Our Alaska adventure on the Norwegian Sun, June 5-12

I'd like to hear about your land travel ! and given the number of questions people have about land travel, it would be helpful information.

You could save yourself some time by just doing an overview .....where you stayed, how you travelled, sights, activities.

Thanks Mapleleaves....will probably continue on and finish out our trip as it's been fun to rehash,relive our trip. Just seems like a dream!

Mitch,

 

Your review was so fantastic! Thank you for all the time and effort it took to document everything, and sharing all of your lovely photos! We are headed out on NCL this Sunday out of Seattle. I've made notes of what not to miss, thanks to you!

Have a fantastic trip! I hope my review has been helpful for folks, as I found reviews helpful for us and we learned so much. Like.....staying on the Promenade deck to view the glaciers....so much more quiet and peaceful, sheltered if precipitation. Will look for your report! We've never been to Seattle!

Day 8 - Disembark Day

We were up and at it very early this morning. We were up to the breakfast buffet along with a whole bunch of other folks. We chose to do the excursion through NCL to take the train from Seward to Anchorage airport to get our rental car. Yes, it was a longer trip but we were looking forward to the ride as we both enjoy trains. There was quite a group meeting in the Stardust Theatre at 6:00 a.m. and we took off to board the train about 6:15. Not gonna lie....there was a small section about mid-morning that the motion and sound of the train just started to make me really drowsy...couldn't help it! I didn't fall asleep, but was close!

View of the marina from the ship....another low cloudy day. Beginning to think this is typical Alaska and we wouldn't see the sun again! It was dry, just overcast and cloudy so thankful for that.

Entrance to the marina, and Resurrection Bay. We'll be back here in a couple days to do the Kenai Fjord National Park Tour with Kenai Fjord Tours.

Seabourne Cruise line parked next to us this morning....a much smaller ship.

The Alaska Railroad....this is our train contracted with NCL to take us to Anchorage. We were in the 2 car from the engine on the right (end).

The view heading out of Seward....this creek/river emptied out into Resurrection Bay. I hope the clouds clear up for us!

The cloud ceiling is getting higher...I have a good feeling!

Look! Blue sky!!

Our first glacier on the trip....it was difficult to take photos inside the glassdome of the train car. The camera would keep focusing on the water spots on the outside of the window, or you would get a lot of reflection from whomever was sitting by you when you tried to take picture. The views in person were incredible!

The front engine as we went around a bend....you can see Brian's shirt (sitting across from me) in the reflection lower right corner.

Waterfall from melting snow.....

Glacier #2

Glacier # 2 and literally, a bridge to nowhere.....

Glacier!

Seeing this picture makes me laugh....it was about here that I saw a cow moose out in the field as the train sped by. I hollered out "Moose on the left" and everyone immediately yelled out "Moose...look, there it is, Moose!" etc...... The poor cow moose was terrified...she was galloping as fast as she could away from the train and unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of her as the train was moving away from her. It was pretty funny.....the car had been pretty quiet up until that point, then everyone was all animated! Was neat to see and experience!

Getting close to Turnagain Arm and that's the Seward Highway. The train followed along the highway pretty much the rest of the trip. We were on this side for awhile, then after going through some tunnels, ended up right along the shore line with the road to our right.

This area along the Turnagain Arm shows some dead trees. These tree's were killed off from the influx of salt water that occured after the 1964 Earthquake when the ground literally shifted about 20 feet. This is what is left of the dead trees....some areas had much thinner stands. This was a particularly thick stand. Note the eagle sitting top of the tree taking in the view?

Really like this picture....

This is a train from Anchorage heading down to Seward....not the best shot, but was cool as we had stopped and waited for it to pass before we could continue. This train may be full of passengers getting ready to board the Sun as it heads southbound back to Vancouver or it could be heading to Whittier!

Turnagain Arm, pretty much high tide as we approached Anchorage. This stretch of water has the highest tide differential in the United States....up to 40 feet! Note, the blue skies we briefly saw earlier are now gone. Won't see them back the rest of the day. In fact, we get our first precipitation out of the entire trip so far, today.

Next stop Anchorage airport to get our luggage from the cruise ship sent on, and to get our rental car for the week.....

We arrived at the airport train platform and those catching flights or picking up rentals got off here. Others that were sent on the the NCL Hospitality Center at the Alaska Railroad Depot. These electric engines were huge!

First stop out of Anchorage was to Wasilla to see....

Not Sarah Palin, but Walmart......Gotcha! I really, really needed some Diet Coke for the week!

After getting a couple things at Walmart, we made our way to Hatcher's Pass as we wanted to see the Independence Mine State Park that had just opened up for the season 2 days before! It was really cool, dark, drizzly and lightly raining at times....wondered what we would see up on the pass. Before we went there, I wanted to check out the Eklutna Historical Park as I had read quite a bit about the Spirit boxes and the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas Church. Felt to be one of the oldest in the state dating back to the mid 1800's.

The rivers were high, and the clouds were low....

There was a small fee ($5) to have the tour to see the church's and spirit houses....went toward the up keep and preservation of the church. The old St. Nicholas church was here along with the new St. Nicholas church that is still used weekly for worship. The woodwork in the new church was absolutely beautiful!

Old St. Nicholas Church

These are the original logs that were hand hewn Spruce. Look how they are wedged and interlocked together along the side. This is felt to be the oldest standing building in the Anchorage area....1870 date of construction is conservative and felt to be closer to 1830. Was moved to it's present location in 1900 and actively used until the new church was done in 1962.

Many of the artifacts on the alter were brought here from Russia.

The Three-Barred Cross that you see on top of the church, spirit houses and multiple other places was adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church and was especially popularized in the Slavic countries. The upper arm represents the inscription over Christ's head, and the lower slanting bar represents His footrest. The origin of this slanted footboard is not known, but in the symbolism of the Russian Orthodox Church, the most common explanation is that it is the pointing upward to Paradise for the Good Thief on Jesus' right who acknowledged Him and downward to Hell for the Thief on His left

The onion shaped dome is a peculiar feature of Russian Orthodox churches. There is two different stories of why. Some feel its the Persian influence and others feel its because churches in Northern Russia it had a practical reason...to help shed snowfall

At the top, Jesus in the middle with Mary and Joseph by his side, next to them are the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Below them is the last supper with the 6 disciples on either side, below that are pictures depicting stories in the bible. The woodwork is beautiful.....

These spirit houses are a uniquely Athabaskan tradition; according to cultural beliefs. Spirit houses were built by the family after the person’s death. A wonderful and unique mix of this native tradition with the practices and beliefs of Orthodox Christianity can be seen in the cemetery. The graves of the Athabaskan people are marked not only with their traditional spirit houses, but also with an Orthodox Christian Cross. There are also graves marked only with crosses, honoring the resting places of the Orthodox non- native members of the church.

After spending a little time in Eklutna we took off for Hatchers Pass to see the Independence Mine State Park. It was such a gloomy day, I wasn't sure what we would see once we got to higher elevations.

It was pretty foggy up here and there was a steady light rain...not sure if it was rain or the fact that we felt like we were literally in the clouds. The mine was really cool to see and we wandered around reading the different historical facts, going into buildings. Independence Mine was one of Alaska's top gold producing mines until it was shut down during World War II. After the war, mining activity declined until it was shut down in 1951. You can still go up to this area and surface mine for gold if you like. It was pretty interesting to hear how men lived back then, how much money they made etc., the work that was involved to get the ore out and the gold out of the ore.

There are about 13 buildings that were built during 1930-1940 that are still standing today. The large building to the right and the one in the middle are the dorms that housed approx 50 men each....the work crew. Foremans etc., had their own houses at the mine. The mess hall was in another building.....

This use to be....

This.

In the top photo, you can still see the rail that the cars would come out of the mine on, loaded with ore to be sorted in the plant.

As you can see John walking by the dorm buildings back to the parking lot, he had seen enough. Was getting chilled and cold from the drizzle. If it had been a nicer day, we would have walked on up the path and gotten a view of the grounds/buildings and the entire valley from the top. If you are in this area, I recommend a stop. Very interesting part of Alaskan history and well preserved....

We literally felt like we were up in the clouds... Imagine what the view would have been like if the clouds weren't there and it was a sun-shiney day.

Saw these beautiful birds along the road and later learned that they were Magpies. Have heard of them, just never seen them. So colorful and really pretty when in flight.

Little Susitna River.....

Little Susitna River in Hatchers Pass. There is still gold found in this river for those that want to look for it......

Look how clear the water is......

Trees growing straight out of the rocks....

It had been a full day, starting at 4:30 a.m. and we were ready to check into our cabin for the next 2 nights at Hatchers Pass Bed and Breakfast. I would highly recommend this location to stay if you are in the Palmer/Hatchers Pass area. It was about 1/2 the cost of staying in a hotel room in Anchorage. The little sourdough cabin was a perfect size for the 2 of us, with plenty of breakfast food stocked in the refrigerator if you wanted to fix breakfast or heck, even have breakfast for supper! The owner, Liz, was very good about communication with us prior to our arrival and the day we were to arrive. She had text me that afternoon and told me she may not be there when we arrived, that the cabin was open and to make ourselves at home, she would check in with us later on and if we needed anything to be sure to let her know. Loved, loved, loved this place....

Is this not the cutest cabin ever!! I could picture myself living here if I had to!

The interior was just as charming with very comfortable queen size bed, great blackout shades, kitchenette, couch, TV, WiFi.....just perfect!

After getting set up for our 2 night stay, we went to Palmer to eat at the Noisy Goose Cafe. A good home-style comfort food kind of restaurant and it was excellent. Charming decor inside, food was really good and the servers were excellent. Felt very welcomed to be there.

We rented our car, the Grand Cherokee on the left from Alamo. I reserved it as soon as I was able to when reservations for our dates became available to book. We ended up paying $360 for the week for a SUV with unlimited mileage so thought that was pretty good. The key is to book it as soon as you can. Very comfortable car to travel in, held all our luggage with room to spare!

After dinner, it was going on 9:00 so we went back to the cabin There is a firepit with seating around it to use for those staying, but it was cool and drizzly so not a good night. We were pretty shot from all we had done for the day, so we just relaxed for a bit inside, pulled the blackout shades and got some sleep before our adventure in Talkeetna the next day!

To be continued........

Thank you so much for your review and beautiful photos! We're going up to Alaska in 2019, and your review helps us plan.

We're on board and we get notified about 1:30 that the cabins were ready so we went down to see if our luggage had arrived. It had, so we quickly unpacked some things and got somewhat situated. There was plenty of room under the bed to stash all our luggage and bags, plenty of storage to put clothes in closets, drawers. The bathroom had lots of shelves on either side of the mirror to stash your typical bathroom stuff. The shower was just curtained which was okay. I did bring along some heavy clips to put on the bottom at both edges to keep the curtain down straight. By the way....got to say that the water pressure in the shower and room in the shower was excellent! The only downside is there is only 1 outlet for plugging things in like alarm clocks, camera and cell phone chargers. We had purchased a squid multi-outlet extension cord and it worked fantastic!

 

 

 

 

I've always taken a squid for cruises, but had my bag held by security on my last Disney cruise and the alcohol in my bag was ignored, but the squid was confiscated until the end of the cruise. It ended up not being worth the hassle of trying to recover my squid on the way off the ship.

Loving your review & pictures. We're going in June2018 but with Princess.

So glad you are adding your land review. We're doing a DIY before our cruise.

Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Tuesday June 8th - Talkeetna

Today was the day we had planned to head to Talkeetna and hopefully fly around Denali with Glacier landing with K2 Aviation. Talkeetna was a fun little quirky town with yes, a lot of gift/souvenir shops but it also has a lot of history. There is a great museum there talking about the history of Talkeetna, with different locations you can walk to that are part of the tour. It is also the staging area for anybody that wants to climb Denali. Was very informative going to the US Park Rangers office and hearing what all is involved for those wanting to climb.....it's quite the process and it takes 3 weeks to reach the summit. We had a fun day and beautiful scenery along the way from Hatchers Pass.

The weather in Talkeetna was overcast when we first got there, but it was clearing from the north to south. The weather on the mountain however was another story....we checked in frequently with K2 Aviation to see if we would be able to fly, and unfortunately they were only able to reach the lower elevations so we did not go We were a little disappointed, but we were on vacation and we were in Alaska, so it was all good!

This image shows the damage from the Sockeye Fire in 2015. It destroyed about 6500 acres, ruined 5 homes and other structures. There was literally miles and miles of burnt forest between Willow and Talkeetna along the Parks Highway.....but promising new green brush growing underneath the burnt out trees.

Small town, easy to walk around. We found a perfect parking place by the historic Fairview Inn, which is for sale if anyone is interested!

Nagley's Store......this is where the mayor lives.

This is Stubbs, the Honorary cat Mayor of Talkeetna. He was 20 years old and did pass away about a month after

we were here.

This was one of my favorite stores we stopped at....Mostly Moose. Around back is a walkway that takes you to the Talkeetna Historical Museum.

We stopped at the Talkeetna Ranger Station and got educated about Denali. What these guys go through that climb the mountain is amazing. There is a short film, about 20 minutes that describes the process of what the climbers go through....from the moment they check in here saying they want to climb, to when they reach the summit. Definitely stop here if you are in Talkeetna.

Different flags that have reached the summit.....literally from all over the world.

Different boots for climbing over the ages....

It said showers in Talkeetna, but actually there weren't any, the skies were starting to clear and we actually had blue skies later in the afternoon. Look at the temps up on the mountain.....brrr!

Stopped by K2 Aviation to touch base....the weather was starting to clear north of Talkeetna, but still not flying. Will check back later, but right now.....it's time for some food!

Isn't this guy cute!! There were lots of these moose all over town in different colors and designs. This is one K2 Aviation sponsored.

There were so many different places to eat, and it was really hard to decide but we chose West Rib Pub and Grill. It had been featured on Man vs Food, and we wanted to try their Caribou Burger. It was really really good!

It was really nice out, we chose to eat outside. Our server was a lot of fun!

This is the Seward Folly. It has 2# of Caribou, 1/2 pound of ham, 12 slices of bacon, 6oz. of American Cheese, 6 oz. of Swiss Cheese and 1# of Fries. If you can finish this by yourself in 1 hour, you get a free Seward Folly t-shirt. We did not get this....

This was our lunch and after eating so full, decided our supper. John had the Northern Lights Burger and I got the Stubbs Burger. Both excellent and so filling!

After lunch, we walked around town for awhile. Did go to the museum, small but really neat history of the town. Stopped at more stores. There was one merchant I did not get a picture of but absolutely loved her store.....Aurora Dora. She is a professional photographer and all she does is take pictures of Aurora's. Breathtaking images....we're going to get a print and frame it from her website. http://www.auroradora.com Check it out!

The Roadhouse has a bakery/cafe and we stopped to have a diet coke and rocked on the front porch for awhile people watching.

This has to be my favorite moose that I saw.....so colorful!

We had been in Talkeetna quite awhile, walked all over town, and bought way too much stuff.....the perfect tourist! After awhile, things were getting better in Talkeetna, blue skies breaking through the clouds so stopped back at K2 Aviation to check on status. They told us they could get us to the lower elevations about 8,000-10,000 feet but that was it. We chose then to not fly....but did purchase a neat 20 minute video of what we would have seen if we had flown! Consolation prize I guess! We needed to head back to Hatchers Pass.....even though we were on vacation, we needed to get some laundry done! We had a super fun day, met a lot of folks and had a lot of fun! Someday, we would like to return to Alaska and do a RV trip with a stop here for a couple days....really liked it here and it gives us a better chance to fly if we have more days.

I want to show you one more purchase I got in Talkeetna....

How perfect is that!!

On our way back to the car, we stopped here and got a Blueberry Shake....perfect treat to have as we drove back to Hatchers Pass. The little John Deere engine churning the ice cream sure reminded us of home and Iowa!

We arrived back to our cabin in Hatchers Pass and right across the street is Turners Corner, a gas station, convenience store small cafe that made pizza's, had scoop ice cream, etc...... Well, it also had a very clean and nice laundromat! We had laundry detergent/dryer sheets provided at the cabin and we just needed a bunch of quarters to get a couple loads done.

We didn't try the ice cream as we were way to full from Talkeetna, so can't confirm or deny whether it was the best. I will say, with the traffic and number of people coming and going, walking out with ice cream cones, I bet it was pretty good.

Wednesday June 14th - Hatchers Pass to Seward

Today is the day, we are relocating back to Seward. We made several stops along the way there. It was still pretty cool and overcast around the Palmer area but the weather did improve the further south we drove.

This picture was taken about 2:30 in the morning. It is not dark....just very dusky looking, like the street lights are just coming on. Not the best picture as taken in low light through window with screen, but wanted to give you an idea of just how "dark" it gets in Alaska in the summer.

Heading down the highway on our way to our first stop....Alaska Horse Adventures. If only the sun had been out...this would have been a beautiful picture. The mountains are just so majestic!

Here are our horses and for our trail ride, it was just us and our guide, Hosanna. How private and personal is that! We were scheduled for a 1 1/2 hour ride, but she actually took a little more time, and did whatever we wanted to do. If you are in that area and have time for a trail ride, check them out. We always like to horseback ride if we can when we go on our big trips and this one was beautiful, in spite of the clouds!

Heading out on the trail into the woods. Did you know that there aren't any ticks, fleas or snakes in Alaska. Good to know when going through dense trees and bushes.

There were wild rose bushes everywhere...if only you smell this. It was incredible!

We come out of the woods, and see this. We're riding on glacial silt now and ahead of us is the Knik River.

Knik River and Knik Glacier in the distance. I wish the sun would have been out, it would have been an absolutely incredible

to see this with blue skies

This would have been a great picture if someone would have told me to fix my jacket!

Getting ready to cross the river.....

And....were across.

After the river crossing and short ride through a wooded area we came out onto this huge marsh area. I was hoping we would have seen a moose, but no luck.

This ride reminded us a lot of Northern Minnesota, especially with this birch stand.

And our ride is coming to an end.....

One final group shot before we left.Hosanna was a great guide and we learned so much about living in Alaska. She told us how her family moved to Alaska, and lived in a cabin middle of nowhere, no running water or electricity. Lived off the land....was so interesting to hear about her growing up. We sure had a good time and glad we did it....just wish those nasty clouds hadn't been there!

Our next stop was the Williams Reindeer Farm in Palmer. It wasn't far from where we had been riding and was going to be just a quick stop on our way to Anchorage.

And here we are feeding the reindeer.....as you can see, they hadn't shed their winter coat yet. When they eat, they scoop up the food with their bottom lip. I was surprised by the texture of their fur....you would think it was soft and thick but it was quite coarse. We learned not to touch their antlers when they were now covered with velvet as they are extremely sensitive during that time. Oh...they also make a clicking sound when they walk....pretty cool!

I went over to share the last of my feed with some of those grouped together. The fur under the winter coat was really soft and silky....some of them I just wanted to take a brush and get rid of it for them.

Look at that face..doesn't it say "Can I have more?" Just want to brush that winter fur off. Look at the color difference between the winter coat and summer coat.

This is Dolly their buffalo. She wasn't too interested in us.....she was liking her grass. If you know anything about buffalo, you respect the buffalo. They have been known to have a temper and charge at you. Dolly was just fine over there doing her thing.

Here are a couple little guys that were born this past year. Did you know that they start growing their antlers soon after birth, and usually have them by the time they are 2-3 months old?

A bull elk and his harem.....

Meet Rocky.....he is a 3 week old orphaned moose that belongs to The State of Alaska, but was given to the Reindeer Farm to raise. He will never be able to live in the wild on his own....

He is just 3 weeks old.....look how long his legs are and how tall he is. They aren't sure what happened to his mama....hit by a car or maybe she just decided she didn't want to be a mama and abandoned him. Kind of sad.....

Rocky is starting to get hungry....he's suckling on her fingers. Susie says he eats just like a newborn human, about every 2-3 hours around the clock. This time next year he'll weigh well over 500 pounds. He was so cute frolicking around the paddock....would occasionally do a head butt into Susie. Bet it won't be so cute a year from now! Will have to follow the Reindeer Farm on Facebook to see how he is growing!

We really enjoyed stopping here...learned a lot about the Reindeer. This is still a working farm, and the patriarch of the family, Tom Williams passed away this April. So glad they are keeping his vision alive....

Loving your review!! Trying to convince the hubby to take more work off to do the land portion but not successful so far. That just means we'll have to go back!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Loving your review!! Trying to convince the hubby to take more work off to do the land portion but not successful so far. That just means we'll have to go back!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We've already talked about going back, but doing just a land portion with an RV rental...going to Denali for a few days, and spending more time on the Kenai! It was an incredible trip for us, one we will never forget!