Alaska

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Regent Seven Seas Mariner Note	Leaving Vancouver July 9, 2008
Our first evening - Nieces Barbara and Susan	Sisters-in-law Lorraine and Jan	Barbara and Sister Linda
Our first day at sea
Our first port Note
	Saxman Village
		Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier Viewing Note
Lorraine, Brother Herb, Jan	Brother Jim, Lorraine
Ice is dense; blue is only color not absorbed
		Snow melt runoff
		Sawyer Glacier
Whale in terminal dive
	Harbor seals
		Our 2nd port Note
Four Glacier and Dogsled Adventure by Helicopter	Helicopter flight to dog mushing camp	Juneau Icefield
		Ready for our adventure on dogsled
		8 dogs pulling 2 light weight sleds
I felt right at home! Our 3rd port. Note
Building covered with driftwood	Beautiful flowers everywhere
White Pass Scenic Railroad by Steam Train	Brakeman	Gorgeous landscape
Blue sky--yippee!!
		Klondike Trail of 1898
	Canada-U.S. Border	Black Bear
Our 4th port Note
	Alaskan orchids	Alaskan orchids
Devil's Claw	Fireweed	St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral
	Day at sea on way to Seward
Hubbard Glacier Note		Hubbard Glacier Ice Block Picked up from sea
THE method of transportation in Alaska	Anchorage Visitor's Center
Brothers and Sisters	THE WOMEN!	The Dad and Daughters
The Aunts and The Nieces
	This vacation's wearing me out!
International buffet at sea
July 16, 2008 Note	Motor coach from Seward to Anchorage and train to Talkeetna	Note
	WHAT?
Denali Lodge		Note
Grizzly in Denali National Park
		Gray wolf
Snowed as we traveled into park
Cow moose
Note		Riverboat on the Chena River near Fairbanks
	Float plane demonstration
Restaurant	Log Cabin home	Susan Butcher's sled dog training camp
	Exercise - dogs can hop on platform when they want to rest	Original home
Training run with 4 wheeler with no motor	Back from 1/2 mile run	Susan Butcher won 4 Iditarod races before she passed away last year
Time to cool off - br-r-r!		Reindeer
Native Alaskan Fish Camp	Fish wheel used during salmon runs	Drying racks
Smoke House
	Alyeska Pipeline coming from under ground Note
Pipeline is high enough for caribou migration underneath	Pigs in the pipeline to keep it clean and oil moving	Retired pig

The Regent Seven Seas Mariner is a 50,000 ton cruise ship with a maximum capacity of 700 guests. With a crew of 450, we received lots of attention while we were on board. All the suites have balconies which made viewing wonderful!! Return to pictures

Ketchikan, otherwise known as the First City, has a population of about 14,000 and is on the southwest side of Revillagigedo Island. The town grew around salmon canneries and sawmills. In fact, at one time Ketchikan was proclaimed the "Salmon Capital of the World", a title that reappeared in 1996 with a new welcome arch in town.
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Tracy Arm is a fjord in the southeast that features tidewater glaciers and steep 2,000 foot granite walls that rise straight out of the water. This steep-sided fjord, 50 miles southeast of Juneau, is highlighted by a pair of tidewater glaciers and a gallery of icebergs that float down the length of it. Calm water is the norm here due to the protection the steep and narrow fjord wall provides on the 30-mile arm.
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Juneau - In 1880, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris were searching for gold with the help of Indian guides. Finally, they found nuggets, "as large as beans". Out of their discoveries came three of the largest gold mines in the world where more than $150 million in gold was mined. Eventually the mines closed, but the town Joe Juneau founded became the capital of Alaska.
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Skagway, a place of many names, much history and little rain, is the northern terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway. It was known to thousands of hopeful gold rushers as the starting point of the 1898 Klondike Stampede over the White Pass, referred to as "the meanest 32 miles in history". But when the gold yield dwindled in 1900, so did the population of Skagway. Skagway retains the flavor of the gold rush era, especially on Broadway, with its false-front buildings, and in the Trail of '98 Museum, with its outstanding collection of memorabilia.
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Sitka - After being the Russian capital of North America, the Russian flag was replaced by the Stars and Stripes in Sitka when the United States purchased Alaska. Today, picturesque Sitka, is known for its fishing industry, an annual summer classical music festival and, of course, its many historic visitor attractions. Sitka is the only city in Southeast Alaska that actually fronts the Pacific Ocean.
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Hubbard Glacier is the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska, with an open calving face over six miles wide. The ice at the foot of Hubbard Glacier is about 400 years old; it takes that long for ice to traverse the length of the glacier. Where the glacier meets the shore, most of the ice is below the waterline, and newly calved icebergs can shoot up quite dramatically.
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Seward was originally founded in 1903 as the southern terminus for the Alaska Railroad, a distinction it still holds today and is named after William H. Seward who orchestrated the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867. Modern-day residents are primarily asociated with commercial fishing, tourism and the railroad. The picturesque harbor with its colorful wood-frame houses and background of soaring cliffs looks out on Resurrection Bay, so named by a band of Russian explorers who found this calm spot along the storm-tossed Gulf of Alaska on Easter Sunday.
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Talkeetna is the base station for assaults on Mount McKinley. All climbers begin here before they try to ascend Mt. McKinley. Talkeetna began as a trapping and mining outpost. Today it is a world-class destination for salmon fishing, rafting and boating excursions.
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Denali National Park and Preserve - Between 1906 and 1908 naturalist and writer Charles Sheldon roamed the present day park gathering vital information about Dall Sheep. It was during these travels that Sheldon developed the concept of protection and preservation of these wild lands. Sheldon collaborated with other supporters including Belmore Brown and James Wickersham for the establishment of protected lands. His dream became a reality on February 26, 1917 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill creating Mount McKiney National Park. The name was later changed to Denali National Park and Preserve.
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Fairbanks was founded by accident in the summer of 1901 when the steamer Lavelle Young made a wrong turn and ran aground in low water on the Chena River. Refusing to press on upstream and afraid to descedt the river burdened by the weight of the cargo, the boat's captain forced E. T. Barnette to unload his gear and goods on the banks of the river. The subsequent discovery of gold near Brnette's inadvertent disembarkation point quickly became the boom town of Fairbanks.
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Oil was discovered in 1968 at Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope. Six oil companies planning to produce the oil determined that a pipeline offered the best means to transport crude oil from the North Slope to a navigable port in southern Alaska, where it could be shipped by tanker to refineries in the continental United States. Pipeline construction began in march 1965 and was completed in June 1977. Crude oil began flowing through the pipeline on June 20, 1977 and the first tanker load of North Slope crude oil departed Valdez on August 1, 1977. The pipeline is 800 miles long with 420 miles above the ground where unstable permafrost makes it necessary to elevate the pipeline with 380 miles below ground where the pipe is buried in stable bedrock. It crosses three mountain ranges: Brooks, Alaska and Chugach.
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