Walter and I met for a nice breakfast while our lazy partners had a lie in. Breakfast ran into relaxing which ran into lunch and then more relaxing before meeting for cocktails at 5:00. How wonderful it would be if we were able to say we solved a lot of the world’s problems with heady discussions, but you know that didn’t happen. Instead shady locations on the sundeck provided perfect spots for each of us to do our own thing: read, write, play games, email, text, and above all snooze. For reasons we don’t understand, we did not have internet while in Indian waters yesterday (and won’t tomorrow), so we all had a little catching up to do on our devises.

Tonight was our second dressy night, so we gussied up for our choice of lobster, filet mignon, and veal. I do believe it was the best lobster I’ve ever eaten.

Tonight’s entertainment was a spirited show highlighting Indian dancers, drummers, and an organ player all decked out in bright, beautiful traditional dress.

… Did You Know …

India is one third the size of the United States

The population of India is 1.5 billion!

How exciting to wake up in India! Dan and I were here for a few days in the 1970s when we explored New Delhi and Agra’s Taj Mahal. Dan was back once on business, but this is my first return trip.

Seven islands originally constituted Mumbai. In the 17th century these islets were joined through drainage, reclamation projects, and through the construction of causeways and breakwaters to form Bombay Island. It is the capital of the state of Maharashtra. With a population of 21,000,000+ it is India’s most-populous metro area.

Getting through the face-to-face immigration process got our day off to a really s…l…o…w start with a two-hour wait in line. Some folks had to have their finger prints taken as well as their picture. Seems the computers were being difficult and it’s a bit of business as usual. We were told to expect this, so few people grumbled.

Cleone and I had attended an India presentation, so we were ready to ‘experience the city, not see the city.’ Per recommendation we ‘looked for order in the chaos’ and ‘watched solutions unfold’ in the Indian way. Streets are for all forms of vehicles as well as pedestrians. Double parking is standard so navigating around these vehicles combined with bumper to bumper traffic, jaywalkers, the odd cow, bicycles, and scooters made for slow moving. Pedestrians, shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalks, had their fair share of challenges navigating around the small kiosks selling everything from food and drinks to housewares.

Our guide pointed out apartment buildings where the well healed as well as ultra rich live and the hovels and shanties where those living hand to mouth, 68% of the city’s population, live. Amazingly, the rich and the poor are neighbors. We passed public study halls where poor children go to do their homework, temples, museums, hotels, and the huge beach-lined bay nicknamed the Queen’s Necklace. We passed the famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Victoria Terminus, and the Gateway to India which is a triumphal arch built to commemorate the visit of England’s King George and Queen Mary. We had a bird’s eye view of all of this from our perch on the bus.

Once off the bus we had three special experiences. The first was a train ride from Churchgate Railway Station. Thankfully it was not rush hour, so we had a car virtually to ourselves. We saw the women-only cars and enjoyed the sign informing us that Section 156 of the Railway Act prohibits traveling on the roof.

Our short ride took us to the Dhobi Ghat, the city’s 140-year-old, open-air laundromat. Oh my, what a sight! A half a million articles of clothing are washed, sorted, ironed, and hung out to dry each day. We saw large, square concrete tubs with a stone block in each for beating the clothes and linens and row upon row of closely strung clotheslines. It offers an indispensable service to the millions who have no facilities or space to do laundry for themselves. Our guide explained that storefront laundries send things here also unbeknownst to their clientele who assume the storefronts have their own automated facilities.

Our other special experience was a stop at Mani Bhavan, the home of a friend that served as Mahatma Gandhi’s Bombay base between 1917 and 1934. It is now a museum and memorial to the Mahatma, founding father of an independent India. The museum has a research library of more than 20,000 volumes; his sitting room/bedroom; a number of personal artifacts including a letter to Hitler asking him not to go to war and Gandhi’s correspondences with Roosevelt, Tolstoy, and Einstein.

Because the observance of Diwali was unofficially extended by a day or two we missed seeing the lunch-bearing dabbawallas at work. Our guide explained that the typical Indian worker prefers homecooked meals to fast food or takeout. Because the typical long commute by train prohibits going home at lunch, a lunchbox delivery and return system was created some 100 years or so ago. For $15 a month you get your homecooked meal delivered to you at work. Seriously.

Here’s how it works. There are some 5,000 groups of up to 20 individuals (not counting your mother or wife who is doing the cooking) who coordinate their efforts to get hot meals from homes to offices for a quarter of a million people a day. Pickup at private residences is at 10:30 in the morning. Depending on the distance to work, the pickup guy passes off the meals to another guy who gets them to the local train station where he passes them to a guy who takes them to a clearing house in Mumbai proper where they are passed along to whatever number of guys are needed to deliver lunch by 12:30. Return of the lunch container is included in the price, so the dabbawalla who delivered lunch waits for one hour before the relay system is reversed.

Our guide made the unilateral decision to take us back to the ship two hours early. She used the traffic as her reason. Some were happy to be out of the chaos I assume, but I was not one of them. We had come a long way and were disappointed and felt cheated.

… Fun Facts …

Mahatma is used in India as a title of love and respect.

Currency: Indian Rupee (INR).
1 INR = $0.012 / 100 INR = $1.20.

The 89-year British occupation of India, referred to as the British Raj, ran from 1858 to 1947.
In those days Mumbai was known as Bombay, a name the Portuguese, who
occupied India before England, popularized.

As the national animal, India holds tigers in high esteem and has 50 tiger reserves
and more than 3,000 tigers, 70% of the world’s wild population.

The average monthly salary in India is equivalent to $300.

Monday
As much as we’ve loved the sights and sounds of Dubai we are ready to explore our ship, Celebrity’s Edge, and set sail. Our little foursome met for a leisurely breakfast in the hotel this morning and then headed to the dock at 11:00.

The large in-processing center was the nicest I’ve seen. We shopped for chocolate covered, almond-stuffed dates and then got in line for a quick stop at immigration. From there we moved to a v…e…r…y slow moving check-in line. Visas are required for two of our stops, India and Sri Lanka, so those had to be confirmed for each passenger before boarding. Since we had an early start, even with the long wait we were on board in time for a nice late lunch.

We are booked into a beautifully appointed junior suite which entitles us to the use of of a gorgeous private dining room, private lounge, and private outdoor sundeck with a bar, lots of cushy seating, a hot tub, and small pool. Living your dream Matt. (big grin emoji)

The ship headed into the Arabian Gulf around 6:00 this evening. We opted for a light dinner at the buffet and then went to the early show which was fabulous. Stephen Barry, a young Irish tenor slash comedian and former contestant on Ireland’s got talent, had us wishing for more.

Cleone, Walter, and I headed to our rooms after the show and Dan tried his luck in the casino. Before turning out the lights we set our watches ahead one hour.

Tuesday – Wednesday
The cruise kicked off with two days at sea. We sailed into the Gulf of Oman with Iran and then Pakistan on our port/left side. We slowly made our way into the Arabian Sea on our way to India.

We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of these down days and spent our time reading, attending destination-centered lectures, eating nonstop, napping, taking advantage of our premium beverage package, enjoying each evening’s entertainment, and chatting up strangers. A fun Australian couple at the Diwali presentation taught us the meaning of LLD (little lie down) and FTA (finely tuned athlete). As in: the FTA deserved an LLD after her vigorous workout. There are a lot of Aussies on board and I’m guessing most are friendly and have a good sense of humor like this guy.

It’s always my wish that the pastries will suck so that I am not tempted, but if the dulce de leche croissants served at breakfast and the empanadas and scones served at tea are any indication I’m in Big Trouble.

We set our clocks ahead 30 minutes last night.

Temperatures were in the high 80s/low 90s while we were in Dubai. We are told to expect much the same as we head south and east.

… Ship Shape …

The Edge launched in 2018 and holds 2,900 passengers.

There are 65 nationalities on board.

The bio of our very enthusiastic cruise director, Giuseppe, says
there is nothing better than life at sea unless it’s his mama’s lasagna.

Because of a tiff the governments of Canada and India are having,
Canadians are not allowed off the ship in India.

Going to bed at midnight here is like heading to bed at 3:00 in the afternoon at home. Our bodies did not get the trick we were trying to pull on them. After a rough night’s sleep we bounded out of bed (I jest) both mornings to explore this desert city that used to be a small fishing and trading village but is now a mecca for upscale vacationers and shoppers and home to 3.5 million people, mostly foreign expats.

Katie, our Tulsa-based concierge travel guru, set us up with a private tour each day, so after a late breakfast we got our spoiled little selves to the lobby where we, Walter, and Cleone met our guide and driver. Over the course of two days we were awed and amazed by some of the many things this city has to offer. Here’s some of what we had the chance to enjoy.

Dubai Miracle Garden
This unique garden is described as the world’s largest natural flower garden. Natural … really? It boasts over 150 million flowers from all over the world arranged in various artistic designs, shapes, and patterns. Think full size airplane, Smurf village, oversized elephants and horses, cottages, a clock, and more. This riot of color is stunning and definitely a one-of-a-kind!

Dubai Frame
Think gigantic picture frame: 492 feet tall/305 feet wide. We enjoyed a multimedia exhibition on the history of Dubai before going all the way up one side of the Frame to a viewing platform at the very top. We walked slowly across the top of the Frame before going down the other side. There is a large section of plexiglass floor at the top that made me a little queasy. When we looked out one side and glanced w..a..y down we saw new Dubai with its signature architecture and skyscrapers and when we crossed over to the other side of the walkway we saw old Dubai with its less awesome buildings.

Al Bastakiya / Fahidi District
Before the tourism boom, before the discovery of oil and gas, and before the union of the Emirati tribes in 1971, the UAE was an area of sheikdoms – where Bedouins lived as herders, date farmers, and fishermen. These two districts gave us a glimpse into that period of time. We strolled through tight, winding alleyways lined with ochre-colored buildings made from a mixture of coral, mud, gypsum, and palm wood. Most of the houses were built with wind towers used to pull hot air up and our.

Jumeirah Grand Mosque
This beloved house of worship, dating to 1979, was a gift to the city from the father of the current ruler of Dubai. The design was borrowed from traditional Syrian and Egyptian architecture and can accommodate approximately 1,500 worshippers.

The View at The Palm
The idea is to get a view of one of the three island communities that are designed to look like palm trees floating in the Arabian Gulf. The View at The Palm is an observation deck on the 52nd floor of The Palm Tower. From there we had a terrific panorama of Palm Jumeirah as well as the Arabian Gulf with the Dubai skyline in the distance.

At the Top Burj Khalifa
This is the tallest building in the world and, no brainer, visible from all over the city. We zipped up to level 154 in an elevator that moves at 10 meters per second ! There we enjoyed unlimited drinks and snacks in a beautiful three-level lounge, the world’s highest lounge! Not for the faint of heart but worth a lot of bragging rights. We left just as the sun was setting over Palm Jumeirah.

Abra ride
An Abra is a traditional small ferry used to taxi people across The Creek. The ride was about five minutes and took us from the water station on the Bur Dubai side to the water station on the Deira side.

Gold and spice souks
The Gold Souk is located on Dubai Creek’s south bank and on the opposite side of the Creek is the Spice Souk. They sell just what their names imply. Approximately 20 percent of the world’s gold passes through this market. The government tightly controls what is sold and by whom, so there’s no worry that buyers will walk away with anything less than the real deal. Bargaining is recommended though, so the less than savvy shopper could easily pay too much for the real deal.   

Le Perle
This was our only nighttime activity and a wow of an activity it was. The show is performed in a tailor made aqua theatre where the stage is flooded with water and drained within seconds. Combine awesome aerial acts of various kinds, fire, drums, water falls, a pool, imagery, technology, and stunts and you have yourself a fabulous show with a slippery little storyline having something to do with a pearl.

As we traveled around town we kept a close eye on the license plates. The lower the number the richer the person. Number 5 was sold for $8,000,000 awhile back. The proceeds went to charity! Just imagine what number one is worth!!!!

… Oh Really …

The city of Dubai is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai which is made up of
a number of smaller communities and areas way less developed than the city of Dubai.

Where does all the water come from to maintain the plants and people here you might ask?
The UAE has 16 desalinization plants.
When I asked what was done with all the salt, our guide said he heard that a lot was sold to Scandinavia to use in dealing with snow. All but the palms and the jojoba trees would die in a flash without the intricate irrigation systems that keep everything alive.

Speaking of rain, we learned today that the UAE seeds the clouds when possible
which can produce short periods of rain or days of rain.

Dubai had a population of 60,000 in 1960.
Once the city was reimagined the population slowly exploded.

Pakistanis, Indians, and Filipinos make up the largest, by far, communities of foreign nationals.
English is the common language.

Dan was in and out of Dubai a number of times on business.
I joined him once a few years ago making this my second visit.
It reminded me of Disney meets Vegas
when I was here last, and I have to say I’m left with the same impression this visit.
It is a testament to what money, ingenuity, and an open mind can create.

Our buddies of almost 50 years, Walter and Cleone, are joining us for this Celebrity cruise from Dubai to Singapore. We all arrived early in order to see some of the sights before boarding the ship.

The nine-hour time change is a circadian rhythm scramble. Add to that the long flights and our bodies are topsy-turvy for sure. We left home at 2:30 for our short flight to Newark, NJ on the 9th. We changed planes in Newark for our 12-hour 9:30 pm nonstop to Dubai. It was 21 hours from home to hotel. We landed in Dubai at 6:30 pm their time today, the 10th!

My strategy for the long flight was to eat before boarding and then recline my seat and rest/relax/sleep for as many of those hours as possible. That plan was executed flawlessly. I kept my eyes closed for a solid eight hours. That left 4 hours to freshen up, have a steak and eggs breakfast, and relax until we arrived.

Cleone has a concierge travel friend who made all the arrangements for the royal treatment once we were on the ground in Dubai. An agent met us as we entered the gorgeous terminal and escorted us through all airport arrival formalities. Once officially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and after luggage retrieval we were handed off to a chauffeur who delivered us (in a Mercedes) to the Taj Dubai, our downtown hotel.

Check-in at the hotel was just as glamourous as our welcome. Think freshly squeezed lemonade in chilled glasses, an Indian blessing somehow extended through a tray of fresh rose pedals and a burning candle, and finally the gift of a tulsi mala which is a necklace/garland made of small pieces of tulsi wood connected by orange knots. The mala is believed to have spiritual and physical healing powers.

Walter and Cleone, who arrived a couple days ahead of us, met us in the lobby once check-in was complete. We enjoyed a drink together at a nice outdoor bar overlooking the city and then called it a day.

… In Case You Were Wondering …

The UAE is a federation of seven emirates:
Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm Al Quwain.

Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language.

The United Arab Emirates’ oil and natural gas reserves
are the world’s sixth and seventh largest, respectively, in the world.

It rains, on average, 25 days a year.

Throughout history, the UAE was known for pearls and was used as a pit stop
along foreign trade routes, including Persian routes to Rome, the Silk Road to China,
the Portuguese African routes, and the British Spice Route to India.

THe UAE is the size of Maine.

Our last day in Alaska was jam packed.

Like most of the places we’ve visited, Fairbanks dates to the early 1900s when gold encouraged so many to take a stab at their luck. The difference between this boomtown and almost all of the others is that the construction of the Alaska Railroad, the Alaska Highway, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAP) contributed greatly to the growth of Fairbanks, not its decline. It’s now a metropolis of 100,000 and has the bragging rights of having the U.S.’s northern most everything: northernmost Costco, northernmost university, northernmost city with public road access, northernmost hospital, etc.

Ronnie is still dragging, so he and Hettie took advantage of their large suite to relax and rest up for the flight home. The rest of us piled on the bus and headed outside the city center to see a small above-ground section of the TAP. This 48-inch diameter pipeline conveys oil 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay in the far north to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America, which is in southcentral Alaska. The crude oil pipeline, in operation since 1977, is privately owned and came at a cost of $8 billion. Tell me that does not come out to $10 million dollars a mile.

From the pipeline we headed to the University of Alaska Museum of the North where we enjoyed art and arctic natural history collections. We saw things like a waterproof parka made out of salmon skin; beadwork; intricate woven baskets; carvings; gold in all its natural forms; a basket made of fish skin, driftwood and reeds; a 5,500 pound copper nugget; and beautiful as well as weird paintings. Oddly the most memorable thing about the museum to me is the building itself made of white reflective panels that look like an artic wind sculpted it.

Just for the novelty of saying we were there, we zipped over to North Pole, where the spirit of Christmas lives year-round, for a 45 minute stop. Yep, that’s the town’s name. There’s a huge Christmas themed store; a reindeer experience; street names like Santa Claus Lane, Kris Kringle Drive, and Mistletoe Lane; and candy cane–striped street lights all over town.

No rest for the weary. We saddled up (got on the bus) and headed to our main attraction of the day: a cruise down the Chena River on a sternwheeler. It was one of my favorite things on the whole trip. The commentator, who came to Alaska as an Air Force dependent and stayed on to become an Alaskan, delivered fast paced and interesting commentary throughout. We were about five minutes from the dock when we stopped to chat with a pilot who was using the river as a runway. The commentator asked him a few questions and then the pilot took off and landed for our viewing pleasure. We also stopped a few yards off shore next to Trail Breaker Kennel, Susan Butcher and her husband’s dog sled camp. Sadly she died of cancer 17 years ago, but their two daughters and her husband still own and operate the camp. He spoke with us about their work with the dogs and his love of mushing. Our last stop was at Chena Village, an Athabascan fishing camp where we were shown furs, dwellings, clothing, birch bark commodities, and fishing and preserving techniques.

We were all tired when we got back to the hotel but stayed focused on what needed doing before we met for dinner in the hotel restaurant. We said our good byes and went our separate ways after dinner grateful for the unpredicted great weather that allowed for an even better trip than we anticipated.

Cyd, Barb, Hettie, and Ronnie (still feeling rotten!) will head to the airport in a couple hours for their middle-of-the-night flights and Cleone, Walter, Dan, and I will follow at 6:00 tomorrow morning. Hard to believe our Alaska adventure started two weeks ago today.

Everyone is headed home except us. We are on a nonstop to Seattle where we’ll layover a couple nights and enjoy the hospitality of our old Army buddies Ed and Viv.

… In Conclusion …

This is the last week of what is referred to up here as ‘the season.’
The last cruise ships head south Saturday.

With only three quarters of a million people Alaska can’t possibly host all the summer tourists on its own, so people are recruited from all over the world. We had a waitress from Turkey,
guides from the lower-48, drivers from Eastern Europe, sales clerks from Asia.

The growing season in Alaska is approximately 100 days.
That rules out a lot of produce, but the ones that do like the looooong days and cool climes can get huge fast. In fact there are huge-veggie contests for things like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower,
lettuce, peas, radishes, rutabaga, Swiss chard, and turnips.

Got up at 8:00.
Put our bags out at 9:00.
Ate a protein bar and drank tea in the room at 9:05.
Checked out at 10:00.
Drove all of five minutes to Glitter Gulch, a cute little afterthought of a roadside strip mall offering a last chance to grab souvenirs, groceries, gas, and lunch before venturing into the wilderness.

Then it was off to the Denali Visitors Center, an impressive operation with the usual gift shop but also wonderful movies, displays, and explanations of the park, its wildlife, and surroundings. We watched a movie about Denali’s sled dog kennel and the park service personnel who are in charge of its success. It’s the only one of its kind in the country.

The train headed further north stopped for us around 3:45 and the rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the magnificent scenery. The changing colors, rivers, cloud formations, and mountains combined to create one picture postcard scene after another. We passed the humble railway station in Nevana where President Harding dedicated the railroad 100 years ago this year. Dinner was in the cute dining car; three of us opted for reindeer ravioli and the others went lower-48 again.

Once in Fairbanks we checked into Sophie’s Station Suites for our last two nights. Each suite is actually a small apartment with a full kitchen, bedroom, living space, and huge closets, so there’s loads of space to get organized for our trip home.

We all headed to be bed concerned about Ronnie who is not feeling well.

… The Iditarod …

The race was started to commemorate the Serum Run of 1925
when diphtheria serum was rushed by dog sled over the Iditarod trail from Anchorage to Nome.
Today most people have forgotten the mushers who pulled off this feat, but they remember Balto, the mutt who was in front for the final leg of the race. Press had a field day covering this momentous race resulting in Balto getting a life-sized statue in Manhattan’s Central Park.

The race starts every year on the first Saturday in March.
The race always ends in Nome and usually starts in Anchorage.
The three years that snow conditions in Anchorage did not allow it, the race began in Fairbanks.

Mushers, each with a team of between 12 and 14 dogs, cover roughly 1,000 miles in 8–15 days or more. 

There are two routes: the Northern Route is used in even-numbered years,
and the Southern Route in odd-numbered years.

In 1985 Libby Riddles was the first woman to win the race.

Susan Butcher won in 1986, became the second four-time winner in 1990,
and the first to win four out of five sequential years.
She is commemorated in Alaska by Susan Butcher Day.

This year’s race marked the 51st anniversary of the race.

At an elevation of 20,310 feet Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve, the first national park in Alaska (1917), and the only one until 1980. It encompasses a whooping 9,446 square miles. Five large glaciers flow off its slopes. Unlike most other parks across the country, Denali National Park remains relatively pristine for species as well as ecosystems and therefore a popular location for scientists to study a myriad of things including climate change and it effect on everything from plants and animals to permafrost, permanently frozen soil.

There is only one road into Denali. It’s 92-mile route deadends at an old mining community. It travels through tundra, so it seems logical that knowing what was in store for us this morning we first needed to bone up on the definition of tundra. A good idea since it accounts for roughly 20 percent of the earth’s surface. Here’s what I have come up with. It’s always treeless, has less than 10 inches of rain, withstands extremely low temperatures, has crappy soil and a short growing season, and the ground constantly freezes and thaws. It is mostly north of the Arctic Circle or above the tree line on high mountains. Much of Alaska and about half of Canada are in the tundra biome. There you have it.

After breakfast we boarded the bus for a 43 mile ride into the park. We could not go any further because a landslide, or in this case a rocky glacier, has slowly carried 300 feet of roadbed downhill. Our driver/guide, who was wearing an Hawaiian shirt to commemorate his last day on the job this season, talked us through everything from the landslide to plans to repair the road to winter temperatures to flora and fauna. He was excellent. It rained or snowed essentially the whole time we were in the park. Low clouds limited visibility further. The snow made it a total and beautiful contrast to the bright day we enjoyed yesterday. We saw a caribou; a golden eagle; a couple of family groups of ptarmigans, the state bird; and grouse. The vegetation changed from the spruce and birch forests near the lodge to earth-hugging, low growing berry bushes, mosses, lichens, fungi, and algae by the time we got to 3,600 feet. We passed through one ranger station where we were greeted by a poem-writing, bearded ranger who looked like he belonged on a hunky ranger calendar. He asked if we might enjoy hearing a poem he had just written about the end of the (tourist) season. Hell yes!

Back at the hotel we were happy to have a couple hours of free time before our foot stomping, 1900s gold rush era, all-you-can-eat dinner theatre. The food was delicious and the entertainment fabulous and fun. The only downside: the wait staff doubled as the entertainers which made for as rushed a meal as I can remember ever gobbling.

We are overnighting again at Denali Park Village.

Today is the anniversary of September 11, 2001. The tragic and traumatic losses of that day were on our minds all day.

… We Also Learned …

Denali has six million acres.

The state park is open year-round and hosts approximately 600,000 visitors annually.
Those who choose to climb must agree to a Leave No Trace which means they agree
to haul out all trash as well as their own human waste.

Alaska has no state tax.

Reindeer and caribou are the same animal
with the distinction that reindeer are domesticated and caribou are wild.
And needless to say reindeer can fly.

We enjoyed a lie-in and slept until 8:00. That was treat number one. Treat number two was opening the curtains to a cloudless sky and breathtaking views not only of Denali but of the whole Alaska Range. Just what Dan and I planned on flying around yesterday was staring us in the face this morning. Spectacular! The part of the range in the foreground was in shadow so looked brown and the taller mountains in the background were smothered in snow. It was beautiful framed between the clear blue sky and all the green below.

After we got over the shock of the magnificent view out our window, we focused on getting our bags out by 9:00 followed by a light breakfast at the grab-and-go in the lobby. Then we had free time to take countless money shots of the mountains before boarding the bus for the 10 minute ride to the train station.

There is a cute dining room and an enthusiast wait staff on the train, so we decided to have lunch on board. In honor of our host state Cyd and Barb tried reindeer chili and said it did not disappoint, and I had a halibut Caesar wrap. The others went mainstream with choices common in the lower-48. Really?

Our four-hour ride offered awesome scenery the whole way. The further north we traveled the more yellow we saw in the forest. Always on the lookout for moose and bears, we had to settle for birds and a few large beaver dams and a couple lodges. We pulled over twice to let the southbound trains pass us on the single track they share. At the second stop the two conductors changed trains, so they could sleep in their own beds tonight.

After we exchanged conductors we passed Cantwell, home to an all-grades (K-12) school with a graduating class of one last spring and a lone teacher for the current school year. Cantwell is known for its all-woman team of Gandy dancers. These gals, not to be confused with dancehall girls, were railway section hands who laid and maintained track while there was a shortage of men during World War II. They did so well and won so many awards men were not allowed to take their places when they came home. “Work with women or apply elsewhere” was not a common refrain after the war, but it was here.

We were at our hotel in Denali National Park with time to get dinner before Dan and I were picked up for our 7:00 visit to DogOnIt, a sled dog kennel in Cantwell. It is owned and run by dog-loving Massachusetts transplants who remodeled original homestead buildings and then designed and built other structures for the specific purpose of breeding and training dogs as well as sharing their love of dogs, knowledge of mushing, and experience with the Iditarod. Their whole operation is impressive and well worth a visit.

Dan and I got back to Denali Park Village around 9:45 tired but pumped by our luck with the clear skies that allowed for such beautiful views of the mountains, nice train travel, and the interesting visit to the kennel.

… Who Knew …

Denali is among the largest mountains in the world situated entirely above sea level.

The park averages 600 mild earthquake events each year.

It is the first national park to conserve wildlife. Dall sheep were the inspiration.

Unsuccessful and disputed attempts to summit Denali began in 1903,
but it wasn’t until 1913 that the first verifiable ascent was made.

We woke up to 46 degrees and rain. Bags had to be in the hall at 6:00 this morning. Ouch. Three of us grazed on snacks we bought at a grocery store yesterday, and Barb, Cyd, Dan, Walter, and I strolled to The Pantry Café a couple blocks from the hotel for a quick breakfast.

We were all pumped for the train experience, so we needed no coaxing to jump onboard the Wilderness Express, a glass-domed railcar, at 8:30. The train moved slowly along the single track with all noses glued to the windows searching unsuccessfully for bear and moose but settling for bald eagles, ducks, and trumpeter swans.

First stop: Talkeetna, 115 miles north. Gold brought miners here in 1896. By 1910 Talkeetna, situated at the confluence of three rivers, was a bustling riverboat steamer station supplying miners and trappers. The town’s population peaked at more than 1,000 during World War I and then declined after the Alaska Railroad was completed in 1923. This historic little village is nestled at the base of North America’s tallest peak, Denali. Talkeetna has been revived as the main staging area for ascents of high peaks nearby and now the population hovers back around 1,000.

Our search for large mammals ended when we got off the train and went in search of lunch. As a devoted watcher of the TV series Northern Exposure, I’d say this tiny, funky hamlet is straight out of my mental picture of life in tiny-town Alaska. Main Street has two blocks of historic buildings, shops, art galleries, restaurants, and a brewery. Nagley’s Store dates back to 1921 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Other historic buildings include the Fairview Inn, dating back to 1923, and the Talkeetna Roadhouse, originally built in 1917. At the end of Main Street is Talkeetna Riverfront Park, offering views of the Susitna River and, on clear days, Denali. Today was not a clear day.

After grabbing a quick lunch and browsing the cute shops Dan and I broke off to meet our pilot and fellow passengers for our flight between and over the mountains. The plan was to see Denali and its impressive neighbors in all their glory, but poor visibility called for a plan B which turned out to be flying over one impressive glacier after the next. It snowed last night, so there was a fresh blanket of white in all the high places. The sun flirted with us the whole hour and a half we were in the air which made for spectacular views. We no sooner landed and it started to rain.

We met our buddies in the dining room at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge for dinner before getting organized for our one-night stay here. Just ahead of sunset the clouds slowly parted near Denali and we had a clear view from our window. Lady Luck just keeps smiling on us. Let’s see if she produces the northern lights known in more sophisticated circles as the aurora borealis.

… Fun to Know …

Denali used to be known as Mount McKinley.

President Harding, his wife, and his mistress stayed at Talkeetna’s Fairview Inn
when he came North to drive in the last spike of the railroad.
He died two weeks after his visit.

Today’s Alaska Railway runs year round from Seward to Fairbanks.
The Wilderness Express refers to two-story tourist cars that are added
to the end of the train from May to September.