As summer 2014 comes to a close, many of you may begin the thought process and plan to cross something special off your "bucket list." We know that Alaska is almost always a 'bucket list" destination for folks who have never been there.
This is the best time to begin thinking about booking an Alaska cruise or better yet a combo land/sea vacation. Although there are weekly "cruise only" options, if you are only going to do this once in your lifetime, we recommend you seriously consider making the investment to do both land and sea. There are several comments this month in our Client Recommendations section from recent Alaska trips - one a cruise only and the other a land/sea combination.
People expect and want to see three things on their Alaskan Adventure - Mountains, Glaciers, and Wildlife!
Although you will see Glaciers and Mountains along with whales, bald eagles, and other sea life when taking a 7 night Inside Passage cruise, if you want an up close and personal experience with, bears, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, and more, you need to get to the interior of Alaska and visit Denali Park.
Land/Sea packages include the 7 night Inside passage cruise plus varied land itineraries from 3 to 7 nights either before or after the cruise portion but there is a limit of space available on each tour, hence the best dates and tours do sell out early.
We were not agents when we made our first Alaska trip in late June/early July of 2000. Our agent said 'if you are only going to do this once, do it right!" Yes, we had "sticker shock" when she priced it out, but after we completed our think-tank process we booked a 12 night (7 days cruise and 5 days land) package.
If you have visited our home, you may have seen our Alaska picture album and some of the knick-knacks we brought back from that trip. By the time we got home, first, we knew we had to go back again as there was so much more to see and do. We also told friends that the trip was worth every dime we spent! Rather than "canned" pictures, here are some actual photos from our album.
Left: Under the Alaska Pipeline outside Fairbanks
Center: Going into the Park for a real Salmon Bake
Right: Panning for gold at the Eldorado Gold Mine #8 in Fairbanks
During the Riverboat Discovery Tour in Fairbanks, you make a stop at Chena Indian Village. Amazingly, there is no "gift shop" at the site. It is purely an interesting educational experience to understand how the native Chena Indians lived in the past and how they live today. Awesome!
Right: We spent one night at the Denali Princess Lodge
Center: The entrance to Denali Park
Left: Watching a moose run across the field in Denali
Anchorage gave us some incredible memories.
Helen had the opportunity to visit two nephews who live in Anchorage. Randy Comellas and his family (left) overlooking the Connor's Bogs and Jim Lunny (center) meeting us at the Capt Cook Hotel where we stayed for two nights. That little girl in the picture is now a graduate student at Stanford University.
Another "first" happened at a restaurant called Simon & Seaford's at dinner with Randy, Suzanne & Thomissa where Al had his first taste of Johnny Walker Blue Label Scotch (compliments of the manager).
The helicopter landed at the bottom of this Glacier (center) outside of Skagway and we had a chance to walk around. We did bring back a rock that we dug out of the ice that could be a few years or thousands of years old. Although not crazy about flying in something as small as a helicopter, it was a once in a lifetime experience!
We were in Skagway on July 4, 2000 and witnessed a real "Small Town America" Independence Day parade down the main street
This is the famous creek at Creek Street in Ketchikan and in the late summer you can see thousands of salmon swimming upstream to spawn. We visited the Saxman Indian Village here also and saw a master Totem Pole Carver at work. 
We had a great waiter on the ship and we had so much fun with him during the week that the last night after dessert was served, Al got up to get his own coffee refill and when the waiter said something, Al asked for his jacket and told him to "take a break" and then Al proceeded to serve coffee to all the guests in his section.
Last month, we wrote about how privileged we are in this business to be able to help others create their own memories. We hope you enjoyed our personal trip down memory lane as much as we did reminiscing about our first Alaska trip 14 years ago.
All Clients who make a new reservation during the month are automatically entered into that month's drawing with the winner receiving $25 on-board credit for the qualifying reservation.
