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Alaska

June - July 2023
A 18-day adventure by SUSAN Read more
  • 19footprints
  • 2countries
  • 18days
  • 129photos
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  • 6.2kmiles
  • 1.2ksea miles
  • 327miles
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  • TravelerAlaska
    Day 1

    Fairbanks Alaska

    June 20, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    Well, off on another trip. This time to Alaska with Sue Pariana. We met at the airport at about 3;30. Most of plane was filled with Cruise goers. It was a full flight. Had dinner before the flight at chick-fil-e. Uneventful flight. Landed in Fairbanks at. 8:45 pm. 11:45 msp time. While waiting for our hotel shuttle we were talking to a man who was a shuttle driver to a different hotel that looked like a rugged Alaska native. He was telling us that everyone in Alaska is packing because you don’t want to come across a moose without it. He said moose are everywhere. Made it to the hotel. Checked into the Best western. Chena river. Tomorrow we start our adventure going to Arctic Circle.Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    1
    Day 2

    Arctic circle

    June 21, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Wow what a day. Started off with a nice breakfast. Got picked up by our tour guide at 7:30. there were 8 other people on the tour. Our Driver was Jake. Most of couples did the cruise first and were now doing their land portion. Heard lots of stories about some of their adventures.
    Weather forecast has today being rainy.
    We started off going north out of town along a nice highway. Our first stop was at the pipeline. We got out and were able to walk right up to the pipeline where they had some displays of equipment used on the line there were two different “pigs” that they use to clean the inside of the pipe. When they go down the pipe they make a squealing sound hence the name pig. Apparently when the oil is extracted from the ground it comes out of the ground at about 170 degrees, it gets put into the pipe where it has cooled down a bit. But as it travels down the pipe it gains heat from friction. To slow the flow you will see sections that zig zag down a slope. At every section brace, there is a detector that monitors the temperature. If it gets too hot it releases a coolant into the vertical pipe which protects the ground from thawing. They are protecting the permafrost from thawing.
    We also got our first education in the fact that yes, you do need bug spray. Got siphoned off a few pints of blood.
    Second stop was at the beginning of the Dawson Highway. We went from paved road to dirt. Because of the permafrost, it rakes havoc on the roads. Truckers actually prefer non paved roads in winter as the chains they use can’t grip paved roads. So instead they pack snow on the road and wet it down with water to make it icy. Chains can grip that. Hence the name Ice roads. We stopped at the info station and got out into the most incredible swarm of Mosquitoes you ever saw. This time no donations to the blood bank happened with a generous coating of OFF. Jake made an observation and showed us that you can see the aurora. Pointing out between the fluffy clouds ( no rain in sight. In fact, a beautiful day ) that you can see the whisks of white that danced and shifted. Pretty cool in the middle of the day. We got back in the van which was now filled with a cloud of voracious bugs. We proceeded with having a grand time playing Mosquito Wack-a-Mole. For the next hour, we squished bugs. Next stop, was a stop for food. Might be the only place to get anything the rest of the trip. The road continued North with the pipeline never far from view. Very bumpy. Even though we are driving through mountains, it didn’t feel like mountain driving. Every where you looked you saw spruce trees mixed with Aspen and birch. Miles and miles of it. All the hills and valleys, nothing but spruce. We eventually got to the Yukon River, and stoped at Yukon Camp. Did a little shopping there and went down to the River. Back on the road again heading for our ultimate destination. Made one additional stop at a gravel pit from which we got a spectacular view. Got to the circle at about 4:00. Got our picture taken but was a bit disappointed that there was no “circle” . However. The squirrels and Jays are very friendly. The Jays come up and take food from your hand. Found out they have a nickname of camper thieves. Headed back to Fairbanks with a couple of stops to look at wild flowers. Also spotted two female moose feeding along the road. We were able to stop and Visio then for about 10 min. Got back to the hotel at 9:45. Tried to find someplace to get dinner but everything was closed except the grocery store.
    Got back to the hotel. Apparently the hotel was full up and a group of guys were being turned away. One of the guys ran after us to the elevator and offered us any price to share our room. That was a first in my book. Of course we declined the kind offer.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    Day 3

    Fairbanks

    June 22, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    Got up and had breakfast. Checked out of our hotel. Arranged for a cab to take us to the Bear Lodge which is the hotel we’re we join our cruise tour. Since it was too early to check in, we arranged to have our bags stored until we could check in. Just to pause for a moment for an aside comment. The people in Fairbanks are some of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered. Minnesota nice has nothing to Fairbanks. The people at the hotel we’re helping us plan our day. Giving suggestions. The plan for today was to catch a city bus out to North Pole. They told us we’re to catch the bus and we’re to transfer. We caught the bus and the driver was very friendly. He told us this weekend in Fairbanks was their solstice party. They close down all downtown and have a big party. The big event is the rubber ducky race. You buy a rubber duck put you name on it and everyone throws them into the Chena river and see who makes it to the finish line about a mile downstream. Winner wins $10000.
    We had to wait about an hour to catch the next bus out to North Pole due to things have a tendency of closing down during break times. When breaks were over services resume. So we bummed around town a little. Problem was nothing opened until 11am and it was 10am so we window shopped until we happened upon an open shop. We returned to the bus station just as break time finished and service resumed. The bus driver took one look at us and determined we were going to North Pole. I asked if we had tourists written all over us to which she said yes. We laughed and she said she would take care of us. She dropped us off and said she would be back in 2 hours to pick us up. So we shopped around the store then went out to see the reindeer. We met up with a couple who was on the trip yesterday. Small world Alaska is.

    Got back to downtown Fairbanks and shopped around for a bit . Decided to go to a place called the crepery. And yes they served crepes. We both tried the crème brûlée with berries. I thought Sue had died and gone to heaven. They were delicious. After we went to the ice museum. That was a lot of fun. Headed back to the hotel and got checked in. Met our guide Paul who gave us all our information we would need for the duration of the land portion of the trip. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and had pizza which was delicious. Settled in for the night was we got a thunderstorm. Most of the day was sunny and warm but did get some a couple of short showers.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    Day 4

    Denali

    June 23, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Got up today about 5:45. Needed to get our bags outside our door by 6:30. Ate leftover pizza for breakfast. Went down to meet up with the tour. Turns out that Paul our assigned tour guide , is a bit of a comedian. Lots of energy, crazy with kids, likes to tell jokes making our bus kind of the party bus. We first took a little tour of Fairbanks and were shown options for lunch. Then drove out to the Chema Riverboat and took a cruise down the river. Fairbanks is one of the wealthiest places and all the wealth had homes along the river. People obviously took great pride in the appearance of their property as they were very pristine. We stopped along the shore in front of Susan Butcher who was the famous woman dog sled racer. She died of cancer some years ago but her daughter still runs her kennel. We got a demo of dog shedding and saw some puppies. After that, we continued down river to the Chema River camp where we saw a village of native peoples and how they lived. After the cruise, we went to have lunch at the best BBQ restaurant in Fairbanks. We both had brisket sandwiches which were excellent. Then walked around that part of town along the river to an antler arch. Got back to the bus and headed to Denali. Checked into the hotel. Then headed to do a little White Water Rafting. Sue was quite nervous about going but had a good time once she realized she wouldn’t fall out of the boat. Got back to the Hotel about 10:30. There are no pictures of us rafting because the wet suits they made us wear was the most unflattering thing to wear. You felt like the stay puff marshmallow man. That was a ‘what happens in Alaska stays in Alaska’ moment.Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    1
    Day 5

    Day 2 in Denali

    June 24, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Got up early today to head out to see puppies. We went out to Homestead which is Jeff Kings place, who is 4 time Iditarod winner. Got to hold 5 week old puppies most of whom howled for their breakfast. they were so cute. Next we got introduced to the adult dogs and were given demonstrations on training, socialization, and naming practices. Each year they breed one to two litters. Each litter puppies are named by subject, like Greek gods, or sandwiches, or characters from a movie. The litter they had this year were named for famous explorers. Next we heard stories of what it is like to run the Iditarod. It’s quite the sport. Then at the end, Jeff came and we were able to hear some of his stories and ask questions.

    After the dogs, we went into Denali park visitors center and walked one of the shorter trails, then ate lunch. Then we took a bus tour out to Mile 15 of the park. It started to rain but luckily, if was just one of those brief showers then the sun came back out. We did see another Moose, and a caribou which was quite far away. Tried to spot some Dall sheep but didn’t see any. We were able to spot Mt Denali through the clouds. Was not the best viewing but we could see it 70 miles away. The Mountain View’s were spectacular.
    After returning to the hotel, Paul had arranged for us to go to a dinner show. This was located on the property of the hotel. It was served family style with salmon, ribs beans, corn, salad, and a berry cobbler. Then the entire waitstaff entertained us with stores of early life in Denali. It was very well done.
    Getting to bed early tonight as we are getting a bit worn out.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    Day 6

    To Anchorage

    June 25, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    Today we are off to Anchorage. To get there, we are taking a dome train to Telkeetna. Remember the TV show Northern Exposure? Story based on this town and where the opening credits were filmed with the moose walking down Main Street. That is where we are heading. We get the train and head out of Denali on a 5 hour trip. Scenery is beautiful. Mostly cloudy day but the sun did make its appearance on occasion. We had a guide on the train who explained everything along the way. Hoping to see some kind of wildlife along the way as the probability was good, but had to settle for some trumpeter swans. Had lunch in the dinning car and had bison sandwich with a Mosquito Bite (That’s a drink). It was very good. The food so far on the trip has been very good. But the prices…. It’s very expensive. About an hour before getting to Telkeetna, we had to pull off to a side track to let two other trains pass. That delayed us by 1.5 hours. While we sat there, Apparently a moose crossed the tracks in front of the engine but no one was able to see it. We did run out of vodka so when the first train came by. It stopped along side and we traded potato chips for a bottle. While this happened, our dome car was having fun with the other dome car. They were acting like they saw something spectacular outside their car which we couldn’t see. We did “the wave” down our side. Exchange was done and we finally got a new supply of vodka, and got back to traveling. Unfortunately, the delay meant we couldn’t spend any time in Telkeetna. It looked like such a cute town. (Note to self, if you ever get back to Alaska, make sure to visit here). So now its off to Anchorage. We did stop by to get Ice cream. Paul had promised the three little kids in our group that if there were really good on the trip and didn’t make the group late for any departures, that he would buy them Ice cream. So this is where he made good on his promise as the kids have been really good. Got into Anchorage about 6ish, got a quick tour of the downtown area then headed to the Sheraton Hotel. It is the tallest building in Anchorage. It is anchorage’s skyline. Went to dinner at a nice restaurant about 8 blocks down the street. Since we did not have a reservation we had to eat at the bar. Met a Man sitting next to us who was also traveling to Denali so we talked about all our adventures. Got back to hotel about 830 and called it a night.

    Turns out we are becoming famous on our tour. We are known as the two Sue’s. Paul thought it was funny to call us Sue and Sue attorneys at law.
    Going forward everyone on the bus called us the two Sue’s.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    Day 7

    Road to Homer

    June 26, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    Today we leave for Homer. Started out from Anchorage and headed down the Kenai Peninsula. It was a beautiful trip. Paul explained all about the ecology of the water in this area and about the salmon migrations. We finally spotted some Doll Sheep up in the hillsides. The scenery along here is spectacular. Stopped by a wildlife center where they house animals that can no longer survive in the wild. We saw moose, bear, bison, elk, deer, wolf, coyote, arctic fox, porcupine, Just to mention a few. From there we continued on and stopped for lunch and had some of the best chicken salad sandwiches . Continuing on, Paul told us about his first fishing trip. We stopped at the location where he fishes and as we entered the parking lot, we encountered mama moose and her two calf’s. Apparently it is rare for them to have two. Craig our bus driver keeped watched for her as we got out of the coach as she was only 300 feet away in the woods. We did not see them again. We did however see a mama duck or loon, with her baby’s in tow. Sometimes the baby’s rode on the mothers back. Not sure what kind of bird they were. I will have to look it up.

    The last stop of the day was at the Kenai conservation center where we walked around a bit and got eaten up by mosquito’s. But we did see our first eagle.

    Back on the road to Homer and arrived about 5ish. And took a quick tour out to the Spit. Checked into our Bestwestern hotel. We decided to do a laundry and to pack up some thing to ship home and called it a night.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska
    Day 8

    Day 2 in Homer

    June 27, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 52 °F

    Today we got up and had breakfast which was included at this hotel. Up to now. Breakfasts have been running about $30. We hired a cab to run down to the Post office to send a bunch of stuff we bought home. Our suitcases where getting a bit over stuffed. Today we are going to spend part of the day out on the Spit. It’s a two mile spit of land that houses all the fishing industry and has a bunch of cute shops. It’s also where you see lots of eagles. When we got back to the hotel, we took a nap then went to dinner after. Spending the evening just chilling out.Read more

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