On the first evening of our land tour, we arrived at the Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood, Alaska.  We are less than 40 miles from Anchorage. The beautiful resort in named for the mountain it sits next to.  A tram ticket is included in our stay.  We arrived just at check-in time at 4 pm.  We had only a short wait in the lobby before our rooms were ready.  Since our luggage had arrived before us, transported by truck from the pier when our cruise ship docked in Seward, it was already in the room when we went upstairs.

A few of the tour participants had chosen optional evening tours.  Like most of our fellow travelers, we decided just to enjoy the resort.  There is a well-known restaurant at the top of the tramway, Seven Glaciers Restaurant. https://www.alaska.org/detail/seven-glaciers-restaurant  It is one of only three AAA Four Diamond restaurants in Alaska.  Unfortunately, the restaurant was fully booked out since a convention of the Alaskan Bar Association was taking place at the resort.  The bar association events are probably the reason for why, when we logged into the internet, FBI surveillance van #7 was one of the closed networks listed.

We made reservations at Forte’s, the Italian restaurant in the hotel, and then took the tram ride up the mountain.  There is also a chair lift-nonoperational at this time of year-that rose slightly farther up the mountain.  The tram ride was easy and smooth with amazing views of the Chugach Mountains and the “Turnagain Arm, which is a dramatic, twisting waterway that connects to the Cook Inlet [in Anchorage] and the Pacific Ocean. Known for its extreme tidal changes, the Turnagain Arm stretches out beneath the mountain and is famous for its powerful tidal bores, beluga whales, and stunning reflective waters on clear days. Alyeska Resort is noted as one of the few ski resorts in North America that features sweeping views of the ocean alongside its alpine and glacier scenery.”  www.skimag.com  

Once we reached the top, there was not much to do.  The children around us loved the snow, still plentiful in the 50-degree temperature on this sunny day.  In addition to the winter skiing, summer hiking or bike riding would be wonderful here; we just weren’t prepared for that.  The views were actually better on the waiting platform or from the tram itself. We did not stay up there long before taking the tram back down.

Forte offered wonderful views on the rear side of the resort.  I spoke with the lovely hostess from Taiwan who was working there as part of a special program.  She works for four months and then has a month of paid travel before retuning home.  She was enjoying the experience, and I was very impressed with her command of the English language and her cultural awareness.  My pasta special was spicy which is how I like my food, but I understood why they asked if I wanted the spice on the side.  Not everyone would appreciate that level of heat.  I had a good bellini with dinner.

After dinner, we toured the resort a little and contemplated trying out one of the flat trails, but opted to pack it in early after the pants drama in the morning (see my previous post) and the day with disembarkation and travel.  The room was very nice with mountain views and fragrant toiletries.  We got a good night’s sleep.

Since we have an early lunch stop in Anchorage before heading out to Denali, we opted not to get a big breakfast at the resort.  Each day our luggage is delivered to our room and picked up again the next day before departure.  After our 7:30 am bag pull, I decided to walk around the resort and try a portion of the Winner Creek Trail.  It was lovely and I wish I had had more time to continue my walk.  I also took time to enjoy one of the outdoor fire pits.

This morning we are going to Anchorage for lunch on our way to the Denali Park Village Resort, just outside Denali National Park and Preserve.  James already has us looking outside the windows of the bus in the hope of spotting a bear, moose, or even a beluga whale.  No luck with the animals, but just before reaching Anchorage we drove by Potter Marsh on the southern end of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge which is overseen by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.   There is a half-mile boardwalk out through the marsh serving as a viewing platform to spot a wide variety of waterfowl, eagles, a wandering moose, or even spawning salmon in season.  Someone spotted some swans from the bus; the smaller waterfowl were harder to identify while in motion.  

Since our group is good about being on time, we arrived in Anchorage early so we made three stops so we would not reach downtown before the lunch spots open around 11 am.  Our first “stop” was actually a drive though the Lake Hood Floatplane Base.  Although not the largest, it is the busiest seaport in the world with an average of 190 flights daily.  It is critical to connecting remote communities with the city’s amenities and services.  During the summer months, it is the launch point for floatplane tours.  Unfortunately, we did not see any planes in flight.  However, I enjoyed checking out the wide variety of planes parked near the water.   The bottom section of the planes can be changed out and the large-tired planes suitable for landing on gravel have become quite popular.  It is just across the highway from the Ted Stevens International Airport.   The seaport turned out to be an unexpected favorite of mine, something unique and unexpected.

Our second stop was at Earthquake Park where the landslide caused by the devastating 1964 earthquake was evident.  The earthquake was one of the largest in North American history and it caused an entire neighborhood to slide into the ocean.  The site is now a 134-acre park.   We did get off the bus here.  While there we talked more about the foliage-particularly what to stay away from-and wild animal safety.  Bears and moose were known to be seen in town, so we were educated on how to react.

A couple of people wandered away from the guide and decided to take a path into the wooded area at the park.  Suddenly a wilderness guide from a small tour service went yelling after them letting them know there was a mother bear and her cub in the area and that they should not wander in unaccompanied.  As much as it would have been fun to see them, I didn’t want to get between a mother bear and her cub.  I decided looking at the park’s wild roses just along the parking lot was a safer bet.

Our final stop before lunch was at Point Woronzof, an overlook park along the Cook Inlet.   The Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Off the parking lot, was a small tower where watchers kept a lookout for beluga whales.  Our purpose for stopping was different.  From the park, we could see Denali’s peak, in fact the full southside (the higher peak side) of the mountain, was visible.  James said this was extremely rare.  There was also a good view of downtown Anchorage.  As we were pulling out the trolley tour was making a stop.  He said the trolley almost never stops there since Denali is rarely visible.  We are now members of the 30% club.  The “club” is so named because only about 30% of the people who set out to see the mountain ever actually get to see it.  “The 30% club is made up of the people who were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America.”  

Then we went into downtown, which seemed exceptionally small to me given this is the largest city in Alaska.  That is probably because I lived in the 4^th largest US city for more than half my life.  As our bus driver Jamie navigated through his hometown of Anchorage, James described the various buildings and places we could walk to for lunch.  We will be back here again on the last night before we all fly home.

We once again took James’ number one recommendation to heart and walked to Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse for lunch. This is a quirky local bar with good food.  The atmosphere was more sports bar during lunch with the insane number of televisions mounted and showing a variety of sporting events, but the alehouse also offers live entertainment in the evenings.  In nice weather, you can enjoy the back open-air patio.  It was too cold today.  There was something familiar about the restaurant’s logo and we realized they had a sister restaurant in Kona, Hawaii that we have been to.  Boris has a tee shirt from there.  The bars are no longer affiliated, but it was fun to know that we had been to locations at both ends of the humpback whales’ annual journey.

We once again tried the cider on draft; it was even better than what we tried in Seward.  Boris and I each got a half pound of king crab legs (pricy at $110/pound).  These were as fresh as they come, having just been caught that morning.  They were oh SO good.  Totally worth it.  Skipping breakfast was also the right call.

After lunch it was back aboard the bus for our long drive to Denali.  The mountain views were incredible. As we made our way north, we passed first through the Chugach Mountains with the Talkeetna Mountains to the East and then came to the Alaska Range where Denali is.  We did make a couple of stops.  The first was at a Fred Meyer grocery store in Wasilla, Sarah Paylin’s hometown.  The Fred Meyer stores are owned by Kroger.  James suggested we pick up pharmacy items, toiletries, snacks, and drinks (particularly beer and wine) since access to these items in limited in Denali and what is available is expensive.  It also served as a bathroom stop.  Not all the guides will stop at a grocery store, but I thought it was an inspired break.

All along the drive, James had us on the lookout for wildlife, particularly moose and bears.  We made our second stop in route at McKinley View Lodge and Mary Carey’s Cafe, a roadhouse with rooms to rent, restrooms, a gift shop, and a café with homemade pastries and treats.  The Lodge has been there since 1972 and is located inside the park.  Mary Carey first “homesteaded” the land in 1962, living in a tent by the river until she could afford a trailer.  The trailer now serves at the Lodge’s gift shop.  The lodge and café are now run by Mary’s grandson, Joe Richardson.  She holds the record as the first woman to spend a winter on Mt. McKinley and the first woman to fly over the peak. The oatmeal raisin cookies were some of the best I have ever had.  The location offers spectacular views of Mt. Denali from its porch on a clear day.  Unfortunately, the day was no longer clear.

We finally made it to the Denali Park Village which sits just outside the Denali National Park and Preserve on the Nenana River.  In fact, the river serves as the park’s border.  We arrived at 5 pm and our bags were delivered to our room shortly after that.  James warned us that the resort would have a much more rustic feel than the Alyeska Hotel; he wasn’t kidding.  Our optional excursions start tonight with a dozy.  Keep reading the posts for perhaps the highlight of the trip coming next.