Family Pictures..

The Clemow

Family

6-24-2010

Last Posting

The laundry is all done, thanks to the help of Jeff and the boys. I am posting a few more pictures that we did not post. We took 860 pictures (after we deleted some). We had an amazing time, priceless....


Whistler area

Leaving Vancouver

First formal dinner on Radiance of the Seas

Goofy Drake

This picture was taken around 11:00 p.m.

Jeff helping Logan with tie

The flowers were beautiful and everywhere!!

Logan's typical lunch on the cruise ship. This was followed by ice cream cones and Logan and I usually had at least two or three a day, yummy!!

Lumberjacks

Handsome dude!!!

And another handsome dude playing cards

Kids inside cabin, I tried not to enter as Drakes area was always mess...no surprise here!

If you forgot what day it was, you would go to one of the elevators and that would set you straight. Great idea!!

Grrrrrrr...........

Drake loving his sandwich, a bacon cheddar melt

These fuscia plants were everywhere in hanging baskets

In awe at Capilano

Looking good..

We were over 10 stories high walking in the tree tops at Capilano

Capilano bridge area

Float plane adventure

How beautiful

Radiance of the Seas, Icy Strait Point

Good conversation....

Poppy

Our room stewards were great!!

More of Hubbard Glacier

White water rafting

Final Post

Janie here...I will be posting a few more pictures so check back later if you have any interest.

Day 14 - Travel Home

It's 4:20 in the morning and the sun is up! Time to put the bagage out in the hallway for pickup. It's 5:30 a.m. and we are headed down to the bus for the airport. Its 7:45 a.m.and we have boarded the flight to Minneapolis our stop with a 4 hour layover. Its 6:20 p.m. and we have one final leg from Minneapolis to KC. ETA for Overland Park is 10 p.m. Fourteen days later we have completed a wonderful trip and thanks to Janie and the family for a wonderful birthday gift. We toured Vancouver, BC and saw the Olympic sights. Toured many Alaskan ports learning about the history of the state, geography and residents. We saw more wifdlife than most see in a lifetime. We ate way too much food and got way too little sleep. We met a lot of new people and amazed at the number from KC area. Alaska is vast, green, mountainous and full of life. Going inland we experienced how living it rough (no electricity, plumbing, roads, etc.) is the way of life for many. My bucket list to visit every state in the Union is now complete. Thanks family and can't wait for the next adventure......

Day Thirteen--Travel back to Anchorage

The last day of the trip had us getting up late and having a quick breakfast before a 2.5 hour bus ride to Talkeetna in the rain. We stopped halfway for a quick break at the Alaskan Military Memorial. Yes Alaska played a big part in WWII with Japan taking a couple of Alluetian Islands hostage.

We had an hour or so to kill in Talkeetna before boarding our luxury railcar. We trekked down to the river, visited some shops and had a reindeer hot dog and chocolate malt. After the train rolled into the station we boarded and got our introduction to the train car. The railcar was a Royal Caribbean luxury car that had the scenic view open type top so our view was great and the seats were very, very comfortable and spacious. Thirty three of the group headed back down to the first level for a very fine dinner. The mix berry pie and ice cream was heavenly however, the brownie with ice cream was the boys favorite.

3.5 hours later we arrived in Anchorage for a quick 5 minute transfer to the charter bus and then to the Marriott. We said our goodbyes to Nathan and John our wonderful guides and headed to the room. After checking everyone in online to Delta, Sara bid us farewell and took a cab to the airport for her redeye flight. Poor Sara has to work tomorrow, but is excited to see her kitty cats and the Cooper (Boxer). We will meet up again on Thursday as we start the 4th of July weekend.

So off to bed with the sun still high in the sky behind the rain clouds so we can depart for the airport at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow. We'll make a few more adjustments to pictures and updates and close out the blog tomorrow while in Minneapolis for our layover.

Day Twelve--Denali Park

Today started with an early breakfast for Drake, Logan and Dad. Sara and Janie took all chances to relax. Everyone loaded up on the bus with Mt. McKinley (Denali) being behind clouds. The ride from Talkeetna to Denali is a little over 2.5 hours and we slept a little and got to see a lot of landscape and one bear!! Wildlife was sparse for the most part, but we did see a car crumbled on the side after hitting a moose.

Denali National Park is on the east side of the mountain range and we learned that Mt McKinley was for as far back as records show called Denali (The High or Great One). It was a naturalist from Ohio who wrote an article for the New York Times that mentioned Senator McKinley from Ohio in the article that made the name stick. Alaska is working year after year versus the Ohio leadership to get the name changed back to Mt. Denali.

We ate a nice lunch in the park restaurant and toured the park visitor center. Next step was to load up on a bus (school bus type--not our luxurious motorcoach) to start the 4.5 hour tour of the park. We didn’t get very far where we saw two moose alongside the road. Our tour guide gave us a ton of information on the mountain formation, history and how the park came to be. It is managed totally naturally versus many parks, so what we saw has not changed in a long, long time. At our turn around we had a native Indian give us a history of the Alaskan tribes. Drake had an encounter with a ground squirrel and got some great pictures. We toured a cabin from the early 1900’s when they built the only road in the park that we drove.

We had some rain during the day, but always stopped when we got to an area of the park. Very lucky and we saw 4 large Caribou along the river banks. This was just another great excursion ending back at the McKinley lodge our sleepover point for tonight (got the newest building less than a year old!) After checking in and a little relaxation we loaded up on another bus to head for our white water excursion.

They fit us all with dry suits (water is 36 degrees) which was an experience in itself. The Clemow clan took the front of the boat and we headed down the river. A lot of great rapids and scenery for 1.5 hour trek. The highest rapid was a level 4. Towards the end of the trip, Drake, Logan, Sara and Janie took a dip in the river to see what 36 degree water feels like in a wet suit. Thank goodness the suits work and they said it was awesome. We loaded back on the bus and headed to the lodge with some new t-shirts, sweatshirt for Drake and they took a pretty good picture of us on one of the rapids that we of course had to purchase. The was our fourth white water rafting adventure for Drake, Logan, Janie and me and Sara's first ever. Sara really enjoyed the trip and is ready to go again. We are talking about going to the Grand Canyon to camp, raft and hike next year. We will have to post the picture of rafting after we get home.

We headed straight to the restaurant for a 10 p.m. dinner (still light out of course) and we all agreed that the nachos we had were the best we have ever eaten! At midnight it was still as bright out as we would see around 8 p.m. during the summer. We will post a picture Janie took at midnight vs. the one she took at 10:00 am the next morning. Thank goodness for heavy curtains.

Everyone crashed fairly quickly after a very long day. Tomorrow we get to sleep in. Last day tomorrow with a bus ride to Talkeetna and then boarding the Alaskan train to Anchorage. We end up at the Marriott where Sara will head out for her red eye flight home. The rest of us head out Monday morning bright and early.