Saturday, June 6, 2009

North to Alaska!!!

We just returned from a fabulous, two week trip to Alaska!!
Here are some of the highlights of our trip!!


We were accompanied by our friends the Smiths, the Neelys and the Knowles.
(Do we look cold?)


The cruise was fantastic!!
We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way.


We stopped at three ports on the way to Anchorage;
Ketchican, Juneau, and Skagway.
Here is Wayne during one of our excursions. He is very intently
panning for gold!! He found a little but our guide thought
I had been the lucky one to have found the most!!!


On a bus ride up to the summit of one of the
mountains we saw a bear
alongside the road!!
This was taken from the window of the bus.

The driver wouldn't let us get out to get a better shot!!
Amagine that!!


We also saw many glaciers while on board the ship.


This one is named Margerie and it is huge!!!
It is 1 mile across and 21 miles long!!!
We were able to stay and watch it for about an hour
while it popped, cracked and fell into the ocean!!!
It was amazing!!! I loved the icy blue color of the ice.


After we landed in Anchorage we took the train to the
Denalli State park where we spent the night
and came back the next day.


It was a beautiful train!! We rode in the top and ate
lunch and dinner in the dining car below!!
So cool!!


While in Denalli we visited the Husky Homestead where
Jeff King trains his dogs for the Iditarod dog sled race.
He has won the race four times. We got to
hold a couple of his 17 puppies!!!


And of course we saw wildlife along the way!!!

Caribou!!


Moose!!!


Musk ox!!!


We also saw whales but only from a distance.


Words can not express how beautiful and magnificent
this trip was. We had tons of fun!!!

6 comments:

gwen said...

RaeAnn, What a WONDERFUL trip! It sounds like y'all had so much fun!

JS said...

I love that you look like an eskimo in the first picture. :)

Way to fit in... what is that saying.. "When in {Alaska} do as the Alaskans..." :)

Glad you had fun. Next time take us...or pay for us, let us go, and take our kids. :)

ok?

Susan said...

Looks like you had a blast! I can't wait to see what you make to remember your trip (scrapbook, Eskimo quilt, both?).

Andrea said...

Brrrr!! It did look a bit chilly, but really fantastic!! What fun! I am glad you guys had fun!

melissa said...

That looks great! It was fun to see you at the conference!! If you want to check out what I'm up to, my blog is www.oehringclan.blogspot.com We just had baby #2!
Melissa (Evans) Oehring

Carolina girl said...

Wow! Looks like a great trip. And you got some cool pics. Aaron would love to go on an Alaskan cruise. I would prefer somewhere warmer. Glad you guys had a fun time.