Alaska Review: 10-Day DIY on Land & Radiance Southbound, 6/12/18-6/30/18 (VERY LONG)

Preface/Warning

My trip reviews tend to be very long-winded and I’m writing this one as much for myself, to help capture the memories, as for CC readers. Therefore, some parts will undoubtedly be uninteresting to the general public. I’m also including photos for the first time and will likely post way too many. Hopefully, there will be enough info and interesting stories for everyone to make up for the more personal aspects. But if it’s too long or you find it uninteresting, oh well, my feelings won’t be hurt.

Background

My wife and I are both 40 and had cruised eight times since our honeymoon cruise back in 2002 (which was my first but my wife had cruised several times growing up), all on Royal, and all on Voyager class and above 7-night Caribbean cruises outside of one 4-night Bahamas cruise on Enchantment when we were sitting on 76 points and wanted to get to Diamond. So while we definitely know the ins and outs of cruising with RCI, Radiance and Alaska were very much new to us.

This trip was entirely my wife’s idea and, as such, she did 95% of the planning and deserves 100% of the credit for taking me on an adventure on which I never even knew I wanted to go. As I’ve told her several times already, I can’t thank her enough for giving me a gift I had no idea I wanted. We rationalized it as a joint 40th birthday celebration but she came up with the idea a long time ago and got serious about it before our Caribbean cruise last June so that’s when we booked it onboard Oasis to take advantage of some NextCruise perks before they were scheduled to change on July 1st of that year. The fact that we both turned 40 between then and Alaska was more of a coincidence. The original version included a 6-day pre-tour through RCI but as my wife did more and more research she decided six days wasn’t long enough and RCI didn’t offer the flexibility that a DIY would.

She’s way more adventurous than I am so even though I had no argument with her opinion, the structure and organization of going through RCI appealed to me. I only made peace with the DIY version after she found an outside company that was willing and able to help plan and book our entire trip from hotel rooms (several at properties they own) to train tickets to excursions. Our consultant, Sharilyn, could not have been nicer or more helpful with every aspect of our trip. The number of questions she answered via e-mail or phone had to extend well into the triple digits. Each new version of our itinerary came with a number attached and the final one was #58. She was even happy to give advice regarding the smaller things like restaurants. Of course she was doing her job and some sort of commission factors into her paycheck but we could quickly tell that she genuinely wanted to help create the best experience for us that she possibly could. My wife has even been in contact with her a few times since our trip ended.

Our final itinerary was as follows: Two nights in Fairbanks at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge, three nights in Denali (two at the back of the park at the Denali Backcountry Lodge and one at the Denali Cabins closer to the front), one night in Anchorage at the Downtown Clarion Suites, two nights in Girdwood at the Alyeska Resort, and finally two nights in Seward at the Seward Windsong Lodge before boarding Radiance Southbound with stops at Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Straight Point, Ketchikan, and finally Vancouver.

On to the review…

Day 1 - Orlando to Minneapolis/St. Paul to Fairbanks

Finding flights was one of the few aspects with which I actually helped. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, I didn’t exactly find a plethora of good options for flying from Orlando to Fairbanks. The only reasonably priced flight I found that got into Fairbanks in the afternoon had a layover in Seattle that was too short for our comfort level so we scheduled a 12:30pm flight out of Orlando that stopped in Minneapolis/St. Paul for about three hours before getting us into Fairbanks at 8:44pm. Obviously we didn’t want to spend three hours at the MSP airport but I did the best I could and it at least covered a reasonable time to have dinner there so we could just check-in to our hotel in Fairbanks and get to bed on the early side since we had an early trip to the arctic circle planned for the next morning. Just in case our layover in MSP wasn’t long enough, Delta was kind enough to move our first flight up 30 minutes. Suffice it to say, I don’t need to see any more of the MSP airport anytime soon. At least the flight went smoothly and we did enjoy our dinner there at Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza.

Our next flight was equally smooth and we finally arrived in Alaska, greeted by all six gates of the Fairbanks Airport.

After collecting our two suitcases (mine was slightly damaged, thanks Delta) we called Pike’s Waterfront Lodge and were picked up by their free shuttle within minutes. After checking into to our freestanding cabin (they also have traditional hotel rooms in the main building), we walked around the property a bit and stayed up just long enough to witness firsthand that the sun truly does not set until very late.

Day 2 - Fairbanks

We got up bright and early (which would become a theme) and opened the cabin door to enjoy the cold morning air (even though we live in Orlando we both grew up outside Philadelphia and have no problem with cooler temps and actually looked forward to escaping the Florida heat). I generally just have coffee for breakfast so I took advantage of the in-room coffeemaker while my wife had a muffin she purchased the day before. It was our general plan to mostly skip actual sit down breakfasts between our usual habits, saving a few bucks, and knowing we had some coming at the all-inclusive Denali Backcountry Lodge and of course the cruise later on where we (mostly me) eat way too much. We had a van tour up Dalton Highway through the Arctic Circle planned with Northern Alaska Tour Company with a very early start time so we once again utilized the free hotel shuttle (which is available 24/7) for the short ride to their office.

Once there, we were greeted, signed a waiver, offered an order sheet for purchasing an optional lunch that would be served later on at the Yukon River Camp, and waited for one more couple to arrive (making it six of us on the tour). Once all there, we were briefed by our guide, Mimi, and off we went. Mimi was young but very knowledgeable and full of energy. She also gave us some helpful train tips after we mentioned we would be taking the train all the way through to Seward because she had previously worked on the Alaska Railroad but more on that later. We made several stops to see various things and have lunch (which was quite good) as well as break up the six hour drive. We also experienced our first Alaskan wildlife sightings as there were several snowshoe hares and a few ground squirrels at some of our stops. Upon reaching the Arctic Circle, Mimi held a little ceremony for us that included chocolate cake with “perma” frosting (if you haven’t been to Alaska yet and/or aren’t familiar with the term, google permafrost to understand the pun) and certificates with our names stating that we had crossed the Arctic Circle. Our final stop was in Coldfoot, where we visited the truck stop made famous by the reality show “Ice Road Truckers” (or so I’ve been told) before boarding a small plane for a much quicker return trip to Fairbanks. This was our first time in anything smaller than a commercial plane and we were pleasantly surprised at how smooth the ride was. There wasn’t a whole lot to see from the air thanks in part to haze caused by some 50+ wildfires burning around Northern Alaska at the time. Overall, we enjoyed the day trip. It was educational and interesting to learn about the Alaska Pipeline, experience Dalton Highway, and get to say that we have now been to the Arctic Circle but it’s definitely something I’d only do once. It wasn’t necessarily a highlight of the trip but it was a good way to get started as it was low key and we had spent the previous day traveling. I also have nothing but good things to say about Mimi or the Northern Alaska Tour Company. One last fun fact… it was about 63 and sunny when we crossed the Arctic Circle and this would turn out to be the warmest temperature we experienced the entire time in Alaska.

That night we had dinner at Pike’s Landing, a restaurant right next door to the hotel with a large deck overlooking the Chena River. My goal for the trip was to eat as much seafood as possible since my wife won’t go near it so I don’t get much at home (and it’s Alaska after all) but they offered a pound of chicken tenders with fries for a reasonable price (which can be hard to come by in Alaska) and I was starving so we both got them. It was a good decision as the chicken was both filling and well-cooked (huge pieces of white meat with a crispy batter and not greasy). The service was a little slow but we noticed the poor servers running their butts off so we didn’t blame them. It looked like the restaurant could use a couple more servers. Sitting outside on the deck was also nice even if did get a little chilly by the end of the meal. When the bill came I was reminded of something I had read… there’s no state sales tax in Alaska. With the price of food in Alaska being what it is (much higher on average than the lower 48), every little bit helps. Before bed we took advantage of one last little perk that Pike’s Lodge offers… free ice cream! They sell ice cream by the lobby and hotel guests get one free scoop per night during ice cream happy hour. My wife had some sort of double chocolate while I tried huckleberry. I’m not even sure what a huckleberry is but I’m always inclined to try something new and different. Still not sure what it is other than delicious. It was a bit tart like a raspberry. That’s it for day two. We would be headed to Denali via train early the next morning so we went right to bed after eating.

Day 3 - Fairbanks to Denali

After another early wake-up and light breakfast of coffee for me and a nutrigrain bar for my wife, we checked out and took one last trip on the hotel shuttle to the train station. As I mentioned in the background, our train tickets were purchased for us by the travel company that helped plan our entire trip. While we fully trusted them and were ensured by our consultant that everything was taken care of, not having any actual tickets or reservations in hand or anything still seemed sketchy. Then we arrived at the Fairbanks Train Depot and began learning just how easy it is to travel via the Alaska Railroad. We gave our names and ID and the clerk printed our tickets, tagged our luggage with “Denali Backcountry Lodge” and we were set.

After research and opinion-seeking, we opted for the less-expensive Adventure Class rather than Gold Star Class for a couple reasons. We hadn’t really looked to cut costs very much for this trip, which is definitely out of character for us as we live pretty simple, frugal lives, so the train seemed like a good place to do so without taking much away from the overall experience. We didn’t plan on having full meals on the train, my wife really doesn’t drink, and I mostly only drink socially at home or at someone else’s home during a get together (and in the Diamond Lounge of course), not with a random meal. That leaves the glass dome as the only remaining perk and that alone wasn’t worth the price difference to us. Mimi (remember the Dalton Highway guide I mentioned who gave us train tips from having previously worked for the railroad?) even endorsed our decision long before we got near the train but she had more reasons of which we were unaware. We knew there was a dome section back in Adventure Class that’s meant to be shared (there’s a sign asking you to only stay there for 20 minutes at a time to give others a chance to experience it).

What we didn’t know was that sometimes the train is so empty that you can sit there for an entire leg of the trip. This turned out to be the case that morning as the Adventure Class cars (C/D) were virtually empty so we moved into the dome section and sat there the entire way to Denali. This was especially nice as this leg was one of the more scenic ones. Mimi’s other tip was to see if there was an “E” car. Sometimes the train will stop at D, sometimes it will have more. What’s so special about car E is that it’s much older than C/D and has completely different seats that recline to an almost horizontal position as well as foot rests. Jumping ahead since I’m on the topic, we did sit in Car E on our next leg from Denali to Anchorage (which happened to be the longest and least scenic in our opinion so it worked out well). The seats actually go back even farther than this…

This isn’t meant to judge anyone who chooses Gold Star but merely to share our personal thought processes and experiences. On that Denali to Anchorage leg, we briefly visited a couple in Gold Star with whom we became friendly in Denali and the dome definitely had a nice view. They also wanted to have dinner on the train and have wine with dinner every night so I have no doubt that it was worth it to them.

Anyway, enough about the train. It was a significant part of our trip and I think what I shared could be of interest to some people. If you were bored by it, hopefully you skimmed through until you found this next section. Some of my wife’s pictures from the Fairbanks to Denali train ride…

A climate observatory located on the campus of the University of Alaska - Fairbanks:

Residents of the town of Nenana who have a tradition of waving to the train:

We arrived at the Denali train depot where we met a new friend while waiting for the bus to take us to the Denali Backcountry Lodge…

Eventually a large grey school bus pulled into the parking lot with one Australian couple already aboard (the couple I mentioned becoming friendly with) who had stayed at the Denali Cabins the night before (a property owned by the same company as the Lodge but located near the front of the park) and were picked up first. We joined them near the front of the bus, placed our dinner order via clipboard for later that night, and were followed aboard by a large party that seemed to be traveling together. As it turned out, this was a National Geographic Tour group, led by their own guide and accompanied by a glaciologist (I never realized such a science existed but it’s just what it sounds like, one who studies glaciers). This only added to what would already be an amazing experience and highlight of the trip.

Our driver, Steve, introduced himself and off we went. The 92 mile drive takes about six hours with the various stops for animal sightings and planned breaks. Those planned breaks also included a virtually unlimited supply of snacks like granola bars, candy, and fresh fruit as well as soda and water. There was also a hot beverage stop where everyone was given a Backcountry Lodge travel mug to fill with the beverage of their choice. While small, inexpensive touches, they just made the trip that much nicer. It’s way too late for me to stop being long-winded but I’ll try to mostly let the pictures from the ride in speak for themselves. In short, we saw lots of caribou, a few moose, dall sheep too high up in the mountains to really appreciate, a raven’s nest, a male grizzly off in the distance, a porcupine, and closer to the back of the park, a mama grizzly and her two cubs. As for Denali itself, it was about 70% visible. Towards the end of the ride it looked like we might be able to see around the patch of clouds obscuring the top but despite Steve’s best efforts it wasn’t meant to be.

We finally arrived around 7:00pm to find most of the staff outside waving as we pulled up. Just another small but meaningful touch. This truly is a lodge rather than a formal hotel. There’s somewhat of a front desk in the main building but there’s no checking in or out and although each room has an old school metal key in the lock upon arrival, guests are told that no one really locks their doors although you’re obviously free to do so. Let’s just say I’d be more concerned with a bear intruding than a thief. Other than the front desk, the main building has two floors with the 1st floor serving as the dining room and the 2nd floor serving as a lounge area with a bar and nightly hors d'oeuvres. There are no TV’s in the cabins and wifi only exists in the main building. All that said, it’s not camping, there’s obviously electricity and running water. The food is also quite good and three meals per day are included as is everything outside of alcohol and spa services. They have guided hikes, trips to nearby Wonder Lake, biking, gold panning, etc. You are certainly also free to hike/wander on your own or get some advice from a guide (and borrow bear spray) before heading out. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve been and enjoyed everything about it except for the price and the mosquitoes but not much can be done about either one.

Anyway, we found our room and quickly got settled and cleaned up for dinner as we were told it would be served shortly but 15 minutes later we were almost the first people to arrive in the dining room so we went upstairs to explore, have some hors d'oeuvres, and relax. After making our way down to dinner, we ended up sitting with our new friends from Australia partly b/c we hit it off on the bus ride in and partly b/c every other guest that night was part of the National Geographic tour group so they knew each other (although they were friendly and not looking to ostracize us or anything). My non-seafood eating wife had a chicken and rice dish while I began my seafood quest with grilled halibut and veggies. The meal also began with fresh bread and Caesar salad. Everything was good although the halibut was a bit overcooked. This became a talking point with our Aussie friends as they kept asking us why it was so difficult to get anything rare in the US so we discussed the differences in palates, liability issues, litigiousness, etc. Moving on, dessert was an Oreo bottom cheesecake with fudge and peanut butter mousse, topped with peanut butter antlers. Towards the end of the meal, some of the staff described tomorrow’s activity options, how breakfast/lunch worked, etc. We had already booked a morning flightseeing tour of Denali with Kantishna Air Taxi so we decided to worry about tomorrow after the flight tour and headed to bed. Backcountry Lodge pics…

Day 4 - Denali

We finally didn’t have to wake up super early but we didn’t sleep in either. We woke up to a brisk 39 degrees (the coldest temperature of the trip) but it truly was invigorating. We were the first two to show up for breakfast, wanting to give ourselves times to digest before our flight around the mountain. Breakfast actually begins at 5:00am for anyone who is taking the early bus back out of the park at 6:00am. They had a small but plentiful buffet as well as an omelet station. The buffet contained basics like scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, breakfast potatoes, oatmeal, and baked goods like banana bread, bagels, toast, and scones. There was also orange and cranberry juice as well as plenty of coffee. My wife had eggs and potatoes along with some banana bread while I opted for an omelet with reindeer sausage, peppers, and onions. I told the omelet chef I was calling it an “Alaskan omelet” since it was basically a western omelet with reindeer sausage replacing the ham. He said he was going start using that. I also had some bacon on the side and a small bowl of oatmeal. I know I said I don’t really even eat breakfast at home but I do like to eat so I take full advantage when at an all-inclusive resort or, more often, on a cruise. We both enjoyed the food, especially my omelet and the banana bread. Everything is of course cooked fresh daily and there is even a pastry chef in house who makes the baked goods for breakfast and lunch and dessert for dinner. We went back to our room to get ready for our flightseeing tour of Mt. Denali and the surrounding area.

Kantishna Air Taxi is located minutes from the Lodge so they picked us up along with a few other guests, including our Aussie friends who we convinced the night before to book a flight last minute. KAT actually visits the lodge every evening to offer their services for the next morning depending on availability. We took a single engine plane (smaller than the plane in Coldfoot, which our pilot referred to as “big” compared to his) with one other couple and reached a much higher altitude but it was another smooth ride with amazing views. I’ll again shut up and let the pictures do the talking…

Needless to say, while the views from the ground can be amazing, the views from the air are just breathtaking in a different way. Flight completed, we went back to the Lodge to relax for a bit and take a leisurely walk around the property before heading to lunch. This was also served buffet style and was again small but enjoyable. The menu for each meal changes daily and that day’s lunch consisted of some sort of soup we didn’t try, a mixed salad, and “fancy” grilled cheese on thick slices of bread. I had one with bacon and apple slices that was very good while my picky wife asked the chef if he could make her a plain grilled cheese. He obliged and, while boring, hers may have even been better than mine because it was hot and melty while the sandwiches on the buffet, while very tasty, were sitting out for a bit and lost some of that hot, gooey goodness a grilled cheese should possess. There were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and brownies for dessert that were also quite good. Mostly everything was good at each meal but the pastry chef deserves a special shout out.

Stomachs once again full, we sat out to decide how to spend the afternoon. Most of the guided hikes are in the morning so we had to pass on those in lieu of our flightseeing tour. However, due to interest from multiple guests, some of the hiking guides offered to take afternoon hikes. One was more of a walk down the road to see a historic cabin of Fannie Quigley, a famous pioneer. Coincidentally, back in Fairbanks, each of the cabins where we stayed had a plaque of a historic figure in Alaska and our cabin happened to be hers…

The other hike involved a bus ride out to Wonder Lake which is located on a tundra. While walking on a tundra sounded neat since it would be a new experience, we didn’t really want to lock ourselves into a 2-3 hour activity. So after talking with one of the guides (who was very much into hiking like all their guides), he told us about a trail we could walk to that involved a decent incline at the beginning but led to a ridge line where the hike then became flatter and less strenuous. As you can tell from my pictures, I’m definitely not overweight, but I don’t exercise at all so my cardio endurance is fairly non-existent. Meanwhile, my wife has completed a marathon, several half-marathons, numerous shorter races, and goes running several times a week. So not wanting to deprive her, I figured I’d suck it up and make it up the incline and be fine after that. Handwritten map and bear spray in hand, off we went.

It wasn’t long before we ran into obstacle number one, a swarm of the most ferocious mosquitoes I have ever encountered. Only our hands and faces were exposed but that didn’t matter. We doused ourselves with OFF! but some damage had already been done as I had several bites on my neck and my wife even had one on her cheek. Fortunately the OFF! kept them at bay enough to continue on. We didn’t notice the entrance to the trail at first. This wasn’t a big, wide cleared trail but rather one that was beaten down by foot traffic. The path was there but it was extremely overgrown. The Lodge doesn’t open until June 5th and closes at the end of the summer so it was clear that no one had been through there since last season. Nonetheless we attempted to trudge on, brushing through the branches. There was definitely an incline but I was dealing as best I could. In the end though, parts were so overgrown that we decided to give up and turn back because it just wasn’t enjoyable. Oh well, maybe next time. We went back to our room to shower.

Once recovered from our mosquito and overgrowth attacks, we headed over to the main building to check some stuff via wifi and relax upstairs until dinner. After a mixed green salad with mandarin orange and almonds, I had black cod (yay for more seafood) with a miso glaze and veggies while my wife had butternut squash risotto. There was also a lamb chop option that night which was cooked rare enough to satisfy our Aussie friends. Dessert was a chocolate mousse bar that my wife liked so much she asked for a second. This was when the dumb luck of running into a National Geographic tour kicked in. As I mentioned, they were traveling with a glaciologist; her name was MJ. Well, she wasn’t just along for the ride. She had a two-part PowerPoint presentation on glaciers planned for that night and the next. We wouldn’t be able to make the 2nd half since we were leaving in the morning but those of us not part of the National Geographic tour were invited to join them for the presentation so we did. It was held in the day lodge where lunch is served to those who take the Backcountry Adventure, a one-day round trip bus ride to the lodge, which I’d recommend to anyone who can’t or doesn’t want to stay overnight at the Lodge. Learning all about glaciers was interesting but learning about exactly what MJ’s job entails was equally interesting. She has been all over the world studying different types of glaciers. She was also part of a search and rescue team at some point and told us about her own near death experience when, on a glacier of course, an anchor in the ice came loose and she fell something like 20-30 feet into a crevice. Fortunately she was with her search and rescue team so they were well-equipped to get her out. Earlier in the evening she was preparing her presentation in the upstairs lounge and my wife mentioned being a kindergarten teacher and asked MJ if she did anything with schools. She was very nice and showed her where to find an archived live video chat she did in the past with a classroom of kids and mentioned that she had another planned for some time next year. After the presentation, we headed to bed since tomorrow would be our earliest wake-up of the whole trip.

Day 5 - Denali

Our ride back out towards the front of the Park was scheduled to leave at 6:00am so we got up at 4:00am to get ready, pack, and place our luggage outside our room by 5:00am where the staff picks it up to place on the bus. This is also when breakfast begins so you know I was there right at 5:00am. The omelet station understandably isn’t offered until later but the full buffet was out even though we were the only ones there besides a few staff members going about their morning duties. This morning’s offerings included scrambled eggs, potatoes, waffles, bacon, and reindeer sausage, along with oatmeal, bagels, toast, banana bread, and one of the best pastries I have ever had. I’m not exactly sure what to call it but it was a pocket of folded dough filled with a mixture of tart berries and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Shortly after we began eating, a man walked in to have breakfast that we soon learned was our bus driver, Earl. As I stuffed myself while enjoying copious amounts of coffee, time began to pass and we were still the only ones having breakfast (besides bus driver Earl). As 6:00am approached, my wife asked if it would be ok for us to take some of the pastries to go for the bus ride (she again had the banana bread and I already mentioned my berry pastry). We were told of course we could and given two big sheets of aluminum foil. I think I took two but if I didn’t think it would have been rude I would have gladly taken a half dozen of those tart berry things while my wife wrapped up some banana bread.

Earl let us know that it was time to leave and confirmed what we had begun to guess as we continued to eat breakfast alone… we were the only passengers leaving that morning so we had the entire school bus to ourselves! How cool was that? The trip through Denali National Park is amazing no matter what but a private tour? OK, so it didn’t turn out to be 100% private as we picked up a last minute stowaway. A Lodge employee named Pavel hopped on board. He was going into town to pick up a long list of supplies for his co-workers although much of the list seemed to consist of alcohol and tobacco (no judgment). He was friendly, quiet, and slept for a good chunk of the ride anyway, not that we actually minded that he was on board. Earl was very friendly and, realizing it wasn’t a normal bus load of passengers, let us know that we could customize the return trip a bit. Also, since none of us had to catch the train (we were spending the night at the Denali Cabins near the front of the park), we didn’t have as strict of a deadline to hit as far as arrival time. Earl made sure that we had learned about the various features from Steve on the way in but checked so as not to be redundant. We also skipped a planned stop or two if no one felt the need to get out and/or use the facilities. The rest of the trip was similar to the ride in. There were still plenty of snacks, so many in fact that Earl stopped at a ranger station to give the rest of the cookies to the ranger who seemed very appreciative. Earl also gave us a 2nd set of travel mugs for the hot beverage stop since we had packed ours. (More small but appreciated touches.) We even saw what we believed were the same mama grizzly and her two cubs although they were farther from the road this time. One huge difference (pun intended) was that it was clear and sunny and we joined the 30% club as Denali was 100% visible this time. We also added a marmot to our list of wildlife sightings but otherwise the sheep were still high up in the mountains, the caribou were still plentiful and we again saw a few moose including one closer to the road. On to the pictures…

We arrived at the Denali Cabins around noon and didn’t have much planned. Check-in wasn’t until 3:00 but they soon had a cabin ready and allowed us to check-in around 12:30. As you will see, this was again an actual small cabin, but it did have a TV along with wifi.

The Cabins offered a free shuttle into town (the area commonly known as Glitter Gulch) where many touristy shops, several restaurants, and a couple of the cruise line run hotels are located so we hopped on the 2:00 with the intention of killing time shopping until we got hungry enough to eat dinner as I had read good reviews of Prospector’s Pizza (yes, it’s not seafood, but I just had fish two nights in a row and splitting a pizza is one way to keep dinner reasonably priced in Alaska). So we boarded the shuttle with several other passengers and off we went. We struck up a conversation with a family and were chatting away when our shuttle driver slammed on his brakes and came to an extremely abrupt stop. Since we were talking and not looking at the road, we had no idea what was going until we looked up to see a mama moose running across the road followed by her baby just feet in front of our shuttle. They were of course running away by the time my wife got her phone up but she still got a couple decent pictures of them fleeing…

Crisis averted, we continued on to the Gulch. We made our way through the shops but it really was mostly touristy stuff. We knew we were leaving ourselves a bit too much time to kill but the next shuttle didn’t leave the Cabins until 4:00pm and we had nothing better to do. After walking the entire stretch we finally killed enough time and were ready for dinner. Prospector’s Pizza was as good as the reviews indicated and we split a large. I opted for reindeer sausage on my half while my wife stuck with plain. We always ask for our pizzas well done and light on the sauce and Prospector’s gets full credit for fulfilling our request (not all places do despite it being a pretty simple request). After dinner, the shuttle wasn’t scheduled to return for about 45 minutes so we decided to “borrow” the lobby of the Denali Princess Lodge across the street for a bit. It was large and nice looking with tons of seating areas so while we’re loyal to Royal, we thank Princess for the hospitality they don’t know they showed us. We hung out on a couch there for a little while and eventually made our way back to where the shuttle had dropped us off. Having gotten up at 4:00am and being on the go since we left home, we were really tired and crashed quite early even though we could finally sleep later the next morning because our train to Anchorage didn’t leave until 12:30pm. At least we got a good night’s rest because tomorrow would begin the only bad 24 hours of our entire trip.

Day 6 - Denali to Anchorage

We slept in a bit and my wife went for a morning walk around the property where she saw some squirrels and snowshoe hares while I showered and took advantage of the chance to watch a bit of the World Cup. Then we packed and headed over to the front desk around 10:15am even though the shuttle to the train depot didn’t leave until 11:00am. We checked out and told the woman at the front desk that we would be taking the shuttle to the train and that we were going to Anchorage. She gave us the Alaska Railroad tags for Anchorage (they’re color-coded along with the destination name in bold letters) and instructed us to place our luggage by the other luggage we had seen lined up outside the restaurant with different colored tags for the various destinations, so we did. After killing time in a little lounge area we hopped on the 11:00am shuttle and were soon at the Denali train depot. We checked in, again in Adventure Class, and were assigned car C. My wife asked if we could switch to car D if available and the railroad agent obliged. Smooth sailing so far, time to wait for the train.

While at the train station we ran into our Aussie friends who had come from the Backcountry Lodge on that morning’s 6:00am bus. We swapped some stories about the past 24 hours but they mostly filled us in on what we missed back at the Lodge. Most notably, we missed a new guest who was in the process of borrowing a can of bear spray for a hike towards the end of lunch (just as we did) and managed to not only remove the safety but somehow spray one of the young, female staff members directly in the face! As the poor girl ran off for the nearest sink, this guest shot the spray off for a 2nd time. I understand that accidents happen but I’m really not sure how this occurred. Fortunately the staff member didn’t need any emergency medical treatment and was apparently doing a little better after flushing her eyes and lying down with a cold, wet rag over her face.

The train arrived and we bid farewell to our Denali friends as they were sitting in Gold Star (although as I mentioned earlier in my review, we would wind up paying them a brief visit on the train, but we’re not there yet). After waiting a bit for the conductor to get a wheel chair lift working, we eventually boarded and made our way to car D. That’s when we got one last bit of good news before the day took a turn for the worse. Remember that tip about car E and the reclining seats? Here’s a reminder of the picture I posted before…

Well this train had car E aboard and it was completely empty so we moved there. This was especially nice because the train ride from Denali to Anchorage is by far the longest leg we would be taking at eight hours long and it’s also not particularly scenic in our opinion.

About 30 minutes into the trip, an announcement was made asking if there was anyone with medical training on board. This is obviously not something anyone wants to hear for both selfish and altruistic reasons. Shortly thereafter we made an unscheduled stop in the town of Cantwell where an ambulance was waiting.

We were told it was to let an employee off. Regardless of the specifics, hopefully it worked out for whoever was involved.

We got going again and settled in for what we expected to be a long, uneventful ride but as I’ve alluded to several times, it definitely wasn’t uneventful. We had our phones on airplane mode to conserve the battery as there is little cell reception for long stretches of the trip. As we got to Talkeetna around 3:30 (a city my wife actually wanted to stop in but scratched because we had to draw the line somewhere in terms of length and budget), something made me tell her to take her phone off of airplane mode since there was likely cell service there. We didn’t need to make a call or text and weren’t expecting one but I figured we might as well. Time to pay off the ominous foreshadowing… My wife found a voicemail waiting from the general manager of the Denali Cabins asking about our luggage that may have been left there. She called back and after being interrogated about exactly what we did with our luggage the GM essentially accused us of doing something wrong when, as you can tell from my description, we did exactly what we were supposed to as we even noticed other luggage for multiple destinations all left in the exact same spot as ours. He tried to tell my wife that Anchorage-bound luggage has a different spot. First, this isn’t true. Secondly, even if it was, then it would have been the fault of the woman at the front desk told us where to place our luggage after giving us our Anchorage tags. This unprofessional phone call continued with the GM telling my wife that he would see what he could do about getting us our luggage but he wasn’t sure if he could get it to us by tonight in Anchorage. Aside from the extreme inconvenience, we were only staying in Anchorage overnight before jumping on the train for Girdwood the next morning where we had an excursion planned for helicopter/dog sledding on a glacier so we needed our clothes for the glacier and we needed them that night. He finally ended the call saying he would call us back in 30 minutes. That’s great, but who knew if we’d have cell service in 30 minutes? After 20 minutes or so I decided I would call him back the next time I noticed we had service. This took about 5 minutes and so I did. He was more professional this time although this time he suggested that perhaps we put our luggage out after the 11:00am cut-off time (again making it our fault). This of course wasn’t the case since we actually checked out early but beyond that it would have defied the laws of time and space because the shuttle left at 11:00am and we were on it. He apologized for the incident and told me that he was having our luggage driven down to our hotel in Anchorage but it may not arrive until after 1:00am because it’s about a 4.5 hour car ride. While still an inconvenience, this is all I could ask for at this point, so I thanked him, hung up, and tried to get on with our trip. This is when we decided to visit our friends in Gold Star to relay the story. To further reassure ourselves that we did nothing wrong, we asked them about their luggage experience at the Denali Cabins and it matched exactly what we saw. All the luggage, no matter the destination, was left in the same spot, just outside the restaurant where we placed ours. We said goodbye again and headed back to our comfy recliners in car E.

Despite the unscheduled stop in Cantwell for the medical emergency, we only arrived in Anchorage a little late, somewhere around 8:30pm. The one silver lining to not having our luggage arrive with us was that it allowed us to walk straight to dinner rather than taking a shuttle to our hotel to check in and drop off our luggage before heading back out for an even later dinner. I knew from looking at a map of the city that it was a simple grid and not very big so it would be an easy walk.

4-5 blocks later we made our way to Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse. I had read good things about it both here on CC as well as TripAdvisor and it was the type of place I could get reasonably priced seafood while there was standard bar food for my wife. It was a pretty big bar with tons of seating including a covered outdoor area in the back and seemed to serve a mixture of locals and tourists alike. I ordered fish and chips (back on track with the seafood) while my wife had a grilled chicken sandwich. Both were excellent. I know, it’s grilled chicken, but I could see it was well cooked and not dried out and she enjoyed it which is all that matters. We also texted the Denali Cabins GM from dinner and got confirmation that our luggage would be delivered around 1:30am.

After dinner, we walked another 4 blocks or so to the Downtown Clarion Suites. This was our one basic chain hotel out of ten nights on land but I understand why our travel consultant booked us here. With all due respect to Anchorage, it doesn’t exactly scream Alaska. It’s a generic small city like you could find all over the lower 48. It’s concrete and buildings not mountains and wildlife. After taking care of the luggage issue and enjoying dinner, it was time for the next thing to go wrong. (Did you think it was just the luggage? I did say it was the only bad 24 hours of our trip and there were lots of hours left). We checked in without issue and informed the front desk that our luggage should be delivered in the early morning hours and to please call the room when it arrived regardless of the late time. My wife then told them that we needed to use the hotel shuttle to get to the train station early the next morning. We were informed that it left on the half hour so we asked for the 5:30am shuttle. The young woman in charge apologized and told us that the shuttle was full. This is when my wife just about lost it (she was still pretty upset about the whole luggage fiasco despite the impending resolution). She called every hotel at least a week before our trip to inquire about how the free shuttle worked at each property and ask if we needed to make a reservation in advance and was told in each case, including the Clarion, to just mention it upon check in and it wouldn’t be a problem. She relayed this to the woman and was met with the worst answer anyone in a customer service role can give, “I wasn’t the one you spoke to.” I’m quiet by nature as well as non-confrontational. However, this does not mean I let people mistreat or take advantage of me or my wife (although she can definitely stand up for herself under normal circumstances and doesn’t need me to rescue her). Knowing how she felt at the time and hearing that answer from the hotel clerk made me just about lose it. I didn’t raise my voice but firmly told the clerk that while I understand she didn’t give my wife the bad information, she was the one in charge at the time so it was her job to fix it. This didn’t get us very far but hopefully she at least understood that she wasn’t handling the situation in the best possible manner. She apologized but insisted there was nothing she could do about the shuttle which she claimed served both the Clarion and a sister property and offered to order us a taxi, telling us that it would cost about $8. I knew this of course having just walked from the train station to the hotel and I can certainly afford an $8 cab ride but that wasn’t the point. I decided to cut my losses and just agree to the cab so we could finally go to our room after such a frustrating, stressful day. At least they were kind enough to give us toothbrushes since our toiletries were on their way from Denali with the rest of our luggage.

The room itself was what you would expect from a business-type hotel. Since it was a “suite” it had a separate living room area with a 2nd TV, couch, desk, and refrigerator. We wouldn’t be taking advantage of any of this of course but I figured I’d describe it anyway since we didn’t take pictures here (not that you really wanted to see pictures of a Clarion Suites). My wife tried to go to sleep while I watched TV for a bit. I think we were both tired yet too annoyed to sleep at the same time. I dozed off for a little while at least before the phone rang around 1:00am to let us know that our luggage had been dropped off. I quickly retrieved it from the lobby and after taking out a few things tried to get a few more hours of sleep before the next day’s disappointment (if you’re not keeping track, the 24 hours isn’t up yet).

Day 7 - Anchorage to Girdwood

We woke up around 4:30am, I made coffee, and we got ready to end our brief stay in Anchorage, highlighted by a good meal and nothing else. We went down a bit early to check out as well as check on the allegedly full hotel shuttle. As we were checking out my wife overheard someone at the front desk calling a guest room to ask if they were still taking the 5:30am shuttle. The response was that they had asked for the 6:30a, shuttle, not the 5:30am. At this point we obviously said “we’ll take it, cancel our cab,” and headed out to board the shuttle… which contained a grand total of ZERO passengers. I won’t beat a dead horse but suffice it to say the Downtown Anchorage Clarion Suites could be run better.

We checked in at the Anchorage train station around 5:45am, an hour before departure as requested, and it was incredibly crowded so we stepped outside for a while. We eventually headed back inside where my wife got a bagel from a reasonably priced café stand (I was back to my coffee for breakfast routine). We eventually boarded and were told that were the only two passengers getting off at Girdwood. I guess it was a combination of it not being a very popular tourist destination and it being a busy day for cruisers to head down to Seward. This was a short ride but you do pass by Turnagain Arm so my wife’s train tip is to sit on the right side when traveling Southbound for a good view. Of course the view is better when it’s not raining like it was during our trip.

We arrived in Girdwood at 8:00am and were greeted by a waiting Alyeska Resort shuttle whose driver jumped out to get our luggage as soon as we stepped off the train. This was especially nice not only because of our recent hotel service issues but also because the weather was pretty terrible and Girdwood doesn’t actually have a train station, it just has a small outdoor covered area, akin to a large bus stop. After a short drive we arrived at the Alyeska Resort.

It was still on the early side but due to the poor weather the hotel lobby and common areas were already beginning to fill up. We knew it was too early check-in but we went to the front desk anyway to let them know we had arrived and would love a room as early as one was available. The woman we spoke to was very nice and told us that two rooms already had people check out and as soon as they were cleaned we could have one of them. We thanked her and moved on to our anticipated disappointment of the day. Our helicopter/dog sledding excursion had been cancelled due to high winds. So after exploring the hotel we found a spot to settle in and find a last minute replacement for our dog sledding excursion in either Juneau or Skagway during the cruise. We only had one excursion booked for the cruise portion (Kayaking in Ketchikan) because our land portion was so long and jam -packed and we had to draw the line somewhere. My wife called a tour company she had contacted before but didn’t end up booking anything with while I checked the oh-so-reliable RCI website to see what they had left. Our preference was to book through an outside company, especially once we learned the company RCI uses for heli/dog sledding in Skagway offers the same excursion directly to consumers for about $50 less but they must give RCI a block of times/reservations because the company told my wife they were full when RCI still had two times available. Beggars can’t be choosers so we ended up booking the only time that was appealing through RCI for Skagway. There was a slightly longer excursion available in Juneau but the only time left was in the evening and while we were there to see Alaska, I still wanted to enjoy the ship how we normally do, which means spending our early evenings in the DL before dinner. I was happy to not only find a replacement but that the RCI website was functioning long enough for me to book something on my phone to be honest.

Mission accomplished, we returned to the front desk to check on our room. We were greeted by the same woman but she didn’t seem to have any memory of having met us earlier or telling us about those two soon-to-be-ready rooms because she gave us a generic answer about how the hotel was full last night so no rooms would be ready much earlier than the standard 4:00pm check-in time. So much for that. We spent the next few hours quite bored as the common areas continued to fill up with guests in similar situations. At some point we ran into some familiar faces… the National Geographic tour group from Denali was there. They had scheduled a lunch at the top of the mountain (Alyeska is primarily a ski resort with a large tram that takes you to the top of the ski mountain where there is also a deli/bar, gift shop, and Seven Glaciers, a highly rated fine dining restaurant) but the tram wasn’t operating due to high winds so their lunch was cancelled and they were wandering the hotel like everyone else.

We occasionally ventured outside when the rain wasn’t too bad since we had our waterproof jackets but generally did nothing until we finally got a call at 2:00pm that our room was ready. It was a very nice combination of old and new. The style of the room seemed older to me but the hotel utilized modern features like a key card that you just had to touch to the door to unlock it, texting with the front desk if you needed anything, an interactive TV, and buttons by the bed that lit up “do not disturb” or “make up room” lights outside the room. There were also some small, classy touches like four bottles of complimentary glacier water waiting in the room and nightly turn down service complete with chocolates on the bed. For whatever reason my wife didn’t get a picture of the bed or very flattering pictures of the room in general but I’ll post what I have.

The rain lessened and after a couple hours we boarded the Glacier Valley Transit shuttle to head into “Downtown” Girdwood. This is a free shuttle sponsored/funded by several local hotels and businesses and also suggests you donate $1 on board, which I did a couple times although I noticed the locals never did. This will be one of the hardest parts of my entire review as it’s very difficult to describe the town of Girdwood. First, I say “downtown” because it’s actually a handful of stores/restaurants set around a square-shaped park that contains one neat feature... a large concrete chess/checker board that uses round, painted slices of logs for checkers and plastic buckets painted with pieces for chess. There are two restaurants with bars, a trailer of sorts that sells Thai food (only the picture I’ll post below does it justice), a mom & pop type grocery store, a thrift shop, and a larger building that houses a large laundromat (which I’ll describe in detail in my day 8 post since we used it), a pharmacy, and a marijuana dispensary. Then there are the locals who I want to describe without sounding disrespectful or judgmental but I’m not sure how. Eccentric is an accurate description albeit a vague one. Some could definitely be described as hippie-esque, others seemed to be young people who might be passing through while on the way to finding a place to settle down (or not), while others just seemed to be small town folk. We told our glacier hike guide (that’s our day 8 activity) that we had been downtown the night before and his face lit up as he responded with, “Oh, you were in WEIRD-wood, that place is a trip!” No matter how my comments are taken, everyone we encountered was nothing but nice and helpful and I’ll leave it at that. Also, by no means am I suggesting that you should stay away from Girdwood. In fact, just the opposite; I think everyone should check it out. It’s a hidden gem off the beaten path other than the popular Alyeska Resort and some other hotels and if the actual town isn’t for you then you can stick to the resorts and just go on excursions there.

Anyway, after taking in all of the above, we had dinner at the Silvertip Grill, one of the two aforementioned restaurants. This was the definition of a locals bar. It was tiny and packed and had one server for the entire place. I had planned for us to eat at each of those restaurants once and Silvertip was closed on Tuesdays (the next day) so that’s how we wound up there. I had a fried halibut sandwich with onion rings while my wife ordered a grilled chicken platter than came with a salad, veggies, and garlic bread. I enjoyed mine (and stuck to the seafood theme) but my wife didn’t like hers. The salad was a small bowl of unappetizing-looking mixed greens and the rest was unremarkable. In hindsight, perhaps she should have just gotten a burger given the type of restaurant but you never know. After dinner, we caught the shuttle back to the hotel and crashed pretty early considering our rough night and early wake-up in Anchorage.

By the way, you shouldn’t expect any more negativity until I get to our trip home at the very end. It truly was just a rough 24 hours but everything was back on track after that. And with that, I present “Downtown” Girdwood…

Laundromat is the in the middle, pharmacy on the far, and marijuana dispensary obscured on the left (although it was basically unmarked anyway):

Day 8 - Girdwood

We woke up a little before our 7:00am alarm went off which is of course only the late side for this trip on top of how early we fell asleep so we were well-rested. I made my coffee (can you tell how much I appreciate in-room coffeemakers?) and I’m not sure what my wife had for breakfast. I think she was looking forward to hiking and ice climbing on a glacier as much as anything she had planned while, like many aspects, I had no idea if it was something I would enjoy. Well, also like many aspects of this trip I wouldn’t have thought of, I enjoyed the hell out of the experience.

We met Mike from Ascending Path in the hotel lobby and after going over some details were driven to the helipad literally two minutes away. My wife chose Ascending Path not only based on reviews and recommendations but because this was a private tour. It was just going to be Mike and us alone on the glacier. Along the way we donned large hard plastic boots, almost like ski boots, which fit over our hiking sneakers and into which we tucked our pants and FroggTogg rain pants. We were also both wearing a thin fleece with waterproof jacket over top as it was in the low 50’s that day and we were told slightly colder on the glacier. We waited for Alpine Air, the helicopter company contracted by Ascending Path, and they were a bit late but we didn’t mind. Our ride eventually arrived and after a quick safety briefing, off we went on our first helicopter ride. We were both surprised at how smooth the flight was. We flew over a large valley on our way to Spencer Glacier and saw tons of moose from the air.

Eventually we approached the glacier which brought quite a reaction from our guide, Mike. Apparently massive pieces of it had calved off in the past 24 hours and he said he’s never seen such large chunks break off before. You can see the broken pieces in the picture below, now floating in the river as they had become icebergs…

Upon landing on the ice, which was trickier than we realized because the glacier is not flat so it took a few tries before the pilot got both skids to make solid contact, we got out and were told to kneel down and not move as the helicopter took off. We also stayed put until Mike fitted our boots with crampons (spikes) to give use traction on the ice.

My first impression was that the glacier was far more uneven than I realized with tons of interesting land features like crevices, moulins (holes in the glacier that water runs down), waterfalls, ice caves, ice walls, etc. I didn’t expect a flat iceberg from a cartoon, the terrain was just more interesting than I realized. Learning to walk over the ice with the crampons wasn’t difficult. After five minutes it felt like walking normally. Also, the speed of the hike was up to us, but you can only go so fast when walking in big boots with metal spikes over uneven ice so even someone who doesn’t exercise like me didn’t find it strenuous. It also wasn’t much colder on the glacier than it was outside the hotel, so don’t think that it’s going to be especially freezing just because it’s a glacier. Time for more pictures…

When our allotted time came to end, we returned to the original landing spot and waited for our helicopter to arrive. It was again late (it was delayed due to wind from wherever it had just been) but we certainly didn’t mind spending extra time on the glacier. Kneeling again as the helicopter approached was also neat as it looks like it’s headed straight for you. Overall, we loved everything about this excursion. The personal attention of having the glacier to ourselves was amazing and our guide did a great job. I’m sure hiking in a small group would still be enjoyable but this made it extra special. My wife loved her ice climb and we both felt that all the running water on, over, and under the glacier was amazing. We even stopped at one point to fill a water bottle with water straight from glacier and it tasted cleaner than any bottled water we’ve tried. Going into the ice cave was pretty cool as well. I can’t recommend Ascending Path or this experience highly enough.

We returned to our hotel room where we actually ate the bagged lunch that came with the glacier hike. We of course had the option of eating on the glacier but no way were we taking time away from the experience to eat a sandwich. It was surprisingly good by the way for a bagged lunch.

After lunch we went down to the lobby to schedule a free shuttle to the train for the next morning before taking the Alyeska tram up to the top of the mountain. Each hotel guest gets one free roundtrip ticket. There were some nice views and we checked out the deli/bar and the gift shop but there’s not really a whole lot up there. Ironically, we saw Mike from Ascending Path leading a small hike on the mountain. We then headed back down to our room to collect our laundry and took the local shuttle back to downtown Girdwood (this was planned ahead of time as I had researched the laundromat so we even brought trash bags for our laundry). Hopping on public transit with a trash bag of dirty laundry may or may not seem awkward to you, but in Girdwood, it seemed perfectly natural.

The tram and view…

Mike from Ascending Path leading a hike…

We had briefly checked out the laundromat the day before but not in detail. There were actually three different sizes of washers. It was a fairly large place. The owner (who was quite a character) was running around doing stuff, occasionally talking to himself, and saw us deciding between the small and medium washers and told us we can easily fit everything into a small. He even showed us two newer washers that he thought had a slightly larger capacity than the other smalls. As I mentioned, the people of Girdwood were eccentric but they were also very friendly. We thanked him and started our load. At some point he also gave us a rough idea of how much dryer time we would need. The washers charged by the load but you bought time in the dryers in four minute increments. I forget the details but including detergent and fabric softener, we did a pretty large load of laundry for about $8. Maybe these procedures and prices are fairly standard, I had never used a laundromat before, but it seemed reasonable to me. It beats the heck out of doing laundry on the ship. As we waited, making use of the free wifi, we had some amusing interactions with other patrons. Highlights included the owner repeatedly muttering to himself about having to leave and wondering when the girl who was supposed to take over for him would show up and one guy who got pretty annoyed upon learning that someone ran off with the cardboard box in which he brought his laundry. But top honors go to the young guy who wandered in, possibly after having visited the dispensary next door, and sheepishly asked if anyone would mind washing his dirty socks with their load… the socks he had just removed from his feet. Hopefully this is helping paint the picture of Girdwood I had so much trouble describing. Anyway, after folding our laundry and neatly stacking them back in our trash bags, we headed to Chair5, the other restaurant nearby.

We had a much better dinner here and, in hindsight, should have eaten here twice. I had a blackened halibut sandwich (more seafood) while my wife had a double burger. We both enjoyed our meals. Mine was covered in seasoning and pretty spicy (which I liked). This place is actually known for their rectangular deep dish pizza (Mike from Ascending Path even recommended it) but my wife really prefers thin crust and I was perfectly content to have halibut for the 3rd time in eight nights. After dinner, we hopped back on the shuttle with enough clean clothes for the remainder of our trip and headed back to the hotel. This trip took twice as long as usual (although it still wasn’t long). Even though the shuttle is supposed to run on a set schedule, apparently it’s not exactly set in stone. We made a few extra stops upon request but we were in no hurry and got to see even more of Girdwood this way. Finally back in our room, we re-packed our suitcases due to the laundry before heading to bed. Our final land stop and eventual cruise port was up next.

Day 9 - Girdwood to Seward

We got up and were scheduled to take the 7:30am hotel shuttle to the train stop. My wife grabbed a bagel to have on the train while I again just had coffee. We checked out and were waiting for the shuttle but as 7:30 approached, there were a bunch of people waiting and the large collection of luggage hadn’t been loaded yet. Our bags were not only tagged for Seward but specifically for the Seward Windsong Lodge which meant they would be taken straight to the hotel. This worked well because we likely wouldn’t be able to check-in when our train arrived just after 11:00am and we had a 2:00 Puffin Encounter booked at the SeaLife Center. We eventually made our way onto the train and it was jam-packed. We were seated in car C but found two empty seats back in E. This was a pretty scenic leg and we even saw a few moose. My wife spent a chunk of the ride on the small outside area off the back of the train taking pictures.

We arrived in Seward and there was a hotel shuttle waiting as well as a box truck on which everyone’s luggage was being loaded for transport to the Lodge. We boarded the shuttle even though we planned to stay down by the water where all the shops, restaurants, docks, and SeaLife Center are located because the driver told us she would explain how everything works once everyone had boarded. She was very helpful in explaining how the shuttle works, how to get around Seward, and even provided a map with lots of restaurants and places of interest marked. Some guests chose to head for the hotel while we asked to be dropped off at the SeaLife Center. It’s basically one long strip with almost everything located on parallel streets and you can also walk along the waterfront. The SeaLife Center is at one end and at the other end is the small boat dock and train depot. In hindsight, it would have made more sense for us to start at the train depot and just make a one-way walk to the SeaLife Center since we had to be there at 2:00 anyway but it all worked out.

After getting the lay of the land we decided to walk back towards the train depot and check out whatever there was to see along with finding a small, quick lunch along the way. We stopped in a few shops, saw the restaurant where we planned to eat dinner, and then my wife found Sweet Darlings, a candy and gelato shop. She tried a couple gelato samples and decided it was the best she had ever had. Since we planned to have lunch soon, she decided to go there on the way back… and then possibly again after dinner. President Obama filmed an episode of the reality show “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” a while back that apparently took place near Seward and he visited Sweet Darlings at some point as there was a picture of his visit prominently displayed. My wife was such a fan that she recommended it to virtually everyone we spoke to in Seward. We continued our walk and approached the end of the line without settling on a lunch destination. Nearly as far from the SeaLife Center as you can get, we decided to pop into a small pizza place named Klondike Pizza. Aside from standard, larger pizzas, they offered an 11” pizza with up to 5 toppings for a very reasonable $9. While 11” is more of a personal pizza, we didn’t want anything heavy so we decided to split one. I had reindeer sausage (for the 4th time including my breakfasts) and peppers while my wife had pineapple. The toppings were all displayed behind glass like a Chipotle or Subway so you could just pick what you wanted (we have a chain called Blaze with a similar set-up minus the 5-toppings for $9 part). It was a small, non-descript counter service type place but the pizza was good and we liked the concept and $9 deal. Having just walked a mile and eaten some pizza, we headed back the other way but stopped when we came upon a bus stop for a local free shuttle that takes you back and forth along the path we had just walked. We could have taken it all the way to the SeaLife Center but got off a couple blocks short so my wife could get some pineapple gelato. She was torn between pineapple and cookies n cream (which she also sampled and loved) so her solution was to have the more refreshing pineapple then and go back after dinner for cookies n cream.

We eventually made it to the SeaLife Center and checked in for the Puffin Encounter where we were given badges and told to hang out on a bench until someone came to get us. This was basically a behind-the-scenes tour of the aviary area that would culminate in getting to spend time inside the enclosure and hand feed the puffins and other birds. Despite not being as grandiose as our other activities, my wife has loved puffins ever since we began visiting Sea World back home where the penguin/puffin exhibit is one of our favorite attractions. The SeaLife Center also serves as a sea animal rescue and rehabilitation facility so the cost was going to a good cause. The encounter began with an educational power point presentation about the different birds we’d be seeing followed by a tour of the area behind the aviary and finally we were given latex gloves and buckets of tiny fish and allowed to enter the exhibit and feed the birds. The pictures speak for themselves…

After reluctantly saying goodbye to the puffins we explored the rest of the SeaLife Center. As we had read, it’s on the small side so you can only spend so much time there but there’s still a decent amount to see.