Finally!
First view of Alaska from the plane. I think it's called Mt. Logan, but I'm not sure.
This flight was so crazy. Our plane was about 2 hours late (DON'T FLY ALASKA AIRLINES!), and our connecting flight was Seattle to Fairbanks took off about 10 minutes after we landed and was maybe half the terminal away. We SPRINTED to our gate and just barely made it.
Mom and I on our first night. Because of the flight delay, our luggage didn't arrive until 8:30, so we took a walk around the grounds. This was taken at maybe 8 at night. The sun never really "set"; sunsets in Alaska mean the sun is not as bright.
We went goldpanning! I got $13 worth of gold in my pan. Learned all about the mining process and such, and all of the employees there were HOT! Wow. Alaska is reserving all the hot guys, girls.
We took a boat trip on the Discovery III down the Chena River. Along the way, we stopped at a sled dog kennel owned by Iditerod winner Susan Butcher and her husband. Third picture is a close-up of the second- they're holding little puppies! We got a chance to see reindeer, which are different from caribou because they are domesticated (I learned stuff!)
All of these (including the one of me looking a little contemplative, or maybe emo) are from the train ride down from Fairbanks to Denali National Park.
Almost none of our pictures of Denali came out well because the weather sucked, and that's too bad because if you aren't part of a tour, you have to enter a lotto to get in. The bottom is one of fireweed, which blooms from the bottom up. It's Native Alaskan legend that once the blossom is gone from the very top, summer is over. (Yup, I'm getting all educational on you now!)
Let's see, once we got to Mt. McKinley (which is the same mountain as Denali, but Denali is its native name, and this was from a new view *oooh*), we took a jet boat trip up the river to one of the last homesteads left in the park. John Neil built his very first cabin in 1974 in -40 degrees, and 30 mph winds! He still lives on the same land, he raised a family there.
OK, I showed you where Denali is in the first one. Can you find it in the second one? It can look like a cloud, so look carefully.
On the way to Whittier to catch the ship, we stopped at the Alaskan Native Heritage Center. We saw a dance presentation, including a walrus and eagle dance. In the back of the building, there were recreated dwellings you could tour, with a whale jaw bone (which is what Mom and I are standing in) and a totem pole (with my dad).
Whittier! Yes, Whittier is that small. That day was the most beautiful of the whole trip. All of those pictures up there were taken onboard. We left on our cruise at about 9:30 that night.
OK, I'm exhausted, so I'll continue with these tomorrow. I'll start with our first day on the cruise and end in Vancouver.