Diane's Travels: 2023 Alaskan/Canada Tour

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Scott and I went on a 13-day tour of Alaska Wednesday (7-5-23), kicking off with a 3-night ocean cruise from Vancouver, Canada to Skagway, Alaska along the Inside Passage, which is the entire region of Southeast Alaska, as well as British Columbia. Our cruise ship was the Holland America Line’s MS Volendam. After the first few days on the MS Volendam the rest of the trip was on land.

Tuesday was a long, uneventful, and uncomfortable flight from LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). We stayed at the nice Hotel BLU which is in the middle of everything. We opted to go to the Bloedel Conservatory and the VanDusen Botanical Garden instead of shopping, which appears to be the major pastime for tourists here.

The Conservatory was fascinating, birds and bushes. Mostly showy Macaws and some parrots. Then a few other smaller birds flying around. The plants were mostly labeled, the most notable was all the ones named after metal, cast iron plant, aluminum plant, and another one that I don't remember. We saw one critically endangered tree, the Wollemi Pine, but it’s not a true pine tree according to my research, but interesting reading about this tree.

Then Scott and I hiked to the Botanical Garden which was also beautiful and not as cool (temperature wise). After the Botanical Gardens in NY, these were kinda small but still beautiful. The most notable thing there was 2 totem poles that I didn't photograph (rats!). and lots of mostly abstract sculptures on lawns in big open spaces. Total miles for the day about 5. That was a lot for Scott who doesn't clock more than 1 on a normal day. We took a city bus from there back to downtown. We waited at a bus stop and a bus whizzed by us causing me grave concern, but Scott didn't despair and the next one stopped. The lady bus driver said that the stop had been discontinued but she took mercy on us. Thank goodness. Just another travel adventure.

Back to the hotel for you guessed it, gin and tonics to beat the heat, and then to Yaletown (the south side of the downtown Vancouver peninsula) for dinner at a fabulous Indian restaurant. It was a restorative day being in nature and beauty after the hecticness of the 3 weeks getting ready to leave for this trip.

The following 4 photos were taken at the Bloedel Conservatory.

Above: Diane at Bloedel Conservatory

Above: Wollerni Pine

Above: View of the gardens

Above: View of the gardens with the fisheye lens

The next 3 photos are from the VanDusen Botanical Garden.

Above: Entrance to the VanDusen Botanical Garden

Above: Diane under a Chilean Rhubar Leaf

Above: Another plant of some kind

Day 1: Wednesday, July 5, 2023: Sail from Vancouver, B.C.

This ocean portion is a cruise in the Inside Passage and stopping at Tracy Arm Inlet, Juneau and then debarking at Skagway, all in Alaska.

The land portion will be a few days in Skagway, followed by a trip to Frazer, Whitehorse, Minto, Dawson City, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and Anchorage, but more on these when they happen.

Below is a map illustrating this trip.

Above: Map of our trip

The following photo is a picture of our cruise ship, stolen from the Internet.

Above: Photo of the MS Volendam, from the Internet

Our plan was to leave our luggage on the ship and adventure forth. However, Scott had a major deal to attend to, so we were later than we expected and didn't get to eat on the ship, so off to a slow-not-so-rousing start.

We did get through the organized chaos of getting our luggage on the ship, but not us, as once on the ship you can't get off.

The location of the ship's terminal (Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal) is on the edge of Gastown, a famous section of Vancouver, named for Captain John "Gassy Jack" Deighton, an early hotel owner in Vancouver. We wanted to see Gastown's famous landmark, the steam-powered clock. We walked into Gastown wondering where the clock was, with a stop at a stunning native art gallery. Then along the main drag there it was, the steam-powered clock. We waited for it to spew steam at the 45-minute mark and then due to hunger pains we returned to our ship. See photos below.

Above: Steam-powered clock

Above: Inscription

After a too large lunch and a nap, we navigated the WiFi and went to the sail-away party. I wish we'd had time to go to Stanley Park, a magnificent green oasis in the middle of Vancouver. but we didn’t.

After that we went to the Ocean Bar to negotiate the bar package. Everything but water from the tap requires a signature on this type of tour, so we decide to invest in not only the alcohol but the bottled water and individual coffee. We made the purchase and discovered we could have 15 drinks a day, including the non-alcohol ones, so it was an assumed drunken voyage. After signing up at the bar, we had yep, gin and tonic. When we were ready to leave the barman said, "Wait, you can't go, you have 14 more drinks to go." So, that's our new joke, after 2 coffees and a bottle of water this morning, I announced, "I've got 12 more drinks to go today." Guess it's time for a glass of bubbly, don't you think?

Leaving Vancouver on Wednesday we cruised in the Strait of Georgia (named after King George III), the body of water separating Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia. After the Strait of Georgia, we entered Queen Charlotte Sound (named after the wife of King George III), then into Hecate Strait (named after the HMS Hecate, a ship used by Captain George Richards).

Scott had carefully selected our cabin on the ship's starboard side for the views. Ha ha, the weather was socked in all day, not a good day for views, or taking photos. So what do you do when you can’t view anything. You learn to braid your hair. More or less, mostly less, as my attempts were messy, but I’ll practice.

Then you eat and drink and go to a show and set your clocks back from Canada time to Alaska time. Only your Apple Watch doesn’t change so you have to calculate every time you look at it.

We went to a gems lecture which was interesting, but mostly a sales pitch. Didn’t buy any tanzanite (a very valuable, very rare gemstone). Sources say the tanzanite is 1000 times more rare than diamond!

Speaking of the cabin Scott selected for us, I haven’t taken any photos of it but attached is an illustration downloaded from the Holland America Line website which shows what our cabin looks like.

Above: What our cabin looked like

The next photo shows the archway to the boarding area of our ship.

Above: Archway to boarding area

The following 3 photos show images leaving the harbor with one photo showing our last view of the Vancouver skyline. The lighthouse in one of the photos is at a place called Lighthouse Park.

Above: Leaving the harbor

Above: Vancouver skyline

Above: Lighthouse

Day 2: Thursday, July 6, 2023: Scenic Cruising The Inside Passage, Cruising Only

Thursday was listed as a Sea Day, but it really wasn’t a sea day, mainly straits, sounds, etc. part of what is known as The Inside Passage.

The first photo was taken in the Strait of Georgia, close to Keats Island.

Above: In the Strait of Georgia

The next photo is of yours truly and my braids, photo taken on the ship while in the Hecate Strait.

Above: My braids

Day 3: Friday, July 7, 2023: Tracy Arm Inlet

While on the ship heading to Juneau, we attended 2 lectures that were very informative about whales and the Iditarod which were great. We arrived in Juneau later than expected because of weather and maybe a ship-related problem along the way. Juneau is all about tourism and government and there is no way in or out except by air and sea, no roads!.

Once we docked most people rushed to get off the boat, we waited because we didn't want to get in that long line.

Mendenhall Glacier is considered one of the most beautiful glaciers in the U.S. and Alaska’s top tourist attraction, and many folks on our cruise booked seaplane tours over the Mendenhall Glacier. But Scott and I had seen larger glaciers on our 2020 Antarctica cruise, so we didn't spend the $300+ each to do that. We had a map of Juneau so we mapped out things to see and took off.

We saw the The "Windfall Fisherman” statue, a life-sized bronze Alaskan brown bear with a salmon between its front paws. Very lifelike. The bear photo was a neat installation near the state capitol building. It was created to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Alaska Statehood.

We saw the William Henry Seward statue honoring him for his "Seward's Alaska Folly," but he showed all the naysayers in the end.

We walked along the beautiful waterfront until we came to the street that took us to the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, it was gratifying. Lots of history on the region's history with native culture exhibits and pioneer relics. They had a film about the Tlingits, indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and it was sad and informative.

A main exhibit at the museum was children's robes, handwoven with goat wool and bark. One of the attached photos shows this. The museum also had a film about the Treadwell Gold mine (the biggest gold mine of its time) and some other mines and their impact on the area. By the way, Scott had mined for gold at one point in his life.

We also walked by the Empty Chair Memorial for the Japanese that were interned in WWII, the Empty Chair refers to a student, John Tanaka, Juneau High School’s 1942 valedictorian, who was relocated a month before his graduation. very sad.

We also walked by the Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church built for the Eastern Europeans that missed home and were working in the area. No Russians were involved, which cracked me up.

Juneau is very hilly so we got to go downhill going back to the ship. We watched the sea planes come in and sure enough we saw some of our ship pals get off. They gave their trip to see Mendenhall Glacier a thumbs up!

Back to the ship to pack and reorganize so we didn't have much to carry with us, and to go to breakfast at 6:30. UGH. We made it! Off to Skagway.

Below are a few photos of things I mentioned above.

Above: Diane at sea, before Juneau, in Stephens Passage, somewhere around Tracy Arm

Above: Welcome to Juneau sign, near the Juneau Cruise Ship Terminal

Above: The Windfall Fisherman statue

Above: The William Henry Seward statue

Above: Exhibit at Juneau-Douglas City Museum

The next photo needs an additional explanation. It was from a very cool exhibit at the museum. You could pick a fish and take a photo like you caught it, and learn about the fishing industry. I chose the halibut because it was BIG! It wasn't all that heavy but I tried to look like I was straining to hold it up.

Above: Diane and big fish

Above: Empty Chair Memorial

Above: This photo shows how hilly our walk was

Above: Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

Day 4: Saturday, July 8, 2023: Debark Ship Skagway, Alaska, US

We left Juneau Friday night when we were re-organizing our suitcases and discussing the bill with the desk who promised to make adjustments and did. I managed to get up and ready for breakfast etc to make the 7:30 call. It was a hurry up and wait deal so I could have been more relaxed. But Skagway is beautiful. There are 3 docks for large cruise ships, we docked at the Broadway Dock, which is situated at the end of Broadway St.

Saturday in Skagway we had a funny, raconteur bus driver named Jimmy, who enjoyed my banter and said, "I like sassy women." I love that.

We went to the Gold Rush Cemetery. Let's just say it wasn't the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. There was a bad guy named Soapy Smith that was buried there but off to the side so his spirit didn't pollute the rest of the residents. They had fences around some of the graves to keep the spirits in as well. It was fascinating and fun. The most chaotic one I've ever seen and I go to cemeteries whenever I'm in a new place and have the time.

We drove through the 8-block long town of Skagway with the highlight being the Red Onion Saloon that used to be a brothel and has tours guided by some of the ladies, not the original ones I assume. $10 for a tour of the rooms.

Then we came back to town and went into the shops and had a beer and a tasty chowder: potatoes, bacon, halibut, salmon and something else. Very filling. And more galleries and stores and the Museum. Also very interesting. A series of videos of the worst tragedy of the West Coast, the sinking of the steamship Princess Sophia in 1918. It was an awful story.

And a lot of information about the Klondike Gold rush and the many people that came. 100,000 but only 10,000 made it to the gold, and the horrible conditions and hardships they endured. And the building of the narrow gauge railroad that we get to take on Monday. I learned that they chose the narrow gauge 3 feet instead of the normal 4' 8" I think because they needed a smaller turning radius and it was less expensive too.

I'm going to say this, the stories of the mistreatment of the natives and the Japanese, and the hardships of the men trying to get to the gold, are offset by the beauty of the sea, the mountains and the forests. It is stunning. I'll add, I'm grateful I wasn't a lady in that brothel for sure, Those guys didn't look like I'd want to snuggle up to them.

Attached are a few photos from this day.

Above: Gold Rush Cemetery

Above: View of our ship at the Broadway Dock, our ship is the one to the far left. The one to the far right is the Sapphire Princess

Above: Large black & white photo mural at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Visitor Center, located in the historic White Pass & Yukon Route depot

Above: View of Broadway Street

Above: Yours truly at a Skagway mural

Above: The Red Onion Saloon

Above: Sign at the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway

Day 5: Sunday, July 9, 2023: Skagway-Day At Leisure

Sunday was Scott’s and my second day in Skagway, our itinerary described this as “Skagway-Day At Leisure.” Below are a few photos from Sunday in Skagway.

Photo #1:    The Days of 98 Show, a 1-hour show that celebrates the lawless days of the Klondike Gold Rush, with music, can-can dancers and rowdy humor. The can-can dancers reminded me of the can-can dance I did in Bourge, France on a cruise in 2022. Anybody remember that photo?

Photo #2:    Stampeder Statue (stampeder is someone following a stampede for a gold rush), statue of an exhausted gold rush era miner and his dog, at the Martin Itjen House, erected in 2017.

Photo #3:    B&W photo of old mining camp & stampeders. The despair of the stampeders that came for the gold and suffered what seems like unbearable hardship.

Photo #4:    Looking up (north-east) Broadway St., you can see the Red Onion Saloon in this photo.

Photo #5:    Rotary Snow Plow Number 1. The red object on the right is the retired snow plow used by the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. My googling fingers tell me “It was last used to clear the tracks in 1964 and moved to the museum 4 years later. They revived it for a special exhibition run in 1998…” Engine 52 on the left, believed to be the first engine to reach the White Pass Summit in February 1899 came to the museum in 2014.

Photo #6:    An aerial view of Skagway I found on the Internet (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skagway_aerial_view.jpg, required for legal reasons)

Above: Days of 98 show

Above: Stampeder statue

Above: Black & White photo of old mining camp

Above: Looking up Broadway Street

Above: Rotary Snow Plow No. 1

Above: Aerial view of Skagway

Day 6: Monday, July 10, 2023: Skagway to Whitehorse by train

The train ride Monday morning from Skagway, Alaska to Fraser, Yukon Territory Canada on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway was really exciting. I spent most of the trip on the back of the train leaning outside trying to catch photos of the engines pulling the train. The only time I could do that was when we were on a curve and something didn't obstruct the long view. Since we were in the last car, it took a while from the announcements that such-and-such is on your right for us even to get to see what was there. The engines were pretty far away from where Scott and I were. The big excitement was when we went over trestle bridges and into tunnels. We went through customs in both the USA and Canada.

The scenery from the train was spectacular. It wasn't just about the engines, although that interested me a lot. The first 6 photos below were taken on the train.

At Fraser, they picked us up on a motor coach (aka bus). And we traveled to Whitehorse, hearing again the stories of the stampeders crossing one of the two passes over the mountains. It is an awesome and long story filled with hardships and determination. Those guys mostly, but some women made the trip as well. They had to carry a ton of stuff over the passes, meaning that they had to go up and down those mountains multiple times. The Mounties checked to be sure they had a year's supplies.

The motor coach driver Jimmy was well-informed and entertaining. He said his job was to drive and ours was to look for animals. I didn't get to see any whales, and I missed the first animal but did get to see a bear, a moose, and a bald eagle.

We stopped at a First Nation village (Carcross) for a break, beautiful scenery, and an excellent visitor center. The metal sculpture of a caribou was an entrance sign and interesting because I didn't realize that caribou had such interesting antlers. Not sure they are this elaborate but I haven't seen a real caribou to confirm. “First Nation” is a Canadian term used to describe Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

And we stopped at Emerald Lake, it and many others are protected by the Canadian Government because they have "marl" on the lake bottom and it reflects the sun back causing the lakes to have many exciting colors. We were hazy so we didn't get some of the colors, but you get the drift from this image. Gorgeous.

Our destination for Monday night was Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Named Whitehorse because part of the trip the stampeders took was through a series of lakes including some major rapids. Once set was so high the waves looked like the manes of white horses. Thus the name of the city, which is now the capital of the Yukon. It is the only city in the Yukon that has stop-and-go lights.

The speed limit on the highway is 90 KMH (about 56 miles per hour), but Yukoners don’t pay attention, but our driver Jimmy did.

In Whitehorse, Scott and I opted for a tour of the S.S. Klondike, one of 250 stern wheelers that took supplies and passengers to Dawson City and brought back Galena, an ore containing lead, silver, copper, (and maybe nickel not sure about that). These wood fired steam-powered vessels used a cord of wood every 15 minutes going downstream and 15 going upstream when loaded with the ore. There were people who stock piled the wood on the shore and they stopped to pick it up.

It was amazing the hard work it was to run the steam ships and to load and unload the ore in 125 pound bags, all manual labor plus feeding the huge logs into the fire chamber. They also had to stop and collect mail and passengers along the way. Loaded they only drafted a meter of water. The Yukon river is very shallow in some places and deep and fast in others, 17+ knots per hour. I found the equipment pretty interesting. The ship was later converted to diesel and then when made a historical site converted back to the original steam engine.

Below are a few photos I took on this trip.

The following photos were taken while on the train.

Above: Train going around a bend, note the engine

Above: Train going through a tunnel

Above: Train crossing a bridge

The next photos were taken on the coach ride from Fraser to Whitehorse.

Above: Entrance sign at Carcross

Above: Carcross visitor center

Above: Emerald Lake

Above: Engines on SS Klondike

Above: SS Klondike

Day 7: Tuesday, July 11, 2023: Whitehorse to Dawson City by bus

Tuesday was a long, long day as our coach ride took us from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

We took the Alaska Highway out of Whitehorse but turned onto the Klondike Highway after a few miles. The Alaska Highway was paved with normal road stuff (asphalt), the Klondike Highway paved with what they called chip and seal, less expensive than asphalt. From our coach it didn't look so different, but chip and seal is basically what it looks like, and needs regular repair because the sealing coat weakens in the rain and it gets gravelly. I learned more about road building as well. The US and Canada build roads differently.

And toward the end of the day as we got closer to Dawson City and further into the Klondike Wilderness, the roads got worse and worse. But the trip was so interesting that I didn't get out my Kindle that I had carefully charged up. Our coach driver Jimmy kept up a running informative monologue. We passed through several burn sites. In Yukon they don't fight the fires, they let them burn themselves out. They regrow in 40 years, but in the first few years, the fireweed comes in (the pink-to-purple flowers in the photo in yesterday’s email), then aspens and birches that can't grow when the spruces dominate the forests. Somewhere I saw that there are 3 kinds of forest fires, ground fires, surface fires, and crown fires.

Jimmy told us about the road when it was horse-drawn and how road houses got built. $1.50 for food and drink and $1.50 for a room but you could sleep inside for nothing, I think that's how it went. We stopped at the Tagé Cho Hudän Interpretive Centre (see attached photo of Jimmy our driver at one of the old roadhouses).

Later in Minto, Yukon, we had lunch at a First Nation stop, not too photogenic except for the bald eagle in the attached photo. Kind of far away, so it's a little blurry as I took this photo at 60X zoom (30x optical and the rest digital) handheld. “First Nation” is a Canadian term used to describe Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

Then into Dawson City. After we settled in at our hotel and bought our season pass to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall (Canada's oldest casino), we went to dinner at the Drunken Goat Taverna. Good enough food considering we are really in the wilderness. The owner is Tony. a Greek. I said good night to him in Greek and he corrected me and said, “...you say good afternoon until you are ready to leave." And then we couldn’t leave, he talked about himself and Dawson for 1.5 hours. At least he bought us another glass of wine.

Below are a few photos:

Above: One of the few traffic signals in the Yukon, this one was taken Tuesday morning as we left Whitehorse.

Above: Jimmy, our driver at roadhouse

Above: Bald Eagle in tree

Day 8: Wednesday July 12, 2023: Dawson City, Day At Leisure

Scott and I are now in Dawson City which is in the Yukon territory of Canada, that is we are not in any of the 10 Canadian Provinces, but one of the three territories. We’ve been in Canada since we passed the White Pass Summit on our train ride out of Skagway, Alaska. We left Skagway Monday morning on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway and rode it to Fraser, British Columbia, Canada. At Fraser we took a coach to Whitehorse where we spent Monday night, and then to Dawson City where we are spending Tuesday night.

Below is an illustration found on the Internet. This illustration gives a good overview of the area, from Skagway to Fraser. If you look closely on the illustration I have added yellow rectangles where Skagway, White Pass Summit, and Fraser are. Plus I added yellow rectangles showing where our ship docked in Skagway, and where the Gold Rush Cemetery is that I mentioned in an earlier email. The red line indicates our train ride route from Skagway to Fraser. The total train ride distance was about 28 miles, and took somewhere around 5 hours, plus or minus.

Above: Overview of the area, from Skagway to Fraser.

I’ve already mentioned that on Tuesday in Dawson City we went to shows at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Gambling Hall (Alaska’s first casino). Diamond Tooth Gertie was a famous dance hall queen and got that name because she had a diamond attached to her teeth, the casino was named in her memory.

Dawson City was also a gold rush town so there were lots of bars and women to entertain them, they called it mining the miners And they still mine gold there. When we arrived, we bought a “pass” to the shows at Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall. The pass let us go to all the shows while we were there, 2 shows per day.

The weather was warm, not hot, we did have air conditioning which we turned on for a while, but later turned it off and opened the window. It got down to 58F degrees at night.

Wednesday morning we hightailed it over to the visitors’ center and booked 2 tours, a historic tour and a tour to Robert Service’s cabin. The historic tour took us into a restored bank, post office, and Red Feather saloon. Lots of history around those places, the most unpredictable was in the saloon of course. About how they would cheat the miners out of their gold.

Robert Service, often called the Bard of the Yukon, was a prolific writer and poet and I love his poetry about Alaska, very light and fun. I memorized The Shooting of Dan McGrew many, many years ago and performed it a few times in NYC, in the lower level of the Lamb's Theater, and my church cabaret. Other guests on this tour mentioned The Cremation of Sam McGee as their favorite.

The Robert Service Cabin is now part of the Klondike National Historic Sites in Dawson City and it was home to him for many years, and where he wrote much of his poetry. The cabin is a 2-room, log cabin with a double door entrance, with a front porch covered by a gable roof. At the cabin, a talented lady read many of Service's poems for us. The complete poem of Service’s The Spell of the Yukon was painted on the side of one of the buildings in the complex. The highlight of my day was visiting the Robert Service cabin.

Attached are some photos from the historic tour and Robert Service’s cabin.

That’s not all…. later that night we went to the Downtown hotel for supper and to have the Sour Toe Cocktail at the Downtown's Sourdough Saloon. The drink is gross, you'll have to google it for a description as I don't want to sully this write-up. But it's a rite of passage sort of ritual. I have 2 videos, I’ll add them to this journal.

Only 3 of the 42 members of our group tried the Sour Toe Cocktail, Scott and I were 2 of the 3, but' we both survived. Then on to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall for the 8:30 and the 10:00 show. The first show was a typical Can-Can type show; the second show, a musical. I’m spoiled living in NYC, so the musical show wasn’t so great. Attached are a few photos from the Sourdough Saloon and Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall. Note that I was on stage with the shows cast in Photo #6.

Then back to our hotel, the Westmark Inn, to pack our stuff for an early morning luggage out. As we left the room Thursday morning, I realized I’d left our room key in the coin pocket of my jeans which were in the suitcase. It was a brass key, not a plastic card, and the hotel was adamant about its return. So there I was unpacking and repacking on a wooden board over the dirt road in downtown Dawson City. Did I mention there are no paved roads in Dawson City.

And Scott and I left Dawson City Thursday and flew to Fairbanks to continue our Alaskan trip.

Attached are some photos from our day:

Above: The Red Feather Saloon

Above: The Post Office

Above: The Flora Dora Hotel, ...and yours truly.

Above: Robert Service Log Cabin

Above: The crowd at the Downtown Hotel's Sourdough Saloon where Scott and I had our first and last Sour Toe Cocktail.

Above: The cast at the show at the Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, ...and yours truly.

Also below are two videos, one of Scott and one of me drinking the Sour Toe Cocktail.

Day 9: Thursday, July 13, 2023: Airflight from Dawson City to Fairbanks

In Dawson City, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA ) screening for our flight was done on a folding table under an umbrella. Fortunately the rain held off until after my suitcase was closed and loaded on the luggage truck.

After leaving the charming Dawson City, Alaska Scott and I flew on a Boeing 737-500 to Fairbanks, Alaska, where we stayed the night at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel. The 737-500 is an old lady for sure, they first entered service in 1990. It was an uneventful flight, an uneventful drive to our hotel, and an unremarkable hotel.

Once in Fairbanks away from the hotel, Scott and I visited the Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center which had excellent exhibits that tell the story of life in Interior Alaska.

Below is a photo of a statue known as the "Unknown First Family," by Malcolm Alexander and located in the Golden Heart Plaza on the Chena Riverfront. The statues stands 18 feet high with water cascading over it into the surrounding pool, the statue has been dedicated to all the Alaska families of the past, present, and future.

Above: "Unknown First Family" statue

But our visit to the museum and the Golden Heart Plaza was just a quick visit as we had signed up for a sternwheeler riverboat cruise on the Discovery III, one of 3 sternwheelers owned by a family that had been running them for 7 generations.

Above: Discovery III on the Chena River (taken from Wikipedia)

Our captain was female, yay. Those riverboats are amazing, they don’t draft a lot of water and they carry very heavy loads. In the days of the gold rush, there were 250 of them moving among the rivers carrying ore, passengers and freight before the winter to the various cities in the interior.

The 3 1/2 hour cruise on the Chena and Tanana Rivers consisted of a (1) Bush Pilot Demonstration, (2) a visit to the Trail Breaker Kennel, and (3) a visit to a replicated Athabascan village.

The Bush Pilot Demonstration was a Piper Super Cub taking off and landing on the Chena river. This particular plane was a Piper Super Cub, a 1952 PA-18-125 model (71 years old!).

Attached are a couple photos of the bush pilot and his Piper Super Cub we saw.

Above: Bush Pilot Demonstration

Some of you may know that Scott was once a pilot and owned his own plane, a 1965 Cessna 150. He only had about 140 hours in that plane but has several interesting stories about those days.

Scott says the Piper Super Cub is sort of the Model T of airplanes, had great short field characteristics, and could carry a lot of cargo weight. He also says the first Piper Super Cubs in 1949 had only a 95 hp engine while the 1952 model we saw had a 125 hp engine. Scott says bush pilots liked the Super Cub because it was a simple plane as they had to be able to fix anything on the plane if they ran into trouble in a remote location, like landing on a glacier.

Although Scott thinks the Piper Super Cub is a great plane, he preferred his Cessna 150 because it was much more comfortable and had better instrumentation.

At the Trail Breaker Kennel we saw a dog sled demonstration by the husband of the late Susan Butcher who bred dogs and won the Iditarod four times. She bred an amazing lead dog, Granite, who was the runt of the litter and everyone said to give him away, but she didn’t. She wrote a book titled “Granite” about it. Very inspiring like “The Little Engine That Could.” Susan passed away in 2006 at the age of only 51.

It was fascinating how excited the dogs were to pull the sled, jumping up and down, barking, so excited to pull. That is a trait that is bred into the sled dogs whether they are racing dogs or working dogs. The racing dogs, Alaskan Huskies, are smaller and leaner than the working dogs. The Malamutes dogs which I always thought were the racers, are not. They are bigger and heavier and are more of a freight-hauling dog, not normally used for racing.

After visiting the Trail Breaker Kennel we continued down river to the merging of the Chena and the Tanana Rivers where we visited a Native American (Athabascans) replica village. We learned about fish, furs, caribou and living on the land. I’m grateful to be able to sleep in a New York City high-rise, and NOT on a fur spread on top of spruce branches in an open tent at 40F below zero.

Below are a few more photos.

Above: Trail Breaker Kennel, along the Chena River

Above: Athabascans tent (with fur spread on top of spruce branches)

Day 10: Friday, July 14, 2023: Tour of Gold Dredge Mining

Friday morning, we toured the Gold Dredge #8 mining district in Fox, Alaska, a little north of Fairbanks. The tour kicked off aboard a replica of the narrow-gauge Tanana Valley Railroad. The first stop on the tour we listened to a talk on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, an 800-mile oil channel that runs right through the Gold Dredge #8 mining district. This pipeline system has been in operation since 1947 and delivers crude oil from the north slope of Alaska to Valdez. This system was the world's largest privately funded construction project when it was built. Below is a photo of one of the 48” diameter pipes.

Above: Typical Trans-Alaska Pipeline

After the presentation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline we continued on the train ride through the historic mining area. One definition I found on a dredge is as follows, “A dredge is a device which "vacuums" up water and gravel from a stream or river and then directs the discharge through a riffle box where gold and other heavy objects are trapped.” The following is a photo of yours truly “working the dredge."

Above: Yours truly working the dredge

Scott and I eventually got to try our luck at gold panning, washing soil or gravel in a pan with water and having the gold separate out due to its higher specific gravity. Each guest got to keep the gold they panned. I panned $15 worth and Scott panned $16 worth. Below is a photo of my pan with my $15 gold mother lode, but you’ll have to look closely.

Above: My $15 gold mother lode

Below are a few more photos:

Above: Gold Dredge #8

Above: Crop of above Gold Dredge #8

Above: Large gears inside Gold Dredge #8

After our tour of Gold Dredge #8 we boarded our coach and headed for Mckinley Chalet Resort where we would stay Friday night.

Saturday we are scheduled to start the Tundra Wilderness Tour in the Denali National Park.

Day 11: Saturday, July 15, 2023: Tundra Wilderness Tour

Today we were to do the Tundra Wilderness Tour. This tour by bus is touted as the premier tour of Denali National Park and Preserve!

The day dawned overcast and gloomy with 50F+ degree weather. Scott and I weren’t expecting to see the mountain Denali with weather like that, as seeing Denali itself isn't a guarantee since it is often shrouded by clouds. Denali is the tallest mountain in all of North America. The First Nation people who inhabit the area around the mountain referred to the mountain as Denali for centuries. The United States government recognized the name as Mount McKinley (after former President William McKinley) in 1917, but in 2015 changed the name back to Denali.

There is only one road that leads into Denali National Park and that is the Denali Park Road. Stretching 92 miles, a personal car can only drive the first 15 miles. Beyond that, you’ll have to charter one of the Denali National Park bus tours.

We had a wonderful Tundra tour that went 43 miles into the park wilderness. The bus driver had great stories to tell and was good at spotting animals. Of the "the Big Five" mammals of Denali - wolves, caribou, Dall sheep, moose and bears; we saw caribou, Dall sheep, and moose, but no wolves or bears.

We saw a moose early on, munching away at the foliage. She was fairly young according to our driver. We were all giddy with excitement, however that was the last one we spied.

Along with the wildlife we saw some beautiful purple pine cones on some spruce trees.

I said we saw a Dall sheep, ...sort of, I was unable to get a good view of the Dall sheep from where I was seated on the bus, but it was easily visible through the camera on the bus, with the drop down screens. I did take a photo of the Dall sheep on the drop down screen, but this is certainly not a satisfactory photo of a Dall sheep, but that's what I have and I’ll show it with this email for no special reason. It’s not satisfactory from the standpoint that if I wanted to see a Dall sheep on a tiny screen I could have stayed home and watched a Dall sheep YouTube video on my iPhone.

After the Dall sheep and down the road a bit we squinted our eyes to see a pair of caribou, But they were so far away, it would have been better to take a photo of a photo. I cropped and enlarged one of my photos, it is very pixelated. Again, it’s what I have.

There were lots of Arctic ground squirrels which are very important in the food chain for all the predators, the squirrels are very cute and cautious. A porcupine turned his back on us and we encountered some birds, but it was a wonderful 5-to-6 hour drive into the total Alaskan wilderness.

There are two smaller peaks next to Denali and were referred to as Denali’s wife and child by the First Nation people. Unfortunately we didn't get to see them on our tour.

The Denali Sled Dog Kennels house the sled dogs that are used to patrol the park for much of the year, when the park is snow covered. The kennels are open to the public and you can meet the dogs.

The bus dropped us off at the visitor center and we stood in line to see the sled dog demonstration with the promise that we could pet the puppies. Well, those “puppies” were the authentic Alaskan Huskies and gorgeous, every one different. As soon as the puppies are born, they start handling them so they are used to people. And as they grow, they are evaluated to determine what they can be trained for. So they learn early to work together with people and other dogs. Each one is treated differently and all are petted a lot.

We met the dog "Topo" who is the dinner bell, he starts barking when it is dinner time. We met "Jewel" who is a fabulous lead dog we were told. We met some dogs that were shy and some that were gluttonous for affection. Then the howling started as the sled came out and they wanted to pull. One man from India commented "I have oxen on my farm, I wish they were as excited to work.” This visit with the Denali sled dogs was brief but fun.

The positions are lead dogs, swing dogs, team dogs, and wheel dogs. The lead dogs are usually 2, but can be 1. The swing dogs help the lead dogs make sure the sled goes left or right, useful with big teams. There can be several pairs of team dogs, depending on the size of the team. The wheel dogs need to be even-tempered since the sled is right behind them

After this tour was over Scott and I went back to the McKinley Chateau Resort and saw a nice sunset.

Above: Map showing the Tundra Wilderness Tour

Below are a few photos.

Above: The moose we saw

Above: Purple pine cones

Above: The Dall sheep we sort of saw

Above: Arctic ground squirrel

Above: Pair of caribou

Above: Panorama of mountains and clouds

The following 3 photos are of some sled dogs, beautiful animals!

Above: “Throne” sleeping on his house is a wheel dog, wheel dogs are the ones closest to the sled.

Above: Sled dog

Above: Sunset back at the McKinley Chateau Resort

Below is a 10-second video of the dog sled demonstration Scott and I saw.

Day 12: Sunday, July 16, 2023: Denali Day At Leisure

Sunday we did inconsequential stuff then went to the Visitors Center to look at the amazing exhibits and then on a Ranger Walk. Still foggy and rainy so no viewing of Denali again. Pooh! There are lots of trails to hike but no information just exercise, we opted for the information and it was good. The ranger brought props like photos of how it looked when it was built, golden eagle feathers, etc. The eagle feathers are huge like 2 ft. long, see attached photo. We spent 2 hours walking 2 miles. It was beautiful. No Northern lights either. Too foggy and too much daylight.

Above: Ranger and eagle feather from Denali walk

Day 13: Monday, July 17, 2023: Train ride from Denali to Anchorage

This is our last day of the tour. Leaving the McKinley Chalet Resort, our suitcases came out at 7:00am, not exactly a late check-out, eh? Off to the Alaska Railroad - Denali Park Depot for a train ride on the McKinley Explorer to Anchorage. McKinley Explorer is operated by Holland America Line and Princess Cruises.

Above: A drink I had at the McKinley Chalet Resort Monday morning. I counted this as a salad.

We thought it was a 5-hour train ride, tricked us, it was 9 hours. Better than a bus. McKinley Explorer train cars have two levels, with all passenger seating on the upper. The upper level is a domed car with wide open vistas and a stand-up comic narrator plus a formal dining car. Quite comfortable and we knew most of the folks in our group so lots of conversation standing in the aisles, no seatbelts. The views were spectacular and we did get to see Denali through the trees. We saw winding rivers and went over bridges that were close to 300 feet high. Twice we had to move to a siding and another car zipped past going the other direction. The big challenge again was to capture a photo of the engine going around a curve. See photos below.

Above: Map of our train ride from Denali Park to Anchorage

Above: Finally, our first view of Denali, from the train ride

Above: Note train engine going around a bend

Above: Crossing over a river on a bridge

Finally we arrived in Anchorage. On our way to the Westmark Anchorage Hotel, we passed over Ship Creek, they were careful to spell it for us. We could see a lot of people fishing for salmon. One guy had at least 2 fish that were huge. Many try to catch enough fish and shoot enough game so they do not have to buy meat all winter. BTW, most things in the grocery stores are about 30% higher than in the lower 48. Snacks and breakfast stuff cost $40+.

We went to the famous Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse for supper. It is one step nicer, well maybe half a step nicer, than a dive bar. Live entertainment and lots of cameras on ESPN. Fun and a must-do in Anchorage.

That ended our 13-Day Alaskan/Canada Tour, but we elected to spend a few additional days in Anchorage before returning home.

After the 13-day tour: Spending a few days in Anchorage

Tuesday morning Scott and I had breakfast at a local café where airline pilots and local folks came. Scott had a reindeer sausage omelet. A funny experience, the owner was the chef and there wasn't anyone to serve. You ordered at the counter, the chef announced when your order was ready and named it. Everyone got theirs, ate at a table, and then took their plates back to the counter when they were done. Reindeer sausage was actually quite common, so almost everywhere you could get it. It didn't taste very different so I didn't bother after my first try. Buffalo chilli was the same disappointment.

Later we went on the Trolley Tour was a great orientation and in Earthquake Park, we saw a moose and a mosling? Or is it meese for both of them? They told us people needed to be 100 yards from a moose. There are all sorts of things they teach you to do if charged by a moose or a bear, i.e., run from a moose, stand up tall for a bear. We had to stay in the trolley, but some folks were only maybe 50 ft from the moose. They got better photos, I’m sure.

One of the other interesting things about Alaska is that 1 in 5 residents has a pilot’s license and many more fly without one. There are small planes all over like a Walmart parking lot. There is a spectrum of planes, some heavy-duty like the de Havilland Beavers, some more like the family station wagon (Cessnas), and then the smaller Piper Super Cubs. The Pipers are ubiquitous as they can be repaired by hand. They have a pipe frame and are covered with canvas. We heard one had most of the canvas ripped off in an accident in the rough so the pilot/owner got cases of duct tape and fixed it up enough to fly it back to repair it properly. Much of Alaska is accessible only by air or dog sled. especially in the winter.

After the trolley tour, we looked in some shops around a little bit then headed to the Anchorage Museum where they had an extensive and excellent exhibit about the First Nations communities. There was also a big show of photos of the centennial of the Alaska Railroad. On the way out we discovered a room full of black and white images of the mountains and glaciers from the 30-70’s by Bradford Washburn. They took my breath away. (https://www.washburngallery.org) I did take some B&W photos of his photos.

We changed from the Westmark Anchorage Hotel to a B&B with no breakfast, hence the grocery store, and had dinner at 9:00pm watching the sun set at 11:00pm.