We planned to take two excursions today, whale watching and a helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier.

The whale watching was more successful. We walked off the ship and onto a bus, with just enough time to take a photo of one of the interesting fishy sculptures on the pier.

The whale watching boat left from the harbor at Auke Bay, about half an hour from the pier. As we passed the Alaska State Capitol, the driver mentioned that it had been voted “50th Most Beautiful State Capitol” and I think the voters were quite generous.

The operator of the tour guarantees you’ll see a whale or they’ll refund you $100 in cash – it didn’t take long before we saw our first whale.

Over the course of the three-hour cruise, we saw about a dozen whales – some alone, some in groups of as many as four. Most of them were humpbacks, but one had a white fluke, so it might have been a different species.

Whales weren’t the only wildlife we saw on the cruise; we also saw a bald eagle and even some ducks.

We saw a few more whales on our way back to the dock.

And then it was back to the ship to discover that they’d cancelled all of the helicopter tours due to weather, so we spent the afternoon wandering around Juneau. There were a lot of jewelry shops there – we visited many and spent money in none. :-)

We sailed nearly 300 nautical miles overnight so that we could see the Hubbard Glacier up close and personal this afternoon.

The weather was less than cooperative – we dressed for it, though, and braved the outside to see what we could see.

There were many ice floes in the water – nothing big enough to threaten the ship, though!

When we got near the glacier, it was quite foggy, but the captain eventually brought the ship close enough so we could tell there really was a glacier out there.

He brought the ship even closer – our suite was on the side facing the glacier for a while, so we went out on our veranda and listened to the sounds of the glacier calving. We weren’t able to see any of the newly-hatched icebergs, but I’m sure they were out there.

There was an optional excursion on a small boat which brought people closer to the glacier – it was sold out by the time we tried to get seats. I know some people cancelled their seats when they found out what the weather was going to be like, but the excursion ran anyway; I wonder if they had better viewing than we did.

The glacier was amazing even though we couldn’t see it in its best light; it’s one of the few glaciers that’s still advancing (getting bigger), despite global warming.

We’re en route to Juneau; we’re supposed to go out on a whale watching tour and take a helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier, weather permitting. Here’s hoping!

The morning was a little on the chaotic side – we had to have our bags out early so they could be taken to the ship, and some people had to go to get their Covid tests. Sadly, not everyone on our pre-tour was negative – four couples had at least one person test positive, so they had to stay behind (the good news is that Celebrity offers refunds or credit for last-minute positive tests so they can take the cruise later).

We had breakfast at the hotel – it was a buffet, which was not at all surprising. What was surprising was what our waiter, Milenko, did when he brought us the bill – he also brought a deck of cards and did a few magic tricks, making cards appear and disappear right under my nose.

We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center after breakfast; it was fascinating. Raven greeted us.

When we arrived, they were demonstrating a game that involved jumping up and kicking a ball on a tether – it was based on an old Native signaling method!

The Hall of Cultures has artifacts from each of the major Native groupings in Alaska; I thought the listing of values was informative.

Our package included a bus transfer to Seward, but due to a shortage of drivers, Celebrity put us on the Cruise Train. I was very happy with the change!

The Cruise Train isn’t up to the standards of the Wilderness Explorer, but it beats the hell out of a bus. Or Amtrak. And the scenery was amazing – unfortunately, most of my photos are still in the camera, but here are a couple that i took on the phone.

If connectivity permits, I’ll add more photos later – but I doubt that will actually happen. I’m writing this post at dinner so I can take advantage of the last wisps of land-based Internet before we sail.

I’ll post what I can when I can, but there may be occasional service interruptions. I apologize for any inconvenience.

This morning, we took a Wilderness Jet Boat ride on the Susitna River, including a nature walk through a reconstructed trapper’s cabin and Native settlement.

When we got off the boat for the walk, our guide, Alana, was carrying a rifle in case of bear or moose.

After the jet boat ride, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through downtown Talkeetna, all four blocks of it. It’s a cute little town with interesting shops and restaurants. We had lunch at the Salmon Stop, which shares seating with the Historic Fairview Inn.

We tried to see Denali but failed again; I wonder if these people could help us?

On the train ride, the rail host pointed out Pioneer Peak in the Chugash Range (about an hour north of Anchorage). He said it’s often called “Little Denali”, so I’ll take that as a victory.

The sun doesn’t set on the Wilderness Express, but it can still look pretty nice!

We arrived in Anchorage and passed our pre-boarding Covid tests. Onward to Seward!

We got up at a much more civilized hour this morning and discovered that the weather had changed overnight. It was significantly cooler, much less smoky, and raining.

We packed our bags, wandered around the hotel for a while, and eventually boarded the bus for the short trip to the Denali Park Railroad Depot. We had time enough for a short visit to the Visitor Center, where we finally saw a moose.

We made a quick trip to the Park Shop and returned to the depot with plenty of time to make the train – especially since it was running a little late. I suspect we would have had enough time to walk the Spruce Forest Trail at the Visitor Center, but neither of us wanted to take the chance – next time for sure!

This segment of the trip was more photogenic than the stretch from Fairbanks to Denali; some of that might have been due to the misty, rainy weather.

About 15 minutes after leaving the depot, we passed by Denali Park Village where we’d spent the last two nights. We could even see the Thai food truck across the street that had saved the day for lunch yesterday!

We paralleled the Nenana River for most of the trip.

You can see the difference in water color where Carlo Creek (snow melt) joins the Nenana (glacier-fed).

Panorama Mountain isn’t as large as Denali, but it’s still a big mountain; we could only see a little of it.

The Northbound and Southbound trains met near Broad Pass and swapped conductors and supplies.

When the trains started moving again, Deana (our guide and rail host) told us to give the passengers on the other train the moose salute, and we did. They didn’t return the gesture.

The rain didn’t bother the ducks in the river.

The telegraph lines which once connected the far-flung outposts of Alaska were abandoned decades ago – they are now officially protected historical artifacts.

The bridge over Hurricane Gulch gave us some dramatic views.

Once we passed Hurricane Gulch, we entered the “flag stop” area; there are no roads here (the Parks Highway is about ten miles away), so the railroad is the lifeline to the outside world. Residents flag down trains and they stop – it’s almost like using Lyft!

The houses here are off the grid and the residents have to be able to handle whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

The line is mostly single-tracked, but there are sidings to allow two trains to pass one another; the conductor of one of the trains has to get off the train and manually throw the switch to change tracks. Our conductor had to do that when we passed a train pulling cars for another cruise line.

There was more beautiful scenery along the Indian River; on a different day, we might have seen Denali as we crossed the river.

Gold Creek was named by prospectors early in the 20th Century. I don’t know if they found gold, but now they offer R&R.

The trackside vegetation had changed; instead of spruce trees and grass, we were seeing meadows of Queen Anne’s lace and fireweed, with occasional ferns.

The conductor stopped by our car for an expresso and chatted with us a bit.

We disembarked at Talkeetna about 4 hours after we boarded; buses were waiting to take us to our home for the evening, the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge. The view out our window is in the direction of Denali, but the weather forecast says that we aren’t likely to see it. There are signs saying that moose have been spotted on the property, but I’m not optimistic about seeing them, either.