Day cruises through Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords National Park

We took two day cruises to see glaciers. The first was with Allison through the Prince William Sound, which is a 1 1/2 hour drive from Anchorage. It was cloudy and cold, but never did rain on that trip. The highlights were riding by a salmon hatchery where there were about 100 bald eagles flying and nesting in the trees, and getting right up to a tidal glacier. We finished that day with a great hike near the town of Whittier.

The second cruise through the Kenai Fjords National Park was supposed to be even more fantastic. Unfortunately, shortly after we started a major storm came into the area. Because we were out on the open sea, lots of passengers (fortunately, Bonnie wasn't one of them) got seasick and we had to turn back before we were even half-way to our major destination: a huge tidal glacier. However, on our way back we saw two different humpack whales breach right out of the water. The second came so close that the boat captain thought he might have to back up the boat so the whale wouldn't run into us.

Family in Alaska

We had some great highlights in Alaska, but the best part was being with our kids and grandkids. We enjoyed meeting Owen for the first time, reading and playing with Chloe, taking Sophie (the dog) for walks, going to the zoo and enjoying the mountains of Alaska together.

North Pole and Fairbanks

After Denali, we headed even further north to Fairbanks and North Pole, Alaska. Andrea was especially thrilled to visit North Pole, where we saw the "real" Santa and visited his house. In Fairbanks, we went to a free park called Pioneer Park, where we strolled through old buildings, rode a train, visited an aerospace museum, and rode buckin' Salmon.

Denali National Park

During our first week in Alaska, we all packed into Adam and Andrea's minivan and drove up to Denali National Park. Denali is the native Alaskan's name for Mount McKinley. As you can see, we got excellent views of Mount McKinley on our drive up before we got to the National Pak. On our one full day in the park, we took a nine-hour bus ride on a school bus. We had a very entertaining bus driver who gave us lots of time to stop and see animals such as eagles, mountain sheep, bears, caribou, and moose. However, we never did see Mount McKinley on that ride and it was a long ride for a baby and a toddler. All in all, it was a spectacular, but long day. For Bonnie, Allison and I, it ended well. We went to one of the best restaurants we have been to in years: 229 Parks, which is about five miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park. We were then going to take care of Chloe and Owen while Adam and Andrea went to the restaurant, but we were too late. They'll have to try it later.

Into the Wild!

One of our favorite experiences in Alaska was hiking up to the Harding Icefield close to Seward Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula. The last part of the hike was all through snow and it was steep, but definitely worth it. The icefield is huge! It's vastness was quite humbling. We hiked up with a young couple who were not wanting to see bears, so they made lots of noise and no bears were spotted!

We will post more, don't worry!

Bear!

One of our Alaska highlights was waiting for this bear to come down to the river to catch a couple of salmon. We were at the Russian River falls and met a fish and wildlife worker (he counts the salmon...all 134,000 of them) who told us this bear comes down several times a day to catch fish in this spot. It is always the same bear. It really made our day and was worth waiting for!