Category: Travel

Before we set off this morning I took a photo of our MH next to the BUS that came in beside us. It was at least twice the size of ours. I would not to be driving that all over the country.

We left the MH park around 8.30am and drove to our hotel – the Historic Anchorage in downtown – to drop off our luggage.

We then drove out the RV Rental place, stopping to refill petrol along the way. They then gave us a life back to the downtown area.  Unfortunately we now discovered the shared food drop table too late and we’d already thrown up quite a bit of food, excepting totally sealed items. I thought it a shame we hadn’t been told about the table when we arrived.

We had a bit of an explore around some shops, and tried to work out if we could get this dog or moose home to Australia. I think not!

I picked up a couple of tops in Nordstroms and we had some morning tea.

This cake was delicious.

I was Gymberee buying some clothes for Christy when everything shook. I asked the sales girls “what was that?” and she said the workmen doing  renovations next door. We later found out it was indeed a 5.2 earthquake.

We then went looking for an extra suitcase in JC Penny. They had some lovely Samsonites and the best part 60% off. We’ve been wanting to upgrade our bags for some time so this was a great opportunity. We saved over $1000 and probably another $500 than if we’d bought them in Australia. Amazing!!!

We wheeled them back to our room which was now ready. And boy, oh, boy and is it fabulous. I treated us to the Juniour Suite as it wasn’t much dearer so we have a seperate lounge area. I’m thinking we’re going to sleep like babies in this bed tonight.

Since we’ve got an early start in the morning I repacked our suitcases. Aren’t they so cute?

And the tag? It was meant to be :-).

We headed out to get some lunch and found this Thai place just around the corner.

We shared Ginger Tofu which was delicious.

This is was time for our Segway tour of Anchorage.

Kevin has done one before but it was my first time. It took me a while to get the hang of it – especially turning – but it was lots of fun. And a great way to see some of the sights. It’s a lovely town and I especially love the flowers EVERYWHERE.

A statue of Captain Cook.

A beavers den.

And the Railroad Depot where we’ll be bright and early in the morning.

And Kevin being a moose…. no idea why!!!

After our tour we enjoyed an ice cream and I gave my feet a bit of a rest. I then went to the souvenier shop next door to pick up a few things then uploaded some photos before we headed out for tonights event. Can you guess what it involves?  Yep, more sled dogs.

We had such a good time at the Seavey’s place in Seward, we decided to also see the Wildride Sled Dog Rodeo run by son, Dallas Seavey.

Over dinner we got to talk to Dallas and here about how he plans for the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. His love for his dogs and his sport is amazing.

Dinner was yummy. They forgot my vegetarian so it was bought out late. But I was happily enough having bits from the other dinner. When they did remember my meal it was a beautiful pasta filled with ricotta. Yum.

And then there was desert. Goodness me this baked cheesecake was the best I’d ever had.

We then watched a short video about the Iditarod – which was actually the one we’d seen at the Headquarters the other day. Then it was outside for the show. This was really well done and we both enjoyed it. So different to our experience in Seward that it was definitely worth doing both of them.

This beautiful pup actually got to be the musher – too cute.

They showed us the strength of the dogs.

And here a full team of 16 pulled a loaded truck (oops, I forgot to photograph the truck)

After the show we got to meet some of the dogs. Including one of our favourites…

Check out the size of those paws.

This beauty was in the movie Snow Buddies, and is a pet, not a sled dog.

And there was, of course, more puppies. But these babies were just 5 weeks old.

Just look at those eyes. She had sharp puppy teeth too I tell you 🙂

Then it was back to the hotel for a shower, blogging and hopefully a fantastic nights sleep.

Tomorrow : Train to Seward and the start of our cruise. It also means a likely ending to blogging for a while. So if you’re keen to keep up make sure you’re my friend on facebook.

First stop today was Subway in Denali to get some breakfast. Kevin wanted a change from cereal and I was out of bagels.

I had a flatbread with cheese and egg. It was quite nice.

Then we hit the road for the 5 hour drive back to Anchorage. As you can it was not the best weather this morning – and we were very glad we weren’t going on the tour of Denali National Park today.

We had driven this same road on the way up so we enjoyed listening to some more of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as we drove.  We did go past this giant igloo which is for sale. Any takers?

At Wasilla we stopped in at the Iditarod Headquarters.

I was excited to see they had some dogs there (from the Redington kennels). We debated going on another ride but decided it wouldn’t be as good, or as memorable, as the one we’d done at the Seavey’s. This is how they transport lots of dogs.

I was really excited to visit the headquarters. We watched a film about the Iditarod and I bought some things (including this years Iditarod DVD). We then saw some of the puppies. I loved how two were asleep and 2 were trying to escape. I wonder which will made the best sled dogs :-).

LOVED these 2 – so cute – one sleeping on top of the other.

Statue of the Father of the Iditarod.

We stopped at a Walmart to pick up a few things, then drove on to Anchorage where we went to Wild Berry Products.

I think Kevin wanted to dive right into the world largest chocolate fountain.

You could see them making chocolate (of which we bought some) but it was basically a big shop geared for tourists.  They did have some reindeer out the back though.

It was getting on towards 2pm and we were hungry so we went across the road to the Sourdough Bakery.

Loved the flowers outside. Like the UK there are hanging flower baskets everywhere.

And inside was very cute and rustic.

The only thing wrong with the place was that there was NOTHING vegetarian on the menu. So ordered the cobb salad with cheese instead of bacon & turkey.

It was huge (I barely made a dent on it) but was really yummy.

We then drove onto tonights RV park.

I had a lot of trouble finding a decent (according to reviews) park in Anchorage but this one is lovely. Just check out all those flowers.

I spent the afternoon doing some laundry and getting some bags packed. Then it was dinner (another Amy’s meal), blogging and catching up on some blogs while we have good internet access.

Tomorrow : Goodbye to the MH and a day exploring Anchorage.

NOTE : A quick post today – lots of photos and not much journaling.

Today we a full 12 hour day tour all the way to Kantishna (at the end of the Denali National Park Road) and back again. We boarded our bus at 6.30am and were given our lunch bag – which included 2 bottles of a water, a bottle of orange juice, 2 cookies, chips(crisps), nuts and a nut bar. Later we were given a wrap as well. We ate on the bus whenever we wanted to.

It was one stunning view after another.

Unfortunately Mount McKinley was not to be seen today :-(.

Unfortunately when we got the end of the road, where we got do a little walk with a Park Ranger, it was a little drizzly and there were LOTS of mosquitoes (though it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected). Ours was the only tour to go out this far but we were really glad we did it.

We got to visit the house where Franny Quigley (sp??) lived in the early 1900s. She must have been one amazing woman to have lived out here (even when her husband moved to Seattle).

There was a number of animal sightings including hares, squirrels, moose, caribou, dall sheep, eagles, grizzly bears (including cubs) and the rarely spotted wolverine.

Kevin took lots of photos but found it hard to get good shots as the animals were often far away in a bad position to photograph.

He wasn’t happy with what he got, but I was pleased.

The dall sheep, with 2 lambs.

The wolverine – which ran up the road in front of us for ages. Our guide said it was the 5th one she’d seen in 20 years and the first in over 5 years. So we scored big time.

I managed to photograph quite a few of the beautiful wildflowers.

This is a wild rose…

This is what our bus looked like at the end of the day.

We headed back to MH, which was parked at the Wilderness Access Center, and was amazed to find a moose and her calf in the middle of the car park!!!!

Kevin & I were so excited. The baby was sooooo cute.

We drove back to Riley Creek and hung out in the car park again so I do this post :-).

Tomorrow : Headed back to Anchorage and our last day in the motorhome.

Our RV site in Talkeetna backed right onto the railway line but I’d read it wasn’t too bad. There was a train around 11pm and another about 3am so it didn’t bother us too much. A bit of a relaxed morning and we were off by 8am. Lots more beautiful scenery. We’re seeing more and more wildflowers each day which is lovely.

We had a brief stop for petrol.

And arrived at Denali National Park around 11am.

We got checked into Riley Creek, where we are staying. And went to choose our spot.

I chose the one with the most wildflowers :-).

They have a system here whereby you leave your name/check-in slip clipped onto a stump to identify your site – you get to choose your own. We did this then drove to the Visitors Center.

Kevin wore his rain jacket. I didn’t bother as it was only spitting. When we came back out, so had the sun. We were just in time to watch the short film before having a look around.

I loved this little fella – how cute is he?

You know you’re in bear country when they have serious bear proof bins like this.

Kevin wanted lunch from the cafe. He got the kids burger. I stole a couple of this fries (which were really yummy) and made a cheese & coleslaw wrap later on.

We went back to our site for a while. Kevin had a nap. I ate my lunch and read a few magazines.

This was my view :-).

Just before 3pm we headed over to the Merchantile where we were picked up for our Rhino ATV tour.

This was lots of fun. Kevin had a ball trying to hit every rock, every dip in the road, and make the biggest splashes.

We had a number of stops with the most gorgeous views. We really lucked out with the weather this afternoon. Out of the wind it was actually warm.

Okay, you get the idea. We were surrounded by beauty. Our last stop was down by the river.

More stunning scenery.

And one thing I did not expect to see on our tour.

At the end I was reunited with my normal glasses – which I didn’t even know were missing. Kevin must have knocked them out of the bag when he got out his jacket. Boy, was I lucky! We were then returned to Riley Creek where Kevin had the brilliant idea that instead of sitting outside the Merchantile to get wifi that he drive the MH around to the car park. And that’s exactly what we did. Once I get this posted we’ll head back to our campsite.

Tomorrow : An day trip through Denali Park.