Destination Denali

Day two of the Twitter trip sponsored by Princess Cruises began with a train ride from Fairbanks to Denali. After a wonderful breakfast aboard the train, we adjourned upstairs in the glass covered rail car where we took in the breathtaking scenery. The reindeer sausage and salmon breakfast burrito were yummy!

Our tour guides were incredibly knowledgeable of Alaskan history and geography. They always seemed to know exactly where we were as they give us notice of various photo opportunities in advance.  These are just a fraction of the photos I took on the 4 hour trip that didn't nearly seem that long.

  We saw a HUGE beaver dam, lots of cool looking bridges, rafters on the river and of course snow capped mountains as we wound our way across miles of perma-frost tundra, mountains, hills and canyons.

The ever changing scenery, good food, informative guides and clean restrooms made this a terrific way to experience Alaska. I'm now adding a train rides across the USA and Europe to my Bucket List!

Gold in Them Thar Hills!

I heard there was a gold rush in Alaska so I figured while I’m there I might as well join the frenzy.  So we took an excursion to the Eldorado Gold mine where everyone is guaranteed to find some gold.



Our tour was conducted by a Fiddle playing conductor who entertained us with songs and a wonderful narration of the history of  the Alaskan gold rush.

The Eldorado Gold Mine employs a colorful cast of characters who showed us how to pan for gold. Once you see a few of the shiny nuggets in your pan, it doesn't take long to catch "Gold Fever".

I'm giving serious thought to becoming a gold miner...


... gold miners get to wear some serious bling!

When you finish panning for gold, you can take it into the gift shop where the staff will weigh it and tell you how much is is worth.  I wanted to cash in the $38 worth of gold we had panned, but my wife opted to spend another $50 or so in the gift shop to have our gold nuggets encased in a locket (souvenir bling). No wonder the Alaskan gold miners left the women folk back home.

On the way back to the lodge, we saw some of the state’s modern day gold - the 800 mile long Alaska Pipeline! Nearly 500,000 barrels of oil pass through the pipeline each day. We saw the pipeline near it’s halfway point at the 450 mile marker. All in all, this was a very fun and potentially profitable excursion!

Follow Me At Sea

When I learned that I was one of only nine people in the entire Twitterverse invited by Princess Cruises to participate in a Twitter Press trip to Alaska, I felt like the kid in the Willie Wonka movie when he unwrapped his candy bar and discovered the “golden ticket.”

Over my next few blog entries, I’ll chronicle my adventure, mainly with pictures, because a picture is worth 1000 words and I’m having so much fun, I’ll let the pictures do the talking so I can get back to having more fun.

I saw my first Polar bear at the Fairbanks airport!

Princess Cruises had a bag of swag and a goodie tray waiting for us in our room. (Thank you very much!!)

Our first adventure was a riverboat tour of the Chena and Tanana Rivers, where the captain let me pilot the riverboat for about a mile!! Sooo Much fun!

 
We we saw an Athabascan fish camp and a pretty cool fur fashion show. We even got to take eat some smoked salmon!


A kennel that trains future Iditarod champions gave us a demonstration as we watched from the boat.

 One out of 58 Alaskans own a plane. It was so cool watching bush planes take off and land on the river.

I saw my first reindeer. Fortunately, this one wasn't flying so I could snap his picture... or her picture. Interesting fact: both male and female caribou have antlers.

Some interesting homes can be seen along the river. Some decorate with antlers...











...others decorate their roofs with tires.

 

...others are prepared for floods! Yep, that's a paddle-wheel on the back of that house:

Finally, my favorite!  I hope to one day own a house boat like this...I can dream can't I?