Friday Flight Newark to Denver to Seattle to Anchorage-Frequent Flyer tickets
6 hour layover in Seattle-Took a Bus to Downtown to see Space Needle. Arrived in Anchorage at 11:30 pm Anchorage time which was about 5:30 AM for our Body Time. Luggage did not arrive due to a mixup in our ticketing-change of flights between original reservation and check in. Days Inn gave us a room that had two people doing it in bed when we walked in. Oops.
Saturday Morning-up at dawn -Jet lag. Breakfast. Picked up Rent A Car. Drove to Talkeetna for the Moose Dropping Festival. On the way back stopped at Independence Gold Mine-great site to see. Then back to Anchorage-Luggage finally arrived. Late dinner-Sun was still up at 11:00 pm when we got out of restaurant.
Sunday-Breakfast at Blondies-where they start the Iditarod (reindeer sausage-yum) Thunderbird Falls/ Indian Village Museum/Musk Ox Farm in Palmer. Knik Arm to the Musher's Hall of Fame. Interesting Day. Back to Anchorage.
Monday-Drove to Valdez-about 350 miles. Saw the Worthington glacier, which is right next to road and saw people breaking ice off for coolers. Stopped at Copper Center at National Park Visitors center and had a great conversation with a ranger about McCarthy and Kennecott. Evening in Valdez. Watched native peoples fishing right on Exxon Docks. Overnight at “Forget me Not B&B” where we had to take our shoes off in the garage before entering rooms. The proprietor did not want glacier dust to be brought into the room and rugs.
Tuesday-Ferry from Valdez to Whittier. Great 6 hour ride. The ferry takes you right past the Columbia glacier and stops there to talk about glaciers. At Whittier they put the car on flatbed train cars and hauled the car with us sitting in it to Portage-about 5 miles. This train ride has now been eliminated and the train tunnel replaced with a road. At Portage we went to see the Portage Glacier-awesome presentation. Overnight at Girdwood Ski resort.
Wednesday- Went to a Gold Mine to pan for gold-didn’t get rich. This was hard work. Then we drove to Kenai to see the museum there also a Russian Church with a small museum and then on to Homer Alaska.
Great Steak dinner at the Homestead Restaurant in Homer.
Thursday-Went Halibut fishing in the AM. It was supposed to be an all day trip but we were so worn out from fishing we quit at noon. In the evening we went to see a local production of the “Foreigner” Good comedy.
Friday-talked to an amazing woman from Houston,Texas. In her late 70’s and had driven by herself from Houston to Homer. Very Feisty and an amazing personality. After doing laundry at the motel - the Driftwood, we spent the day driving back to Anchorage.
Saturday in the AM-Breakfast at Blondies-reindeer sausages-yum- got rid of the car and then at 1:00 Pm reported to the Civic center where Princess was organizing the transfers to Seward for the Cruise. Our Bus left at around 2:00 Pm
Saturday night / evening departure from Seward in a foggy rain.
Crossing the Gulf of Alaska was a bit rocky. The acrobat show was cancelled and replaced with a comedian.
Sunday-Glacier Bay-to tell the truth we had been Glaciered out at this point with the Worthington, Columbia and Portage Glaciers. The cruise up the bay was great scenery. There was a bear walking on the glacier.
Monday-Skagway-great train ride on the Yukon-White Pass railroad up to White pass. Skagway was an interesting town.
Tuesday on the Inner Passage Landed in Juneau in middle of the night.
Wednesday in Juneau-Went to the Mendenhall glacier on a Hellicopter(waste of money in my opinion) and also took in the Lady that’s named Lou Revue-this was funny.
Thursday-Ketchikan-Interesting tour of the Hatchery, the Totem museum and a horsedrawn carriage ride around town. Interesting town.
Friday -All day slow cruise down the inside passage-
Saturday Am arrived in Vancouver, BC Canada. Off the Boat by 9:00 am for the Bus ride to Seattle. Arrived at Seattle Airport at around 12:00 noon. Our flight to wasn’t until 11:30 pm.
We checked the luggage($50.00) airline wouldn’t take them for more than two hours before flight time. Took the bus to downtown-went to see Pike Street Market, took a ferry boat ride to Bremerton and back. Had a seafood dinner on the waterfront and then got back to the airport around 9:30 pm. Great day.
Saturday night 11:30 flight to Houston.
Sunday Morning out of Houston for LaGuiardia. For a 1:30 pm arrival. These flights were not our preference but when you are flying frequent flyer tickets you don’t always get what you want..
It was a great trip and we would do it again. This time I would take a train to Fairbanks from Anchorage and try to get north of the Arctic Circle up towards Prudhoe Bay. Accessible by car.