Jul 2009

Bonners Ferry to West Glacier. Again a very beautiful drive thru the panhandle of Idaho. It followed the Kootnei river, where we stopped to look at the falls. They are a class 6+, visited by kayakers from all over the world.
On to West Glacier to set up camp.

Pleasant surprise. Got in touch with Rene and family, currently on Flathead Lake. They were free for the evening so we met in Bigfork, MT for dinner and the local theater production of Singing in The Rain. It was fun to see then again and especially Dawson and Elize, whom we missed during our brief visit to Juneau.

Wenatchee to Blue Lake Campground, just shy of Bonners Ferry Idaho. Great drive thru the wheat country of eastern Washington. Wheat was about half harvested, saw several fields with the combines working and trucks waiting to take the bounty to the elevator. Blue Lake was a great place. A new couple just bought it and was fixing it up nicely. They had a private lake with stocked, catch and release fish.

Left Bothel and headed over Stevens Pass. Had not been there for several years. Stopped briefly at the ski area and then in Leavenworth. They both have grown and expanded greatly since we were last there. On to Wenatachee and the state park. We had stayed here before, but this time what a dissappointment. The electric was minimal, could not run the A/C and it was over 100 out side.

Took a side trip to Crescent Bar, where we used to own a park model. BOY has it grown. Several condos have been built, all the rv's are now expanded park models or more. Tried to look up some of our old neighbors to no avail.
The prices of the places are also out of sight. Should have kept ours longer.

Luckily it cools off at night so sleeping was tolerable.

Went to Camping World, got the new toilet install and it works great. They could not do the awning for a week or two to left the area. Got as far as Bothel and the Lake Pleasant RV Park. A really nice place on a private lake. We were lucky to get the last slot. Called some friends, Andy and Gladys Anderson and had dinner with them.

Relaxing and moving day. Relaxing from the trip and helping to move the furniture from Myron's rooms. He is having the floors refinished with the Swedish coating, so everything has to be moved.

All the laundry is done and put away. Dog is picked up and reaquainted with us and the coach. We are ready to hit the road after some repairs tomorrow morning.

Here we are in Puyallup and back in the coach. We were able to get on the flight home on airline passes, what a relief. Now to empty the suitcases and catch up on the dirty clothes. Saturday is mainly a catch up day. More boxes of mail have arrived along with bills, Yuck.

This is a recap of the cruise/tour. One of the most impressive things that occurred during this adventure is observing the coordination of the Princess Cruise Line and how they handle their passengers. From the check in at Vancouver and saying good by to our bags until our final stop at Fairbanks our bags, transfers, bus schedules, train rides, room assignments were all excellent. Each week Princess has 4 ships leaving Vancouver for Alaska. Each has about 2,000 passengers. Each of the passengers have elected to due various tours off the ship. Each have elected to do several offered options on the land portion. Each time you move from one venue to another, one transportation method to another an envelope is handed to you with your times, your room number, your side tours. NOW combine this with the fact that another 8,000 people are flying to Fairbanks or Anchorage to start the tour/cruise package, doing the same thing that the cruise/tour people are doing. Never was a bag or a bus late for pickup, never (that we heard) was a bag lost. Never was there a Princess employee without a smile, wanting to assist you in anyway. On the ship you have crew from all over the world, speaking English! Wanting to serve you.
On the tour portion you employees from all over the U.S., again wanting to serve you. They are proud of where they work, what they do and how enjoy your vacation.

Other cruise lines may offer and may do the same as Princess, and I am sure they do. But I am totally in AWE of how it all happens. I will recommend Princess to anyone

LAST DAY OF CRUISE/TOUR. Bummer time to head back to the lower 48 and initially the rat race of Seattle. Will seem real busy after the laid back atmosphere of Fairbanks. Slept in this morn and then packed for the trip home. After all that we headed downtown to see what it looked like. It was really desolate even though it was a Friday and the start of Golden Days. We hit some of the shops and ate at one of the better café’s.

Took the shuttle back to the Princess Lodge, retrieved our bags and waited for the bus to take us to the airport. According to the phone girl there were plenty of open seats. We wrestled the luggage, unlike the real cruise passengers, and finally got to the ticket counter. YEAH< YEAH< we got a seat, actually two. Checked the bags and proceeded thru security and up to the waiting area. Made an important phone call to Myron, so that he would know we got on the flight. Now we are on the home bound leg. AND the Captain just announced that because of winds and the Military area being closed we are going to arrive 20 minutes early.

This is the last blog of the cruise/tour portion of our summer trip. We will have pictures posted as quickly as possible. We will continue the blog as we move away from Puyallup and onto points East. The next day or two will be busy restocking the coach, picking up the dog and getting things ready to go. We have a new toilet scheduled to be installed on Monday and the awning fixed. Then OFF we go.

Up early again for tours in Fairbanks. Our first tour was the paddlewheel river boat on the Chena river. This boat and the family running it have been in Alaska since the early 1900’s. They originally used the boats for hauling cargo up the Chena from the ocean. The same family members are now using the boats for tourists to show them the early days of Alaska.

The cruise started out by the skipper turning the boat sideways in the river. Then thru the magic of remote mikes the narrator talked to a pilot in a Super Cub on floats on the river. The pilot proceeded to take off from the river, circle the boat and then land next to the boat. Very impressive. The pilot then talked about the importance of the small plane in Alaska. One in six residents have their license to fly, and some fly without a license.

Moving on down the river we stopped at a Alaskan Sled dog facility. It was the husband and two daughters of Susan Butcher. She raced the Iditarod several times, winning it several times. Barbara and I saw her start the race in 1993. It was explained, again by remote mikes, how the dogs are handled and trained for sled racing.

The next stop on the river was the confluence of the Chena, a clear water river, and the Neana, a glacial fed river. Again the importance of how watercraft play a huge part of the Alaskan live.

Turning the boat around we then stopped at an Athabasca village. This of course is a recreation of a real one. Here they had real natives, mostly high school and college students explain the old and new ways of the Athabasca’s. They have lived in the area for over 10,000 years.

When the river boat cruise was over we then started another tour to the Alaska Pipeline viewing point. It was explained how the crude oil comes out of the ground very hot and is then pumped over 450 miles to Valdez, the seaport. Along the way precautions have been taken to prevent the hot oil from melting the permafrost and damaging the surroundings.

Our next stop was the El Dorado gold mine. After boarding a train we were entertained by Earl Hughes, the official Country Music singer of Alaska. He also narrated the sights along the way, explaining how the miners would dig and store ore in the winter and then sluice it in the summer.

At the end of the train ride we each got a pan and a bag of raw ore to try our luck at panning. It was difficult at first but it did not take long to get the hang of it. They guaranteed gold would be found. We found several small pieces, about the size of a salt crystal. Total it was worth about $26. We did discover panning was NOT the way we would choose to live.

Easy day, late get up. Our transportation from Denali to Fairbanks has been changed from a bus leaving at 1:30 to a train leaving at 4. The train is a much nicer ride but still takes 4 hours. We leisurely had breakfast and then explored the stores across the highway. They all had sale signs on them, but when asked, they open in the spring with those signs up. The train ride was interesting. We went by areas where the fire had been in years past. We also went thru dense smoke from the current fires. It is hard to imagine fires in the area with as much rain and water as they have. We did not arrive at the hotel in Fairbanks until late evening, making for a very long day.

AS STATED BEFORE, PICTURES WILL BE FORTHCOMING. WE ONLY HAVE THE NET BOOK WITH US ON THE TRIP

Up early again as we had a 7 AM bus tour on Natural History of the park. The ranger took us to the Wildlife center to watch a movie of the early history of the park and the how’s and whys it was formed. Then we traveled further into the park, with more explanations and viewing of wildlife. We were able to travel beyond the milepost 13, end of the road for private vehicles. From that point on only National Park vehicles can transit. We went to MP 19, or Primrose lookout. At that point a native Athabasca told the history of the mountain from their tribes history. Several of the people elected to stay there and catch the Park Service bus to points deeper into the park.

Returning to the main lodge at Princess Riverside, we decided that a plane ride around the summit would be of interest. There were two spaces left on a flight and we grabbed them. There were a total of seven passengers in the twin aircraft. I had hoped to get the right seat, but no such luck. We were scheduled to climb to 21,000 feet, and were given oxygen masks. However the weather was moving in rapidly from the South and we could only go to 19,000. Even there clouds were closing in and we descended on down. We kept the mountain in view as long as we could. Upon returning to the base field, the rest of the flight for the day were cancelled. Out flight was great and would do it again.

To round out the day we elected to attend the dinner theater. The food was served family style and the waiters were the entertainers. The production was about the first climbing of Denali. It was a very good dinner and excellent show.