We flew into Anchorage a few days prior to our cruise departure. First stop was going by the Aurora Fine Art Gallery, that my friend and mentor, Aurora Bull, had told me about. We took the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Talkeetna, which is a quaint artistic town. In Talkeetnawe found a sweet quilt shop called The Patchwork Moose that provided the best souvenir of a northern sky fabric panel to make a keepsake throw. The blue skies were clear; therefore, we were able to see Denali from the point. The locals told us that we were lucky because there is only a twenty percent chance of it being clear enough to catch such a sight. We felt very lucky to have had a perfect view of Mt. McKinley. Such a blessing to see God’s masterpiece! We highly recommend the Gold Star package as your train ride. The ride is a double decker train car with a glass top that gives you a panoramic view of the Alaskan countryside. Our ride included both lunch and dinner. The train schedule and tour packages are on their website at www.alaskarailroads.com.

From Anchorage we went to Seward to board the Viking ship named Venus. Our tour was the Alaskan Inside Passage which included the following ports: Valdez, Hubbard Glaciers, Icy Strait Point, Haines, Juneau, Stika, Ketchikan and Vancouver. We missed out on Skagway and Fairbanks, so we may have to go back if I can ever get Bob back on another flight. We had thirteen days of adventure. Our top picks were whale watching, the scenery of mountain terrain with glaciers, and the lumberjack show. We were advised to take every excursion that we could that included the whales and glaciers. We were so glad that we took the advice, which did not disappoint. We observed three types of whales: the transitional, orca, and hump back. It was breath taking to see them breach the water along with the blowholes and spouts going as much as 30 to 40 ft high. There were times we didn’t even know which way to look because they were all around us. Our tour boat was large, and it was fascinating to know the humpback whales were at least half as long as the boat. It was especially exciting when they would surface right next to us. If you want to have same thrilling experience, check out www.kenaifjords.com for the tour excursion on Resurrection Bay to see Bear Glacier, Aialik Glacier, Holgate Glacier along with the wildlife of Dall sheep, eagles and, of course, the whales.

The Glaciers are a glistening image made from 400 years of ice on top of majestic mountains. In some places the glaciers melt into waterfalls that run off into the bay. There are so many shades of blue and teal. Hubbard Glacier is where the boat tour stopped and scooped up a glacier block to be used for the ice in our drinks. Blueberry Lemonade with glacier ice seemed most appropriate in Alaska. The scenery is everything I had heard about and more. I could paint it for days! The terrain is a vast rugged country with peaked mountains verses our beautiful rounded ones in Tennessee. The flowers are vibrant in color; I assume due to the daylight and rainfall. Did I mention, it didn’t get dark during our visit? Side note: there are times that they have darkness for months, which would be a major issue for me.

The lumberjack show in Ketchikan was very entertaining. The skill set was impressive and the silly humor made you laugh. The show was designed for all ages and families. It is truly something you should experience. The abundant wildlife included bears, whales, eagles, sea lions, sea otters, moose, wolves, and salmon. All of the animals in Alaska seemed bigger. We did see some in the wild and there are many signs that have warnings. We took a short hike/ nature walk that had 3 men armed with shotguns stationed along this 2-mile trail to scare the bears should we come upon them. They said that the bears just came out of hibernation and are hungry. Grizzlies are nothing to mess with and they don’t scare away as easy as black bears. We only saw one in the wild on the bank while we were on the boat. I was totally good with that. We did stop at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation between Anchorage and Seward. It’s a natural zoo like setting where we enjoyed getting a safe, closer view of these animals.

The Viking Daily is a daily newsletter of the upcoming day. It was packed with information on the upcoming ports, itinerary with both on-board and shore excursions, and weather. It helped us make the most of each day. Many of our stops had museum tours on the agenda. While most were good, you can only go through so many without them looking the same. I recommend you research and pick and choose which ones to go through and be adventurous to check out the port towns. We had a great trip; however, I do wish we could have had more time in some of the ports such as Juneau and Ketchikan. I would have loved to have seen the Northern Lights but our trip was not in the timeframe when those lights shine their amazing colors. If Alaska is on your travel bucket list, start saving your money, do some good planning, book the trip, and go!