Husband and I just returned this morning from over 2 weeks - 1 week Interior, 1 week cruise. It already seems like a dream... I can%26#39;t believe it%26#39;s over!
Aug 25 - Flew in late (8-ish) to Anchorage and stayed (on pts) at the Hilton Homewood Suites. Good free breakfast!
Aug 26 - Drove to Homer in the rain. Saw 2 bald eagles along Turnagain - our first wildlife sighting! Ate lunch at Mykel%26#39;s in Soldotna - nice atmosphere, food OK. Stayed at Suites on the Beach, a B%26amp;B run by Two Sister%26#39;s Bakery (they had a shared mini-fridge available, and big outside freezer where we froze water bottles) (also had a hair dryer). Ate at Happy Face Restaurant and can%26#39;t recommend it, unless you just go for the milkshakes.
Aug 27 - Today was Bear Day. Picked up a lunch (turkey sandwiches on focaccia (sp?) - awesome) and breakfast at Spit Sister%26#39;s Cafe (yes, same folks) out on Homer Spit (';Bread and Chocolate';, warmed, is to die for), then went to the Emerald Air pickup site. Had 3 other couples, from 3 other countries. Chris gave us the ';bear talk'; (don%26#39;t run, don%26#39;t avoid eye contact, look ';big';) and we were off in Ken%26#39;s airplane to Katmai. We passed several volcanoes on the way and had magnificent views of them, as well as streams red with salmon when we arrived. Miraculously - the rain had completely cleared.
Versus the 3-4 hour bear tours with cruises, this is a full day - we left around 9, got back about 5:30. (One note, ladies - NO toilets. TP and a baggie to take it back in, that%26#39;s it. Or, you can choose to hold it all day - it can be done.) In the afternoon we were within 100 feet of a large male catching fish in the river - for a good half hour. Truly awesome. And Chris and Ken are just great sources of info.
By the way - even though the population of Alaska has voted down hunting wolves by air twice, the current (but on the way out) governor simply changed the law and a famous pack of wolves in Denali have been wiped out when they left the protection of the park. Also, they%26#39;ve begun to allow killing of the bears in Katmai (which is like shooting fish in a barrel...). *sigh*
Anyway - if you%26#39;re interested in bears - DO THIS TOUR! But plan early - they were sold out every day this year, although they also had a lot more rain cancellations than usual.
Drove up to Seward and stayed at A Swan%26#39;s Nest Inn. Cute bed.
Aug 28 - Not much going on for breakfast, though - a sweet bread and some plums - that was it. Not exactly what I would call Continental.
Raced from there to Kenai Fjords for the 8:30 cruise. We got a TERRIBLE captain - his idea of telling you where to look was ';Oh, there%26#39;s one over there'; - without telling you where THERE was and sometimes without making clear what ONE was. We saw dolphins, sort of, a humpback tail, some Stellar sea lions, and a ton of birds. We were not impressed. The lunch was fish or chicken fingers (fish coating was mushy), an apple, a bag of chips, and later a choc chip cookie.
Drove back to Anchorage and had dinner at the Sourdough Mining Co - too early for the show, and I would not recommend them for the food only.
Tonight we stayed at Birch Trails B%26amp;B, which was the friendliest place we were at this week. Angie was such a sweetie and made a great breakfast the next morning.
Aug 29 - Today we drove up (the eastern route) to Fairbanks. The drive is breathtaking. It was my favorite scenery the entire trip. We ate lunch at the Brown Bear Rhodehouse near Glennallen (I think) - the owner was originally from MI (as we still are). It looks like crap from the outside and is smoky inside, but the food was good. By the way, a Milepost is essential, if you%26#39;re driving.
Stopped for many pics (pipeline, scenery) and at Rika%26#39;s Roadhouse for a bit. Arrived at Aurora Express in Fairbanks around 6 or so - checked in with Susan, then off to eat dinner at the Pump House. A wee bit expensive, we thought. Didn%26#39;t stop us from buying shirts and a poster, though (suckers!).
The Northern Lights were out tonight and were red. I, however, slept through them, darn it!
Aug 30 - After a good breakfast from Susan and her husband, we did the Riverboat Discovery and El Dorado today. Would I do them again? No. Glad I did them once? Yes on the RD - and only yes on the ED because my husband loved panning for gold SO much. Lunched at Pike%26#39;s Landing between events - lovely place/location, and VERY reasonable and tasty.
Drove down to Earthsong Lodge tonight. Drove into ';town'; outside Denali%26#39;s entrance after checking in to find something to eat (ate at a little cafe - good stuff), and to make sure that Subway was open early for breakfast (supposedly open 24 hours). Saw a fox on our way back.
Aug 31 - Up at 5 to get down to Denali Bluffs for a 6:30 pickup for the Kantishna Roadhouse Trails tour. Saw a lynx on our way down. Don%26#39;t wait for the last 2 pickups - everyone apparently gets on the first one! The driver was a sweetie, and we stopped for hot drinks (coffee, hot choc, or cider) and snacks (cookies or fruit) on our way into Kantishna. Saw wolves so far away we couldn%26#39;t even tell for sure through binoculars, sheep (same), pica (sp?), moose, caribou, and Denali! Just as we neared the roadhouse at 1 or so, we had 3 bears who walked out right by the bus. We stopped and watched them come right out and head off down the road.
Had a lunch of soup, wraps, cookies, fruit salad and had time for shopping (yes, they had a gift store, and yes, it was 50% off because of the end of season), then I went to the mushing demo and Jim panned for gold again. Musher was SUPERB. About half our bus then chose to fly back instead of taking the bus, but we rode back. Everyone was exhausted by the time we got back 7:30-ish, and no one even cared about the 2 moose we saw up close on the way back!
Back to Earthsong Lodge. Nice place, but the beds were horrid. Jim and I felt every coil. Also, the place had too many knick-knacks -we were packed in there with all of our luggage (since this was the only place we stayed 2 nights, I had been trying to rearrange).
Sep 1 - Drove back to Anchorage. Ate lunch at the Best Western in Wasilla - great Caesar salad. We did notice that, for the most part, restaurant service in Alaska is slow or unfriendly. We are normally 25% tippers, and I had several 10% up there - the Pump House was one.
Switched our rental vehicles at the airport. For the first week, we had a Hertz SUV for only $345. Now we picked up a Camry one way to Seward for one day for about half that! Yikes!
Drove down to Seward (ate dinner in Moose Pass, I think it is, and had hideous service there - we were the only ones in the dining room, for Pete%26#39;s sake) and stayed at the Windsong Lodge. It was nice to have unlimited hot water and a queen bed again! Very nice place. Drove out to Exit Glacier before retiring.
Sep 2 - Up in time to hit the drop-off laundry when it opened - but she must have opened early and was already into the afternoon in return times. So went to the self-serve and waited for them to open. Finished our laundry by noon and ate at Ray%26#39;s - more slow service.
Went to the SeaLife Center for just an hour, unfortunately. I could have stayed and watched the Stellar sea lion for another hour. He was SO adorable! He played for the crowd like crazy. Sometimes he would even push his cheek up against the glass for a bit and watch us all watching him.
Dropped off our car with 1 minute to spare, then boarded the Celebrity Summit for our next week. (I%26#39;ll post that on the cruise forum.)
All in all - now we want to go again, but JUST do the Interior again, and maybe rent an RV. Darn it, I should have known we%26#39;d get hooked.
Any questions, feel free to ask. We lucked out big time in that we had clear weather every day that it counted!
Trip report - Kantishna, SeaLife, B%26amp;Bs, Emerald Air (LONG)
Mom, nice report but I am not clear about your bear watching trip with Emerald Air. We went with them many times and evry time saw at least 50 bears. And I have thousands of pictures to prove it. Are you saying you saw only one large male catching fish in the river? One bear during all day? I would be mad. We always found the end of July and beginning of August to be the best time for watching a large number of them. We had plenty of them in June too. Only one bear?
Trip report - Kantishna, SeaLife, B%26amp;Bs, Emerald Air (LONG)
We did not see a TON of bears, but we did see more than the one. But it wasn%26#39;t prime bear-watching time - late August, and it was just after 15 days of rain, so this might have made a difference. I would imagine we saw about 15 bears, in all.
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