This was a trip of a lifetime. We began our land tour in Fairbanks, Alaska. We stayed at the Sophie Station Hotel which was very nice with a full kitchen so you could shop at the local Safeway just down the road and eat meals right in the room. This saved us a considerable amount of money. We visited lots of sites in Fairbanks and did the Gold Dredge 8 tour panning for gold on our own. The land tour started with a city tour of Fairbanks, a ride down the Chena River on the Riverboat Discovery where we passed Susan Butcher's dog camp, talked with her daughter, went through a native village and had a wonderful ride.

The next day we took the Wilderness Express Train ride to Denali in the morning, had breakfast on the train and drinks in the domed car. Beautiful scenery. Then we stopped for lunch near Denali. We got on the shuttle to drive into Denali, it was gorgeous weather. We saw grizzlies, caribou, wolf, dall sheep and moose on the ride. You go 53 miles into the park. Denali was clear today so we were one of the 35% who got to actually see Mt. McKinley and take pictures. It is an 8 hour ride so this was a long day, but for me the most memorable of the trip. We then were brought to the hotel and had a wonderful dinner. The McKinley Lodge has some new rooms that we were in, right on the river with our own little balcony outside our room. Wish we could have spent more time here. Several of the group did a rafting adventure in the early morning before we left, they really enjoyed it.

We loaded the bus and made our way to Anchorage, passing through Talkeetna and taking more pictures of Mt. McKinley which was still viewable. We arrived in Anchorage at the downtown Marriott where dinner is on your own. We actually ate in the hotel as we were tired and it was very good. Off to bed to get an early start the next day. We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center, had lunch on our own and then traveled to Seward to stay at the Windsong Hotel. We arrived later in the day and had dinner at the local restaurant, the salmon was amazing. This is an older rustic place with furniture made out of logs, natural location in the woods, but not near much of anything. Read more