Well I finally made it to Denali. And let me say, it was gorgeous. Nine interns from the SeaLife Center took a bus ride Wednesday after work to Anchorage. Once in Anchorage, we stayed overnight at the 26th St International Hostel. It was my first hostel experience. The owners were super nice and we met people from all over the world! Once we were settled, we walked over to the Bear Tooth Grill and had a light supper. Our bus left the next morning at 7am, so we didn't stay out to late. Cabs picked us up by 6:30 and by 7 we were on the road. I passed out and slept most of the way to Denali. We made a quick stop at a Princess Lodge (I am not sure which one) along the way. Once we arrived in Denali, we dropped off our bags at the McKinley Lodge and took a shuttle to the park. We walked around a bit, checked into the hotel, and then went paddling on a river. That part was so cool! I had never been white water rafting before.

That night, Sarah, Kady and I went to the Denali Salmon Bake were I got a sampler of their beers. No of us were beer drinkers, so it was funny to try and drink it all. I did finish the Baked Blonde because I ended up buying a sweatshirt with that brew on it.

Friday we got on a bus to tour through Denali. You can't drive in, but these buses will take you up to 80 miles in. Of course our bus broke down and we sat around for about 2 hours which through off the rest of the day. And it was raining. We were destined for fish creek, but instead I only went to Polychrome Dome. We saw bears, caribou, LWD (little white dots = sheep, ptarmigans, etc. Tyler, Andrea, and I headed back to make our free cabin night dinner. Casey and Cairsty has gotten off way earlier to shop and see the sled dog kennel in the park. It was pretty neat to see the landscape change from rainforest to tundra in the park.

The cabin night dinner is "family style." You share a big picnic table with strangers and eat all the yummy food (BBQ ribs, salmon, salad, corn, potatoes, blueberry cobbler). The wait staff each has a character and they sing and dance. After dinner they put on a show about the history of Alaska. It was a little corny and mostly for old folks, but we had fun.

We went back to the hotel, cleaned up a bit, and headed back to Salmon Bake. Kady, Sarah, Travis, and Reana ended up meeting us there. They took the very last bus back from the park and saw all sorts of wildlife up close. They had a great time hiking around and were famished!

Saturday morning we weren't quite sure what time we were leaving. The sales manager from the SeaLife Center had set us up with a special bus back to Anchorage. If I had known what time the bus was leaving, I would have taken a helicopter ride and landed on Mt. McKinley (or Denali as the locals call it). But Andrea and I did some souvenier shopping instead.

We had to meet the bus at the train station, so that was pretty neat seeing the train pull in. We had an entire empty bus to ourselves on the ride back. Most people slept, but I tried to stay awake to see what I had missed on the way up. I know I keep saying this, but Alaska really is beautiful.

Maurice, our busdriver, pulled into a rest stop so we could see Mt.Kinley. I guess it is only visible about a third of the time. It is so high it creates its own weather. We saw most of it. Turns out Casey and Cairsty, who left on a different early bus saw it clear as day. No fair!

We stopped in Houston, AK for ice cream and made it to Anchorage. My boss Tim took us around the Anchorage office a bit and then leant us his car to drive back to Seward. We stopped at Moose's Tooth for dinner. Tyler, Travis, Kady, Reana, and I then headed back to Seward. (Andrea and Sarah got a ride with other ASLC employees). We started back on the one road connecting Seward to Anchorage and were stopped in our tracks by a huge accident! Luckily, we weren't involved, but reports were saying it would be a 4 hour delay. Mind you it was already 7:30pm-ish. We decided to turn around and see a movie. Kady and I saw "Hairspray" (how fun!), Travis and Reana saw "Transformers" (more than meets the eye) and Tyler saw "Harry Potter 5" (sooo good!). By the time we got on the road again, it was 11pm. Traffic had just started moving again. We were all exhausted and all needing some time seperate from each other. 1:30am we roll into Seward.

Let me just say what a great friend Kady is. She and I were supposed to be working the Anchorage Market by ourselves the next day, Sunday. She could have said no, i am sleeping in and staying home, but she got up at 6 with me and we drove back to Anchorage to sit in the rain at the market. Amy, my boss, said we could leave at 2 or 3pm and we were so out of there! Kady and I were exhausted, freezing, and no fun by the time we left the market. So Kady, wherever you are- thank you!

Here are some pix from that weekend:












I am at the laundry mat, so I will post a few more Denali pix from Cabin Nite and such later. :)