Day 5: Transition Day

Day 5: Transition Day
We had a great tour guide who was committed to getting us from Denali to Seward to board the ship first, so we wouldn’t have to wait in long lines. Our bus was the first to leave Denali and while we did all the scheduled stops, and while we saw some interesting points of interest on the way down,

we did not dally long and were always ready to move on to the next thing. RJ got to see a lynx from his view in the almost front seat. We cousins were in the back and just heard about everyone else seeing the lynx.

Room when we went through

Room less than an hour later

Thank you Nathan!

The RJ clan, as usual, was a little behind the eight ball, and failed to capitalize on their parent’s age and started to wait in the regular line. However, upon seeing that the DC clan and RW clan had moved to the head of all lines because DC and RW were in wheelchairs, the RJ clan immediately went in to action to secure a wheelchair for CJ. We were so successful in our endeavor, that we actually beat the DC clan through the health check area and the X-Ray section.
We are now all comfortably settled in to our rooms aboard our ship and just waiting for the cruise part of our trip to begin.

Day 4: Day of dust, grime and wild animals continued

Due to technical difficulties with figuring out how to do this on the ship. Blogs may sparce.


Day 4 Part II
After the morning tour, we rested for a bit and then got ready to move on to our next tour of the day.
We separated in to our respective tours ranging from ….
Completely muddy and a mess

To just muddy

To barely dusty

We were on a road, where no one travels except……
As JW and I were eating our camp meal, who drives by in in their rhino atv but DW and JB. Unfortunately I was too slow to get a photo, but JB saw JW and we were all waving to each other.
The second tour was more adventurous than an animal siting tour. For 2 of the 3 tours the trail we were on demanded 100% eyes on the road. The other tour, wild animals could spook the horses, so they weren’t as interested in anyone even seeing wild animals.
We all returned from our tours pretty tired and not wanting to pack up and move on.

Day 4: Day of dust, grime and wild animals

Today was the day we took tours in search of wildlife and we saw some pretty exotic animals not native to this area.

But we also saw some other animals more native to this area.
We started with the basic moose.

Then we moved on to the state bird of Alaska, the willow ptarmigan.

Then we had our big siting of the day.

Then our more numerous sitings of caribou and dall sheep.

Needless to say to see all these animals required both time, and going back deep into Denali Park, which was a very dusty dirt road on a bus with no air conditioning.

Once again we had beautiful weather. Beautiful enough that we were elevated to the 30% of the population that have the opportunity to see Mt McKinley.

I would like to say that Mt McKinley was the dominate peak in the foreground, but not so. It's there behind that peak. You sort of had to be there to really see it.

Then we moved on to our next tours which were even dustier and grimier. We split into three groups. JW and I chose the Jeep Deep Country Safari. We had a incredible time driving on a path that made the Montrose turnpike in Bradford County seem like an interstate highway. But more on that tomorrow when I can get some more photos of the different tours.

Epilogues:

Someone asked about CJ's response to RJ's embarrassing question. She weasled out of it without ever really answering.


Day 3: No one asked, but I'll comment anyway. There was one person who did neither the raft ride or the helicopter ride. Although we all thoroughly enjoyed the tours we took, CJ probably made the wisest decision of us all that day and just stayed in the hotel and rested.

The difference between sisters:

This is the bed of the other sister. So there!

Day 3: Trains and Boats and Planes (sort of)

Today we said farewell to Fairbanks. Saying farewell to our hotel was not a big problem. Between water issues, toilet issues, card reader issues, air conditioning issues, and luggage issues, I think we did good to leave Fairbanks still able to laugh.

Our train from Fairbanks to Denali was one of those double decker trains and we sat in the upper level because the dining car was on the first level.

The winning comment of the trip came from none other than CJ, whose response to someone's comment about the rocking of the train, replied that it was not balanced. Need I say more.

At Denali we had time to open the door to our hotel, throw in our bags and then move on to our next adventure. One adventure was the trip down the river. (Sorry no photos because it turns out that while the brochure said they could take pictures on the ride, that was possible only if they had waterproof cameras. Which they didn't.)

The other group of RJ, JW, DJ had no such issues and took all the pictures we could as we all took our first helicopter ride up in to a glacier. We were up close and personal. We even landed on the glacier and walked around some. It was an incredible experience overlooking the fact that I didn't make it without getting sick.

Such was Day 3 of Operation AKE

The difference between sisters

DJ's side of the room tends to be messier than JW's!

My day 2: DJ

I slept through most of drama that had happened, but I heard about it. And I did get to experience the smoking light bulb. I've never seen a light bulb do that. 

There seems to be some confusion as to who is who, so here is a key to the people on the trip. From left to right is: RW, JW, BM, KC, DC

.

And right to left is RJ, CJ, JB, DW

And finally there is from left to right or right to left:

DJ

This is me getting ready to do a grand leap to jump up and touch the Alaska pipeline. And I succeeded.

The tour guide did every one's least favorite thing. He gave us all name tags to wear. But he gave us the name tag of someone else on the tour. He used this as an ice breaker because everyone had to find who was wearing their name tag. We figured that since we were 10 of a group of 30, there was a good chance of at least one of us getting each other's name. DC got her own and RJ got CJ. The condition for getting your own name back from the person wearing it, was to ask that person an embarrassing question. RJ asked CJ, "If you hadn't married me who was your second choice?"

On paper it seemed like it would be a very busy day, but rather relaxing. But when it was all over we were all quite tired. It may have been in part due to the beautiful sunny hot day we had. And we were outside for most of it.

We started with a paddle boat ride

Where we saw domesticated Caribou plus other things.

 We rode the bus - a lot!

 We took a train ride around the El Dourado Gold Mine

 Where we watched and listened avidly to a presentation about gold mining

 And we panned for gold

We are now worth $35 more than we were before we came.

There was more, but this will have to do for today! There should be more tomorrow.

Day 2 continued

It's not even 7 am and our escapade continues.  My room keycard does not work the first time every time.  However, the tub/shower faucet was mis-marked.  Hot was cold, cold was hot.  JW did not figure that out but DJ did.  And to continue further, one of the light bulbs blew out in a lamp in our room and started smoking.  It was one of the new kind (spiral) so JW ran to the window - thankfully it opened - and opened the door for ventilation.  Luckily, neither the smoke alarm, nor sprinkler system went off.  JW went to get ice to take her vitamins and there was no ice made.  It could be heard making more, but someone must have emptied it earlier.  JW had to go to another floor to get ice.

The other clan from PA arrived late last night, their luggage did not.

KC has come down with a really bad cold - she never gets sick.  So she might just stay in bed today.

UPDATE:  KC has taken cold medicine and will be accompanying us today.

Once we get all the kinks worked out life will get better.

JW

Start of Day 2

We didn't wait up for the rest of the PA crew to arrive Wednesday night.  They weren't getting in until 11 pm Alaska time.   Even though they talk about a sunset and darkness, it never really gets dark like home.  I did not sleep much so I got up at 4 am, Alaska time and went to bathe, shower.  At best the water in the tub came out tepid - even running for 10 minutes and wasting the equivalent of 10 tubs of water.  So I made a trip to the front desk - nothing they could do about it at 4 am. I went to go back to the room (3rd floor) and I couldn't get the elevator to open.  Back to the front desk.  There is a security feature that you have to insert your keycard first between the hours of 12 and 5 am.  Who knew!!!!!!

So being the resourceful Pennsylvanian that I am, since the sink water was steaming hot, I filled the ice bucket at least 6 times and added it to the water running from the tub.  Not a good start.  Donna was just waking up when I came downstairs to the lobby to use the only wifi spot in the hotel.  They also have 2 computers for use, but they were both occupied already.

This is after last night when the toilet in RJ/CJ's room didn't work.  He reported it when we went down to supper with the California clan.  When we got back, the toilet still was not working even after they had taken a snake to it.  So at 8pm Alaska time, 1am PA time, they had to move to another room.  Not a good start for our adventure.

So this morning when the California clan came down, they had not had any air conditiong in their room and were taking cold showers to cool off.  We had air conditioning but no hot water.  Go figure.

We leave this morning at 8 am for our first day of actual touring.

JW

Day 1 footnote

One of the quirks of this trip is that the RJ clan coming from Newark, and the DC clan coming from Los Angeles, both were to have a layover in the Seattle airport. Not only were we both passing through Seattle but the layovers were going to overlap. Not by much, but there was going to be an overlap. For weeks BW and I have been monitoring arrival and departure gates for both parties trying to see if there would be a chance of meeting up with each other. As of around 6:00 AM (EST) this morning, it looked like meeting up with them would not be possible. We were to arrive and depart from the C concourse and they were to arrive and depart from the North concourse. We were to arrive at 10:27 (PST) and they were to arrive at 11:20 AM. The biggest issue was their layover was only 50 minutes, not leaving much time for socializing with the relatives. Seattle airport, being the modern airport that it is, the first thing I checked was their arrival gate. Imagine my surprise to find out that even since our takeoff, things had changed. Not only were they arriving in the C concourse right next to the gate we were departing from, but they were arriving even as I was checking the internet to see when they were arriving. We quickly formed a welcome sign to greet them. We did get to see them, tell them where to go and how to get there. We informed them of their departing time and flight number and sent them on their way. Another happy ending

Day 1

Day 1: 10 a.m.

Hi, I’m writing this post while in the air, someplace over the Midwest.  Our plans have gone very smoothly so far.  We were all awake before our wake-up call at 4 am.  We were on the shuttle by 5 am.  We were at the airport and had no problems.  Since we put CJ in a wheelchair, we were given priority treatment and all four of us were through the baggage check-in and security check-in with no problems.  We had one carry-on bag that had all our electronic media in it and it went through with no stops.  I only had to take the 2 netbooks out of the backpack, didn’t even have to take them out of the sleeves.   Also, we were the first on the plane due to having “accompanying children”.  We’ve been through several bumpy spots.  The pilot kept saying the weather would be smoother once we past the Midwest.  We’ve had our complimentary breakfast cookie and drink.  We are above the clouds, can’t see the ground at all.  JW

JW says we had no problems. In fact we had no major problems. There were the usual little things like Dad pulling out his ticket receipt and trying to use that instead of his boarding pass. JW sending her boarding pass through with her purse, so she had to wait until I got through to get her purse to get her boarding pass. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the date on my boarding pass, so they wouldn’t let me get to JW’s purse. So JW was stopped on one side of the X-Ray and I was stopped on the other side. I guess we created enough havoc, that one security officer finally said, “everyone over here.” Meanwhile mom was blissfully riding away with her wheelchair escort on her way to our gate. Eventually, they found my date, they let JW through to get her own boarding pass, and Dad got the right piece of paper. And all of us got through without having to take belts off.  Another happy ending. DJ

Crisis Averted

The RJ clan made the initial move to Alaska by leaving Pennsylvania today. We're going to Alaska by way of Newark New Jersey. The day was busy and not without encountering a potential crisis before we ever left the house. A long time family friend came early this morning to cut Dad's hair. After she had left, she surprisingly showed up again at the house. In her hands was Mom's pocketbook. She had walked off with Mom's pocketbook and no one had noticed including herself. Fortunately when she looked on the front seat of her car and saw that there were two purses there, she thought that seemed odd. When she looked more closely and one of the purses had packets of Splenda in it, that really waved a flag. But all is well and Mom's money and papers are all intact.  DJ

Early Morning Thoughts

It is 4 o’clock in the morning EST (Eastern Standard Time),  I can’t
sleep.  My mind is running rampant with last minute things to do tonight
after work – returns, exchanges, purchases.  I am a “lister”.   In my
advancing years, my mind thinks of things to do at a later time - at a later
time, I can’t remember what I wanted to do.  So I’ve resorted to making
lists as soon as I think of things.

So that’s why this is a very early posting.  My body automatically wakes
up early when I have something pressing on my mind.  Usually, it’s when I
know I HAVE to get up earlier than usual to either bake or decorate a
cake.  Hopefully, when I get my list done I can take a short nap before
having to officially get up for work.  JW

Initial Posting

Hi, this blog is to keep family and friends updated about our trip to Alaska, May 2011.  Hopefully, it will get updated every day by all who took pictures or have something to add about our trip.

Ten family members descended from George and Vida/Bessie decided to take on this endeavor.  Our entourage consists of 3 octogenarians (1 male and 2 females), 1 female septuagenarian, and 6 female quinquagenarians (50-59 years of age).  The chronological age of all the attendees will not be displayed.

The participants descend from 3 different siblings - the RJ clan (Pennsylvanians), the DC clan (Californians), and the RW clan (Pennsylvanians).

The RJ family encountered what we thought was a major setback already.  Since our flight leaves Wednesday morning at 7: 25 in Newark, NJ, we are staying overnight Tuesday, 5/24 in a hotel 2 miles from the airport (we will catch a shuttle to the airport).  We tried looking for a check-in time online but couldn't find the right page.  DJ callied an 800 phone number for the hotel chain but was told there was no reservation for us (we booked our trip through AAA and they made all hotel, flight, and tour/cruise reservations).  We do have a confirmation sheet saying we are booked so DJ called the hotel directly and got the same response.  Now we were in panic mode.

CJ called our AAA representative at home that we have been dealing with and let her know what was going on.  She called back and said everything was okay, we are booked as a number not a name through a parent company.

We have done a trial media backpack, a trial load suitcases in the car, and been having multiudinal discussions about what clothes/coats to take.  I think once we get to Alaska things will be alright (I hope).

JW