Alaska 2

 As often happens, we left on vacation just ahead of the sweet corn being ready.  Our trip lasted three weeks, so even though I planted several varieties over several planting dates, we missed the season.  Our children, family, and friends got to take advantage of our fresh sweet corn.  Our kids and grand-kids all got in on the action of picking, shucking, processing, freezing, and eating while we were gone.  The day we got back home, I scoured the patch and found enough residual ears that were not yet too hard so that I got to eat five ears!  But then there were none.  Fortunately, Tom's patch was later than ours and he graciously allowed me to pick some of his corn.  So, I did get to eat my fill of fresh, local sweet corn for several days.

We met up with my siblings and their spouses, and our tour guide at our hotel in downtown Fairbanks. A couple of us went out to eat at Big Daddy's BBQ restaurant that evening, and did a little walking tour in the downtown plaza area.  In the morning we joined the whole tour group and loaded the tour bus for the first leg of the tour.  We stopped to see the pipeline, and stopped at the Cultural and Visitors Center.

We had a wide range of food during our tour, including at a crepe place in Fairbanks, Thai food from a food truck in Denali, the dining car on the train, a food vendor at a street market in Anchorage, and Lodge food. 

 We did some sightseeing and shopping on our way to Denali National Park, including a stop at the Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska.  We spent two nights at a lodge in Denali and took a park tour, did some hiking, souvenir shopping, and had some educational programs.  It was cloudy and rainy, so we didn't get to see the mountain again. We hopped on the Alaskan Railroad and took the scenic trip to Talkeetna in an observation car.  The scenery was beautiful on this portion of the trip.  We saw more than what you can see from the highway.

     

We spent a night in Anchorage, and visited the Ulu factory.  We walked to the river and watched people salmon fishing and did some shopping.  We also stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  We didn't see as much wildlife as we would have liked, but over the course of our travels, we did see some.  Some in the wild, and some at the conservation center.

Our first view of wildlife!

On our way to Whittier, we drove through a  2 1/2 mile long tunnel that was one way and also had railroad tracks down the middle of the road. Each half hour they switched directions to drive though it.  We waited about twenty minutes before we could enter.  In Whittier, we boarded our cruise ship, the Holland American "Noordam".  We had never been on a cruise before, so it was all new to us.  We had a very nice stateroom, and enjoyed all the good food they serve.  The employees were mostly foreigners, and very attentive and friendly.  We got to know some of them on a first name basis.  

We stopped in Glacier Bay National Park, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan as we cruised the Inside Passage.  At Glacier Bay, the boat stopped in front of several glaciers and there were Park Ranger led programs on the decks.  At each stop, I tried to do some hiking and exploring around town.  In Skagway, three of us rented e-bikes and did a four hour, twenty mile sightseeing trip to Dyea, the Chilkoot Trail trailhead, the Gold Rush Cemetery, and Reid Falls.  I also checked out the Gold Rush National Park visitors center, and the Chilkoot Trail headquarters.  We did a short hike on the Chilkoot, and I hope to backpack it some day 😉.    In Juneau we took a bus tour around town and then to Mendenhall Glacier where we hiked to Nugget Falls.  At Ketchikan we hiked the Salmon Trail, walked down Creek Street, and saw some Totem poles.

  

While on the ship, we spent a lot of time outside on the decks looking for wildlife.  We saw several whales on several different days, but none very close up.  We saw a grizzly bear and her cub on a distant beach through binoculars, but not close enough for a good picture.  We also saw otters and sea lions.

The ship also had educational programs, travelogues, singing entertainment, and a couple comedians.  Most of the time while traveling the Inside Passage there were snow capped mountains in view.  Sometimes we were looking at fog shrouded mountains, and other times the sun setting behind them.  There was always something beautiful to look at. 

 

We docked in Vancouver harbor on a Sunday morning and disembarked.  We were bussed through downtown and out to the airport.  We went through customs, and then had lunch in the airport and visited until our flight back to Chicago boarded.  We had a good flight to Chicago, took the tram and found our car in the long term parking lot, and drove safely home. God blessed us with a safe, enjoyable, and special trip.  I'm ready to go back.  

"Once you've been to Alaska, you never come all the way back." 

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:                       Psalm 7:19