Aug 25 - Aug 29

Sorry for the delay.  Internet reception is pretty poor in the ship so it was tough to find an opportunity to do the blog.

Aug 25
We saw it! We finally got to see Mt McKinley unfettered. That puts us in a pretty exclusive club! We are told 30% of all visitors get to see the mountain.  It is beautiful, to say the least.  It is BIG too! But, being from Colorado..... :)

We saw McKinley often during the bus trip from Denali Princess Lodge to Mckinley Lodge in Talketna. Then we boarded a small plane and flew from Talketna airport to fly around McKinley and the surrounding mountains (also quite high).
We spent the night at the lodge.

Aug 26
This was a travel day. Unlike the other (bus) days, this one was finally on a train!  We boarded an Alaskan Railroad car and traveled for about 5 hours from Talketna down to Whittier, to catch the Island Princess for the second half of our tour.  The train trip was sometimes a little slow (it went through towns and a couple tunnels, one of which was shared with cars!) but always beautiful scenery and easier to get up and walk around.  Our train tour was the last of the passengers to arrive at the Island Princess so departure was shortly after we boarded.  Being quite exhausted from the trip, we had a quick dinner and retired. No partying that night. (boy does that sound OLD or what?)

Aug 27
I guess we were more tired than we thought, from the bus rides of the prior week.  We got up late (10:30!) but that afternoon were treated to a wonderful view of an enormous glacier - Hubbard Glacier. It was several miles across and 70 miles long. Saw some calving (iceberg, right ahead!) where pieces of glacier broke off and fell into the water to form icebergs of various size.  We got some good pictures.  Stayed up for a show this night.

Aug 28
Today we spent the day traveling through Glacier Bay National Park (a park that is mostly only accessible by water). We saw numerous glaciers (smaller than Hubbard) and had a relaxing time (though some tenseness trying to get that perfect shot of calving).

Aug 29
Our first town, Skagway.  Having been there before, this was a relaxing day checking out the town (Lilia and Rafael did a tour, though).  The town was very cute and the weather continued to treat us well. Steve had a great time in the Red Onion Bar (and Brothel!)
 We'll follow up with the Juneau and Ketchiken visits soon