Just Returned from Independent Land Tour

First off, as I'm sure you all know, ALASKA IS AMAZING!

The scenery, the people, everything!

I'm posting here to thank everyone that gave me advice before I left - and let you know what we wound up doing. I will say that I think we did everything you could possibly do in a week in Alaska!

Arrived in Anchorage Thurs. night, staying at the Comfort Inn (arranged by the group I was traveling with) through Monday. I thought it was great being on Ship Creek - my room faced the water and it was cool to see the fisherman out there at midnight.

Friday, got up, ate breakfast at the 4th Street deli and prepared for the marathon (the next day) and made plans for Sunday.

Saturday, "ran" and completed the Mayor's Marathon! (we lucked out with great weather).

Sunday, rented a car and drove to Whittier for Phillips 26-glacier cruise. We had a great time (despite the rain) and picked up some pretty good fudge at one of the shops in Whittier.

On the way back to Anchorage, we stopped at the Wildlife Conservation Center and then for dinner at the Alyeska resort (not at Seven Glaciers but the restaurant in the hotel) and then took the tram to the top. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad so we didn't see much, but it was a cool experience.

Drove back to Anchorage and saw the most amazing sky at 10 pm at night as things were starting to clear up - beautiful drive.

Monday. took the 6:45 am train to Seward (ouch! had to check our bags at 5:45 and we'd gotten in late the night before - it's easy to lose track of time when it's so bright out at 10 pm!) The ride to Seward was beautiful.

We did the Ididaride dog-sled tour / real Alaska tour which I thought was ok but my friend really enjoyed.

Seward itself was a nice little town. We stayed at the Edgewater which was very nice.

Tuesday - possibly my favorite part of the trip. We did a 6 hour tour of Kenai Fjords (with the Kenai Fjords tour company) and it was AMAZING! (despite the rainy weather) I bundled up and stayed outside for most of the trip. We saw a lot of wildlife and the most amazing calving of Aialik glacier (captain said he had not seen such a large calving in years!)

Walked around Seward that afternoon (I found that the souvenirs were the least expensive in Seward of anyplace we visited) and had dinner at Ray's. We drove around a bit after that (thought maybe we could catch the sunset) and caught another glimpse of Exit Glacier.

Wednesday - visited the Sea Life Center then drove to Anchorage to pick up another rental car, then up to Talkeetna - my favorite town (I think!) - We stayed at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge which was awesome! Went into town for dinner and met some people that had just gotten back from climbing (and summiting in one instance) Mt. McKinley (how cool!)

Our flightseeing tour for the next day was cancelled due to weather so we had lunch in Talkeetna and then drove up to Denali. Friday we did an 8 hour bus tour of Denali and saw lots of wildlife along the way. We actually had a mama bear (grizzly) and her cub cross the road right in front of our bus!

Saturday, we had our second day of good weather and we actually got a chance to see Denali! (we had a great view from the south view point on the road from Denali to Talkeetna)

We returned to Talkeetna to take our flightseeing tour - including a landing on Ruth Glacier - it was unbelievable! K2 Aviation was really great! (even rescheduling us when we missed our first tour that morning b/c we got stuck in road construction coming from Denali)

From there, it was back to Anchorage where we did some final last miunute shopping, checked out Ship Creek for salmon and the Ulu Factory, had dinner and then headed to the airport for our 11 pm flight.

Phew - it was a long but enjoyable week.

The people of Alaska were just amazing - we met so many wonderful people - everyone was willing to help us out and just answer tons of questions - I can't wait to go again!

Thanks a lot for all of your advice - hope this info is helpful to anyone else that may be thinking of planning a trip. If anyone has any questions about anything we did, I'll be happy to try and answer them.

Next up - need to plan a cruise to Alaska so I can see all of the coastal areas / towns we didn't see on this trip!

Sounds like great trip. You ran your best time ever, had a great vacation and took lots of great photos which you are planning to share with us, right???

Thanks so much for taking the time to write your review. It sounds like you had a great time! We will be cruising to Alaska next year and plan on spending an additional 5 days doing our own land tour as well.

I want to take the 6 hr. Kenai Fjords cruise, but am worried about getting seasick. Since you went in inclement weather, how bad were the seas out the open water? Did you or anyone else get seasick?

Also, you said you took the 8 hour tour bus through Denali. Was that the actual tour that includes lunch and narration from a guide, or did you take the shuttle? I would love to here more detail of your Denali experience.

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions. Thanks again for posting your review.

Larry

Aw Geez! ;) Not another Marathon to put on my "must do" list!? :rolleyes:

A race report please! :D

Larry we are just back from the Radiance in Alaska. We did the week land tour first and finished it off with a wonderful cruise. I too was leary of a 8 hour bus tour into Denali but i wouldnt miss it for the world. We had excellent weather and we saw so much wildlife. We also so momma and baby bear cross in front of us and then momma bear raided a tarmigin nest and killed a bird to take to her cub. We say grizzlys, even saw triplets and usually grizzlys only only have twin cubs. We saw foxes, sheep, goats, bald eagles. We didnt see any moose in the park but the next day on the Royal caribbean train we saw at least 10 of them. The actual tour into Denali did take us 8 hours. It depends on how much you see and how much your driver slows down or stops for. They did make I think two stops along the way for pictures and one of course had a gift shop for you to look through. The box lunch was Ok I guess. It was salami, bread and pretzels I think with a small bottle of water and a fruit/granola bar. Hope you book soon and have fun.

Thanks Campngrl....Was the bus a converted school bus or was it a regular bus with cushioned chairs?

Denali - I accidentally called it a tour - we took the shuttle and it was fine. Our driver was great and the bus was actually more comfortable than I expected it to be! He was willing to stop whenever we wanted for pictures.

Pictures - I'll post them as soon as I get them uploaded. A lot of them have that hazy - it was raining - look - but there are some clear ones from the sunny times as well.

Kenai Fjords and seasickness - the seas were pretty rough the day we went but I was fine. My friend had bought us patches to wear and I had no problem. For my two other friends, the patch knocked them out and they were actually asleep for a good part of the ride as we were headed out! There were a couple of people on the boat that got sick but luckily I was fine. (so were my friends with the patches - but they were really tired as I said)

Race Report (for Trixie :) ) - it was LONG! Unfortunately, not my best time ever, but a good time. The course was difficult - there's about ten miles you spend going over rocks - a lot of people were worried about (and did) twist ankles. The half-marathon course is supposedly really nice though - it goes right along the Coastal Trail. So, I would definitely make it up there for at least one of those.

Our last night we had dinner at the Snow Goose restaurant - just mentioning it b/c we were able to sit outside and overlook the water which was nice.

Any other questions - ask away - happy to assist in whatever way I can :)