Hello from Talkeetna, Alaska

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Hello from Talkeetna (population of 700)

We haven't had access to internet for the last 9 days due to being on a train and cruise, well we did have access on the cruise but not for 75 us cents per minute !!! Thanks for your text messages asking for our latest travel blog...

We finished our time in Canada by driving from Jasper onto Lake Louise, the famous Lake on all the travel shows. We spent the night at the chateau with a lake view room, the lake was frozen but still beautiful. This has to be one of the most popular destinations in Western Canada and there were bus loads of tourists just turning up to see the lake. Most of the lakes we had visited were frozen which was a bit disappointing but you can't pick what the weather is going to do when you pre-book your trip. We left Lake Louise and drove to Banff and it is full of aussies, early to mid 20's just arriving to work during the summer. We stayed in Banff for a couple nights at a great hotel and then caught the Rocky Mountaineer for the next two days back to Vancouver where we would meet up with our Diamond Princess Cruise. The Rocky Mountaineer was fantastic and well worth the double the price for booking Gold Leaf as opposed to Red Leaf, we had our own dining car with full kitchen and chefs cooking fresh food for all meals. The carriages were bi-dome and had 360 deg views. The staff onboard were excellent and had a keen eye to spot all the wildlife along the way even a huge black bear. When we arrived in Vancouver we had red carpet rolled out for us and you could see the people getting off the redleaf carriages thinking I should have upgraded. The scenery was spectacular however we were very mountained out at the end of the trip.

We spent the night in Vancouver before heading off on the Diamond Princess, what an amazing ship, no wonder why they call it the Sheraton of the sea. So much food which was included in the price but not the alcohol, that's okay Mark and I are sad drunks, a bottle of wine lasted us over three nights. I was thinking all the way through Canada that I couldn't really tell the difference between the Canadians and Americans until I got on the Cruise ship and yep there it was !!! It's like they are talking to you through a megaphone. I think everyone from Texas were on their very first holiday and very vocal about it. Paige honey of course we don't think this of you :o). Don't get me wrong we have encountered some interesting aussies that made us think, my god how on earth did you afford this trip, then again same could be said about us. The first day of the cruise was scenic cruising and not much to see but snow capped mountains in the distance. We had three port stops in a row, Ketchikan, Juneau (Capital of Alaska) and Skagway, Ketchikan was very cute, bright coloured buildings all built amongst the creek running through town. It was the red light district way back when but now all gift shops. We then cruised into Glacier Bay and the pictures of the glaciers just doesn't do it justice. The next day we cruised to College Fjords with 16 glaciers (I think), there were chunks of ice floating past sometimes with stella sea lions on them and we got to see some of the glaciers calving. Mark has managed to take over a 1000 pictures in just under 3 weeks, we won't load them onto our travel blog.............. I got quite sick on the cruise from a cold and spent a lot of the time in the cabin which was fine because we had an outside balcony and I could just watch the scenery from my room. When we were in Glacier Bay and College Fjords we had a couple of rangers onboard for commentary and they could spot bears on the shorline that looked like a dot, literally. Speaking of bears, Mark was telling fellow passengers that he didn't need to come to Canada to see a grizzly as he wakes up with one every morning, ha ha and this morning as we had an early start I had a little snooze on the train to Talkeetna and he put a sign on me for all to see (see picture). Sorry there are only two pics and one is wasted, Mark wanted to put the grizzly pic on the blog. This computer doesn't have access to resize photos and hence two pics hits the max allowed.

Weather has been great in Canada, the cruise was very cold and now we are heading into the North of Alaska it's getting warmer.

Anyway, we are heading off to Mt McKinnley and then onto Denali National Park where we hope to see actual bears, we didn't get to see a lot of wildlife in Canada but that's the one advantage of going on a tour bus is that your guide and driver know where all the local hot spots are.

Love Mark and Laura

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Photos

College Fjords
One of the 16 glaciers, can't remember the name but they are all named after colleges........

Grizzly Bear
The most photographed bear, I thought I was dreaming of flashes, hence half the train was taking a picture. Double click to read writing and if you can't it says "Warning" Sleeping Grizzly, wake at own risk !

Comments

[Kellie]

Where's MARK
Kaylee is sitting on my lap and saw 'aunty Lawla' - and I corrected her - 'no Grizzly Bear' - then 'Where's Mark - Mark Mark' (calling) all is well here - nothing much changes - you both sound like your having a terrific time - don't sleep too much it will be over before you know it - can't wait to see the pics.

[Alicia]

can't wait to see more photos. you will need another 6 weeks to recover when you get back. enjoy the rest of your holidays. cheers alicia

[Harry V]

No smart comment from Tremain about the Grizzly? lol Tremain must actually be busy doing work..hehe. I'll have to get Crest air conditioning to come in and set the aircon at minus 15 degrees, before you come back to work, so you can feel like you are still on holiday's ;)