The other morning at 6:30 am, as I was driving home from Curves down 111, I couldn't resist the beauty of the sky with its patchy white clouds and the sun peeping through. What a great picture that would be of the highway with the mountains, clouds and sunrise in the distance, but I didn't have my camera with me. Normally, by the time I get home (which is only a matter of minutes), the moment is gone.

Anyway, as soon as I got home, I went into the yard and took the first few pictures, but then decided to run down the street to the gate and out onto Fred Waring to see what I could catch. As traffic was light, I stepped out into the street and snapped a few pictures into the sun.

Imagine my delight, when a couple of days later I uploaded the pictures and found that I had caught some balloons going up, off in the distance!

We left Denali behind as we headed south to Anchorage. The drive was beautiful and we made several stops along the way to take in the sights. We had a great bus driver (her name was Anna Heim-can't forget it-just think Disneyland!) who would stop and pull over whenever anyone thought they spotted any wildlife off in the distance. Mark yelled to stop as he thought he saw a moose or caribou off in the distance. Sure enough, people started saying they could see it. Funny thing though, what Mark thought was the moose, wasn't, and even though others said it was there, he couldn't spot it! Power of suggestion??

We stopped at the Iditarod Trail Headquarters in Wasilla and checked out the new puppies (Chelcie was madly texting me to bring one home) and took a ride in the wagon pulled by the dogs.

Next stop was to the Eklutna Indian Village to visit its unique cemetary of colorful "Spirit Houses." Quite colorful indeed! Here's a little history for you - "Eklutna Cemetery, dating back to 1650, became a historical park in the 1980's and consists of a small museum and gift shop, prayer chapels, two Russian Orthodox churches, and the cemetery that is still used today. More than 100 brightly-colored "spirit houses" are on the burial ground, a custom that combines Athabascan and Russian Orthodox practices."

We then pulled into Anchorage for a one night stay as our last land stop before boarding the ship. In the morning we went to see "AurorA - Alaska's Great Northern Lights" which is as close as we got to seeing the Aurora Borealis. Pictures were beautiful though! Then we took a sightseeing tour of Anchorage before heading for the ship.

Denali was breathtakingly gorgeous! We stayed in a great lodge up on the mountain with a wonderful view. I took tons of pictures from every which way, that are all the same, but different. But, where was the wildlife? We were told stories of bears and moose coming right out to the road. Right!! The only bears we saw were stuffed and the only moose we saw was so far in the distance, that the bus driver had to put out a special scope for us to see it! Saw beaver, but way in the distance! Of course, they weren't going to leave their pond to run up to the road to say Hi! It was beautiful anyway.

we headed down towards Denali National Park.  Our first stop was at the Alaska pipeline.  The pipeline is huge.  We took pictures under it, by it, etc.  We would have gotten on top of it, but as you can see, that was forbidden!  We learned all about the pigs in the pipe!  They monitor, clean, control and got their name because they squeal like a pig.  Crazy!!

We then went on to the town of Nenana.  This is where President Harding pounded the golden stake to signal the Alaska railroad.  They also have the Nenana Ice Classic.  Every year a tripod is planted two feet into the Tanana River prior to the river freezing over.  Everyone places bets on the exact date and time that the ice will break up in the spring.  At $2.50 per ticket, last year's jackpot came out to $303,895.  Mark bought a ticket for this year, so we will be going back to Alaska sometime next May to collect our winnings!  We also saw a St. Mark's Episcopal Church, which I had to get a picture of since we were married at St. Mark's in Downey.  And, I couldn't resist this crazy picture of the salmon hanging to dry.

On to Denali Park!

We started in Fairbanks with a trip to the museum, lunch on the Chena River, a riverboat trip up the Chena River to the Chena Indian Village, a hilarious vaudeville play about the start of Fairbanks, and a salmon bake. That was just the first day!

The museum had some really cool stuff, like stuffed animals! Bears, bears, and more bears. Also, bison, beaver, etc. Wooly mammoth remains were quite something and there was a kid with Nick’s Led Zeppelin shirt on! Papa said he can’t even get away from Led Zeppelin in Alaska. We even met Alaska’s first female mail carrier and had her book autographed.

We had a buffet lunch at the Pump House Restaurant on the Chena River. Quite beautiful views! And some of you will appreciate the antique furniture. Mark liked checking out the game room.

Next was the trip up river in the river boat. We stopped and had a demonstration from David Monson on how they train the dogs for the Iditarod and then got his autographed book. His wife was Susan Butcher, who won the Iditarod 4 times in a row. She passed away a couple of years ago from leukemia, but he and their girls are carrying on with the dogs. We stopped at the Chena Village, where we saw Jessie Royer and her dogs, who will be in the race this year. We will definitely be following that! Several other demonstrations, on how they do trapping, use the furs, meats, etc. PETA not big in Alaska! It is survival up there.

Last was a trip to Pioneer Park for the vaudeville show (we thought of the Great American Melodrama) and a salmon bake. I think Mark actually likes salmon now!