Alaska Pictures

If interested in seeing more photos from our Alaska trip, go to my Flickr site. Hopefully this link will work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11445677@N08/sets/72157606770285853/

You can set up a slide show to view all 85 of these pictures. The slideshow option is located on the upper right hand part of your computer screen. Just click where it says slideshow. Once the show starts running, you can set the options to display titles and descriptions of the pictures. You may want to also set it to show the pictures slower as some of the descriptions may take some time to read.

If this link doesn't work, you can use the search function to search for people on Flickr. Just set the search parameter for people and description "rlojr."

Now that these instructions are as clear as mud, good luck and enjoy!

Alaska - Day 11.5 & 12

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - During our final day of sailing, Dennis, Shari and Beth went to play bingo. Jack was still swimming. Meanwhile, Mom and I looked through the near 500 photos I took during the trip. It took a while to look at them using the slide show feature.

Our bingo players returned and we had one big winner. Beth won the Snowball Prize but had to share it. It pretty much paid for our bar bill for the week. After collecting the winnings and eating dinner, we returned to our cabin. The question came up... now what?

Buffy went for a walk. Later I got a call. "Come on up to the Ocean Bar," said Buffy, "the whole gang is up here." So I head on up for I guess would be one last drink with our favorite bartenders. It would turn out to be last several drinks.

We were to have our bags packed and ready to be picked up by 1am. And they were not kidding. I barely had enough time to get everything in my bag by that time. I would learn I should have left the bar sooner, for more reasons than this.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 - The Volendam was to dock in Vancouver at 7am and we were to disembark at 8am. Buffy woke up to take a shower and get cleaned up. I was hungover and slept in until about 7:30am. We finally left the ship and went through Customs with no problems. After picking up our bags, we were in our final bus line for a ride to the airport. I had to leave the line on a couple of occasions. What the hell was I thinking the night before when I had 2 buckets of Heineken?

Finally, Dennis gave up on the bus ride to the airport. He scoped out the taxi line, which was moving very rapidly. And a taxi would deliver us to the correct part of the airport. So we left the bus line for a taxi. That turned out to be a wise move... especially for me.

We were going to try to meet Matt Astel, but everyone was anxious to leave and Matt was at least 20 minutes away from the airport. So our get together was scrubbed and we were soon airborne bound for Peoria.

Once home, the remainder of the day was spent on the couch, then the bed, watching the Olympics.

This was definitely a trip worth taking. Beth and I highly enjoyed it. I really wasn't in too much of a hurry to return home. While my Mom enjoyed it, she was OK with higher temperatures and getting back home; all the travel was a little hard for her. Shari liked it except for all the cold. I doubt Dennis will be back on a cruise, though he wants to visit Prudoe Bay. And I think all Jack will remember is the pool.

And so ends the 2008 Alaska Travelogue Blog.

Photo Info:
Top: Myself, Dennis, Beth and Shari for our last call at the Ocean Bar
Bottom: Our bartenders at the Ocean Bar on the ms Volendam, from left to right, "Dan the Man," Edward and "Auggie."

Alaska - Day 9

Thursday, August 7, 2008 - We docked in Juneau sometime last night or early this morning. Buffy and Shari were awaked sometime around 7:30am from some loud clanking noise outside our staterooms. I never heard a thing as I was asleep. Since Juneau is in a tempered rainforest, the weather was cloudy and rainy.

We did our normal routine of going to the Lido Restaurant on Deck 8 for breakfast. Jack slept in late this morning... somewhere around 10am. This caused Dennis and Jack to miss the most of breakfast. So Dennis, Mom and Jack stayed on the ship while Shari, Buffy and I ventured into town. They were happy to go into all these different shops Juneau had to offer. I'd wait outside. After about 45 minutes to an hour, I was getting extremely board. All of us with the exception of Buffy were signed up for a helicopter tour for 2 15-minute landings on a glacier leaving the ship at 12 noon. The van took us to the airport where we donned some kind of cletes to allow us to walk on glacier ice. I had walked on a glacier about 15 years ago when visiting Anchorage, Alaska. And I did it in sneakers. That was not safe as I would slide all around. I finally noticed a sink hole of sorts and then realized that if I fell right here, there would be nothing to hold on to and it would be all over for me.

We boarded the helicopter and got to wear the headphones to talk to one another. Jack especially like doing this. He would press the button and say "Awesome!" We were able to travel up the canal along Juneau for about 10 minutes and got a glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating with us. The pilot claimed that it was too unsafe for a glacier landing and we turned around for the airport. Once landed and inside the facility, the tour manager claimed we would get a full refund since they could not deliver what they offered. So we got a free helicopter ride... it wasn't a complete loss. This was to be Mom's birthday present from all of us.. a helicopter ride to a glacier. She was happy to get to go for a ride. And the walk on the glacier may have not worked out too well for her since she mistakenly put her cletes on the wrong feet. So I guess things just were not working in our favor today... especially for Dennis.

Meanwhile, Buffy signed up for a whale watching excursion. At least things were working out for her. She was able to see a school of whales, which the tour guide said is rare. The whales were also making some sort of mating calls, which was unusual as they mate south near Hawaii.

After returning to the ship from the ill-fated helicopter ride, Dennis, Shari and myself went to take a tram ride to the top of Mt. Roberts in Juneau. Mom and Jack headed back to the Volendam to, guess what... go swimming. The tram ride was alright. It is very similar to the tram at Jackson Hole. At the top is a restaurant, shop and hiking trails with a number of lookout points. On a clear day, you could probably see quite a bit. But we had low cloud cover today. You could see most of the city, but if you hiked up higher, about all you saw was clouds. Also at the top was a wounded bald eagle they named Lady Baltimore. She was shot in the beak and when she fell, damaged and lost a retina in her left eye. With only one eye, Lady Baltimore does not have any depth perception, which makes feeding and getting around very difficult. It would be unlikely she could survive in the wild.

Shari returned to the ship, but Dennis and I ventured upward where we even ran into some leftover snow from the winter months.

We all finally met up in the pool area where we took a hot tub. When we went our separate ways, Buffy and I dressed up as it was formal night. We weren't able to get into the Rottendam Restaurant until later. I ordered the Surf n Turf, which I think is the first time I've had lobster. I can't tell you if the lobster was any good as I have nothing to compare it too. It was still good though. My only complaint was it took me 4 times to ask for a Heineken until I finally got one.

After dinner, we adjourned to the Ocean Bar where we caught up with not only Dennis and Shari, but Tracy Lynn, the girl from Rhode Island, a fellow passenger Dave from the land tour and our favorite bartenders, Auggie, Marc and Dan. And "Dan the Man" is getting to know me all to well... he might have my entire biography. He told Buffy, "Rick drinks Diet Coke during the day, Heineken at night." Just imagine if I came up here during the winter when nighttime is about 18 hours a day.... a lot of Heineken drinking! All the wait staff are from the Phillipines. And they work on the ship 11 months out of the year, 11 hours a day, 7 days a week. And they still have a wife and kids back home. Shari told them they should quit and go home to their families. Dennis and Shari left for a short while to watch a comedian, but then came back within 20 minutes.

Several Heinekens, Bud Lights and wine later, Buffy and I retired for the evening while Dennis and Shari left to lose money in the casino.

Today's Alaska Fun Fact
In the late 1800's, a Tlingit Chief named Kowee led 2 drunken prospectors to a creek which emptied into the Gastineau Channel. The prospectors, Richard Harris and Joe Juneau, found gold. This changed the course of history and the face of Alaska itself. On October 4, 1880, Harris and Juneau laid claim to the area they called Gold Creek, one of the largest finds of the Alaska Gold Rush era. In 1900, the capital of Alaska was moved from Sitka to Juneau. (source: the Holland America Daily Program). According to Andy the bus driver taking us to the airport, the town was once undecided on a name. They went back and forth between Harrisburg and Juneau, both after the 2 prospectors. They eventually decided Juneau as the bus driver put it, "they felt there were plenty of Harrisburgs but not enough Juneaus."

Photo Info:

Top - Buffy & Shari shopping yet again

Bottom - Mom just before taking off in the helicopter

Alaska - Day 8

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 – We awoke this morning around 8:30am. This is considered sleeping in for this past week. I was extra tired this morning. Last night we made our way to the Crow's Nest for a late evening. The Crow's Nest is a lounge on Deck 9 on the forward part of the ship, with about a 180 degree view of the bow. Last night was Disco night at the Crow's Nest. So after dinner and hanging out in Mom and Jack's room watching Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D, Buffy and I adjourned to the Crow's Nest. Dennis and Shari followed while Grandma Hootie stayed with Jack.

And it was last night I opted to order the bucket of Heineken as they were more economical in cost. That decision may have not made sense this morning, but it made perfect sense last night.

Anyway, we awoke and found ourselves docked in Haines, AK. It was a bit strange to once again see buildings and civilization as we spent the last 2 days looking at water, glaciers, clouds, and miles of undeveloped coastline.

It is a quaint little town that lies on the banks of the Chikat Inlet off the Lynn Canal. A small range of snow covered, jagged-peaked mountains border the town which was very picturesque. Haines appears to be a very dog friendly town. About every other car we saw had a dog in it. We noticed several of the locals walking into shops and their jobs with their dogs. And all the dogs are very well behaved and friendly.

The weather was perfect. The sun came out and it was actually getting near hot if you were in the sun with no breeze. Dennis and Jack headed out early as they scheduled an excursion that took them out to drive Kowasoki Mules. Mom stayed close to the ship as the town was a bit to hilly for her to walk far.

Shari, Buffy and I disembarked from the Volendam and walked into town in search of a diner. On our way, we encountered a live, adult bald eagle perched high in a spruce tree. Seeing it somewhat up close and in the wild was very cool.

We stopped at the Bamboo Cafe. The blueberry hotcakes were very good. The biscuits and gravy were respectable, though it's doubtful you can beat Track Inn in Chillicothe for biscuits and gravy. The hospitality was excellent.

After breakfast, we walked around. Surprisingly, there were very few souvenir shops. Eventually, we made our way back to the ship where we caught up with Mom; then later Dennis and Jack. At this point, most of us went separate ways. Jack just wanted to get back into the pool. Dennis and Shari went to eat lunch. Buffy took a nap. I trekked up to the local library to use their reliable Internet connection. I was finally able to upload all my posts from the past few days. I also caught up on some business, e-mail and read some news. It was kind of nice to get away for a while.

I did meet up with Dennis, Shari and Buffy later in the afternoon in town. Dennis was interested in going on yet another excursion; the Eagle Preserve where you can see nesting eagles and you might see bears feasting on salmon fish. We all eventually got back together at the pool on the Lido Deck. Dennis and Mom signed up for the Eagle Preserve excursion which left at 5:30pm and wasn't due back until 8:30pm. The Volendam is scheduled to depart at 9pm. Nothing like cutting it close.

At around 5pm, we all went separate ways again; I went to the gym, Buffy went to see a movie, Mom and Dennis went to see bears hunt for salmon and poor Shari had to stay at the pool with Jack. At least Jack makes new friends at the pool every day. But the kid has to be shriveled up by now from all the hours he's been in that pool. The pool closes at 7pm. And Jack got out of it about 7:05pm.

After drying and getting dressed, Shari and Jack discovered that they were locked in their room. The door handle had malfunctioned and would not allow the door to open. To make matters worse, the phone in their room did not have any directory. Shari wound up calling the Spa for help. They gave her the number for the front desk, but by that time, our steward came by while making his rounds. He made sure everything got fixed.

Dinner tonight was pork spare ribs and they were very good. Buffy joined us late after her movie. Jack and Shari went back to their room to order room service/cheeseburger for Jack and watch cartoons; Buffy and I went the Explorations Cafe on Deck 5 to watch the ship take off and write today's blog post (I hope to upload it tomorrow). We hope Mom and Dennis return safely and on time from their excursion.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to be in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Buffy has scheduled a whale watching excursion while the rest of us are going on a helicopter ride to land on a glacier.

Photo info:

Top - Mom, Dennis, Shari & Jack get ready to board back onto the ms Volendam.

Bottom - Buffy and Shari walking through the town of Haines... maybe working the town of Haines

Alaska - Day 7

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 – We awoke very early today so we can get a good breakfast without having to wait in line. It was 6:30am and we found out that the “hot” breakfast is not served until 7am. So we got a table and watched for whales while the ship cruised towards Glacier Bay.

We for the most part finished eating when Shari came up to meet us. She claimed that Dennis' phone went off around 6am, which Dennis slept through and did not answer. Shari picked it up but was too late in answering it. It was Jeff Bilsland calling. Somehow, she had heard from her mom and that a huge storm came in and there was downed trees in their driveway (Shari's mom was staying at their place). I got my cell phone and turned it on and found there was a voice mail. It too was from Jeff so I called him back. Shari was having problems with her phone, but my was working fine.

Jeff said that the tree fell in the storm. “Yea, good one. I've got a bunch of trees, which one was it,” I said, thinking he was talking about my house. Then it occurred to me, it was the office. The remainder of that tree that fell last week had fallen in the storm last night... and this time it hit the office.

Fortunately, there was little damage. With help from Beth's parents, I got Jeff a key to the office and he pretty much took care of everything. Dennis and Shari's house was fine, with the exception of some downed trees and my house came out unscathed.

The cell service on the ship is bad. If someone calls us, we can hear them, but they can't hear us. We learned, but not for certain, that wireless calls from off the ship is $12/minute. Yikes!! This is not the time you want a call to chit chat.

Shari, Buffy and I walked laps around the ship and spotted some whales. We then pretty much took up residence at a table by the Lido Deck pool and stayed there most of the day. While Jack played in the pool with some other kids, we watched the various glaciers the ship maneuvered around. From time to time, some of us would leave the table to find a better vantage point. But someone would stay with the table at all times.

It was cool watching ice chunks fall into the ocean. We didn't see anything massive, but even small slides make a thunderous sound.

Right now it's a little after 5pm and Jack is still going strong in the pool. We'll probably hit dinner I'm guessing somewhere around 6:30 – 7pm. I'm not even hungry right now as we've been munching on food all day. They will have to roll us off this ship when we're done.

Tomorrow is a port of call in Haines, AK. On Thursday we stop in Juneau, where we are signed up for a helicopter tour that makes 2 landings on a glacier.

Photo info:
It's me with the Margarie Glacier in the background.

Alaska Day - 6

Monday, August 4, 2008 - The Internet connection on this ship sucks! I spent a good twenty minutes trying to upload my blog posts from Saturday and Sunday. The connection speed is like that of dial up. But I really blame Blogger for not allowing me to post anything. Since the ship charges by the minute, I decided to write my post and then copy and paste them, so my log on time would be minimal. But Blogger wouldn't let me paste anything in. Crap!! This is why you haven't seen any new posts for a while. I'll try again later.

Today was our first full day sailing on the cruise. Buffy, Shari and Dennis were awakened by an announcer on the PA pointing out glaciers and wildlife. Buffy got up quickly to go see. I slept right through it and didn't hear a thing. I did awaken shortly there after, showered and headed up for breakfast. The breakfast line was long at 8am. Note to future voyagers: avoid breakfast from about 8 – 10am. To make matters worse, I could not get a Diet Coke. None of the bars were open yet to buy one and the restaurant doesn't serve them. I was screwed! I can go longer without Heineken than I can without Diet Coke.

Buffy and I stopped by Mom's and Jack's cabin to see what they were doing. Buffy left to go back to our room for something. Jack continued to watch cartoons, having little interest in the ship or the scenery. Mom and I stepped out on her balcony when we saw what we first thought were dolphins. Another look as they changed the direction they were swimming, I noticed black and white areas on their skin. Could they have been killer whales? We're not sure what we saw, though there were numerous sightings of dolphins all day.

After lunch, I went to the ship's gym and worked out some. The gym is in the very front of the ship on one of the upper decks. It was cool being on a treadmill, looking out the front windows while the ship was moving. But it was at this time when we were leaving Prince William Sound and heading towards more of open ocean. The boat began to rock more. This became a little challenge keeping balance and feeling little waves of motion sickness.

I then joined Dennis, Shari and Jack by the pool and sat in the hot tub for a while followed by a brief swim. Jack must have spent a total of 3.5 – 4 hours of being in the pool. That's all he wants to do.

I later cleaned up a bit and then went on my own exploring the ship more while Buffy, Dennis and Mom went to play Bingo. This would lead to be the highlight of my day; maybe the whole trip. I found the front bow and walked around it a bit. It was very windy and chilly. Moments after I stepped off the front bow, a walked towards the port side of the ship. An announcement came over the PA regarding something on the starboard side. Since I was at the front of the ship, the starboard side was right around the corner. I sprinted over there and asked one of the deckhands what was going on. Whales!

I started up my camera and some others pointed me in the right direction. After messing with my camera, I looked up and saw a huge humpback whale at the apex of his leap in the air and then coming down crashing into the ocean. Unfortunately, I have no pictures or video. The whale never did jump back up again. However you could see the water blowing out of his blow hole as swam away.

We all had dinner in the Lido Restaurant and followed up with some beverages at the Ocean Bar. It was here where we met “Lynn” who is from Rhode Island, but works for the state of Alaska. She does environmental observations to make sure cruise lines stay in compliance. This is all she has been doing all summer; traveling on cruises. She claims it gets old after a while, eating all the same food, hearing the same entertainment, etc. And she has to travel by herself.

I had been drinking Alaskan Summer Ale so I signed up for a punch card to get into a drawing for an Alaska trip. I only need to drink 8 more Summer Ales to be eligible for the drawing. I purchased a Diet Coke for breakfast tomorrow and we retired for the day.

Tomorrow will be another day of full cruising around Glacier Bay.

Alaska - Day 5

Sunday, August 3, 2008 - There is really not a lot to report on today's activities. We basically rode a bus from Denali to Seward that took close to 8 hours. We did make a stop for lunch and a couple of other stops, but essentially, it was riding a bus today. Thankfully, it is the last bus for this trip, with the possible exception of catching a bus when we fly back home.

Our bus driver this time, Eric, is a school teacher here in Alaska. He is driving buses during the summer months. We drove through his home turf and he told us stories about local towns and his school district. He educated us on many interesting facts about Alaska during our ride. We were very entertained on most of it. Meanwhile, Jack slept through a big part of the ride, which worked out for us.

We finally arrived in Seward sometime before 5pm where the bus dropped us off right at the ship... the MS Volendam. We said our goodbyes to Josiah, our tour guide and friend through the land tour of our trip. Proceeding to check in for the cruise, there were not many people in line. I did the on-line check in which really helped to speed up the process. Eleven years ago when I went on the Carnival cruise, we had to wait in an extremely long line and seemed like forever to finally get on the ship. But this was not bad. I think we spent less than 10 minutes with check in. Sweet! Of course we had to go to the mandatory safety drill to prepare in the event the ship is going to sink. And that didn't really take as long.

Jack is all about the Lido Deck, where there is the swimming pool. I recently discovered The Loft where it is a lot of video games and such for teens. Jack will also like that. Mom says she could just sit on her balcony for the rest of the trip (her room is on the port side of the ship, so she had a good view of the glaciers). We started to set sail at 10pm. Tomorrow is basically just cruising as well as Tuesday. Our first port of call will be on Wednesday (I don't remember where).

I have a bit of some disappointing news for my blog fans. While the Volendam has wireless Internet access, it comes at a price. So in the interest of saving my dollars for much needed alcohol and freeing up time to vacation instead of blogging, I will only be logging onto the Internet intermittently.

Alaska Fun Fact #1
Eric the bus driver's school district is approximately the size of West Virginia. And in the state of Alaska, which is incredibly large in size, is divided in Burroughs instead of counties like most other states.

Alaska Fun Fact #2
There is an estimated 300,000 moose in Alaska. According to Eric, he has to get moose collision insurance on his car, which he has hit a moose in the past. And on the bus ride today, we got to see a moose feeding in a pond. So collectively, we have seen 1/100,000 of all the wild moose in Alaska on this trip thus far.

Alaska Fun Fact #3
According to many of the people in Alaska, this summer has been the coldest in the past 60+ years. There has only been a handful of days that the temperature has been over 65 F. Eric, the summertime bus driver and school teacher, talked a bit about the receding of glaciers and global warming. At the top of mountains where there are glaciers, are ice fields. These are bodies of water turned to ice from years of accumulated snowfall turned to ice that is unable to drain. Once full, the ice starts flowing over the top, just like pouring more water into an already full glass. Eric claims the recession of glaciers is twofold from his research. Glaciers are going to melt regardless since the Ice Age is over. And while rising temperatures can explain accelerated melting, Eric has noticed that less than enough precipitation is not allowing ice to overflow from the ice fields.

Photo Info:

All of us with Josiah disembarking off the bus and onto the ms Volendam.

Alaska - Day 4 (part 2)

We got really lucky today!! Continuing on the land tour of our trip, today we were to head out on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park. The tour was to last for about 8 hours, with boarding at 6:20am and ride in a converted school bus. Sounds brutal, but it turned out to be well worth it. Dennis, Shari, Jack and Mom bailed out, so it was only Buffy and myself that went on this excursion.

So our day began quite early. And all these early mornings, late nights and endless daylight must be taking its toll. I was very tired this morning, but I still managed to get to the bus. At least later in the morning, the skies opened and the sun began to shine.

There is only one road that takes you into the park. After 14 miles, no private vehicles are allowed unless they have a special permit. These special permits usually go to professional photographers, researchers, etc. Other than that, it is government/park owned vehicles that can enter this point. And they are only a limited number of them per day. This way, the majority of the park will not be impacted by the actions of mankind. We were instructed to eat on the bus and to leave all food, drinks, wrappers and such on the bus. This way, we protect the park and also do not become a target for animals looking for a better meal.

Our bus driver, Marsha was very informative and she talked almost for the entire tour. She knew all about the park, it's history, plants and the animals. The key word for the day was “migration,” so she called it the Marsha's Migration Tour.

Our first encounter with wildlife was not too far into the park; a snowshoe hare. It looked pretty much like a common rabbit to me. And like I said that we got lucky, it would be easier to mention what wildlife we didn't see. We also saw the Arctic ground squirrel, some raven, a lynx, dall sheep (rams), several caribou, plenty of willow ptarmigan (the state bird of Alaska) with look similar to chicken, a couple of grizzly bears with one young adult running in a field and in last 30 minutes of the tour, an adult bull moose with full antlers. The only animal we did not see was a wolf.

But the thing most exciting to see was Mt. McKinley. At 20,320 feet, it is the highest mountain in North America. So high that it can be seen on a clear day in Anchorage, 300 miles away. A large majority of the time, the mountain is not able to be seen in the park due to cloud cover. This mountain range is so large that it creates its own weather systems. We really got lucky with clear skies today.

Meanwhile, Mom, Dennis, Shari and Jack decided to take a shuttle to Denali National Park's Visitor Center. It is here where Shari probably made the quote of the day saying that she “felt that they are all prisoners on this trip,” since they have to wait in bus lines all the time and being told what activities to pursue. After looking around there for a while, they went for a ride to Savage River to look around.

Dennis wanted to start hiking around, but Mom wanted no part of that so she decided to ride the bus back to the Visitors Center and wait for them. Mom was in for the real adventure of the day. She mistakenly got off the bus a stop too early. She waited for a while for the next bus, but never really came on time. Noticing that the Visitors Center was short of 2 miles, she decided to trek out on her own. At least it was mostly downhill. It was about this time when our bus went by and Buffy and I saw Mom hiking down the road.

A short time into her hike, she came across a moose. So she just decided to turn around and go back the way she came. Later, Mom came across a couple of buses; one that was a blue campers' bus. She asked for a lift back, but they would not give it too her. Eventually, the shuttle bus going to the Visitors Center came by and she got on and made it back to the hotel.

After a nap, Mom, Buffy and I walked around the gift shops some and had pizza next door where the Princess Cruise Lines put up their passengers. While eating dinner, we ran into our tour director Josiah and one of his friends... off duty. There were no other tables available so we invited them to sit with us. We chit chatted around and learned more about how people come up for the summer and work these jobs in Alaska.

We never did find Dennis, Shari and Jack and wondered if they were still hiking somewhere. It wasn't like they were going to run out of daylight, but the shuttles quit running past 6pm.

Buffy and I later headed out to the Salmon Bake, a restaurant/bar/shops for a few drinks. Josiah was there so we hung out for a couple of drinks. We figured this was a place where the locals hang out. Heineken were $6 a bottle, so price wise it didn't seem like a place for locals. But everything else up here is a little pricier (unleaded gas is around $4.45 – 4.55 a gallon). We were here the night before after writing my previous post. One of the shots they serve is called a “duck fart.” It is Bailies, Kahlua and Crown Royal. Buffy really enjoyed it, but if I drank it, it would come up faster than it would go down. Instead, I was drinking a local brew called “Moose Drool Brown Ale.” It is a darker beer and it is very smooth, though it is a bit filling.

We ended the day getting things ready for tomorrow and, only fitting before getting on a cruise ship, watching Titanic on TBS.

So guess what we get to do tomorrow? You guessed it... another bus ride. This should be the last. We are to take a coach to Seward where we finally board the MS Volendam and begin our cruise. The ride is to be about 8 hours I hear, with a couple of stops. So I don't think a whole lot will happen tomorrow.

Alaska - Day 4

Travelogue Intermission - The Internet service suck big time on this ship.  This is my third attempt on a second try to get this post up!!!!  I will get back with everyone when I can find reliable Internet service.

Otherwise, we're having a good time! 

Alaska - Day 3

Today was another early start. Our original excursion called for a 4 hour scenic train ride from Fairbanks to Denali.  It was to be one of those glass dome cars. However, Alaska has had the highest amount of rainfall in 41 years. So, some of the tracks these trains need are flooded.  Instead, we had to take a bus to Fairbanks.  The part I don't understand was this; we were departing Fairbanks an hour earlier, but they claimed the bus ride would be faster than by train.  If that is so, why leave earlier?  Anyway, the weather by far cooperated with us as the day progressed.

Our first bus stop was in North Pole, AK.  That's right... the name of the town is North Pole and everything there has to do with Santa and Christmas.  All the street light poles are in the shape of candy canes.  Even the McDonald's sign is held up by a pole resembling a candy cane.  Coming into town, Andy the bus driver drove us completely through a roundabout in a complete circle before heading in the correct direction. He claimed he needed the practice.  The bus stopped at the Santa Claus House, a gift shop with everything tourist and Christmas.

Buffy was in bit of a panic.  She wanted several pictures of the place, but yet she wanted to shop. We only had 30 minutes.  I went and got the pictures and she shopped.  We did manage to get one photo of her with a giant Santa Claus statue next to the Santa Claus RV Park.  I am not making this up.  If fact later today, we met a family that stayed there!

We then had to head back to Fairbanks to pick up some folks at the train station (I think they got a late call while we were already in North Pole to pick these people up - good thing North Pole is only about 15 miles from Fairbanks).  Our next stop after about an hour or so was in a small town called Nenana.  There they have some large tripod pole they place on the Nenana River.  Each winter, the river freezes.  This tripod is connected to a clock and once the ice breaks free, it pushes free the tripod which then trips the clock and the exact time and day is recorded to when the ice finally breaks.  Wagers and bets are placed throughout the year on when this will happen.  The pot can get as high as $75,000.  And by the looks of this town, that's serious money.

We finally reached Denali shortly after 12 noon at the McKinley Chalets Resorts, where we'll be staying the next couple of nights.  It was nice that we didn't have to deal with our luggage.  The cruise people handle all that, though Mom's as well as Dennis & Shari's bags were late in being delivered.  We had lunch there at "the Chalets" at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.  This is a nice little bar with a great view of the river and canyon.  But poor Jack, it might just be too much excitement and too little sleep.  As he's bouncing around with energy, he accidently knocked over a glass of root beer and the glass broke.  He thought he was in trouble. 

After lunch and some light shopping and looking around, we were trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Dennis, Shari, possibly Jack and Mom were going to rent a Jeep and drive around the park.  But this would not happen until 5:45pm.  Buffy and I opted to take a shuttle over to Denali National Park and went for a hike to Horseshoe Lake.  On our way back waiting for our shuttle, we started talking to some people who was vacationing here. They mentioned that they were in North Pole and their kids got to meet Santa.  They also mentioned they were staying in an RV and then they stated that they stayed at the Santa Claus RV Park. "Yea, I know where that is," I said.

Tomorrow is going to be another early start.  We take our 8 hour Wilderness Tundra Tour or something like that in Denali National Park.  We hope for good weather, but the forecast calls for rain.  Sounds like Dennis is going to bail on this ride as he cannot handle being in a converted school bus with Jack for that long.  I'll let everyone know what happens tomorrow.

Photos:

Top - Buffy and I on the trail to Horseshoe Lake.

Bottom - All of us at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.

Alaska - Day 2

Today began at 12:11am.  That's when I woke up inexplicably.  I decided to check out how much sunlight was still out. Before we left, Jeff Bilsland wanted a picture taken at midnight so he could see just how much sunlight there was at that time. I didn't take a picture, but I had to see for myself.  There was no direct sunlight, but more "twilight."  It was like the sun was just beyond the horizon, like you see early in the morning.  When I woke up later in the morning, I discovered that we were in for a rainy and overcast day.  We would later learn that this year has been unusually high in rainfall, which explains why all the creek and rivers look so full.

Right now, it's 9:15pm and it looks like 6pm at night at this time of year in Illinois.

Our orders for today was to meet before 8pm in the hotel lobby for us to head out on our riverboat tour.  We had breakfast first, but then waited in the lobby until our tour was ready to head out.  We were assigned on Tour 14A, bus #864 with driver "Gwen" who regaled us with many tails about growing up in Fairbanks. 

We arrived at the place where the riverboat, the Discovery III, was to head out.  They strategically drop us off in front of the gift shop before it left.  Within the barrage of gift shops, there's a place called "Alaska at 40 Below."  It was basically a room with a temperature of 40 below or less.  At $10 a person, you can experience what life is like in Fairbanks during the winter. Dennis, Jack and I signed up no more than we see that the current temperature is -60 or less (the thermometer was buried). They put us in parkas and we first entered a room at approximately 0 F.  Then we moved into -60.  It was cold.  I've been in -40 before.  We did a couple of experiments; we through a cup of hot water in the air and watched it dissipate.  We also blew soap bubbles and watch them freeze and when they busted, turned into ice crystals.  They even showed us frozen motor oil, demonstrating what an auto goes through in this part of the country.  We moved back into the air lock where it was 0 degrees... it felt warm.

Our riverboat cruise took us on the Chena River.  We made a stop at where famed sled dog trainer Susan Butcher trained her award winning dogs for the Iditirod race.  We also stopped at an "Arctic Village" to learn how Eskimos and natives made a life for themselves.  At this stop we were able to pet many sled dogs and see cabins where natives lived life in Alaska.  There were many demonstrations on the cruise regarding life in Alaska.  But this cruise also looked at many homes along the river. 

Once this cruise was over, we headed to a gold dredging facility for lunch, a tour and some gold panning.  The lunch was actually good... beef stew, biscuits and blueberry crumb cake.  It was a bit odd going into the "mess hall" of the gold dredging facility in a line and in order.  We were directed where to sit and what to eat.  I commented that it was run by the Soup Nazi.  

After the informative tour of the Gold Dredging #8, we got to pan for our own gold.  They gave us a sack of sand, which already contained gold flakes in them.  We gave a couple of extra bags to Jack so he got extra gold.... $30 worth according to the assessor.  I not only panned out my gold, but afterwards, I dug up a bunch of rock/sand from the bottom of the water pit and was able to pan an extra flake of gold out of it, undoubtedly left over from a previous excursion. I'm rich!!

One last brief stop off the bus was to check out a section of the Alaskan Pipeline.  Shari stayed on the bus as she had no interest in this stop.  Jack got off the bus to look at the site, but displayed very little interest as well.

We all ate dinner across the street at the Iris.  Several Heinekens later, I'm back at room 316 at the Westmark.  Our day begins tomorrow before 7am.  We were originally to take a train to Denali National Park, but the heavy rains and flooding they've had going on this summer has shut down the track.  So our plans have altered to a bus to Denali.  But they say this will take less time.  Once at Denali, we are suppose to tour the park, so hopefully, I'll have some pictures of wildlife.

So until tomorrow...

Alaska Fun Fact #1:
At the gold dredging, we learned that Fairbanks is an Artic desert and that Arizona receives more rain.  This summer has been unusually wet and cold for Alaska.  The locals claim that this is the most rain they've seen since the big flood of '67.

Alaska Fun Fact #2:

According to Gwen the bus driver, JC Penney opened its first store in Alaska in Anchorage in 1964 just a day before Good Friday.  Of course on the next day, Good Friday that year, Anchorage encountered one of the worst recorded earthquakes.   In 1967, JC Penney opened another store in Fairbanks... the year of a terrible flood in Fairbanks.

Alaska - Day 1

It is 5:11pm Alaska time (8:11pm Central time) and we have all arrived safely and have now settled in the Westmark Fairbanks.  Currently, Dennis, Shari, Buffy and myself are lounging in our room watching the Alaska channel while my Mom rests and Jack takes a bath.  Jack is pretty wound up right now after a full day of travel.

We started off sometime after 9am Peoria time, leaving Byerly Aviation.  After about 3 and a half hours, we stopped in Edmonton, Alberta Canada to refuel the plane and ourselves.  Our first order of business was taking care of some business... meaning potty stop.  In getting to the rest room, we passed by a terminal at the airport.  It was here where we saw scores of beat down, hunched over people waiting for a flight on a 737.  Perhaps hours earlier, these people were having a good time at a pub and then suddenly hit over the head.  Later, upon waking up, they find they were shanghaied and now forced to work in the vast oil sands of northern Alberta.  Just speculation.  Fact is, it looked pretty depressing in there.

We went to Zambelli's restaurant near Edmonton where I tried some of the local brew, Roughneck.  It's logo was that of an oil well, simply because of all the oil sand business in northern Alberta.  I thought it would come in a bottle, but was a can.

Back in the air, it was about 2 and a half hours left, thanks to less than stronger headwind.

We landed in Fairbanks, only to discover that Holland/Westmark did not know anything about picking us up.  A hour and a couple of phone calls later, the shuttle was there to whisk us to the Westmark.

After check in, we met up with Josiah, our cruise director for the land tour.  He ran down our activities for tomorrow.  We paid good money for people to tell us what to do!  Tomorrow starts off with a riverboat tour (couldn't we have done that on the Spirit of Peoria... I don't think it would be the same).  For lunch and the afternoon, there's a gold dredging outing.  Jack is excited about that because we told him he could keep any gold he finds.  Good luck. 

I hope to have some interesting photos for everyone tomorrow.  I didn't really have any today.

But right now, we researching some restaurants to go to and the all important saloon.