A Day in Denali - Tundra Wilderness Tour

When we booked a Tundra Wilderness Tour a couple months back we knew very little about it:

• We could choose a time but the actual time will be assigned 24-48 hours before the tour begins.
• It goes into Denali National Park.
• The tour uses an old school bus.
• There was some kind of snack or lunch or something.
• It was supposed to be a good tour.

That's it. We didn't know a darn thing else.

After doing the tour today I can report it was a good tour. Actually, a great tour. I highly recommend it.

Yep, our assigned time was different than the time we signed up for. Thank goodness! We had chosen a 6:40 am time (yikes, right?) but our actual assigned time was 9:10 am (whew).

Yep, it was an old school bus with student seats replaced with coach seats.

We had brought a box lunch from McKinley Creekside Cafe, just in case. They made amazing box lunches.

Look at the size of the brownie they put in our box!

 And the turkey and red onion!

But we really didn't need them as when we got on the bus there were boxes of snacks on our seats. Good snacks? Yep, and bottles (actually cans) of water to boot.

Just look at the variety of snacks each of us got.

Why would we need such a robust box of snacks for a bus ride? Because this bus ride went 52 miles into Denali National Park. On gravel roads and dirt roads, roads inaccessible to private vehicles. Through the forests and tundra and snowy vistas. For seven hours! (Later in the season the road opens a bit deeper into the park, but not in May.)

We saw bears. Lots of bears.

Lots of caribou.

Lots of Dall sheep.

How about porcupines? Yep.

Ptarmigans? Yep. Lots.

And if you didn't have a good view from your seat, the driver stopped the bus and used a zoom lens camera to get up close video. That video is broadcast right then and there on screens throughout the bus.

They had a heavy snow winter and it made for spectacular views.

No climbing up to the top of this viewpoint.

The roads were in good shape. But some of them were a bit scary. Glad I wasn't driving! 

See the road in the side of the mountain? Scary!

 It was an amazing day. Even heading south towards our hotel in Talkeetna was super pretty. Alaska is just gorgeous this time of year.

What to do with 19 Hours of Daylight in Alaska

While we're in between cruises we've been doing some touring around Alaska. Wildlife and scenery and food and quirkiness and lots of daylight.

First stop, car rental pickup in Whittier, Alaska at the convenience store/bait shop/hardware store/harbor store/car rental counter. Yep, it's just as crazy looking inside as it is outside.

Next up, drive the tunnel. The only way out of Whittier is through the train tunnel. I've driven it before and it is always scary driving on the train tracks.

My photo from 2012

Current photo. Scary!

Then breakfast for the road from the Alpine Bakery in Girdwood, Alaska. A gigantic blueberry scone and an apple fritter.

A stop to try and snap a photo of Mt. McKinley. Nope, too cloudy.

Another stop, more scenery, and lots more snow on the ground.

Careful of that moose crossing the road. 

Check into McKinley Creekside Cabins. A cozy queen bed cabin and an amazing view of the creek and mountains right out the door.

Dinner at the onsite cafe. Delicious cheeseburger, Turkey Pot Pie with the flakiest crust ever, and a unbelievable apple pie made by their brand-new baker.

No better way to spend the 19 daylight hours in Alaska.

Island Princess to Alaska - Skagway and Dogsledding

Skagway is another port where we’ve done everything possible. The last few years we have just gone into town to eat. We either go to the place with the best patty melt in the world (by my standards) at Sweet Tooth Café or have the best Thai food in Alaska (again, by my standards) at Starfire. But today I had to knock something off my non-bucket list.

Dogsledding.

My first choice for dogsledding has been flying in a helicopter, landing on a glacier, and being pulled by sled dogs. But every year I look at the price of that excursion – in excess of $500 per person – and my first choice gets bumped out of the running. I can’t justify spending that kind of money on something that only lasts a partial day. I can either cruise for a week or go on a dogsledding adventure for the same price. It’s not a hard decision. So choice number two.

Dogsledding on dirt. Pulled by dogs while riding on a wheeled sled on a rainy day. Not the same – not even close – but it did the trick. And we got to hold puppies afterwards. Gotta count that as a good day! (Although I did have to shower as soon as I got back to the ship because I smelled like wet dog.)

After the shower was a quick stop at Crooners for a tasty martini 

then off to Bayou for dinner. We both went with steak (which was super delicious) but the sides still need some work. My dessert, a peach fried pie was just, well, peachy. Yummy, yummy.

Tomorrow is Glacier Bay. It’ll be an early morning.

Here is today’s Patter.

Friday 15

13 things were easy to get rid of. Clothes, magazines, towels, cast iron skillet.

Two things were tough to get rid of. The foster kitties have been with me since the middle of February. They are all grown up now so back to Simply Cats they go. They'll be fixed and then put on the floor for adoption. They will make someone very happy. Just not me.

Goodbye, my babies.

Sunday Sew-In

Since it's a Sunday Sew-In and I get lots of questions about what’s in my sewing room, I decided to give you a look at some of the ways I've organized my supplies. I move furniture and reorganize a lot so my set-up changes a lot.

I love how my fabric looks in these wooden ClosetMaid stackable units.

More fabric in more wooden ClosetMaid stackable units.

Even more fabric in some Martha Stewart china hutches.

Smaller objects organized in plastic storage drawers. 

Buttons get their own plastic storage. 

Thread and other sewing supplies organized in other plastic storage drawer units.

And some other general things:
My sewing machine is in the corner by the window. The table is really a door from the closet. My ironing board is to the right of the machine and is made from a piece of plywood covered with cotton batting and fabric. Yeah, my bulletin board needs some cleaning up.

On another wall of the room is one of the closets with no doors (because they are the sewing table). I keep patterns in the drawers, lace and binding and rick rack in ArtBin plastic storage containers and yarn up above, and have my 30 yard roll of cotton batting hanging on the closet rod above the Ikea dresser I got off Craigslist.

Like I said, the set-up changes a lot. Who know what next year will look like?

Saturday is for Silly Kitties

Had to take a break from Saturday is for Sailing. Decided Saturday is for silly kitties in training instead.

Friday 15

And the crap just keeps leaving. Woo hoo!

2 items on eBay
8 magazines and catalogs (including some kiddo brought for me to read)
1 Golden Gate bridge tshirt
2 pieces of fabric
1 bag of unused pencil top erasers
1 pressure cooker

Goodbye 15!

But the kitties? They aren't going anywhere yet.