Blogs from Alaska, United States, North America - page 6

Day 5 166 miles The day started with breakfast delivered to our room, but we didn’t realize we would have to cook it ourselves! Heading out in the chilly, raining morning (AGAIN), we followed the scenic route down Alaska Hwy 1 to go on our glacier cruise. Alaska Hwy 1 South runs by Turnagain Arm (named when Captain James Cook was forced to turn again in 1778 when he realized it was not the NW Passage like it was believed to be – that must have been a major disappointment). Beluga Point, one of the many pullouts where we stopped to make pictures, gave us a great surprise. There, we turned around and saw gorgeous, snow-covered Mt Spur and other mountains in the Tordrillo Mountain Range off in the distance. What a beautiful, majestic sight! The ... read more

Day 3 166 miles Well, it didn’t look good this morning with rain from the get go. So, we took our time at the chalet before leaving in hopes it would clear, but no … It just kept drizzling and was forecasted to get worse. Finally, we set off. As expected, rain and more rain. For one brief moment the low-lying clouds midway on the tall, tall mountains gave us a glimmer of some pretty sights, but then the clouds enshrouded us and we drove south in the foggy rain. A good way down the road, Susan and Pam needed to make a pit stop and so we pulled into an Alaska state rest area ( rustic National Park like). They were in and out in nothing flat and both had sour faces. P…HEW that stunk ... read more

Day 1 Flying 3447 miles Driving 5 miles What a day… If you’ve traveled anywhere in the pandemic, you know it’s challenging to say the least. Claire had scored this fabulous deal and booked our trip a while back and here we were at a point where Covid Delta cases were on the rise. Masked nearly the entire long day and attempting to stay as far away from others was the order of the day. We all had to travel several hours to the airport in Raleigh where we began 16 hours in airports or on a plane to get to Fairbanks Alaska. On the 1st plane we were accompanied by two screaming babies, and on the second plane, the entertainment system went down for at least 2 hours. We arrived safely though. Luckily during the ... read more

Today is all about glaciers and icebergs and the entire ship is looking forward to more turquoise blue water, floating ice and hopefully some calving glaciers. The morning was spent at the In Williams Cove, at the beginning of Tracy Arm which has two very long and deep fjords with multiple glaciers. We woke to bright blue skies and surrounded by alien looking icebergs and of course Ken was all excited to “lick the iceberg”. Visions of the little kid in The Christmas Story were floating though my head, and I could just imagine getting the ever-present skiff to get him unstuck. Luckily, we had a safety briefing before getting in our kayak and the key instructions was to stay 2 kayak lengths away from the icebergs. They are known to tip over and if that ... read more

Today we awoke to a strong drizzle in Takatz Bay, which from all accounts the area is in serious need of rain. So, we tried not to complain. For the morning, Ken and I chose the open kayak, so we could head out on the water for as long or as short as we wanted, between 9a-12p. We decided to wait until the first rush was over, which became a non-issue as due to the weather, only two others were braving the drizzle. We were joined by Beth and Steven from Chicago, and we donned our life vests, skirts to keep the water out of our seat area and got a handy push off the back of the boat into the water. We explored the sheer rock shoreline and came around a point to find a ... read more