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So, my brother was here for 2 weeks and then my parents ventured north for a week as well. Their trips overlapped a couple days, so it was fun to spend some time together. The first night my parents were here we introduced them to Moose's Tooth Pizza and Beer - my mom say's its the "best pizza ever".
I figured a good activity with all here would be a wildlife boat tour in Seward. We took the Seward Highway - it's the only road that goes south of Anchorage - but it's an All-American Highway well worth the travel (and we had an audio CD tour to get smarter along the way). They enjoyed the view - there is really something new around every bend in the road. We lucked into a beautiful day in Seward for a 5 hours boat ride through Resurrection Bay. We saw otters, puffins, sea lions, eagles, salmon, glaciers, and whales - plus we took in all the beautiful views of the Kenai Fjords National Park - check out pix from our boat ride - click here. After standing on a boat all day, we decided a nice hike up to the toe of Exit Glacier would be a good way to get the blood flowing again. Finally, we topped the day off with a great seafood dinner before driving back to Anchorage.
The next day we put my brother on a plane to head back to the lower 48, and my parents and I explored Anchorage - it was a fairly sunny day with only a little rain (we'll take whatever sun we can get). Then we headed north for our trip to Denali - we took the train from downtown Anchorage. I enjoyed the view and the break from driving! The train cars have domed ceilings that provide a great panoramic view and the ride didn't suck. It was cloudy the whole weekend, so we never did get that view of Denali (that's Mt. McKinley to outsiders) but no worries - it was a fun-filled trip. Once we got to Denali and settled into the lodge, we took a light hike around Horseshoe Lake in Denali National Park and then grabbed a graet dinner at the local Salmon Bake. Time to rest up for the big day in the park...
I think our trip into Denali National Park on the one road that goes in and out of the park was the highlight of my parents trip. We went to Yellowstone together a few years ago (and loved it), but Denali is so WILD! We lucked out and got on a shuttle bus with an extremely passionate bus driver, Jeremy - the drivers aren't required to be a tour guide, but he talked the entire 11 hours and really enhanced our experience in the park! Pretty early in the ride we saw a bull moose right off the road, and my mom was so excited and pumped for the 11 hour ride after that great start! You can see our photos from the day in the online album - click here - but know that the photos hardly show the beauty we saw that day. Shortly after our first rest stop, we saw a mama grizzly and her 2 cubs also right off the road - so cool to see them up close (but the with bus walls protecting us) and mom was shaking, she was so in awe of the nature right before her eyes. It was a fantastic bear day - 19 grizzlies in all - this was a record for Jeremy, in fact. We also saw 15 wolves (another record for him) - what's cool is that 12 of those wolves were traveling together in a pack with pups too. Later, when we were watching a couple bears feeding on berries, we saw 2 wolves emerge downwind from the bears - we thought we would see battle of nature, but the bears never gave the wolves any attention (despite the howling - we thought that noise was eerie). Jason was happy because we saw 20 dall sheep in addition to the wolves, bears, and moose - plus plenty of caribou (wild reindeer) and lots of small animals - check out our pictures (album link earlier in this paragraph). Even though we didn't get to see the centerpiece of the park - Denali, we saw more wildlife than ever expected (we learned the animals might have been fooled by a cool rain the day before and they are in food gathering mode before winter sets in). Great day in Denali National Park!
Well, it's hard to top the day in Denali National Park, but we caught a sled dog demonstration the next day then headed back to Anchorage on the train. My parents spent a couple more days in Anchorage - Native Heritage Center, Zoo, Portage Glacier, good food and nice views - see more pix from their trip - cick here.
They returned to the lower 48 with plenty of memories and one more state checked off their list. Thanks for coming to visit!