ALASKA SUMMER 2019

These are just a snippet of pictures from our Alaska Trip.  I am going to make an entire book dedicated to our trip-It was amazing.  I will just briefly review it here:

DAY 1- (Thursday) Flew from SLC to Seattle and then just barely made or connection to Anchorage. Arrived at 6 p.m., got our rental car, and met Shawn at the Hampton Inn.  He brought Moose Tooth pizza to the indoor pool to eat dinner and swim.  

DAY 2- (Friday) Woke up and went down to Pablos to rent bikes near the coast.  Rode the Tony Knowles Coastal trail (11 miles to the end) saw 3 moose and had a beautiful ride.  Grammy and Lexi ushered back to Pablos at the end of the 11miles.  The rest of us rode back and saw 2 more moose, one right on the trail.  Ate lunch at Snow City Cafe - a super yummy breakfast place.  

 Day 2 - in the afternoon we packed up and headed to Talkeetna.  We checked in to the Fireside Lodge, a really cute cabin place off the highway.  We could walk to the cute town from the cabins.  We at dinner at the Brewery in town, food was just o.k.

 Cute Talkeetna, we loved this quaint little town.

 DAY 3 (Saturday) - This was supposed to be our fly day-to fly around Denali and land on a glacier.  Unfortunately they cancelled our early morning flight and then our afternoon flight due to weather.  Only 30% of visitors to Denali actually see the mountain due to the weather, fun fact I didn't know, but we were all super bummed.  So, we rented bikes and rode some trails around town and then did a river cruise out of Talkeetna.

 Before we did the river cruise we ate at The Roadhouse.  Super yummy sourdough pancakes!! This was a find!

 River Cruise

 We learned a lot about the area on this jet boat ride and nature hike!

 at the end of the jet boat ride we pilled in the car and drove to the Denali Park Village our hotel for the night.

DAY  4 (Sunday) - Our shuttle ride through Denali.  It was amazing- we saw 10 Brown bear (one crazy viewing of a dad chasing a mom and a baby bear), 4 moose, lots of caribou, Dall Sheep, and the driver saw a lynx but we didn't.  Unfortunately, it never cleared enough to see the mountain, in fact, it kinda rained on and off all day.  FUN LONG DAY!

Cruz and Alegra became Junior Rangers at Denali

DAY 5 (Monday) - We left farely early from the Denali Park Village and had a long day of driving.  We drove the Denali Highway to Valdez.  About 8 hours of driving with about half of it (the Denali Highway) on gravel.  We saw 2 moose and a lynx and 2 cubs (which was super cool) on the highway.  We also stopped to Blueberry pick at milepost 46.  Some amazing country.  

 As we got closer to Valdez (the Thompson Pass) it got so amazingly beautiful.

 DAY 6 (Tuesday) - We ate at a yummy place called The Fat Mermaid when we got to Valdez Monday night.  Tuesday morning we had some time to walk a bit around Valdez before getting on board the Lu Lu Bell- the Columbia Glacier -tour. WE ALL LOVED THIS DAY. We left at 11 but didn't get home till about 8 pm but the day was so amazing!!

 Valdez, one of the prettiest little towns I have ever been to.

 Sea Otters

 Seals, and we stopped near an island that had tons of sea lions.

The Columbia Glacier.  We got to see it calf - where chunks break off, it was amazing.  Can't believe how far it has receded though, very sad.  

Grammy taking a snooze on the Lu Lu Bell.  

 DAY 7 (Wednesday) - This was kind of our rest day.  Shawn and the kids rented bikes and they rode out to the Glacier Lake.  Grammy, Lexi (they didn't have a bike that would fit her), and I met them at the lake.  We also went to the Solomon Gulch Hatchery where we looked for Bear and saw all the salmon trying to get back upstream.....that was wild.  We had a fun relaxing day in the amazing city of Valdez.

DAY 8 (Thursday) - We boarded the Ferry (Aurora) at 6:00 a.m for the 5 and a half hour trip to Whittier.  We had a lot of fun on the ferry though. First of all beautiful scenery and we could play games, eat lunch, etc. on the boat.  We got to Whittier at 1:30.  In Whittier we went Salmon Berry picking and sang loud because there were bear in the area but we didn't see any. Then we waited for the time slot to go through the Whittier Tunnel (that was cool).  We then drove the Seward Highway and took a slight detour to stop at the tiny town of Hope (that we thought had a great pie place but it went out of business).  In Hope we saw the Salmon spawning too but the kids hated it because it was near the end of their spawning time and there were lots of dead fish around which made it smell.  We then drove to on to Seward.  

 We stayed in the Best Western in Seward and that was our least favorite place. We all didn't care for Seward too much but the town did grow on us a bit.  We ate at Ray's place that night (which had good food).
DAY 9 (Friday) - We stayed right on the Resurrection Bay Coast in Seward. This is where the Iditarod starts and it is a big deal there.  Friday morning we went  out to the Kenai National Park and did a small hike to see Exit Glacier.  We had to do a lengthy hike to even get close to the glacier but we didn't do that.  After the Exit Glacier we had an appointment with Turning Heads Dog Kennel to get an explanation and a ride with Iditarod Dogs.  THIS WAS ONE OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS!!! Loved it.  We came back and went to lunch at Zuby's a super yummy cafe and then to the SeaLife place in Seward, we thought this was just o.k. After a bit of a break we went back out toward Exit Glacier to hike around on the river bed and then ate dinner at this lodge that was out that way and had outdoor seating.  This was a fun night and a fun place to eat.

DAY 10 (Saturday) - Last day.  We got up and drove to the Wildlife Conservation Place.  They had all sorts of animals, black bear, brown bear, reindeer, caribou, porcupines, lynx, etc.  We liked this place but it did remind us of Bear World.  

 Then we drove to the base of Alyeska ski resort for a yummy lunch at the Bake Shop.  After lunch we headed about 10 miles over to Crows Creek - to mine!!  WE LOVED THIS!!!!!

 After mining we went back to Alyeska to take the Tram up to the top and eat dinner at Seven Glaciers, a nice restaurant at the top with amazing views and REALLY good food.

 We drove from Alyeska to Anchorage ( about 50 minutes).  We had some time to kill so we stopped in a gift store so Cruz could buy his Ule knife.  We dropped our bear spray off at Shawn's coworkers park and then drove through Kincaid Park and saw 8 moose getting a drink from the lake.  That was pretty cool.  Then we headed to the airport for our 1 a.m. flight back home. That was kinda tough! :)

THIS TRIP WAS AMAZING!!!!!