Alaska 2008

We just completed a two week Alaska vacation comprised of a one week land tour followed by a one week cruise. We kept a daily log of events and I will transcribe that here. The log is fairly long, so I will probably have to make multiple blog entries, but I will try to keep it organized so it is not too confusing.

24 May 2008 - After years of waiting and months of planning, we are on our way. We flew Delta from Dulles to Atlanta. Then, after a two hour lay over, it was on to Anchorage. The flight was mostly smooth but cloudy. We could not see the ground at all until we got into the Canadian Rockies. Then it was extremely clear and the view was phenomenal. We saw completely snow-covered mountains as far as the horizon. Some of the mountains appeared to be volcanoes, but I can find no reference to volcanoes in the Rockies. They must have just been shaped like volcanoes. We also saw a number of glaciers which really looked neat from that far up. They looked like huge rivers of ice. Well, I guess that's what they are. We also saw large, deep canyons / gorges. It was quite a sight.

After a 7 1/2 hour flight, we arrived in Anchorage in the rain at around 5:30 PM AKDT (Alaska Daylight Time, 4 hours behind EDT). The Princess representative met us, but we had to wait about an hour for our bags. Finally, we were on the bus bound for the Captain Cook hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, our driver went in to get an outfitter while we waited on the bus. About that time two women walked by on the sidewalk and Mary went nuts. It was her cousin from Fairbanks and an aunt who had come to Alaska to visit her. Mary jumped up and fought her way out of the bus to stop them. It turns out they were in Anchorage for a show and were on their way there. Mary convinced them that they should keep their plans because we were mainly interested in getting to bed as soon as possible. We promised to get together in Fairbanks if possible. Presently, we got to our room which was very nice and on an upper floor with a great view. After a quick dinner in the hotel and a brief walk around the area, we returned to our room about 9:30. It was hard to believe how late it was since it was so light out (except for the cloudiness), but we were extremely tired. Our bodies were thinking it was more like 1:30 AM. It got dark around 12:30 AM and started getting light again around 3:00 AM.