We flew home on Sunday

This is a Safeway in downtown Vancouver. It has its own underground parking garage. We also went in the largest Sears store we had ever seen.

This was our first view of the Celebrity Millennium

Carmen Lake It was very still, and our pilot said that tens of thousands of Silver salmon were spawning there now. We saw a few in their death throes on the surface.

It was fun. Cold, but fun.

The 20 Mile River was at flood stage after all the rain they had been having.

We started the day with a jet boat ride up the 20 Mile River. It was exilerating! The captain was very experienced and really good. He slalomed all over the river, avoiding rocks gravel bars, logs etc., while zipping along at about 25 mph.

You can see the hotel at the very bottom of the photo. The tram ride to the top of the mountain took seven minutes. There are ski runs all over the place. This was the first day we got any significant rain, and we could not see the seven glaciers that are normally visible from the top, but it was pretty spectacular anyway.

This is a ritzy ski resort in Girdwood, Alaska – not too far from Anchorage. We are staying here Thursday night – our last night on land before we join the cruise on Friday.

We saw elk, caribou, brown bears, porcupine, bald eagles, moose, musk oxen, and wood bison at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It rehabilitates injured Alaskan wildlife.

We drove for an hour and a half along scenery like this. The sand bar in the water is glacial silt. Only the Bay of Fundy has more varied high and low tides than this.

We saw this at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. It was divided into several sections, each highlighting a few of the native Alaskan peoples – lower panhandle – Aleutian Islands, Yukon delta, north slope, and the Athabaskas in most of central Alaska.

We will do a couple of tours of Anchorage tomorrow, but we had a little free time in the evening. This 10 ft. 6 and 3/4 in. 1900 lb. Kodiak brown bear was in display in the downtown JC Penney.

Here, we are approaching Anchorage. It is surrounded by the Chugach range, the highest coastal range in the world.

We spent last night in Talkeekna. It was a beautiful place with a three-story fireplace. It sits on the side of a hill with a great view of the Alaska range, including Mt. McKinley, but it was obscured by clouds in the evening and the morning.

We started the day with a flight around Mt. McKinley – about 70 miles from the Denali Visitor’s Center. We had absolutely perfect weather and could see for over 200 miles.

This is Polychrome pass from the air. The day before, we had ridden along the side of the mountain with no guard rails and barely enough room for two buses to pass.

We saw LOTS of bears.

Here is a golden eagle. After I could no longer see it, it started flying acrobatics with its mate.

The Dall sheep stay up very high on the mountainsides. To the naked eye, they are just little white dots.

We saw small animals as well as big ones. This is an Arctic ground squirrel.

We saw an incredible amount of wildlife – nearly 20 brown (grizzly ) bears, eagles, Dall sheep, caribou, coyotes, rabbits, etc. It was the most our tour guide had ever seen. We had spectaculalry beautiful weather.

After we got to the Denali Visitor’s Center, we had some lunch and started on a nine hour Tundra Wilderness bus Tour of the National Park. Here, we were up on the side of the pass overlooking rivers, mountains, and glaciers.

This was our first view Denali – the great one – Mt. McKinley.

We rode this train from Fairbanks to Denali

These are sled dogs being trained at the late Susan Butcher’s training camp. They were extremely exited about starting to pull that 600 pound motorless ATV. When she released them, they were like a Navy jet on a catapult – they had that thing moving at about 20 miles an hour in no time.

Bob and Liz found more than we did.

We panned for gold at the Eldorado gold mine. We found 4.8 grains, worth about $15.00, and put it in a locket for Janie.

This sign was done with a chain saw

This was the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. The weather was absolutely perfect – about 73 degrees, low humidity, and bright sunshine.

We saw this 9 ft. brown bear at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

This was Fairbanks in the evening as we arrived.

We spent all day Friday flying – BWI to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Seattle, and Seattle to Fairbanks. I got a picture of what I think is Mt. Ranier as we approached Seattle.

We will fly to Fairbanks, travel by train to Denali and Talkeetna and by motor coach to Anchorage, Alyeska, and Seward.

We will board the Celebrity Millennium in Seward and cruise to the Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait, and Ketchikan. Then we sail the inside passage to Vancouver, BC and fly home after two days in Canada.