NEWS FLASH!!

Just couldn't wait to tell you all this!! When we finally got checked into our room in Seward, the desk clerk said there was a message from our travel agent Alana. At first I just figured she was making sure that all was going according to plans until I read the message. It said, "Penny, upgrade to a balcony for $149.00? call Alana!" I was a bit confused at first because as some of you know we were on the wait list for a verandah suite but after getting my new Caddy and deciding that another $2,000 plus to spend, even though I wanted it really bad, was pushing it almost to the "spoiled rotten" that my kids think I am already!! So I had told Alana to take us off the wait list and I would be happy with the large window in our room like we had before. But what else could it mean? It sounded too good to be true! When I called her she was so happy that it was finally me calling and she was so nervous I wasn't gonna make the call in time that she had gone for a walk to calm her nerves and pass the time! But it was true!! We could get a verandah suite upgrade on our cruise for only $149.00 each!! GOOD THINGS DO COME TO THOSE THAT WAIT!! ;P Girls are made to be spoiled!! THANKS DAD!!

The Train to Seward

There are far too many pictures to share and it is so hard to choose only a few to post on here. These are some of the view from the train trip South to Seward today! I can't soak it in enough and I ran down one camera battery and had to get out the big one. BTW the new camera is quite a gem!! I luv it!! As you can see in the pictures it was a gloomy day, but we were smiling anway enjoying this view. There was an awesome glacier and the mountains never stopped! Rivers and lakes and we even saw dall sheep and lots of eagles along the way. Somebody did claim to spot a bull moose, which I am dying to see, but we never saw it! Yesterday on the train we saw 5 moose though and I was so excited!
We are now at the Seward Windsong Lodge and waiting for our room to be ready. Which I will never hear the end of all of the hurry up and waiting and sitting from this trip!! But for the beauty of it all I say it's worth it!! Tomorrow we are off in the morning for a Kenai Fjords Tour that will last most of the day and provide us with a lunch and Jim's favorite awaited Salmon Bake! I'm sure I will need both batteries for the camera tomorrow! So glad to hear from you all and that you are really enjoying this blog! I enjoy sharing it all with you! Mike and Barb, so good to hear from you and we had just rode on the bus with a couple from Australia and told them to tell you guys Hello when they go home!
Miss you all!! Well a little anyways!

TALKEETNA

These are just a few of the pictures we took in the quaint little town of Talkeetna. The first is a picture of our cabin we stayed in. The host Mavis was very accomodating for us!
The jet boat is what we took a tour on and it was enjoyable but crowded. I was fine after we adjusted and I was given the aisle seat! We saw lots of bald eagles and a huge nest with an eaglet in it that would pop it's head up every now and then. We traveled on 3 rivers during the tour and these rivers are nothing like the Ausable. They are ugly and grey color due to the silt from the glaciers. At the end of the tour most of the people were dropped off at one place and seven of us were to return to the starting point. We got the fastest and kinda scarry ride that I really did enjoy. Our captain's name was Israel and he grew up in Talkeetna and has quite the story of his family living here.
The last three pictures are of DOWNTOWN TALKEETNA! That's really all there is to it except a couple of shops and the Post Office just a bit out of town! It's actually the base camp for any brave enough to venture and climb Denali Mt. Unfortunately and very rare, but two climbers have died up there since our trip. You may have heard it on the news. Both just collapsed with no previous signs of illness. One on July 4th was a 51 yr. old man from Chicago and yesteray was a 20 yr. old from Indonesia! The older gentelman was buried on the summit but the military chopper was trying to recover the young man's body today. Quite the conversation in the local Roadhouse Cafe this morning. We met a lot of different people dining there due to the family style seating.
I think I have walked Jim a bit too much, but he really hasn't complained! Of course the weather has been on his side and in the 50's and 60's the last couple of days. Today is our last day in Talkeetna and we board the train after 4pm today and head to Anchorage and spend the night before we catch a very early train in the morning to head south to Seward for some more adventures. Keep those comments coming, but if you don't leave your name I can only guess who is sending us luv notes! LOL

WE'RE HOME! TALKEETNA ALASKA

Now this is what we are looking for! We rode the train again yesterday back South from Denali to the very small town of Talkeetna! Famous for the beginning photos from the popular show "Northern Exposure". Even though the cabin we are staying in is still expensive and sits right on the main drag, the small town atmosphere is here! After a little mix up with our not being picked up from the train station and the depot manager giving us a ride, we met our host Mavis and got to our cabin! She then gave us a tour of the town in her pickup truck and we were feeling much more comfortable than the place we had just left. She called Denali Park "THE GLITTER DISTRICT" and we agreed. The amenities of those places are far less than this small town area for sure!!
Today we have a 3 Rivers Jet Boat tour and the rest of the time until tomorrow at 4pm to explore this quaint little town. If the sun is shining and there is a chance to see Denali Mt. I still haven't ruled out the flight seeing trip!
We have enjoyed all of your comments. There is so many pictures I would like to post on here but we aren't sitting still long enough. We did get some bad news that our good friend Deb Basil's friend Gary passed away and our hearts are aching for her again!! Those of you that know her please send her a note or a phone call! We wish we were there to hug her. On a happier note, Thank You Jon and Marylou for suggesting I try the Alaskan Halibut! It was awesome!! I hope Faith enjoyed her 4th birthday yesterday! We watched the video I took of her blowing out the candles on her cake when we celebrated before we left! It doesn't seem like it's been 4 years since we were waiting for her to be born so that we could get to the airport and head for our first trip to Alaska!!

DENALI PARK

WOW! It was worth every penny and getting up at 4am to catch the first bus tour into the park! As soon as I figure out how to actually download a video to this blog page you will all be able to see what I mean. Except it is going to be hard to decide which video to put on since there are SO many!! The bus tour is an 8 hour trip into the park with a very knowledgeable driver tour guide! We saw many animals today including: Moose, Caribou, Coyote, Fox, Golden Eagles, Dall Sheep, Snow Shoe Rabbits and best of all Grizzly Bears. I say Bear "s" because the best part of the whole trip was close to the end when a bunch of busses were stopped and parked in the road kind of weird and we didn't know what was going on until we saw it!! Right in front of the bus came a mama grizzly with two baby cubs! I got the BEST video of anyone partly due to the fact that I told the bus driver I had bad chlostraphobia and couldn't sit in the back of the bus so he gave us the seat right behind him! They were so close to us and walked right along the bus and didn't pay much attention to us at all. It was AWESOME!! Tomorrow we are on the train for a short trip to Talkeetna to spend a couple nights and do a river boat tour. Hopefully that will be all that it sounded like in the brochure. TIME FOR US TO REST SOME NOW!!

Saturday Market

One of Jim's points of interest for our trip this time was to make it to the Saturday Market in downtown Anchorage. It was quite a little stroll to get there and not quite far enough to warrant taking a taxi but with the sun shining bright it might have been a better choice. The Saturday Market is a HUGE type of flea market with locals selling their goods wether it be homemade soap or bowls carved out of a knot from a tree, to the best food cooked right out of their tents. We ended up finding a shady spot and getting a bite to eat and enjoyed the view from there.

After getting our second wind I really wanted to visit the Alaska State Troopers Museum and it seemed like only a couple blocks away and Jim was determined I get there. After walking a little farther and asking for directions we finally found it to be CLOSED for the Holiday! Needless to say we found a taxi to take us back to our B & B. We were pretty whipped travelers from the walking, the sunshine and the jet lag. Today will be much easier because we will be boarding the train at 8am.

ALASKA FINALLY!

We finally made it to Alaska!! Our flights were not only on time, but in fact a little early!! I was a little bit nervous the first flight and decided to take some meds for the long flight, but probably would have been fine without them!! This is just a quick note to let you all know that we got here safe and this is the scenery out from our deck for the next two nights!! That's good enough fireworks for our 4th of July! It's 3am for you guys but only 11pm here. Of course it is still daylight here too and won't get much darker than dusk all night! They say the fireworks will be at midnight but they still won't be that great because it's not dark. That's ok with us because we are very tired and will enjoy this view!!!