The next morning early we headed out of the neighborhood and there to greet us by the roadside was a huge moose. Such a treat as we left that neighborhood. We ate breakfast in downtown at a very popular restaurant and it was delicious. We had to carry on as our glacier plane right with K2 Aviation was to begin 10 am - 11 am outside of Talkeetna, AK.
The plane trip was great. My cane and I got in the plane good with a stool below; however, getting back in off the glacier was not so good as there was no stool. I'm sure it was not a beautiful sight as I attempted to get in as best I could....I'm glad there's no photos of that backside of me! We landed on a glacier, spent some time, and enjoyed the majesty of God's creation before going back to Talkeetna for lunch, then heading north again to Denali and our cabin for two nights.
As we headed north, the "larger" town areas became smaller. We followed directions to our cabin for the upcoming two nights. It was not remotely alone as there were two smaller cabins nearby but for the most part it was very quiet and somewhat secluded. There were rules--conserve water, it's scarce--being the most important one. The two bedrooms were upstairs and the stairs were very narrow. With increased senior adult wake ups to bathroom during the night, The Husband and I choose to use the comfortable couch and chair downstairs for sleeping. Otherwise, it was a sweet little place with four visible cans of bear spray. Uh huh. We traveled about ten miles north for food and found the few restaurants very crowded. We finally got an expensive Subway prepared in a very hot Subway restaurant. We returned to our cabin to find there was no electricity. A storm had come while we were out and knocked out the electricity. I decided this was just an Alaskan adventure and we had certainly experienced those before so we would survive. However, I was not totally excited about it. Luckily, the power came on during the night. Whew.
We had an early morning tour time at Denali Park so we ate cereal in the room with the milk The Son-In-Law had purchased at the store when we were out for supper. Uh, a small carton of milk, maybe a quart or half gallon at the most was over $5 or some ridiculous amount such as that. Denali found us on our tour bus with a really informative tour guide. On the ride on the bus she pointed out bears--four, I think--dall sheep, a caribou, porcupine, and some birds. We shared the bus with a group of traveling Senior Adults. The Grandbaby was the youngest by years on the bus. Each person's snack box had a pack of Brownie Brittle and The Grandbaby became so popular that many of the guests gave her theirs. The Grandbaby was thrilled. She loves Brownie Brittle! Unfortunately due to the smoke from the fires north along with the clouds, we were not able to see the great mountain. We went afterwards to eat lunch. We found a little cafe that had some odd things, but they also had baked items and the largest cinnamon roll I had ever seen.
The next morning we loaded up and headed north again to Fairbanks. There were to be some road delays because of the fires that were still burning but when all was said and done, we were able to catch up at the end of the cars following the Pilot car. Arriving in Fairbanks, we found lunch at a delightful sandwich shop, then drove over to North Pole, AK, then routed to the Comfort Inn via the Alaska Pipeline. We toured the Ice Sculpure Exhibit in Fairbanks which was a boatload of fun and the museum at the college in Fairbanks. After checking in, we had a nice dinner at a historical saloon building which was very popular.
After having the hotel continental breakfast the final day and taking our time, we made our way to the airport to leave our van and check in. The Fairbanks airport was very small. Our flight went to Seattle and a longish layover there, then it was a redeye back to our home airport. A baby cried all the way home, of course. :). Our uber at the airport to drive us home was a van and it was uncertain if we AND our luggage AND the driver would fit. We piled all of us in and arrived home safely.
The trip was a trip of a lifetime with those I love and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity for such joy. Blessed.
Here's my final pics....
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