Hot and Cold

We spent the morning hiking the Angel Rocks Trail with our new friends we met on the cruise. It was a beautiful hike, and we had so much fun hanging out with another family we seem to have a lot in common with! I have been very surprised at how warm it is in Alaska, and we did work up a sweat. I always just have Alaska pictured as frozen tundra, but in truth, it has been one of the warmest places we've visited this summer.

Ruth and the "bear" rock

On top of the world

Max the mountain man

Little man on a big rock

After the hike, we headed over to Chena Hot Springs Resort. We grabbed some lunch in the restaurant, took a tour of the greenhouses, animal pens, and geothermal power plant of the self-sustaining property, and then visited the Aurora Ice Museum, where we definitely had a chance to cool off. The building is kept at 25° F all year long and is a fascinating ice wonderland. We loved seeing all the ice sculptures and watching the sculptor work. Today, he was turning out ice martini glasses, which the ice bar serves Appletini's in. The whole experience was so delightful!

Donkey love

The resort is trying to build its reindeer herd,
so they can start serving the meat in the restaurant.

The lettuce room

Aurora Ice Museum

Jousting knights ice sculpture

A full size igloo

Weston jamming on the ice xylophone

My little Eskimos

Polar bear bed

Aurora Ice Bar

Cheers!

Just chillin'

Mesmerized by the sculptor at work

Denali and The Midnight Sun

We paid a visit to Denali National Park this morning, with hopes of seeing the tallest mountain in North America. However, since only about 30% of park visitors do see it, we weren't too surprised to find it shrouded in heavy cloud cover. Still, the park was beautiful and we enjoyed the little mountain scavenger hunt (asking over and over rather foolishly, "Do you think that could be it?") and the sled dog kennel. When we finally found the sign explaining where the mountain should be and took our token selfie, we moved on down the road with no regrets. We've learned that we can control a lot of things when we travel, but the weather isn't one of them.

Fun at the Denali Visitor Center

Making friends with Resting Grizzly

Following the tracks

Loving on one of the sled dogs

The hunt for Denali

Not Denali

Not Denali

Not Denali

Where Denali should be

Our next stop was Fairbanks, Land of the Midnight Sun. Really, it should be Land of the All Night Sun, as the sunrise for tomorrow is predicted to be at 3:25 am and the sunset at 12:27 am. It is a crazy thing and seriously messes with your mind. We find we've lost our cues on when to eat and when to sleep and when to play at the playground, which is why my kids are careening down slides, waiting to actually see the midnight sun, as I type this at 11:15.

Playing at the Chena River
near our campground

Lucky Ducks in Fairbanks

Playground fun in the 11 o'clock hour

The Midnight Sun

Fourth Fun

We have had so much fun celebrating the birth of our nation in Talkeetna, Alaska. We attended the small-town parade and then grabbed some grub at Twister Creek Restaurant/Denali Brewing Company. After lunch, we walked the few blocks through town to the Susitna River, and the boys jumped into a soccer game with some other kiddos. Then we walked back to our RV park on the other end of town and spent the rest of the afternoon reading, napping, and playing at the playground. Later, we grilled salmon and did poppers and small fireworks while it was still bright daylight outside (at 10 pm), because the sun doesn't set here at this time of year until around midnight. The boys were in favor of waiting until 2:00 am for a little more darkness, but since we need to leave early tomorrow morning, we vetoed that idea.

Go Kiss a Moose

Cute little sled dog team

Waiting for the parade to begin

Flags and Antlers

Patriotic Boys

A sight we've never seen in a 4th of July parade

Balloons and buggies

My favorite parade sign

"Moose on Parade"
Mooski Brewski was our favorite!

Susitna River

Horsing around

Salmon dinner

Poppers at 10 pm

The rest of the cruise*

We got off our cruise boat this morning around 6:15, with sleepy and tearful kiddos. They made so many friends on board and had so much fun that they definitely weren't ready for it to be over.

After Juneau, our next port was Skagway. We disembarked but didn't spend a lot of time in the little town, because it was mostly just rows of souvenir shops. But getting back on the boat was perfectly fine with everyone because there was so much fun to be had.

Skagway Totem

A storefront completely
covered in driftwood

Ruth decided to get in on a statue pose

At port in Skagway

The day after Skagway was spent on the boat, cruising around Glacier Bay. This was definitely Jeff's and my favorite day. It was absolutely beautiful and possibly the most serene place I have ever been. The quiet was all encompassing and the fog made it seem otherworldly. We saw and heard the glaciers calving, which was such an incredible experience. We also saw sea lions, otters, and a couple of whales.  Since the whole bay is a National Park, we also had rangers on board all day to give talks, answer questions, and point out particular places and animals of interest. We could have easily been happy spending at least twice as much time there. That night, we had our second gala night aboard the ship, and everyone was excited to dress up again and dine in the dining room.

Glacier Bay

Icy sea shrouded in fog

Margerie Glacier

Captain Nice at the Lido Buffet

Gala Night, Round Two

The final day of the cruise was a sea day, and the ship had even more activities scheduled than normal, so we were definitely well fed and entertained. The kids spent almost every moment in their respective camps. Meanwhile, Jeff and I attended a tour of the kitchen, a couple of cooking classes, a couple of trivia games, afternoon tea. We also had a date night to the dining room, while the kids were tied up with their friends and activities.

Crab appetizers in the kitchen

A large quantity of whipped cream

This should be a scratch-and-sniff picture!
Everyone wanted to linger in the bread room.

America's Test Kitchen cooking class

This morning when we got off the boat, we boarded a scenic tour train to Anchorage. In addition to the beautiful scenery, we also saw a grizzly bear (spotted by yours truly), a moose, some eagles and artic terns, and a group of Dall sheep. 

From boat to train

View from the train window

The lighter brown spot just right
and down from center is a
gigantic grizzly bear.
Here are a few reasons it isn't the
 greatest picture I've ever taken:
1. It was taken with my phone.
2. It was quite a ways away from us.
3. We were on a moving train.
4. I was saying "BEAR! BEAR! BEAR!"
and wasn't able to fully focus.

I caught the back of the train
as we went around a bend

The foreground is all glacial silt,
which is left behind as the tide retreats
at low tide. The difference between
high and low tide is tremendous .

When we got off the train, we reconnected with Usha (our faithful and beloved little RV, who came to Alaska separately from us) and met up with Jeff's cousin, who lives in Anchorage, for a wonderful lunch. We haven't seen him in years, so it was delightful to have a chance to catch up. 

Our Alaskan cruise is definitely our favorite cruise we've ever done, and this state is such an amazing place. We are looking forward to exploring more of it in the coming week.

*For those of you thinking this seems to be picking up in the middle of a story, you're right! If you missed the posting about the first half of our cruise, check it out here.