by Michael and Elaine Vining
Everyone has something on their bucket list. I have always been interested in reading articles on our neighbor to the north, Alaska, which was admitted to the union in 1959. Years later I read a book on Alaska, including the living conditions there. I would picture myself visiting there.
Elaine and I belong to My Credit Union in Richfield, Minn. They sponsor trips/adventures to places in the U.S. and other places around the world. When I heard about this year’s schedule of activities, which included visiting Alaska, and that Elaine’s bucket list included a trip to our 49th state, I became a willing participant. So the planning began! A friend of ours, Deb Johnson, wanted to go as well, so we were able to cut costs by three of us sharing a room.
The trip started Wednesday, July, 23rd from Terminal 2 of the Twin Cities International Airport around 9 a.m., and arrived in Anchorage, Alaska six hours later, around 1 p.m. It is three hours difference in Alaska. Two hours later we flew to Fairbanks. We returned around midnight on Sunday, August 3rd.
The group hung out that first night, which enabled us to see daylight at 11 p.m. downtown. The tourist season there starts around May 20th and ends around September 20th. People come to Alaska in the spring for jobs in the tourist industry and leave in the fall, returning to their home states and other places for winter jobs. We ran into some employees who were from Minnesota.
We started the tour the next morning by going on the Sternwheeler Discovery. One man worked with sled dogs for 30 years. One of the interesting things I got to see was the sled dogs. The dog teams are kept in their kennels, barking and yapping like dogs and playing outside as well. However, when the lead dog and the other dogs are hooked up to the sled, the others start to quiet down, waiting for the lead dog to bark the orders. We also saw an airplane demonstration. The airplane took off on the water and landed back on the water. We got to see how the Indians lived and saw many animals such as moose, deer and coyotes.
We took a bus through Denali National Park and got to see ground squirrels, caribou, moose, Dall sheep and eagles. We did not see the Denali mountain that day due to the cloud cover. The park had beautiful scenery.
On the fourth day, we took a train to Talkeetna, which took all day. One of the sites was viewing Denali, which at first was called Mt. McKinley. Denali is an Eskimo term. We could view the whole mountain from the train. I looked out the window and saw a big white blob — Denali. We could see the entire mountain because the skies were clear. We were actually 100 miles from the mountain. This does not happen very often. We stayed in the town of Denali, which is almost a ghost town in the winter. The town had a high school and amenities for the winter residents. We stayed in several small cities which empty out in the fall. We got to see the whole Denali mountain from the hotel. It was very interesting.
On the fifth day, we took another bus to Anchorage and went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, where we saw bears, caribou, wood bison, elk and wolves. We took a bus to the ship for the cruise part of our trip, which began in Whittier. On this part of the trip, we stopped at a convenience store in Wasilla, which was known for being the hometown of VP candidate Sarah Palin. We could not see Russia from there. We purchased munchies for the trip to the ship, again stopping in Whittier for lunch and walking around downtown. This is like any other city of 400,000 population. We stopped by the Explorer Pond to test the water; it was very cold. Some people stuck their feet in the water. The weather was very nice and warm.
We were on the ship for one week, stopping at other cities on the way to Vancouver, BC, where our trip ended. The ship took us by Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. The park rangers came on the cruise and told us about orcas and whales in the lake as well as the glaciers we were going to see. We did not have Internet on the ship; we would have had to pay for it.
We stopped in the cities of Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. In Skagway we went into the Red Onion Saloon, which had toilet seats on the walls. We had a beer and quesadillas there. We also saw the Mascot Saloon with just figures in it. And we got to tour the Moore House.
The next day, in Juneau, we went on the city tour and saw the salmon hatchery. It was very interesting watching the salmon jump around there. We also saw the statue of the humpback whale — a very big whale! They also showed us the city hall, which was not very big. It was on a hill. We also got to see the governor’s mansion.
In Ketchikan, which is known as the Salmon Capital of the World, the next day, it was raining and cool. It rains there almost every day. We saw the salmon ladder, and Elaine went on a seaplane. It was beautiful. We saw mountains and water from the mountains. It stopped raining in time to see it all. When Elaine and Deb went on the seaplane, the tour guide named Kathy took me back to the ship and to my state room. The cities of Juneau, Fairbanks, and Ketchikan had populations of around 30,000 to 36,000 people and were mostly on a coastline. We participated in some trivia games while on the ship, and heard some good music, too.
The trip seemed very accessible for me, with many people helping me. One woman from our group wanted to help me look for some items in the gift shop. So, Elaine was looking herself. I purchased two Alaskan hats which I could wear around there and back home during the rest of the summer.
Food was like everywhere else in the U.S. Salmon was served every meal and every day, but it seemed to be a stronger taste there than here. On the ship you could also make your own meal choices. One of my meals was liver and onions and eggplant, both food items I do not get at home because I am the only one who likes it. We did have some drinks on the ship — beer and margaritas — while we were eating, which we had to pay extra for. Elaine tried the roasted duck and clam chowder.
On Saturday morning around 11:30 a.m., several kinds of cake were served on the Lido deck. More pigging out after a big breakfast. There were 36 different cakes displayed. Amazing!! We each had two pieces of cake.
For you media folks, I was unable to hear a great deal of radio or TV in Alaska. But during our bus ride in Anchorage, I did get to listen to some local radio, and it sounded just like here on the mainland.
This was an enjoyable trip that a person would probably do once in a lifetime. However, there are those who do this trip several times.