Alaska Adventure

25 May 2007

The first day of our trek to Alaska begins with a train ride from Everett Washington to Vancouver BC via Amtrak with a stay at a local hotel close to the ship for an easy transfer.

26 May-2 June 2007

7 days of cruising fun on The Diamond Princess.

2 June 2007

We depart The Diamond Princess and make our way to Anchorage via a shuttle provided by Princess Cruise Lines. This will cost $55 per person and seems to be the most viable course of action to get to the largest city in Alaska. It is possible the Lundstrom/Cankar contingent could come up with an Air Force escort in the form of a friend of Chris’s, stationed at Elmendorf AFB, driving out to Whittier and picking us up, for a fee considerably less than the shuttle and dropping us off at the rental car agency. Either way we have not paid for the transfer from Whittier to Anchorage yet.

Arrive in Anchorage, hope by noon, to pick up our transportation for our 8 days in Alaska. We definitely do not want to have to walk around Alaska as it is what most consider quite large and would run the risk of being gorged by a musk ox. We have two Ford Explorers reserved via the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card which will not be billed until pick up. Each vehicle is going to cost $403.13 for the duration being returned by 10 am on June 10. There could be additional fees if we choose to add additional drivers. I will periodically keep a watch for a better rate and discounts as I get offers like that via the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card often.

After acquiring our transportation we can drive back to the Kenai Peninsula where we will be staying at our first bed and breakfast, Ocean Bluff Bed & Breakfast, for two nights; the stay here has been reserved using the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card. It is located near the town of Kasilof (Kaz-ee-lof) and the Kasilof River which we will be emptying of king salmon the following day. Our stay here will cost us $395 per night with my Boeing discount as Jay, the owner, was a Boeing employee working on the minuteman missile project back in the day.

The drive from the cruise ship terminal to Anchorage and even more so on our return should be magnificent as we will see many beautiful sights along the Seward Highway and Sterling Highways including the famous Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, North America’s longest vehicle tunnel which is a one way tunnel to and from the city of Whittier measuring 2.5 miles.

3 June 2007

This is the big fishing trip day! I have booked us on a king salmon fishing trip with Bob Ball of Forks Washington. He guides on the rivers of Washington’s Olympic peninsula in the winter for steelhead and in Alaska for salmon in the spring and summer. I only know Bob from his web site, www.piscatorialpursuits.com, which I frequent for fishing info. From everything I have read over the years, he is a stand up fella and knows his craft.

The fishing trip is dictated by tides as the area we will be fishing is in the estuary so of course we want the best fishing opportunity and Bob is going to provide just that at approximately 2pm and continue for about 8 hours. I have read where they have had a couple dozen hook ups per boat……..sometimes many more. The nice thing is day light isn’t a problem because we are so far north. Although it isn’t day light 24 hours, it doesn’t really get dark so by the time we get home from our trip, we’ll still have light no doubt as the longest day of the year is a mere 2 ½ weeks after this fishing extravaganza.

The cost of this trip is $225 per person for a total of $900 of which I have paid half to reserve our day and has been reserved using the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card. We are not going to have an experience on this trip that we will forget nor will anyone else because I am buying a gigabyte card for my digital camera just for this event! In addition to that my brother is almost as big of a photo-hound as me so there will be plenty of “mine is the biggest” pictures to spread around after the fact.

For the folks not catching there is a lot to do and see around that area as I am told by Jay including hiking, sight seeing, walking the beach or just relaxing looking at the volcanic mountains casting shadows upon the Cook Inlet.

4 June 2007

On this day we can rise with the morning sun, oh wait, that will probably be around 4am since the sun doesn’t completely “go down”, at any rate we can get up when we get up and have Jay fix us our second Alaska breakfast at his establishment and then mosey up the Kenai Peninsula to Palmer.

Once we get to Anchorage and are on our way to Palmer I can be a sort of tour guide as can my brother Eric. We lived in Palmer and it is where he was born, when our father was a heavy equipment operator in the oil fields of the North Slope. I was thinking I could show you some interesting things around the Palmer area that I know of on this day.

Things like Pioneer Peak which is a mountain that literally shoots straight out of the ground and seems to go straight up into the heavens and towers over Palmer. There is also the reindeer farm next to the Butte which is the exact farm Eric and I lived at when we resided in Alaska back in the day. Plus there is the musk ox farm. Also wanted to visit my step-grandmother, Wanda, she still lives in Palmer and of course my Grandfather and Grandmother are buried there.

There is a fine Mexican/Italian restaurant to dine at down town too. What? Oh, no. That is not a typing error. It is an actual Mexican and Italian restaurant. We have never been brave enough to go in there but maybe this trip we will? You will see when we get up there that most businesses combine together. Examples are laundry mat and liquor store. Flower shop and liquor store. Hardware store and liquor store. Police department and ……..no just a police station, lol. But you will see some odd combinations of businesses which is what you have to do to survive.

On this night we will be staying with our friend Karen at her B&B, Alaska Garden Gate Bed & Breakfast, which Eric and I have stayed at twice and Michelle and Nik have been to once. We are getting the frequent stayer discount of 25% off her normal summer rates, our stay here has been reserved using the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card and will not be billed until we arrive. You will find Karen to be a generous and kind person and her house is a great place to stay.

We have 3 rooms are reserved for two nights consecutive and then again on the 9^th, our last night in Alyeska. The Midnight Suns Garden room for the Gusinsky clan, the Forest Haven room for the Lundstrom tribe and the Forget Me Not room for the Canker folk. Maybe for supper we will be feasting on a 20+ pound king salmon we caught out of the Kasilof River the day before?

5 June 2007

This day will have to be played by ear as I would love to take everyone up and over Hatcher Pass but it probably will be closed to vehicle traffic, we’ll have to wait and see. Two years ago Eric and I drove it at the end of June and there was no snow on the roads but there were patches here and there where the sun couldn’t hit it. Karen told me they have been lobbying to have it opened earlier as about a third of tourists miss it when they generally open it because of the lateness. I hope this comes to pass. But we still have a lot of things to check out going up to Hatcher Pass such as the Little Susitna River, gorgeous, and Independence Mine State Park. If we can not make the pass, there is plenty of other things to do or we can just have a relaxing day at Karen’s reading, sleeping and watching the weather on Pioneer Peak which changes every minute, amazing.

6 June 2007

The 62^nd anniversary of the Normandy Invasion we will travel from Palmer to Denali National Park and Preserve via the Parks Highway. One interesting town is Talkeetna that I think everyone might enjoy. On this trip I figure we can stop off any attractions, sites or places we find interesting, we have all day and the day lasts about 21 hours this time of year!

From Talkeetna you can drive into the southern entrance of Denali National Park and Preserve; thought we could check that out along with a trip in to the Denali State Park on route to Healy where we will be staying for the next two nights. The Parks Highway actually drives through Denali State Park so this is a we’ll see what we see part.

We will be staying near the town of Healy at Healy Heights Family Cabins. We will be staying in the chalet which will sleep us all for $246.10 per night; the stay here has been reserved using the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card. There should be quite a lot of viewing of The High One on the drive up to where we are staying. By the way, Healy Heights Family Cabins is not a B&B so we won’t be getting a cooked breakfast during those stays unless Eric makes it for us, I’ll buy the sausage!

7 June 2007

Today is Denali exploration day. The Gusinsky clan will be taking the Tundra Wilderness Tour. This tour goes back into the park to mile 53 and the Toklat River with many destinations between at a cost of $80.75 each except for the youngling who will cost $40.50 and has been reserved using the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card . The tour lasts anywhere from 6-8 hours but there is no other way to get that far into the park. After the park tour, we should be back in the early afternoon; we will do some exploring around the area as well, maybe meet up with you guys for some fried ptarmigan and fireweed salad? Tonight is another night stay at Healy Heights Family Cabins.

8 June 2007

This will be our big drive sight seeing day. After waking up in the chalet and Eric makes us huge helpings of spicy sausage and gravy on biscuits, we will be heading north to Fairbanks. And then back south via the Richardson Highway to Glennallen where we will be staying in the double bedroom suite at the Caribou Hotel. And although they do not have their rates set for next year yet, we do have a reservation, via the Gusinsky clan Alaska Airlines Visa card which will not be billed until we show up, for the night at the price of $195.

On this trip we have all day to meander around stopping at whatever looks interesting or requires a stop so we can take pictures with out Alaska’s state birds splattered all over the windshield. This part of the trip runs the same route as the Trans Alaska Pipeline so maybe there will be some places we can stop, get out and lean up against it for some pictures?

9 June 2007

Our final full day in The Last Frontier. I thought we could head south on the Richardson Highway towards Copper Center where there is a lodge in town that servers hearty sourdough pancakes made from 100 year old starter. After that there is an Alyeska Pipeline Interpretive display where there are a lot of pipeline displays that sounds interesting to me.

Then we can head back north to Glennallen heading west on The Glenn Highway towards our home base of Alaska Garden’s Gate Bed and Breakfast but along the way we can not simply pass by the Matanuska Glacier! This will be our chance to walk to a glacier and walk on a moving piece of ice, cool….literally!

Then it is more taking in of some fantastic views on the way back to Palmer to relax at Karen’s before we fly out the next morning.

10 June 2007

Back to reality, what I imagine as an early departure from Anchorage International on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 back home. I have not booked any flights as they are not taking reservations just yet.

Things still to do

I need to book our Amtrak once all the passport info is done. We are going to get Nikolai a passport so this will take some time. Need to book a hotel near the cruise terminal in Vancouver and of course the airfares are just a few big things that need to be done. We are very excited for this trip and want it to be special and memorable for everyone. I hope this little itinerary narrative helps everyone picture it in some degree.