Boarding Royal Caribbean Radiance

The next morning, we play in our yurt, get packed up again and head

out to the meeting spot as if we’re going on another tour with Major Marine but just happen to have all of our bags with us. He stops at several little campsites and RV places and we pick up people and are able to get into town, check our bags with the hotel again and stroll around town to get breakfast, complete Oscar’s Junior Ranger badge for Kenai Fjords National Park and then make our way on foot to the dock. We’re pulling our luggage with us, which John knows I hate, but it’s not raining,

there are sidewalks all the way out and it’s not that bad a trudge. Even better, when we get to the port, there is no one else there checking in practically. Royal Caribbean had set up times for everyone to check in and while we’re a little early for our check in time, there is no one in line. So, we walk right in, show them our passports, our negative tests, get our room assignment and get on the ship. And it’s time to get into the rooms at the time we get one. Oscar is astounded. This is his 4 th cruise,

but he doesn’t remember the first three because they were in 2018 and before. He thinks this ship is “class”, “first class” as we walk through the atrium, down to our state room, past guest services, and get Oscar signed up for kids’ club. We check out the pools, went to the cinema and watched Big Miracle which made us all cry. We keep getting all these intercom messages about people needing to check in with their muster stations and I’m a little appalled at how many and why people

   are not wanting to just get this done. Have they seen Titanic? Do they know what happens when you take safety at sea for granted? We’re up on the promenade deck for sail away, but no one else seems to be there….probably because it’s raining again. The party is going on in the atrium where it’s warm and cozy and it’s a dance party for a pretty much over 60 crowd. Oscar takes the dancefloor though and is the only one out there trying to give the dance instructor some help. He gets asked to give his name on over the microphone and feels like a rock star. Everyone thinks that he is “living his best life” because he doesn’t care that he’s the only one out there. I join him occasionally when there is some dance song that is good, but otherwise, he would stay out there all night on his own. So, a good first night on the ship. 

Seward

 We get to Seward, get our bags and check them in at the Harbor 360

hotel where our Kenai Fjords wildlife cruise is out of with Major Marine. We take our bonine and Dramamine after the debacle in Iceland and get ready to probably not see anything because it is still raining and foggy. But we have a great crew and captain on 

this boat and Resurrection Bay is good to us. We see Horned Puffins, regular puffins, the penguins of the north (can’t remember their real name), harbor seals, sea lions, and a humpback. We see all of this and are even able to have lunch on this boat, but of course, there is nothing that Oscar will eat and it starts to get bumpy on the boat. So, now he’s seasick, but I think it’s more to do with having nothing on his stomach. The crew are very solicitous of him, but he 

 went from super excited to be seeing all of this to green and crying to get off the boat. They’ve given us ginger ale, ginger chews, I’ve already given him Dramamine and they offer up oyster crackers. That’s what finally pulls him out of it. After 10 packs of oyster crackers, he’s smiling and happy again. It helps that we have reentered Resurrection Bay and the waves slow down too. We finally get off the boat and decide to find some real

food in town before heading out to our yurt which is about 10 miles away. We get Oscar’s junior ranger book and take it to Ray’s harbor front dining where I get the most excellent salmon and John gets delicious prime rib. Oscar has a berry smoothie and more crackers. After a great dinner, we find out that Uber doesn’t exist in Seward, so return to pick up our bags and are talking about what to do when the shuttle driver from our cruise tour

    hears us and says he’ll drop us off because we took their tour today. He knows where we are and takes us out to our yurt, says that there is a pick up point right by us the next day if we just happen to be there at 10 and we couldn’t be more grateful for his kindness. We see the signs at the kitchen around the yurts that there is no food allowed in the yurts. I ask via text if it’s okay to have Oscar’s packaged snacks, but when you’re playing

around with bears, you err on the side of caution and leave pretty much everything in the kitchen area for the night. We love our yurt. It’s raining, of course!!! And while this is annoying when you’re trying to see Denali, or hike or do just about anything, when you’re in a warm little yurt with the rain making a great tapping on the roof, it’s magical.

 We all fall a little bit in love with it and talk about getting one to put in the backyard. Oscar wants to live in one. I want one for the backyard until I look up the price, but we fall into bed and have a great last night before getting on the boat. Yes, we had shared bathrooms at the kitchen area, so no bathroom in the yurt. No, it wasn’t a problem. John had to go once in the night and had to take the bear bag with him to alert others and protect himself if he ran into one, but otherwise, our best night in Alaska for all of us.

Fairbanks back to Anchorage on the Richardson Highway

We head to a bar that doesn’t seem as crowded as most, have pub food where Oscar is able to get chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs and

is happy as a clam. He says that it reminds him of Tot’s Place where he went to preschool, but won’t eat chicken nuggets that I make at home the little butt. We continue on to Anchorage and are now passing things that we passed on our way up to Denali, but in pouring rain. The good thing is the rain is cleaning the car for us at least. We get to our place right by the train station because we have an early morning train to Seward and empty the car. We

spread out more in a car than we do in a hotel room if that’s possible. I leave the boys there to get ready for bed because it’s 8pm already and I get gas in the car, drop it off at it’s designated spot and get an Uber back to the place. Oscar won’t go to bed without us, but John has done a load of laundry and we’re trying to get things repacked for one night in Seward before getting on the boat. I get frustrated because

I want him to get some sleep before the morning, John is frustrated because he doesn’t want to get in bed before he’s ready just because some kid wants him in there. We are in a lovely condo in downtown that we don’t have to share with anyone, but I think John and I both forget what it’s like to try to go to bed in a strange place. We find when we get in bed that our bed doesn’t really want our combined weight in it and I slide toward John throughout the night, but it’s a short one anyway. Up at

5am to get ready to get to the train station that it literally one block away as the crow flies. But, we aren’t lugging all this stuff down a steep hill and over 3 blocks on roads that don’t really have sidewalks, so Uber it is again. The Arctic Fox was nice enough to pack us breakfast to go and we take those with us and check in the luggage, get boarding passes and get on the train. I had a moment of panic the night before when I looked at the confirmation and saw that it said that it was

    “preliminary” until the account was paid in full. Jesus, did I pay it in full? Are we not going to be able to get on this train and have to find alternate ways to Seward to board our cruise ship? Thankfully, I’m not that stupid and we have no problems getting on the train. Oscar is grouchy and unable to be pleased by anything because he didn’t get much sleep and John has a migraine, so the train ride is fine, but not something we ever have to duplicate. And so far, that’s how I feel about the whole of Alaska. It’s nice, but I don’t ever have to come back as far as I’m concerned. Maybe a cruise will change my mind, but right now we’re getting memories of our trip to Iceland on facebook and I would much rather be there again….and that was driving with a stick shift and in a foreign country!

Fairbanks and panning for gold

 The art museum in the top floor was my favorite part of the museum,

but we finally hit a threshold of information and left to get lunch at the Cookie Jar. Our Alaska book had mentioned it, it’s on the maps of the city given out for tours and walking and so worth it. They have cinnamon rolls as big as your head and then had the unbelievable idea of cutting it in half, dipping it in egg and making a modified 

French toast out of it…..heavenly. John loved his food and Oscar also ate all of his spaghetti, so a win all the way around at this place. It was now time for Oscar’s favorite part of the day, gold panning. He was sure that we were going to strike it rich. He just knew that we were going to find a gold nugget the size of the car an strike it rich. The work of actually going through pans of rock and mud and silt and 

sand settled him down quickly though and John and I ended up doing the majority of the panning. He wanted to bring us the shovelfuls of dirt to sift and was a tinge disappointed when we didn’t discover any nuggets of gold. We got some gold flakes though and I could see how gold fever could infect anyone. We stopped by Fairbanks’ Walmart to get some snacks for the road because we were going down the

Richardson Highway to return to Anchorage and everything says that it is slim pickings on that road. The guide book tells you to bring your own toilet paper and I’m already starting to wonder if we’re going to go over the 1200 mile limit on our rental with this trip. Gas is pretty pricey here compared to home of course about $5.45 a gallon right now. So, we stock up on that too and promise ourselves that we won’t miss any gas station on the way down because I thought we weren’t going to make it back to Denali the day before on the gas

that we had left. We hit Hot Licks for some ice cream from the place in town to get it and headed to bed with the idea of aurora in Fairbanks dashed when it rained all night long. The next morning, we don’t get the early start we promised we were going to because I decide that since we have good wifi at this location, we might as well get the COVID tests out of the way. It takes an hour for each of us to get online, get tested and proctored for the results to show the cruise ship so that we can board. But,

we have 3 negative tests and can get on our ship, so I’ll take it. We head to North Pole, Alaska and luckily everything is still closed, so it’s easy to see the Santa’s “reindeer”, say that Bronner’s is better and head out without a ton of Christmas stuff we don’t need. We hit Delta Junction in good time with the mountains capped with snow all around us. The views are amazing and the scenic look outs are actually scenic this time. At Delta Junction, you can get a certificate of completion for the cross

country drive from Florida to Alaska……I can’t imagine that, this 1200 miles we’re doing in Alaska is a killer. We have several times where the road is under construction and we have to wait for and then follow a pilot car forever…..we thought we would make it to Anchorage by 6pm, but now start to wonder if we’re going to make it in time to turn in the car at 10pm. We’re coming toward the Canadian Rockies and I’m pretty sure that I see it snowing in places around us, but John swears it’s fog.

   The scenery is beautiful and ever changing, but there is one gas station in Delta Junction after leaving Fairbanks until Palmer it felt like….that might not have been accurate, but bathrooms were sure in short supply and mainly just outhouses. Maybe we picked the wrong way to do Alaska….maybe in an RV or camping and being happy without running water and feeling okay having to carry bear spray with you would make us better travelers here. Let’s face it, here I see our travel deficits. We do amazing in a city like Rome or Amsterdam, can kill it when we have a nice resort to return to in Sedona or Santa Fe, but are woefully inadequate when actual survival skills are needed. I’m afraid to touch any plant, Oscar can’t eat anything around us, and John is thinking that he should have kept a Gatorade bottle with us for peeing on the road…..so, we’re happy to slide into Palmer and eat at an actual restaurant.

Fairbanks

 It’s only 150 miles to Fairbanks from Denali, but that’s not taking into account Alaska mileage that with every passing day in this car is

starting to seem more and more like some time warp or crazy shit happens when you drive here. I can’t get anywhere in decent time. We’re stopping at things still because there are beautiful sights, but you can tell that Alaska’s DOT has fallen behind the plant life at their scenic views. Every time we stop, the view is obstructed by trees and all potholed and horrible. Oscar’s laughing and saying that he has whiplash, I’m afraid for the car and a bit mad that I can see amazing

 scenery from the road, but nothing from the scenic overviews…..come on Alaska….you only have millions or millions of acres of land to handle….We finally arrive in Fairbanks and at our amazingly
quirky bed and breakfast. Amazingly quirky and Oscar is kind of enchanted because we’re clearly in someone’s house, but it

holds enough people for a breakfast room and to put it in the hotel category. I don’t want to get in the car again and neither does Oscar, so John goes out foraging for Taco Bell of all things. But it gets us through the night and we are able to go to sleep on the softest sheets I’ve ever slept on. The bed, not the greatest, but the sheets might be. The next morning after sleeping in as long as we wanted, we went out to explore Fairbanks. We hit the Large Animal Research Station at University of

Alaska Fairbanks because the owner of our BnB mentioned that the animals are more active in the mornings. The station wasn’t open yet, but we were able to walk all the way up and down the fields to see the Caribou, Wood Bison and Musk Ox really well. Oscar wanted to make a full circuit around the huge place, but it got more and more overgrown as we went and the mosquitos were already out and I kept thinking of huge leaves with neurotoxins

all over us and said no. He continued to pout about it until we got to the musk ox and were able to see them run and hear the thunder that they created. John said that it was something that he had always read about, but didn’t think he’d ever hear. You could see how a stampede of musk ox or bison would be fearsomely loud and scary. We were able to see where they scratched themselves on many different posts which left their undercoat on there that is used to make quilvet to make incredibly soft and

   warm clothes out of. We went to the Museum of the North on UAF’s campus next and were able to hold and feel some scarves made of it that only cost $400 or so. So, no purchases of quillivet for us, but I would recommend it for those below 0 days in Michigan. The Museum of the North started off with a bang when we realized that from its patio, we could finally see the top of Denali. YEAH!!! After 4 days of searching for it and being in places where we could see it, we finally got to from 150 miles away. Good think too because the clouds were coming as we left the museum. We got to see all kinds of animals
(stuffed), information about the aurora and even got to watch a film on the aurora. This was the worst and most boring film on one of the most exciting things in the world. I can’t believe that they thought, let’s go with that and sell DVDs for it in the gift shop. But, it was informative. I learned a lot about how the aurora works, not that it will help me ever see the lights, but did you know that most of our forecasts about aurora comes from UAF? My app that tells me potential for seeing them in any city in the world uses their data to operate and while we’re in Alaska in summer, there is a solar storm that happens and could produce some pretty awesome aurora, but the clouds won’t go away.

Denali---the actual mountain

 That’s another thing that you have to be aware of with the highest

mountain in North America….you’re never going to see the top….or sometimes any of it. The average is 30% for viewing it…which isn’t great odds really. So, the McKinley View Princess Lodge should really be the foggy, rainy, mountains somewhere out there view lodge. We get up in the morning to more rain and do some laundry, get some breakfast and 

then  get on the road. Our entrance to Denali is good for 7 days, so I tell the boys that if we’re going to try to adopt a dog, we have to see her again and make sure she’s the one and we drive the 15 miles that we’re allowed to drive through the park. We come up on a ton of people stopped with park rangers present because there is a bear that is eating about 50 feet off the

 road. Well, the park rangers shoo us on through because everyone is stopping up the park road, but we get a little bit of a view. We get out and hike the Savage River Cabin loop to check out the permafrost and say that we hiked in Denali…..a very safe hike by Denali

standards. We head up to 49 th State Brewery for lunch and Oscar is delirious because they have a flight of sodas. They brew their own beer and they make sodas that are amazing and he gets a flight of his own this time and ranks his sodas as carefully as his father ranks his beers usually. Some great food, great atmosphere, beautiful space and the van that they filmed Into the Wild with. So, we’ve had to have several talks about

  safety that we didn’t expect to
have with Oscar because of this damn bus being brought up all the time. Dropping out of society, living off the grid, misidentifying plants and dying in the wild with hikers dying now to try to reach the bus that
was hard to get to….what a freaking existential conversation to have with a 7 year old…..it’s truly annoying. He wants to know why the van isn’t in a museum now and I’m thinking, how on earth does that deserve to be in a museum….but it is now: University of Alaska Fairbanks….our next stop.

Denali National Park bus ride

 We got the transit bus, which is just a way for people to get through

the 43 miles that are currently open on the park rode. If you’ve never been to Denali, you can’t take your own car past mile 15 on the road
and a rock slide has closed the road past mile 43….so, this is all you get right now. Our transit bus is the most being around people who aren’t masked and in close proximity since the plane and we have

to test negative for COVID in three days to get on the boat, so we’re on mask patrol with windows down as much as possible. Luckily, there is one woman on our bus who sees everything. Caribou, got it. Moose,
got it. Ptarmigan, got it. Bald eagle, got it. Dall sheep, got it. More caribou a million miles away? Got that too. A merlin, got it. Spruce grouse, got it. Golden eagle, got it. All the way to the end of the road.

To the point where other transit buses that are actually moving people through the park have passed us. But, no bears. So, we turn around and start back and at one of the rest stops, a man turns to me and
says, “wasn’t that amazing getting to watch that grizzly for ten minutes?” And I’m like…..I wasn’t on your bus. Damn. But I tell our bus driver, Brian to get the 411 on the bear so we can be sure to see it. He doesn’t, but you can’t miss where

 
 all the cars and buses are stopped up ahead and we get to watch a grizzly munching blueberries for a while. It was great and John got great video of it where it also
pooped…..so Oscar is in 7 th heaven watching this back. John says that it’s the best video he’s ever taken and decisively answers some important philosophical questions about bears shitting in woods…..so, a great sighting. Now, we can head back to the bus center feeling like we got everything we wanted to see in this one $30 bus trip. We get Oscar’s junior ranger badge and head out to find some food. We
come up to Prospector’s Pizza which is also a brewery and get some dinner that is okay. Head back to our Princess Lodge where we still have no view of Denali.