Wilderness Tour
McKinley flightseeing tour
Horseback Riding
Krochel Animal Refuge Kingdom
Helicopter/Dogsled tour
Whale Watch tour
Float plane to Crab Feast

We will be very busy and most likely need a vacation after this vacation.....
One of the reasons we decided to do the land portion first is because it is very travel intensive....up early and busy every day. 

Trip of a lifetime

Those of you who know me know that I have always wanted to go to Alaska. It has been a dream of mine and I tried to do it for our 10th anniversary but we were into cruising Disney then and we settled for Disneyland and a Disney cruise to the Mexican Riviera. That was a great vacation but this time 10years later there was no way Chris was getting out of a vacation to Alaska!.
Chris has never been a fan of cold weather so Alaska was not appealing to him at all. However when we decided to do it we asked our friends Pat and Bill to join us. That helped make it less painful for Chris. In August we went to Disney and met up with the Kleins and decided to start planning the trip.
For me I had to check my work schedule, then I had to pick the time when there was less bugs, and I wanted to go to see snow on the mountain tops.
There are so many options to choose when visiting Alaska. Of course we never questioned which company to travel with, Princess was it. We had to choose length of the visit, which city to fly into, and which ship to cruise on. Decisions ...decisions....