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  Publication date  /  2009  /  September  /  12   -   224 photos

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  • Ta Da!! "I can see Russia from up here."
  • Alaskan rock stars
  • It says "CAUTION: Bears were observed on the hotel grounds this morning." Now they tell us.
  • Are we having fun yet?
  • Apparently we are!
  • Ready to put in
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  • High walls of slate surround us.
  • Look how long the claws must be, from the toe pads to the claw tip marks.
  • Firm buns of steel propell us
  • Serene birds of prey regurgitate on us.
  • Fed by glacial run off, the water is a murky gray color.
  • There's my happy girl. She's found bear tracks.
  • Excitedly awaiting the bus that will take us river rafting!
  • Suiting up
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  • Back on the river and a chill was blowing in. Time to batten down the hoodie.
  • "Not that tight, Bruce"
  • Still in there?
  • Back on shore at last and then a short stroll into town.
  • Dodging traffic on Talkeetna's main street.
  • Midnight at the hotel
  • Fortunately, the train was just a short, soggy, walk from the ship.
  • We made a vain attempt at perky too. Early morning train in Alaska, 2009
  • Day 9: Off the ship at an ungodly hour to catch the train to Talkeetna.
  • On board the train and striving to look perky.
  • Bye, bye, Island Princess
  • The Cooke Inlet at low tide. They have the second greatest tidal height ebb and flow in the world.
  • On our way to Talkeetna
  • Moving inland
  • Denali Brewing Co. log walls are chinked with the finest grade of ground squirrel fur. No, not really...I don't think.
  • Perking up!
  • Gateway to Denali
  • A delighful lunch at the Denali Brewing Co., Talkeetina
  • Refreshed, and off to discover new gift shops.
  • Wecome to the MT. McKinley Princess Lodge
  • Before 2008, best known as mile 46 on the Iditarod Trail
  • We appreciated this sign so we could differentiate historic from modern Talkeetna.
  • Bruce contemplates the meaning of the Alaska state flag from the comfort of a gift shop's husband chair.
  • Flowers and spruce burls
  • Mandatory Mt. McKinley Portrait. Use your imagination, we had to
  • The background sign is there because on a clear day the mountain stands majestically behind it.
  • One of dozens of lovely flower baskets that decorate the hotel grounds.
  • Day 8: Prince William Sound and College Fiord
  • College Fiord, where all the glaciers are named after Ivy League and Seven Sisters schools.
  • While eating our back-up breakfast in the buffet, we spotted our sister ship heading south.
  • Port of Whittier at midnight.
  • Essential dress-up night portrait
  • Alaska
  • On a pristine day
  • Only whispy clouds above us
  • Day 7: Glacier Bay
  • Customary shipboard glacier portrait.
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  • One of the National Park Service rangers who came aboard.
  • A lone kayaker give some perspective to the size of the ice chunks floating by.
  • Okay girls, our first glacier of the day
  • I'm guessing the top of the face of this glacier is more than 200 feet above the sea. Note the person standing on the deck of the boat, which is itself some distance from the glacier.
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  • We were sailing along in Glacier Bay.
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  • A fellow traveler looking for room service
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  • Essential "we went to Alaska" portrait
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  • Vulcan mind melding on the balcony can be fun.
  • Mary's "I went to Alaska" photo
  • Yeah, I went to Alaska
  • A glacier that is retreating from the water's edge
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  • This is reportedly the largest bear ever mounted, at least by a taxidermist. 11 ft. 8 inches, nose to tail
  • "Buffalo Mary" queen of the Yukon
  • It looks like Indy found a friend.
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  • Emerald Lake
  • Straight out of Dr. Suess, the Saiga antelope
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  • After a hard day o' mushing our intrepid band strugles through a meal of hard tack and dried salmon with a fine pinot noir
  • Oh, yeah, and dessert.
224 items in total