Denali, Alaska

Monday, 20 Aug 2018 – This morning we attached our newly printed Princess luggage tags and sat out our luggage at 6:25 AM; then we went to the dining room for breakfast at about 7:30 AM, sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant from usual.  Our server was Kari, who was enrolled at a local college.  After breakfast, we squeezed our remaining belongings into our two small suitcases and went outdoors at 10:00 AM to board our bus to Denali.  Our driver (Robyn) was a slim, young lady – who looked much too young and slight to be driving such a big bus!  She assured us that although she was small in stature, she was very capable.  About half way to Denali, we stopped at a gift shop to use restrooms; however, many of us also purchased some of their very nice souvenirs.

          At about 1:00 PM we arrived at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  As we arrived, we happened to see our friends, Val and Ed.  They were just leaving for their afternoon excursion.  We discussed possibly meeting at the Lodge’s theater for dinner and a show.

The lodge was split into several separate two-level buildings, more reminiscent of small condos than a lodge.  Each building was numbered with a letter; our room was in building “P,” and was located a little distance from the road.  

After dropping off our luggage, we went to the Lynx Creek Pizza Restaurant located on the Lodge grounds for calzones (which were very good).  There were several other restaurants and shops located across the road – even some kind of marijuana shop (apparently marijuana is legal in Alaska).  Sally soon lay down for a nap to make up for sleeping very little the previous night.  During that time, Jesse went out looking for a replacement jacket for Sally.  Being the “shopper” in the family, he checked out every shop in area!  After all that, he ended up buying one on sale at the lodge which Sally had tried on earlier.  The jacket is black with white trim, has “ALASKA” on the front in small white lettering, and is reversible.

          Tonight we went to the Music of Denali Dinner Theater with Val and ED, which is on the Denali lodge premises.  The food was bountiful, served family style: lots of salmon, browned potatoes, succotash, apple crisp with whipped topping, and iced tea.  The “Music of Denali Dinner Show” was a musical comedy, with 3 guys and 3 gals, very nicely performed.  Cost was $69.95 per person.  We had a great time!

          This time our room included a tub in the bathroom instead of a handicapped shower; we enjoyed hot baths before bed.

Tuesday, 21 Aug 2018 – Val and Ed left again this morning in a bus bound for Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, so again we went about on our own.  We walked through the rain across the road to the Black Bear Coffee House for brunch.  Although this seemed to be mostly a take-out place, there were some tables available.  We ate tacos with cheese, potatoes, and bacon, plus pancakes with berry sauce and syrup.  Not bad, actually!

          This afternoon, we were scheduled for a 4-hour Denali Natural History Tour.  At 1:30 PM, our driver/naturalist guide Aaron, picked up our group in front of the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  He was originally from “north of Peoria,” Illinois, which is true for Sally, too.  (Sally asked him for details; Aaron is from Bradford, which is 36 miles from Sally’s birthplace.)  His enthusiasm and love for Alaska shone through all of his comments.  Denali National Park and Preserve is centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America.  The park and preserve encompass 6,045 acres, which is larger than the state of New Hampshire.  More than one-third of the park was established as Denali Wilderness.

Private cars are not allowed in the park past a certain point.  Visitors wishing to tour the park must board a “blue bus,” or “green bus” if they are interested in hiking.  The hikers may get on and off the “green bus” at various locations.  Snow machines are illegal, and sled dogs are used to patrol the area.  The area we were visiting was taiga, which is forest located in far northern regions, consisting mainly of firs, pines, and spruces and some deciduous trees, such as birches and aspen.  (The land between areas of trees is the tundra.)

Aaron told us that this was the first day of fall, which lasts for about 7 days; it could snow any day now (but probably will not quite yet).  He could see chlorophyll draining away from vegetation.  Very importantly, the fireweed bloom casts the date for winter: the saying is that once the fireweed blooms to the top and goes to seed, winter will arrive 6 weeks later.  Therefore, winter was imminent.  Although the growing season here is only 12 weeks, the long days of sunlight make up for its being so short. 

This is taiga forest, which is prime moose habitat.  Moose were now eating 40 pounds of food per day, and are the biggest in Alaska of anywhere in the world.  The moose rutting season was just beginning. A wild bear is fast, with the ability to cover 50 yards in 3 seconds!  However, Aaron told us that a female deer with a calf can be more dangerous than a grizzly bear.  Wolves roam the park and have had a positive effect on its environment, for example by culling out cold, sick, and injured sheep, making the sheep population stronger overall.

At one point, we got off the bus to visit Savage Cabin, the original cook’s cabin in the Park’s first tourist camp, and still a ranger patrol cabin used by the Park Service.  We walked through a wooded area to get to the cabin.  There, a ranger gave us a presentation detailing her duties.  From her description, a ranger’s life is not easy, and a ranger must obviously love nature and dogs, since their sled dogs are their main companions during the long winters.  After taking photos and saying our goodbyes to the ranger, we went for a long walk through wooded areas back to our bus.  The pathway was paved, with many poster displays along the route. 

As the bus continued to climb upward, the temperature was dropping by 4 degrees every 1,000 feet.  We saw a caribou from a distance.  By the way, the “caribou” in North America is a “reindeer” in Europe – they are the same species.  The Alaskan female caribou grows antlers, as does the male; the male sheds his rack after rutting but the female keeps hers all winter.  Antlers grow very fast because of the long daylight period.

Ravens are plentiful in Alaska and intelligent.  Aaron joked that the last 3 survivors on earth will be ravens, cayotes, and cockroaches!

At one point, we stopped to see/hear a presentation by an Athabascan Alaskan Native interpreter, sharing the story of Alaskan natives in Denali, and how they survived thousands of years in this harsh wilderness.  We left the bus and climbed a small incline to see her, though she spoke softly and Sally couldn’t hear her.  Although hunting and trapping are prohibited in the park, limited subsistence hunting and trapping is allowed for the few Athabaskans who consider this their home.

Because the day was overcast (and raining by the later part of our tour), we couldn’t see many mountains.  Sally had seen the weather forecast almost a week ahead of time, which indicated rain for this part of our Alaska visit and it proved to be accurate.  Aaron (and other guides as well) told us that the highest mountains create their own weather, so that it is often raining on them, anyway, making it impossible to see the peak. Not many people succeed in climbing Denali because of its near-Arctic conditions.  Denali has been described as “the coldest mountain in the world,” with record temperatures of -60̊ F, wind gusts of 100 miles per hour, and wind chills down to -100̊.  Only one day in three is storm-free.

 Aaron said that if we had come two weeks earlier, the weather here would have been sunnier, but clouds of mosquitoes would have been everywhere.  (Someone was said to have killed 18 mosquitoes at one time a few years ago when he slapped his hand on his arm.)  He informed us that there are 35 species of mosquitoes in Alaska!  Jesse saw only a couple of mosquitoes; Sally didn’t see any.

          The most important change taking place now in this wilderness is in global warming.  Alaska as a whole warmed by 3̊ F in the last 60 years; this is twice as fast as temperatures are rising in the lower 48 states.  Although glaciers cover 16 percent of the park, nearly all of them are now thinning and retreating.  [This makes Sally want to return to Alaska to see more!]

          By the time our bus turned around to head back to the park’s entrance, it was raining pretty hard.  Our last photos were of rain running down the bus windows!

          It was 5:30 PM when we returned to the Denali lodge.  After a while, we went again to the Lynx Creek Pizza.  This time, some pizza slices were available, which we ate in addition to salad.  After that, Jesse asked someone at the front desk of the lodge to make copies of our Princess luggage tags for our smaller suitcases (because any luggage taken on the train must fit under the seat).  Since we forgot to use today’s $5 coupon for the pizza, we used it to buy two huge chocolate chip cookies.

Fairbanks, Alaska

Friday, 17 Aug 2018 – This second day was definitely a relaxing one.  It was after 9:00 AM when Sally awoke, though Jesse had been up for more than an hour.  Soon we found the Edgewater Dining Room just down the hall and had our first experience with high-priced Alaskan food.  We shared an $8.00 bowl of oatmeal and a $14.00 omelet, which was equivalent to our typical breakfast at home, but not what we’re used to on cruises.  Our server was Coleman, from Salt Lake City.  Soon he will be going on a two-year mission for the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

River Walk

Our room was located in one of the 3 or 4 large buildings at the lodge, each consisting of about 4 floors, but our building seemed to be the most centrally located. In fact, we felt fortunate that our room was on the main floor, near the entrance and very near the dining room.  Our room was handicapped accessible, which helped to explain its convenient location.  The view from our window was of the Chena River, a view which relatively few Lodge rooms would have.  After unpacking a few of our belongings, we went for a walk completely around the Lodge, which turned out to be about one-quarter of a mile along the river and then back past the side and front of the buildings.  Along the way, we met two other couples, both of whom had completed the cruise portion of their cruise tours first, rather than the land tour first as we were doing.  The weather was overcast and cool, but not cold.

At dinner, our waiter was Marko, a young man from Serbia who spoke excellent English.  Again, the food was expensive.  We shared clam chowder ($8) and squash lasagna ($18); the lasagna was one of the least expensive dinners on the menu, but it was very good.  Also, we were able to use a $5 coupon, which we received for not having our room serviced this morning.  (We used a similar $5 coupon each day at Fairbanks.)

Princess Riverside Lodge

Saturday, 18 Aug 2018 – This morning we were both awake by 7:00 AM, and at about 9:15 we walked down the hall to the dining room.  This time, our waitress, Cynthia, said she had always lived in Alaska.  Very talkative, she told us that they don’t get as much snow in Fairbanks as along the coast; July is warmest and the dining room’s veranda is used most in June and July.  (Now, people were eating only inside.)   She said that winter is now on its way.  Although most of their rain falls in August, it’s a “dry cold,” which isn’t too bad, in her opinion.  On our walk yesterday, we had seen the lodge’s surprisingly healthy-looking vegetable garden; although the growing season is short, the plants enjoy long days of sunshine.

Antler Arch

In mid-afternoon, we took the lodge’s shuttle into town.  Although we had hoped to get off at a grocery store and buy milk and cold cereal, the shuttle made only 3 stops – and none were near a store.  The first stop was the Pioneer Park, which was the most popular visitor’s site in Fairbanks.  The park was opened in 1967 as the “Alaska 67 Centennial Exposition” to celebrate the centennial of the Alaska Purchase.  The park commemorates early Alaskan history with multiple museums and historic displays on site.  Since it was very near closing time, we opted to skip that stop.

The second stop was the Fairbanks Visitors’ Center, where we got off the shuttle.  There we watched a movie about Alaska, and then walked through a museum with displays of historical Alaska.  (Jesse walked through faster than Sally would have liked!)  After that, we walked for a half-mile along the river to the third shuttle stop where the “Log House” was located.  Along the way, we chatted with a few tourists and a few un-prosperous-looking locals.  (Only one asked us for financial assistance.)  The Log House turned out to be a tiny gift shop.  But they were showing a short film, which we didn’t bother to watch.  We sat for almost 30 minutes on a bench and waited for the shuttle to swing by for our return to the lodge.  While sitting there, the sun shone on us and felt hot. (We weren’t wearing summer clothes.)  In fact, this turned out to be one of the sunniest days for our Alaska visit.  While waiting for the shuttle, Jesse did walk around the area to do a little window shopping, but there wasn’t much there except for some really heavy outerwear, suitable for the harsh Alaskan winters.

Golden Heart Plaza

Alyeska Pipeline

Almost immediately after our return to our room, our Bettendorf friends, Val and Ed, called; they had just arrived at the lodge after their flight from home.  The four of us then went to dinner in the dining room.  This time, our server was Yana, from Bulgaria, and we two split a house salad and squash lasagna, with Jesse also having a bowl of chowder.  Of course, we discussed our trips up to this point.

Sunday, 19 Aug 2018 – This morning Val and Ed called us at 6:30 AM, waking us up.  As a matter of fact, they had already eaten breakfast and were ready to start their land tour.  We couldn’t understand why they were getting ready so early.  (It wasn’t until that evening when we found out the reason!)

Tanana Valley Railroad (Replica)

When we went down the hall to the dining room, we found a large crowd of people already eating there.  However, we waited only a short time until our server Temelk (from Macedonia) waited on us.  Very soon, we went out to the front of the lodge where we were to meet for our “Morning Gold Dredge 8 Tour and Afternoon Riverboat Cruise.”  One bus (G1) was already loading, but we were told that our bus (G2) would arrive soon.  It did, and we boarded.

Our first stop was Dredge 8, where we enjoyed a close-up view of the TransAlaska pipeline and a presentation about its history and operation.  Then our group boarded a hand-built replica of the narrow gauge Tanana Valley Railroad, which delivered supplies to gold camps in the early 1900’s.  On the way, the conductor told stories and sang songs from those old days.

Panning for Gold

After the train stopped, we toured Gold Dredge 8, a National Historical Monument.  After the tour, we were each given a bag of sandy soil and a pan to try our hand at panning for gold.  And some gold was guaranteed; it was just a question of how much.  It was a trick to let the tiny pieces of gold sink to the bottom of the water in the pan, while allowing the lighter-weight sand and pebbles to wash out of the pan.  After panning, we all went to the gift shop where our gold was weighed; our combined gold was worth $34.00 – which was much less than a few top performers collected.  We were also treated to complimentary coffee and homemade cookies prior to re-boarding the train for our return trip.

          Our bus then took us to the Fairbanks Steamboat Landing.  First was lunch, which was served family style at the Discovery Dining Hall.  Considerable food included beef stew, fruit salad, and brownies for dessert.  We took a little too long, not noticing that people had been boarding the only remaining authentic Discovery III Alaskan sternwheeler on the river front for a cruise along the Chena and Tanana rivers.  As a result, our choice of seats was reduced and we were unable to get seats along the outside of the boat.  Still, our inside seats turned out to be satisfactory, except that we were unable to watch a sled dog demonstration at the Trail Breaker Kennels facility on the banks of the river because people were standing in front of us and blocking our view.  Soon, we saw a seaplane take off very close to the boat.  The boat stopped at the “Old Chena Indian Village,” where people were divided into groups to hear two young women at 3 cabins tell about the animals that lived there, how they made clothing from furs, etc.  Back on the riverboat, much of the scenery was of comfortable-looking private homes lining the river banks.  We noticed that some motorboats that were speeding down the river had dogs standing on the front, facing into the wind, obviously enjoying the ride immensely.  No doubt, these dogs were sled dogs in the winter.  Complimentary coffee and donuts were served to the passengers along the way.

          It was after 5:30 PM when we arrived back at the Fairbanks Lodge.  Jesse called Val on our mobile phone.  Although we knew they had left the lodge earlier than we did this morning, we supposed they must have seen sights in a different order.  Val suggested that we eat at the Lynx Creek Pizza Restaurant.  We had no idea where this was.  When Jesse inquired at the desk, he was told that this restaurant was in Denali. Yes, Val then informed him that they had been bussed to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge; they had taken the riverboat tour, but had not panned for gold.  This was when we realized that we had not reserved the same land tour!  At any rate, we were not very hungry since we had eaten plenty at lunch; we had only clam chowder for dinner.  This time our waitress was Monika.  After dinner, we realized that Sally had left her jacket on the Riverboat!  We checked with lost and found, but her jacket was not there.

          Meanwhile, we had been informed that our large suitcases were supposed to be set outside our hotel room door by 6:30 AM on Monday so that they could be checked through to the Princess ship.  Jesse also realized that he had not printed out our Princess boarding passes and luggage tags!  Luckily, he was able to used one of the lodge’s computers and printers to accomplish this.

En Route to Fairbanks, Alaska

Thursday, 16 Aug 2018 – We have embarked on our second Alaskan Cruise.  We took an Alaskan Cruise previously in 2008, but this time we’re combining the cruise with a land tour.  The land tour was not scheduled to begin until 18 Aug 2018, but we started the trip a couple of days early to give us time to recover from our flight and adjust to the time change.  We will be joined by our friends, Ed and Val on 18 Aug 2018.

With so much going during the last few days, we had to stay up very late for Sally to do a little last-minute packing, and for Jesse to start his!  Although we had an early afternoon flight, we set our alarm for 5:30 AM in order to finish packing.  We left home at about 10:30 AM for the Peoria airport, arriving in plenty of time for our 50-minute United Airlines flight to Chicago, O’Hare.  The flight from O’Hare to Fairbanks was on a relatively small plane, but we had purchased Economy Plus seats this time, which were on the front row of the regular seating.  Only soft drinks and pretzels were served (twice) on this 6-hour flight, but on the second time around, we purchased barbecue chicken sandwiches – which were hard and dry, but washed down satisfactorily with tomato juice.  There were no TV screens on the plane for movies, etc., so the flight was very boring and seemed a lot longer than 6 hours.  Free entertainment was available on personal devices, but we hadn’t bothered to download the required software, as recommended by United Airlines.

At about 7:25 PM our plane landed in Fairbanks.  We had come to realize that Fairbanks time was even one hour earlier than Pacific (or 3 hours earlier than our time at home).  We were met by Princess Cruise personnel and given our cruise tour packets containing schedules, luggage tags, hotel room key cards, etc.  Soon we claimed our checked bags, attached the provided luggage tags, and boarded a shuttle to the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge.  Since Fairbanks is a relatively small city, the drive to the lodge was very short.

Upon arrival at the lodge, we went directly to our assigned room since Princess had already checked us in.  Soon afterwards, our checked bags were delivered.  By then, we were both hungry and exhausted.  After nibbling on nuts and granola bars from home, we turned in for our first night in Alaska.

En Route Home

            Sunday, 1 Jul 2018 – We set our alarm for 6:00 AM (again) and took the hotel shuttle to the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.  Although we have stopped at this airport several times previously, even overnight in 2006, today did not start well.  After standing in long lines, first to check our bags and then for a security check, we headed toward the gate.  At least that’s where we were thought we were going.  Soon, we found ourselves in another very long line that looked like another security check.  When Sally finally reached the person at the front and handed him her ticket and passport, he asked her how long she had been standing in this line.  She answered, “A very long time!”  He asked if anyone was with me, and she motioned Jesse forward.  Then he told us that we should not have been standing in that line, that this line was for travel to some other destinations (we’re not sure where).  He pointed us in the direction of the D2 gate (where we had thought we were going).

However, we almost immediately found that the gate had changed from D2 to F13, another part of the airport.  Now we, especially Sally, were really dragging!  (We were each pulling carry-on bags with laptop computer bags atop those.)  Arriving there, Sally sat while Jesse stood in a line for about 45 minutes to get us seats.  Although he had reserved our seats online weeks ago, United showed our seats as unassigned!  Jesse finally returned, saying that our seats on United to Chicago were not together; they were both middle seats, with Sally seated in the row in front of Jesse.

This was a first, to be separated, at least for a long flight.  After that, Sally had nothing good to say about United!  A much younger person sat on each side of her, and younger people never need to get out of their seats as often as older people do.  (On the 9-hour flight, one of them left his seat only once; the other left twice.  Sally also got up only twice!)  Jesse has always provided a shoulder for her to lean on, help in using the buttons (for lights or movies, etc.), and help in eating part of Sally’s food!  On top of all that, we had to ride a bus from the gate out to the plane and then climb steps (with all our stuff!) to board the plane!  Also, the flight was 1 hour 15 minutes late in departing.  One saving grace was that our seats were in the economy plus area, so we had lots of extra leg room.  This was especially beneficial to Jesse, since he was seated in between two fairly large men.

And, by the way, Jesse does not blame United Airlines for the seat problem.  We had made our flight and seat reservations through Holland America, they had suggested that we confirm our seats directly with United, as we did for our outgoing flights.  At any rate, hopefully this never happens again because we were both very unhappy seated apart.

Now does this sound like a day out of hell or not?  Just wait because one more thing happened:  When we reached Chicago and looked for the gate number for our next (domestic) flight, the board read “Cancelled.”

In fact, we had also received a message about this on our mobile phone informing us that our flight had been cancelled and that we had been rebooked on the next available flight, which was at 8:10 AM, Monday, 2 Jul 2018.  We spoke with one of the United Airlines agents and he verified this information.  He also suggested that we discuss overnight accommodations with customer service.  Although the customer service line looked forbidding, at least 4 people were working the help desk.  (We noticed that one young woman was in tears!)  The customer service representative reconfirmed our 8:10 AM reservations, assigned us seats, and printed out our boarding passes.  Then she gave us a referral sheet with a number to call for lodging accommodations – at a discount.  (Sally is convinced that they should have paid totally for our night’s stay in Chicago, but at the time, both of us were so exhausted that we didn’t argue.)  Since we had already checked our large bags through, not planning for a night’s stay in a hotel, we would have only a very few things to use overnight.  We opted to stay at the Chicago Hilton, which – though 50 percent more expensive – is attached to the airport; we wouldn’t need a shuttle or taxi.  Basically, we just needed to walk across the street through a long tunnel to the hotel.  By the time Sally turned out her bedside lamp, it was 7:00 PM, which was 2:00 AM in Amsterdam.  Before that, Jesse had bought us soup and salad from the hotel’s Café Mercato “Grab & Go” restaurant for our dinner.

Monday, 2 Jul 2018 – We set our alarm for 5:00 AM and, as soon as possible, walked back to the airport.  This time, our boarding passes were not TSA Pre-check, so we had to go through a complete security check, which took some extra time and aggravation from Chicago O’Hare’s not-so-accommodating security personnel.  At least it wasn’t far to walk to the gate.  Since our flight was short and uneventful, we were home by 11:45 AM.  (Our big suitcases had arrived during the night from Amsterdam and were waiting for us at the airport.  At least that part of our trip home went well.)  After we had our own vehicle, we stopped at McDonald’s for carry-out breakfast.  Sally had an appointment with a counselor as the first step in cataract surgery, which was at 12:00 noon that day.  Although it was a close call, we live only 2 miles from Eye Surgeons and so we made it to the appointment on time.  All’s well that ends well!

          Aside from the problems with our return flights, we had a great time on the cruise!

Debarkation & Amsterdam

           Saturday, 30 Jun 2018 – Although we’ve always had to exit our cabin after cruises by 8:00 AM, we were told this time that we could stay in our Holland America cabin until our scheduled 8:30 AM debarkation.  Our alarm went off at 6:00 AM, and we had enough time to eat our usual filling breakfast before leaving.  Since our debarkation number had been called, we exited the ship, picked up our larger luggage, and then took a taxi to the Ramada Inn near the Amsterdam airport.  We chose to stay one night in Amsterdam instead of flying back to the U.S. today because the flights today were very expensive and had long layovers.  The cost difference between flights more than paid for an additional night in Amsterdam.

Ramada Inn Lobby

          After arriving at the Ramada Inn, we sat in a large, comfortable area at a table using our laptops (free Internet) until 12:00 PM, when we were allowed in our room.  However, except for the restaurant in the hotel, we found that no other restaurants were located within walking distance – only fields of potatoes are nearby.  At least this hotel has a nice swimming pool in the basement, which we used for 20 minutes before dinner

At Sea

           Friday, 29 Jun 2018 – Since it was fairly late when we went to breakfast, we didn’t see any of our friends and so we sat by ourselves.  Just after we had finished eating dinner, Nelson came by and sat down beside us to talk.  He strongly suggested that we read the book, American Dilemma, authored in 1944 by Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal about race relations in the U.S. – which Nelson says have not really changed much since then.

          This was packing day, though we didn’t start for several hours.  Sally managed to finish her book Angelology by Danielle Trussoni; and Jesse did his best with his Stephen King book, Finders Keepers, but couldn’t come close to finishing it.

Ocean Trio - Nadia, Michael, & Brad

We also danced tonight for the last time on this cruise. This band has been very accommodating by playing some songs we like; almost always they play a tango for us.  Nadia, the vocalist, also sang “Sunrise, Sunset” two nights at our request, which we liked very much.  Although she had only performed the instrumental version previously, she sang it beautifully!