Sunday, June 21, 2009

Greetings from up North!

Well, we finished the cruise portion of our trip and are in Anchorage this morning with Internet, so thought I would drop you a line and post some photos I had handy on my iPhone. Wednesday we were in Skagway and we took a bus tour up into the Yukon and this welcome to Alaska sign ws on the side of the road. I also have photos that say welcome to the Yukon.

I think I packed my cardreader in my big suitcase that I won't see until Fairbanks, so I can not download the photos I took yesterday.
Our cruise ship visited Glacier Bay and College Fjord and this photo was one I took at Glacier Bay. We saw quite a bit of calving where the ice falls off the glacier into the water. We also took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier outside Juneau and saw several near Whittier where we disembarked the ship.
On the way to Anchorage, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we saw these animals that are being taken care of there. We have seen a lot of animals and birds in the wild also. Yesterday we saw two grizzlies, a moose, some goats, and eagles along the way. On the boat we saw a brown bear, several whales, sea lions and sea otters. It is hard to get good photos as you don't have time to prepare or the animals are so far away....some of them you don't want to be too close to!
The weather is cool and it has rained some, but hasn't stopped us from doing anything we wanted to do. It is hard to get used to daylight for so many hours. I have trouble sleeping anyway, so that has been an adjustment. I understand that it is very hot at home, so I will enjoy this cool weather!
We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center yesterday and that was very interesting. Today we leave Anchorage and head up to the McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge and then the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Hoping we will be able to see Mt. McKinley, but rain is predicted. We will finish up the trip at the Riverside Princess Lodge in Fairbanks and head home on Thursday.
Hope everyone will have a great week!
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1 comment:

nise said...

Even with your phone, the pictures are gorgeous. Hope the earthquake didn't affect you. And from my pen pal, who drills for oil on the North Slope and lives in a log cabin near Sterling, "It's mind over matter and if you don't mind, it don't matter", which is how he handles the short winter days. He sent me an article on the longer summer days that some guides don't allow watches on their treks! Good luck with getting your rest and it's hot in the middle of the mitten, too ~ 90s!