Anchorage to Denali

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Up early to have the bag out by 6:30 and meet in the lobby at 7:15. for some reason, group picture isn't taken anyplace cool, but rather on the stairs of the Anchorage Sheraton hotel. Drove to the Iditarod museum (and gift shop). Since it's the end of the season, decent sales on stuff.... Unfortunately, because we were early, we didn't get to see any puppies.



Then we drove to Talkeetna (which I'd heard of thanks to a Man vs. Food episode) to catch the train to Denali Park. We were in a "private" car with some folks from another tour company. What's funny is that we saw their tour guide when we were leaving the Sheraton and she liked my Wicked sweatshirt. Train ride up was gorgeous, I stood outside for a bit, but it was cold. Grey and gloomy most of the way up, and for some reason, both my camera batteries died before we got here. And really, I did not take THAT many pictures. And I got a free dessert. The waiter from the dining car was showing off the dessert and said that whoever wanted it should raise their hands when he counted to three. Some people raised their hands at "one" but I just said "three", and he handed it to me. Really yummy berry pie with vanilla ice cream. I skipped lunch on the train, nothing really appealed to me.

Train ride was about 4 hours, and in the middle we had to stop and wait for the southbound (Denali to Anchorage) train, so I had fun taking pictures and trying to figure out where the bubbles were coming from. Spotted a girl on the next car back, she was blowing them.



Well, I'm gonna go check out my hotel room now, have to meet the tour director back here in an hour for our dinner drive.



Oh, and for those interested in these details, there are 27 people in our group. Some Australians (I think 5), at least 3 Canadians. No Brits, so I think the rest are American. I know there is a couple from Oregon on their 23rd Globus trip. And one couple is from Florida and another is from Erie, PA. Oh, and one couple from Boston. Haven't found any other NYer's yet.

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