Norwegian Sun northbound Vancouver to Seward, 4 day cruisetour: Denali Alyeska explor

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Alyeska grounds:

Such a magical setting!

 

 

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This next evening is a little overkill about 7 glaciers restaurant. So I enjoyed the bar area with Glenna and then came back down the tram to pick up Mike for our special dinner.

To me it was the best fine dining experience I've ever had in my life! So I got a little teary eyed about the food, the clouds, our favorite wine and the "can't beat it" setting. I guess you had to be there but it was a bucket list thrill for me! Enjoy!b

 

 

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Seven glaciers restaurant 2:

Cheers to Life's many once in a lifetime experiences

 

 

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Wine, cheese platter, steak, salmon. Yum

 

 

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These may just look like clouds but I'm telling you, it was all part of the magical night. Did I tell you we had 2 bottles of Rochioli?

 

 

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Last set about 7 glaciers and Hotel Alyeska:

 

 

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Our first (of 9 on the bus) sighting of moose in the wild.

Alaska railroad

Iditarod sled dog experience:b

I thought this whole sled dog thing was going to be really touristy. It was but it wasn't.

Very informative and entertaining. So much so, I bought his book!

 

 

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I guess I don't have any pictures of our hotel room in Denali. It was cute, with a cabin like feel. A small kitchenette, nice bathroom.

We had dinner at restaurant on site and also the next night. Pretty good, especially the fish and chips.

Here is the beginning of our tundra wilderness tour in Denali national park:

So far we've seen 2 big mammals on our Denali trip: caribou and Dall sheep:

 

 

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Denali 2:

Ptarmigan

So that blurry thing was a brown (grizzly) bear, no I'm not kidding, it was very far away, but it counts as a sighting.

So add: moose and grizzly bear to the list.

 

 

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Denali 3:

You see that dry river bed? There is a wolf in the dirt area. I swear, no we actually saw it trotting along. So we saw the big 5 mammals! Great day!

 

 

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Here is the snack provided on the bus trip and a picture of one of the busesn

The snack was pretty filling to me and was fine for lunch; we also brought more water and snacks, (didn't need to).

 

 

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Alaska railroad: beautiful scenery, observation car, bartender service, dining car! Nice

 

 

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Oh I found some photos of our hotel and grounds in Denali:

 

 

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More of the observation and dining car:

 

 

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End of cruisetour, Sheraton hotel in Anchorage

 

 

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This is our rental car

The drive from Anchorage to Soldotna is really beautiful along the Cook Inlet.

 

 

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The drive along the Kenai river was so beautiful and the water is that glacier turquoise color. We stayed at a little group of cabins called "a cabin by the pond" for 2 nights. It was ok but there are many cabins for rent along the Kenai river. This place was more in the town of Soldotna.

I can't remember where we ate that night.

Next day:

Mike and I had plans to fish the next day in the Cook Inlet. It was 1/2 day halibut and 1/2 day King salmon fishing.

Glenna and Dave went to visit a glacier and drive to Homer for the day.

Mike and I woke up very early to meet our captain and other fisher people that we would share the boat with. They gave me a rubber rain suit, Mike already had one.

The boat was a large boat but not too much protection from water and wind. It was ok but when the water got rougher in the afternoon it was a chore just to keep your balance, and keep seated.

The halibut fishing was fun and a lot of action. Everybody got their limit of 2 fish, one above 27" and one below, (I think). Mike caught enough to give to some of the anglers who only caught one.

The trolling for King salmon in the afternoon was slow. But one of our people in the party caught a nice fat one.

Next up many pictures of the boat, deckhand, halibut, and cleaning of fish. We shipped our fish home to arrive the day after we got home. It was the best tasting halibut we've ever had. We did not share with anyone, it was that good!

We were wiped out after fishing, went to a BBQ place in Soldotna for dinner and crashed early, we were exhausted!

 

 

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Halibut fishing:

 

 

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The next day, we got up early packed up our car checked out of our cabin and drove to Seward for an 8 1/2 hour Kenai National Park tour with dinner at fox island. Our tour was called the national park tour, the tour company was Kenai Fjords tours.

This was the day we saw so much wildlife and had great weather on the large catamaran. Our vacation was getting close to the end and we were so happy we booked this tour months ahead of time.

The captain was fantastic and the crew was great. They provided lunch on board. There was comfortable seating indoors or outside. We got a good table inside, but went outside often to view wildlife.

There will be many photos from this tour!

We started to see wildlife within the first few minutes, a family of otters appeared.

 

 

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See the blowhole spray?

Then the whale tail!

The mountain goats were way up on a cliff, this is another place that the binoculars and a good camera came in handy:

 

 

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More of the mountain goats

 

 

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Map of our route into the national park:

Aialik Glacier coming into view

Harbor seals

Whale spray and body of a whale

 

 

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Beautiful glacier and colorful kayakers

 

 

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On every iceberg there are harbor seals

 

 

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There were numerous birds, but mostly we wanted to get a picture of the puffins in flight, swimming or on the rocks, beautiful!

More pictures of puffins later; first lunch!

Sea lions

 

 

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