Travel Musings by Jan

After two days of cruising at sea, we began on June 7th visiting several of Alaska's ports. Our first port of call was Haines. This pretty little town of about 2,500 people, with its art galleries, microbreweries, and hiking trails, would have been fun to explore in detail. Two notable spots tourists often visit here include the Hammer Museum and the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. The Hammer Museum displays more than 1,200 hammers of various sizes used for a myriad of purposes, all set in their historical context from more than 800 years ago to today. Visit http://www.hammermuseum.org/  for more information. The eagle preserve is located in the Chilkat and Klehini river valleys and serves as habitat to around 40 to 80 bald eagles year round, but this locale features the Fall Congregations from October through February, when more than 3,000 of this species of eagles gather. During October and November, the eagles are drawn there especially to feast on the state's last salmon ru

Our cruise leg of the trip began on the evening of June 4th; we continued cruising at sea on the days of June 5th and 6th. Our views were truly breathtaking. Prior to this trip, my husband and I had no experience with cruising. We were a little bit apprehensive about seasickness, so we brought Dramamine with us and used it as a preventative. We went to sleep while sailing and we awoke sailing without any trouble, so we were relieved. We spent part of the first full day on ship exploring our new surroundings. Even though the MS Zaandam is a mid-size ship with a capacity of 1,432 passengers, it still seemed fairly grand to us. Before we left our stateroom, we studied the map of the interior and then consulted the maps on the walls near the elevators. Even with the maps, we found it a bit difficult at first to navigate the ship. Amenities on this ship included spa and swimming facilities, a movie theater, a casino, a library, a Starbucks coffee bar, several alcohol bars, and several

After three days on land, we travelled on June 4th by deluxe motor coach from Denali National Park to Seward. For most of the trip we motored on the Parks Highway, a route that winds through the interior from Fairbanks to just a few miles north of Anchorage. It was named after George Parks, an early governor of the Territory of Alaska. Our daylong journey spanned 361 miles and treated us to more magnificent scenery. Although the views we enjoyed on this journey were quite different from the wilderness sights we remembered from Denali the day before, the scenery on this bus trip was still awesome. Our bus driver Scott had served in the military at one of the bases near Anchorage. He fell in love with Alaska and decided to retire there; he drives coaches for travel agencies during the tourist season to add income to his retirement salary. He was quite knowledgeable and shared many facts and observations about our surroundings. He asked us to yell out, "moose", or "eagle

Denali National Park is truly one of our country's finest treasures. It encompasses 9,420 square miles, with its area exceeding the area of the state of New Hampshire. It offers its visitors a wildlife spectacular. The habitat for these creatures is the tundra, described by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website as a "treeless ecosystem where winters are long and cold, and summers are short and (usually) chilly." The origin of the word tundra is from the Finnish word "tunturi", meaning treeless heights. Indeed, the landscape changes dramatically as one enters the tundra, changing from forests of aspen, birch, cottonwood, and spruce to vast expanses of lichen mosses, low shrubs, and sedges with mountains, rolling hills, valleys, and few trees. On the morning of June 3 we ate a large breakfast at the Karsten's Public House, anticipating a long day of touring the park. Just one road winds its way through the park. To preserve the wilderness, pr