Day Twenty Four, Seward A.M.

Last night we had a fire and visited with several other campers.  The young man in the picture is Bill and the old fellow he's talking to is Lonnie, an Alaskan State Trooper.  Lonnie was born and raised in Nome.  He's a Lieutenant with the patrol out of Fairbanks. He's been filmed on a show for the National Geographic Network, something about arctic troopers.

This morning we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center.  There were live exhibits on harbor seals, steller sea lions, horned puffins, and Salmon.   The center was financed by money from the settlement on the oil spill of the Exon Valdez.  It's a working laboratory for sea life as well as a means to educating the public about how fragile these fish and animals are.

These are the photos I enjoy taking.  Just two sisters looking for one more fabric shop.

Here's a shot of the Seward harbor with fireweed in the foreground.

Today we had lunch at Ray's Waterfront on the harbor.  The fish (Halibut & Cod) and chips were very good.  We have tried seafood/clam chowder and fish 'n chips as often as possible.


Five years ago we stayed at this campground when we were here in Seward with the Bucks.  Dave hated it immediately.  Today it's closed and for good reason.

Day Twenty Three, Portage & Exit Glacier, Seward

First stop today was Portage Glacier.  We listened to a National Forest Service Ranger's presentation on "moose."  Moose are members of the deer family.  The forest ranger said that the moose is made from the nose of an ant eater, the eyes of a deer, the ears of a jack ass, the neck of a bison, the hump on his back from a bear, and the stomach of a cow.   After we heard the explaination, we agreed. 

Portage Glacier has receeded some much that you can't see the face of the glacier from the visitor center.  The visitor center is twenty-six years old and should have been located to adjust for the movement of the glacier.

We stopped for lunch at the Summit Lodge on the Seward Hwy.  Great place - we have stopped here several times before.  The photo of Rose and Bill was taken near the lodge.  Notice the reflection on the lake.  B Absolutely beautiful setting.

More road construction.  The delay at this stop was about half an hour.

This is a photo of Exit Glacier, part of Kenai Fjords National Park.  This is just one glacier of thirty-eight that make up the Harding Ice Fields.  We took a ranger walk to view the glacier with our ranger, Abe, a younger park worker that had lots of information.  His home is Alexandria, MN. 

Here's the four of us in front of the Exit Glacier.

Day Twenty Two, Anchorage

Our first stop today was at Potter's Marsh.  This was advertised as a place to go to see animals.  We saw no large animals and the only picture I thought qualified for the blog was this one of a Mallard hen eating off the bottom of the marsh while mooning me.

Next stop, Alaska Botanical Garden.  This is a work in progress and we weren't real impressed.  The botanical garden in Fairbanks is much nicer.We did meet a guy from
Davenport, IA there.

Digitalis or Foxglove

Downtown Anchorage street vendor selling reindeer sausage hot dogs.  Before we leave Alaska I'm going to have some reindeer sausage.  I have had some before and remember that it was very good.

Our friend, Kati (Alleio) Rogness works at this gift shop- Cabin Fever in downtown Anchorage.  They only sell Alaskan-made items.  This is a nice upscale shop.

Kati graduated high school with Connie and me.  We have remained friends during college and after.  Kati offered an invitation as tour guide to any classmate that wanted to visit Alaska.  She made this offer at our 30th class reunion in 1992.  We took the offer and that summer was our first trip to this beautiful state. 

Visitor Center downtown.  The flowers all over Anchorage are beautiful.  Mild temperatures and so much sunlight help.  The other ingredient is the TLC that these flowers get.  There are people that spend a lot of time nurturing each plan.

Day Twenty One, Fairbanks

113 miles, Talkeetna to Anchorage.  We stopped at the Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla and watched great movie about the dogs and the race.  The race is from Wasilla to Nome with a ceremonial start in Anchorage.  We got to Anchorage early and spent the afternoon in the Rassmusson Center/the Anchorage Museum.  I didn't take the camera, but you could go to www.anchoragemuseum.org.  There a temporary exhibit on the photography of Bradford Washburn at the museum that was interesting.

Since we had terrible wifi at the RV park and I have several days to catch up, I'm going to end this for now.

Day Twenty, Talkeetna

We had reservations for a 1:30 rafting trip.  It was to be a 4 hour float trip.  They hadn't sold enough tickets and cancelled the trip.  That was a bummer.  They offered us a 2 hour trip, which we took, and gave us a refund on the difference.  We all agreed that the guide was a "9" but the trip was a "4" or "5."  The trip was on the Talkeetna River.

We stopped at the Ranger Station in Talkeetna for Denali NP.  This is where you would come for your climbing permit if you wanted to climb "the tall one."  The permit will cost you $350 and you will have to talk with the rangers about your qualifications before they will give you the permit.  1,400 people attempted to climb the mountain this year.  Only 40% made it to the top.  Six people died trying to make it.  The conditions on Mt. McKinley are as harsh as any other mountain in the world.

The Ranger Station is a beautiful building, especially compared to the other buildings in town.  Here's the fireplace and the chairs are all Morris chairs and art 'n crafts tables.  Nice stuff.  Our tax dollars at work and yet the National Park Service budget is only 1/13 th of 1% of the federal budget.  This is the best bargin of all the federal money we spend.  We spend billions on so many worthless things that have no impact tomorrow on our country.  We need to let our congressman know that they should not cut the budget for the National Park Service.   

Now lets talk about food.  Isn't that why we travel?  Last night we ate at Mountain High Pizza Pie and tonight we ate at the Wildflower Cafe.  Both nice places to eat.

The tour/cruise companies bring bus loads of people to spend their money in the gift shops and restaurants of Talkeetna.  It's less expensive to eat out than buy groceries.  We saw a can of tomato soup for $1.99.  Everything is marked up a lot. 

Twenty days with Rosemary and Bill in the MH.  They will be leaving Alaska and flying home next Monday at 1:00 A.M.  So far everything has worked out very well.  The only issue is that the gals have been beating the guys in cards the past few nights.

Day 20 Mt. McKinley in Full View!

Had to add this as a special picture.  Today the sky was super clear which presented us with an even better view of McKinley than last night.  We are 60 miles away from the mountain at this point.  It's one thing to see a picture of this mountain; it's something else to experience it live.  It is just incredible.  The Almighty did some of His finest work here in Alaska. 
We are now heading to our rafting float trip.  More later.

Day Nineteen, Mt. McKinley from Talkeetna

I had to make a special edition to the blog.  We went into Talkeetna for pizza and we discovered that the clouds had lifted and we could see "the high one," Mt. McKinley.  Only 30% of the people to travel to Alaska actually see the mountain.  We have been very fortunate in seeing the mountains  each of the four times we have visited Alaska.  Seeing the mountains is so special.  These are our pictures!

 On the left is Mt. Foraker, 17,440 ft., the fourth tallest mountain in the USA.  In the center/lower photo is Mt. Hunter, 13,965 feet.  On the right is "the high one," Mt. McKinley, 20,320 ft., the tallest mountain in North America.

Here's Connie, Bill, and Rosemary in front of the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. The deck at this lodge has the best view of the mountain in town! We're not staying here; we're staying at the Talkeetna Campers Park.