Living La Vida Loca

With all the international travel Andrew and I have done over many years, it’s taken this long to explore our own country’s vast wilderness state – Alaska. Even when we were living in Seattle, we never quite made it that far north and now we finally did. Admittedly we did this on a very luxurious cruise – the Silversea line – so we basically got “tastes” of some of the more accessible cities and a gem of natural preservation – the Denali National Park. I am very sure that we barely scratched the surface of the beautiful wilderness that is this state, but I have no regrets as to what we did get to see and experience. We were spoiled on board, and got to have some wonderful, unique adventures along the way – so that will have to suffice for now.

We actually started our Alaska trip on a land “package” that included going into Denali National Park. But first, we did a bit of poking around in Anchorage where we landed. A local woman who was picking up other visitors pointed us to where we should experience “where locals go” for an authentic Alaskan breakfast – Gwennies – and it didn’t disappoint. The hostess was a lovely indigenous woman who shared both the restaurant’s history and the meaning of her tattoos…we tried reindeer sausages (actually really tasty) and left with full bellies. We walked around downtown which was actually much quieter than I expected given how much of a first stop for tourists the city is. We visited a local farmers market and listened to a resident guitarist…stopped by statues of explorers who discovered routes to this remote land and stopped into the main Anchorage Museum.

The Anchorage Museum was well worth a stop. One floor is entirely dedicated to the history and cultures of the myriad indigenous tribes – beautifully presented and lending a good perspective of Alaska not as a tourist attraction but as a place that seeded rich traditions of diverse peoples. There was also a tribute to the dog culture in Alaska. Dogs – in particular the pups who are raised to transport goods across vast tundras as well as those who run in the Iditarod race each year (later for those details). I tried out a human-sized doghouse for fun!

We really enjoyed our exploration of Denali National Park. Denali is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. The landscape spans from low-elevation taiga forest all the way up to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America’s tallest peak, 20,310′ Mount Denali (also known as Mount McKinley). We spotted a few types of wildlife – though mostly from afar and heard the story of Jimmie Hendricks (really his name!) who as a young man climbed Mt McKinley against all odds.

We also visited one of the kennels that raises, trains and races dogs in the famous annual Iditarod. The race is a reconstruction of the freight route to Nome and commemorates the part that sled dogs played in the settlement of Alaska. The mushers travel from checkpoint to checkpoint much as the early freight mushers did. Although some modern dog drivers move at a pace that would have blown the minds of their old-time counterparts, making the trip to Nome in under ten days.

Raised from puppyhood, the dogs are viewed as athletes and are fed optimal nutrition and challenged physically to become resilient racers. Be assured, when they are racing the first priority is their health and safety.

At the close of our land tour, we rode a beautiful dome car train to Seward to meet our ship. Truly, the scenery during this few hours ride was spectacular. Below you can see reflection of the peaks in the crystal water.

We were thrilled that good friends, John and Millie, were able to join us on the cruise. The first excursion on board was to see the Hubbard Glacier up close. It was actually so close that we wondered if we’d get grounded! Of course, we didn’t but we could see the gorgeous blue striations in the ice and caught sight of seals basking in the warm sun of the day.

We’d signed up for a few fun adventures while on the cruise. One was taking a small prop plane over some of the verdant mountains and at the same time fly over immense glaciers. We spotted one vibrant turquoise glacial lake along the way. We’d hoped to catch a glimpse of the summit of Mt Denali, but the fog settled in as we drew close. The folks who went up just an hour after us did get to see the summit – it’s all about timing with Mother Nature!

THE most memorable side trip we took was to a flat plateau on the massive Mendenhall Glacier. Sitting on this plateau was a dog sled encampment where we got to ride on a sled pulled by a team of dogs and visit with the pups being raised and trained up there.

The ride was incredible!

These puppies were so darned cute!

A ride in a 4×4 jeep through dense woods of one of the islands on our route was bumpy but fun. I was very happy to let Andrew drive ;).

We’d never been in a “hovercraft” and this excursion was interesting. The vehicle actually floats on a cushion of air just above the water, generated by a big propeller/fan at the rear of the vehicle. Landing on sand was no big deal, and we got to explore some beautiful woods, see some unusual sea creatures and watch bald eagles dive for fish.

One last excursion included a bus ride to a short hike to canoes that we paddled to the base of a glacier. We got a bit of exercise and got about as close as we could to one of the wonders of this part of our country – glaciers that carved their way through mountains.

Back on the Silver Moon, we had a lovely suite – complete with a butler who brought us caviar and shrimp cocktails every evening; a well-equipped gym; a variety of restaurants to choose from with very good food; and a gracious international crew. Easy to get spoiled!

We did do a cooking class in the experimental food lab on board. We made yummy mushroom soup and berry cobbler… and got to eat what we made.

The entertainment highlight came on the very last night of the cruise – a Motown compilation done by the talented performers. A great singalong. In retrospect, this was a very lovely way to get a taste of Alaska and be pampered along the way.

Until our next adventure – Cheers!