Travel Tuesday - North To Alaska - Day 3 Anchorage and Day 4 Seward

After 2 busy days in BC, Sunday was a travel day as we headed to Alaska. Our cruise started north and we cruised south.  

There is an advantage to traveling with someone with mobility issues the speed at which you pass through the airport.  From arrival to gate, with security and customs (as we had to clear them in Vancouver) was 20 minutes. There were no lines for us!  This gave us the long waiting at the gate, which is fine with me as I have a book and no worries about missing a flight!

Zipping through the airport in a cart

It was an uneventful flight to Anchorage. 

Thanks to the nice Swiss guy beside us for taking these for me

We made it safely to Alaska (and the start of people's love of taxidermed animals). 

Anchorage airport

While we had a little time in Anchorage we opted to just rest because we had barely stopped for 2 days and had another big travel day the following day.

This picture is really to show the luggage. That is everything we had for our trip. While my mom would disagree, we had everything we needed and did not need all the choices of our regular closets while traveling and I have to carry everything. 

As it was Sunday, all the restaurants near us were closed. So we did another first for my mom (and not a regular thing for me because I live in the country), we did Door Dash. Door Dash brought us some wonderful Indian Food that we ate in the lobby. 

While eating we got to enjoy some of Alaska's wildlife (I must admit I really don't understand the need for all of theses, but it does make me chuckle!)

It was at breakfast the next day, I had a moment of pause as I noticed the bullet hole in the window of the hotel.  Where we had been sitting at dinner, I hadn't seen it, and that is likely for the best, because I had already read about the crime stats in Anchorage and this would not have helped me with my comfort.

Monday, we were back to the airport to take a 5 hour train ride from Anchorage to Seward to the ship. This is also where we stood in line to check into the ship. Fun fact, I found out several weeks after being home, that my next door neighbour, whom I don't know well, was getting off the ship we were getting on that day and we would have passed in the airport that day! It is a small world.

The ride was peaceful, beautiful and fun. A lovely couple was sitting across from us, a couple we had many drinks with on the ship. They asked a very good question (one I wasn't sure the answer of, but Google later helped me). Why didn't Canada buy Alaska from the Soviets? The answer is, the Soviets didn't want to sell it to anything connected to the British, and given the King is our head of state, they didn't offer it to us at all. So we didn't buy Alaska because it was never an option. (I wonder if the Soviets still think this was the best idea???)

Here are some random shots from a train window.

Dall sheep

Mud flats

a glacier

Coming out of the tunnel

another glacier

The first of so many bald eagles - every time I thought of Sam the Eagle from the Muppets

A reflection of me, sent to me by my seat mate

We had decent sandwiches for lunch on the train. We arrived safely at the ship, the Norwegian Jewel. Our luggage was waiting for us in our stateroom. It was exciting to actually be in Alaska!

We went to Moderno the Brizillian Steakhouse and got settled into our rooms.  It was nice to unpack and get settled (my favourite part of cruising).

Come back next week for a sea day, with the amazing Hubbard Glacier.