Home

After a whole day of flying we are finally home. Thanks everyone for checking out our blog. We had alot of technical difficulties along the way. The internet connection on the ship was very slow and would not let us upload pictures.

We would also like to thank Phil, Barb, Carol, Mom, Lu and Dan for a great vacation. We had a great time and alot of fun. We will never forget our time with you guys and hopefully we can do it again in the future.

We would also like to thank Rex and Kris for taking such good care of Caroline and Nathan while we were gone. We never worried about them because they were in such good hands.

Until our next vacation............

Fairbanks

Our last day of our trip and we are in Fairbanks. We went on a riverboat tour that showed us how people lived and traveled in Alaska. Many people have bush planes, they park them right in their yards. We stopped at an indian village and learned how they lived in the past. They still hunt and fish every summer in the same place where their ancestors did.

Tomorrow we leave for home. We have had a great time and can't wait to see the kids:)

Denali

I am feeling much better this morning. We are off on our nature tour. We are promised beautiful scenery, but as far as the animals, that was not promised. Denali is home to Mt. McKinley which is the tallest mountain in North America. It is 20,000 feet, we weren't able to see it very well, because there were clouds around the top.

We saw grizzly bears, moose, rabbits, ground squirrels and birds on the trip. So it was a great animal day. We met a native american that showed us some of the clothing he wears in the winter. It gets -40 degrees in the winter. I'm glad it was not cold when we were there:)

Tomorrow we go to Fairbanks for a riverboat tour. Until then........

Train ride from Hell

We were up at 5 am ready to venture in the unknown. Ahead of us was a 10 hr train ride to Denali National Park. Most of you may not know that I get really bad motion sickness. I have been wearing the patch during the cruise. I only had one left, it will last for 3 days. We still had 4 days left on our trip. I needed to make sure I had it for the airplane ride home. So I thought I would just take Dramine. Well the train ride was very bumpy and the dramine was not working. I slept most of the trip and once we got to our destination I slept the rest of the night. So it was not a great day for us.

We were now about 1 hr from Fairbanks and had the fun experience of it never getting dark. The sun would set at midnight and be up again at 4am. It never really got dark, that was something to get use to.

Tomorrow we have a nature tour of Denali National Park. Hopefully I feel better:(

College Fjords

Again we did not get off the ship today. Most of the day we were sailing to College Fjords. A Fjord is a place where glaciers have made deep passages through the mountains. There were 6 different glaciers, all named after colleges.

This was our last day on the ship. We had a great trip and our waiters were awesome. Thanks for a great experience Jovanne and Simon:)

Tomorrow we have a 10 hour train ride to Denali National Park. Until then..........

Glacier Bay

We did not get off the ship this day. The whole day we sailed through Glacier Bay National Park. It was alittle scary at first. There were alot of big pieces of ice in the water. I remembered my Dad telling me to watch out for icebergs. We saw many pieces of ice calving, that means pieces falling off the front of the glacier. There were many harbor seals, whales and birds that called the park their home. It was a cold day sailing through the park.

Tomorrow we sail through College Fjords. Until then...........

Skagway

We have had a wonderful trip so far. The weather has been great and we have met alot of nice people on the ship.

Skagway is a very small town that grows to three times its size when the cruise ships come to port. We went to a dog musher's camp and horseback riding.

The dog musher's camp was very interesting. We got to ride in a wheeled cart that was pulled by 16 dogs. They had no problem pulling us and 6 other people. These dogs are known as Alaskan Huskies, which really means muts. They are small but mighty. They are trained like marathoners, not weight lifters. We listened to a guy that competed in the Ididrod this past March. He finished in 15 days, which is about the middle of the pack. We also got to hold some puppies that were born last month. They were so cute:)

That afternoon we went horseback riding. It was a very relaxing ride. Paul rode Willow and I rode Homer. We learned alot about the gold rush days and how some of the women made a living. One women made pies and sold them for $5 which would be like selling them for $90 today.

Tomorrow we will be sailing though Glacier Bay National Park. Until then.........