We ended our trip in Fairbanks. The final part of the tour was a Sternwheel Boat Ride, which talked about the history of the area, from Susan Butcher winning the Iditerod to a “Living Museum” Athabascan Village.

I didn’t take many pictures in Fairbanks, so this last post is just random pictures of things I liked.

Whittier

Byers Lake

Salmon wheel

Fairbanks (June 23):
Sunrise 2:59 AM
Sunset 12:48 AM
Temperatures 55 – 72 F

Fairbanks (June 24):
Sunrise 3:00 AM
Sunset 12:48 AM
Temperatures 52 – 68 F

Fairbanks (June 25):
Sunrise 3:01 AM
Sunset 12:47 AM
Temperatures 50s – 70s F

Fairbanks (June 26):
Sunrise 3:03 AM
Temperature 56 F

We saw a brief glimpse of Denali from Talkeetna and Denali State Park, but for the most part the mountain stayed hidden.

That didn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of other gorgeous scenery, however.

How’s that for a hotel view?

Denali State Park (June 21):
Sunrise 4:05 AM
Sunset 12:01 AM
Temperatures 44 – 70 F

Denali National Park (June 22):
Sunrise 3:40 AM
Sunset 12:19 AM
Temperatures 47 – 70 F

At Denali State Park and Denali National Park we got to do a lot more wandering around in the woods, in addition to the Byers Lake Nature Walk and Denali Walking Tour we took.

There was also a Natural History Bus Tour through Denali, where almost as soon as we entered the park we mother moose and foals.

Further into to park I saw snowshoe hare.

And plenty of birds everywhere, but the only bird I got a half decent picture of was this magpie

On our hike we saw several Red Squirrels

And at the end of that hike we got to see a goshawk nest with babies (none of my pictures turned out anything but blurry) which according to our guide is very rare.

In Fairbanks, Tania took us to the UAF large animal farm where we got to see Musk Ox (they might have been one of Jules’ favorite parts).

Although we didn’t get to take the train from Whittier to Fairbanks, we did get to spend several days in Denali.

From Talkeetna, we went to Denali State Park / Trapper Creek, AK.

There were did a nature walk at Byers Lake, where (despite it being mid-June) I got to see lots of spring wildflowers.

Ground Dogwood/Bunchberry

Black Lily

Arctic Starflower

Beach-head Iris

Then we got on another bus and went to Denali National Park (this was one of the least interesting legs of the journey) where there were even MORE spring wildflowers.

Arctic lupine is really pretty.

Although I think the bluebells we have here a prettier, the tall bluebells were still pretty.

Maybe a Naked-stemmed Wallflower?

Small-flower Anemone

Yes, it did rain on us briefly, but it wasn’t cold, so the rain just made everything sparkly.

Snow Arnica

Ground Dogwood/Bunchberry

All in all, I was delighted to enjoy a new batch of mostly new-to-me spring wildflowers.

As I said, one of the reasons for this trip was so Jules could see the Glaciers before they melted.

This trip we not only got to go through Glacier Bay, but also through College Fjord.

One of the things I really loved about this cruise was how the ship naturalist made sure we knew when the most interesting things would be happening.

I don’t have a fancy zoom lens, and ended up just using my normal lens so I could pay attention to what I was seeing instead of paying attention to my camera, so I don’t have great close-ups of all the animals we saw.

And there were quite a few: humpback whales, sea otters, sea lions, mountain goats, and even a brown bear (Michael and Jules saw the bear, I didn’t catch it.)

It was drizzly and overcast (and cold) but we did get to see the glacier calving.

And honestly, it was just amazing seeing the glacier.

The following day we went into College Fjord, which is something we hadn’t done on our trip in 2011.

Although still cold, the weather was beautiful.

We saw lots of animals.

And it was astounding to see the glaciers.

Glacier Bay (June 18):
Sunrise 3:56 AM
Sunset 10:14 PM
Temperatures 46-58 F

College Fjord (June 19):
Sunrise 4:08 AM
Sunset 11:27 PM
Temperatures 46-61 F

Going to jump around here a bit; we’ll come back to Glacier Bay and College Fjord.

Our third stop on the cruise was Skagway. For many, this was the starting point for those who were part of the Klondike Gold Rush.

A look at the trail should give you a good idea of the insanity that was part of this dream of striking it rich. Take a look at the “Golden Staircase” up which men had to carry the ton of goods they were required to have before being allowed into Canada.

As fascinated as I am by history, I am more interested in nature, so we did a hike up part of the Chilkoot trail and a float back down the Taiya & Chilkoot rivers.

Things I learned: they really don’t want you to fall into the river, as it’s a glacial river and the average June temperature is about 48.

The other thing I learned is that glacier rivers are not good to drink from.

That green color you see? It’s from the glacial silt suspended in the water, which is not particularly good for your digestive tract.

After the cruise portion of our vacation ended, we rode the train from Whittier to Talkeetna, which was a shorter train ride than I had really wanted, but still a good way to see the sights.

Whittier is an odd place, accessible only by boat or through the 2 1/2 mile single lane tunnel. We had zero chance to explore as we immediately got on the train to go north.

But as I said, the views from the train were incredible.

It was about 6 hours to travel 174 miles, surrounded by mountains and passing rivers and marshes and towns.

The visit to Talkeetna was a melancholy one for me.

When we visited in 2011, it was soon after my cousin Ben had climbed Denali. Talkeetna is the starting point for climbers, so we discovered we’d hung out in some of the same places he had while preparing to climb.

It was also the anniversary of the day my mother died, and I’d managed to wrench my back while on the train, so I was relatively miserable. Yet the views were amazing and it was impossible not to appreciate the surrounding beauty.

Skagway (June 17):
Sunrise 3:42 AM
Sunset 10:23 PM
Temperature 51 – 56 F

Whittier (June 20):
Sunrise 4:22 AM
Temperature 49 F

Talkeetna (June 20):
Sunset midnight
Temperatures 58 – 72 F

The second port stop was Juneau, which is the capital of Alaska, and also is accessible only by plane or boat.

Juneau is the cruise stop for whale watching, which we of course did.

Because we were visiting in June instead of July this time, we didn’t get to see the humpback whales bubble feeding like we did in 2011, but it was still an incredible privilege to see these amazing animals.

Jules and Michael got to see a humpback breaching from the cruise ship–I missed it.

On the whale watching cruise we also got to see sea lions.

It was good we didn’t have to do much beside stand around for the whale watching, because that morning we took a hike a Mendenhall Glacier.

It was a fantastic guided hike and we had a marvelous guide who was knowledgeable about the area and (importantly to me) the things we saw on our hike.

We went partway up the West Glacier Trail, to get a view of Mendenhall Glacier.

Mendenhall Glacier, however, made me a bit melancholy. For all I’d been saying for a year we wanted Jules to see the glaciers before they all melted, it was still a shock to see how much Mendenhall glacier had retreated.

Here is Mendenhall Glacier as viewed from Mendenhall Lake in June 2026.

Here is the view from Mendenhall Lake in 2011.

Juneau (June 16):
Sunrise 3:50 AM
Sunset 10:07 PM
Temperatures 48 54 F

Yup, that’s right, we made our THIRD trip to Alaska in June!

We took Jules so they could see the glaciers before they all melt, and we had a marvelous time.

Because I know I need to keep my sleep consistent, we tried to keep to Eastern time as much as we could, which meant I was out and about at 5AM local time most days.

Still wasn’t early enough to catch the sunrise once got to Alaska, even when on the days I woke up at 4.

We did the cruise North from Vancouver to Whittaker, so our first day was at sea, and our first port was Ketchikan.

Ketchikan is in a rainforest–part of the Tongass National Forest.

Rainforest was a hint that we should have remembered to pack rain gear, so after getting raincoats, we went on a damp–but still amazing–boat ride and hike.

Tongass is 16.7 million acres, which makes the Tongass about larger than the entirety of West Virginia (but smaller than South Carolina), and it’s the largest (intact) rainforest in the world.

The hike was through an island rainforest, so zero permanent human habitation, and the walk was on a boardwalk, which minimizes the impact on the forest.

On the ride back, we saw harbor seals, and beautiful foggy mountains.

I would have enjoyed more time to wander around the town, which has plenty of history, but Ketchikan is the shortest stop on the cruise, and I wouldn’t have missed the rainforest for anything.

At sea (June 14):
Sunrise 5:15 AM
Sunset 10:07 PM
Temperatures 51-61 F

Ketchikan (June 15):
Sunrise 4:05 AM
Sunset 9:30 PM
Temperatures 52-57 F

OK, we’ve also had rain.

But it’s time for ephemeral spring wildflowers!

Trout lilies! (Erythronium americanum)

Large White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica)

Wood Anemone (Anemonoides quinquefolia)

Star chickweed (Stellaria pubera)

Because of the government shutdown, the places maintained by the National Park Service were closed, so I did not get to revisit Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Press, which was one of the things I had been looking forward to.

But it meant that many of the smaller museums were getting more visitors than they might otherwise have, and it freed up some of our time to see some of those places.

In reverse order, we visited:

The Museum for Art in Wood which was interesting, but also now has a good bit of my money spent in its shop.

I didn’t take any pictures (it was a small space and much was behind glass) but I do recommend visiting if you’re in Philadelphia.

Especially the gift shop.

In the middle was the Independence Seaport Museum.

In addition to historical items related to sailing…

…they had a lot of model ships.

I got twitchy just looking at some of them.

And they also had two ships you could tour: Olympia and Becuna.

Becuna is a 1944 WWII era submarine, and I didn’t feel like being that confined, so we didn’t even consider a tour.

But we did go aboard Olympia, which is a nineteenth-century cruiser that went into service in 1895 and served through the first World War.

It was fascinating.

First and foremost was the relative luxury of the officers’ cabins and mess compared to hammocks and single wooden box the rest of the sailors had. But it was also steam-powered, which meant all the apparatus for running a coal engine. And the giant guns which looked to me like cannon but were labeled as rifles.

I didn’t take any pictures, despite the fact for most of the time we were the only people on the ship, mostly because I was ruminating about the ship as we wandered around. And I got a bit melancholy, thinking of all the war she had seen, and the amount of blood that had been spilled on her decks.

Yet, I recommend the tour, especially in the off-season when there aren’t many people.

The first museum we visited was my favorite: The Science History Institute.

It was delightful.

It had a little bit of everything.

I liked the other two museums but loved The Science History Institute.

One of the things we try to do as much as we can, is to leave our trips as unplanned as possible. This does a couple things: First, it keeps me from fretting about time and what we have and haven’t done etc. If we don’t have a hard timeline, then we can take as much or as little time at places as we want, and if we see something interesting, we can just stop.

One of those places we decided to randomly stop at was the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

I am fascinated by old vehicles.

First, I love the way many older cars look.

Secondly, I read a lot of historical mysteries and romances–some of my favorites are those that weren’t historical when they were written (like Arthur Conan Doyle & Agatha Christie).

It’s one thing to read about a doctor’s buggy…

…or a stage coach…

…or a WWI military ambulance.

It’s something else entirely to see that vehicle in person.

To imagine packing all your worldly goods and everything you’d need to build a homestead into a Conestoga wagon and taking off for parts unknown.

Or to be rushing through London streets in a Hansom cab (or even worse, to be thrown from atop a carriage in an accident).

The carriage suddenly jolted violently, knocking her to the floor, and for a split second, it felt as if the whole of it would tip on its side. But after a few terrifying heartbeats, it slammed back down to the road and came to an abrupt stop.

…

Bess’s voice came from the other side of the carriage and Winnefred’s calm disappeared in an instant. Bloody hell, the girl had been thrown from the top of the carriage.
—Nearly a Lady by Alissa Johnson

You observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder of your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probably have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly have been symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the side. Therefore it is equally clear that you had a companion.”
— The Adventure of the Creeping Man by Arthur Conan Doyle

So I was delighted to stumble across this transportation museum and be able to take my time looking at all the different vehicles, and maybe tie them into the stories I’ve read that featured them.

My dad always had aquariums.

When I was little, there were tropical fish, but later, after Brian and I were both grown, he got his first salt-water tank. Brian took that when we sold my parent’s house, and several of the fish my dad had bought survived Brian’s move to South Carolina.

Which is a long way of saying that aquariums make me think of my dad.

I had my own tropical fish for a while, but our house is small, and when Grandmom moved in, the fishtank (and a lot of other stuff) had to go to make space.

I never got another tank, even when we had room. They take maintenance, and I’m a little too lazy, which is why I love visiting aquariums when we travel. No work on my part, plus the kinds of creatures I enjoy watching you can’t have in a home tank anyway.

So this trip was planned around two aquariums: Mystic Aquarium, and Adventure Aquarium.

Mystic Aquarium was the first we visited, and I found I really enjoyed walking around Mystic. (And eating all the fresh seafood.)

Because I am terrible at paying attention to details, we discovered that much of Mystic Aquarium is outdoors.

And it was raining that morning.

I took very few pictures there, although I of course got some of my favorites.

I love watching jellyfish. Unfortunately, the rooms that hold them tend to be small and loud and echo-y, so that removes most of the relaxation factor.

I stripped all the sound from the videos. You’re welcome.

We went to Adventure Aquarium in the middle of our stay in Philadelphia. Travel-wise we’d probably have been better going on Friday, but aquariums can get busy and crowded, so we opted for a Wednesday.

Not sure it made much of a difference, as it was stroller day, and there were multiple school groups.

These were all kinds of creepy.

I mean, seriously creepy.

Luckily, there were some of the more calming species to watch.

Both aquariums were nice, but neither was a favorite I’d want to necessarily go out of my way to visit again.

Let me say first, there is something seriously wrong with Pennsylvania.

We went to multiple state parks, and there was not a SINGLE postcard to be purchased at any of them. I get that not as many people send cards and letters these days, but it’s not like postcards expire, or go stale and have to be thrown away.

And I doubt they’re THAT expensive to print. So: what the hell PA? Sure some of the places we stopped weren’t that exciting, but some of them were gorgeous and stunning and amazing–so very many missed postcard opportunities.

We attempted to avoid Interstates as much as possible, enjoying the scenery of back roads and trying to stop at places that looked interesting.

Our first stop was Bald Eagle State Forest which ended up being a brief stop, since where we ended up didn’t have much hiking. So after a quick scenic view, we moved on.

Winkleblech Vista

We went onto the Street of Shops in Lewisburg which was listed in one of the PA books as an interesting place to see.

I texted that picture to my brother with the quote, “Read the TV Guide, you don’t need a TV.”

It was strange and interesting and a lot. It quite literally had a little bit over everything.

We had a fun wander, but I got a bit overwhelmed so we moved onto Sellinsgrove where our hotel for the night was.

Michael starting off his vacation right

Then we took a short hike at Shikellamy State Park.

Why, you ask, did we choose a hotel in Sellinsgrove? Because it was ALSO for Shamokin Dam, and how could we not visit a place called Shamokin Dam?

But also because it was close to where we wanted to hike the next day: Ricketts Glen State Park.

This is why I couldn’t believe the state parks didn’t have postcards.

I mean, the Falls Trail has twenty one waterfalls.

It wasn’t an easy hike, at 5.7 miles of steep and rocky trail, but it was the perfect day for hiking, and the scenery was gorgeous.

The next day was a scenic drive through the Delaware Water Gap with some hiking.

Then eastward, for our first aquarium. (Aquariums in a separate post.)

Following a day of aquarium, wandering the town, and eating lots of seafood, we had another day of scenic driving with some hikes thrown in.

First stop was Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center for a hike along Bushkill Creek.

Then a wander around Ringing Rocks Park.

The final stop of the day was Ralph Stover State Park.

Then onto Philadelphia, where stayed and explored for several days.

We finally made it to the Grand Canyon! (If you’re friends with me, it’s quite possible you already know this because I sent approximately a million post cards.)

I love taking the train. I relaxed and read for two days to Arizona and two days back east.

Once we got to the park, we saw there were lots of people there, even though it was mid February; I can’t imagine what it’s like there at the height of tourist season. I imagine I would have not enjoyed myself anywhere near as much.

Something I’ve noticed before is that I really don’t love the mountains in the west. I finally figured out why: a lot of the landscape there looks to me like areas of West Virginia after strip mining and mountain top removal–bare rock with maybe a single species of trees. I eventually recognized what was bothering me, and it helped a bit to acknowledge this was natural and not human destruction, but I do prefer my worn-down, lived-in Appalachians.

In Grand Canyon National Park, we hiked about a mile and a half down the Hermit’s Trail, but never went further in/down. I think I’d like to take a mule down and up, but maybe not hike the whole way. Coming out felt like the hardest mile and a half we’ve ever done, and we weren’t pushing ourselves.

But it was an amazing hike and view.

But I think my favorite things in the park were Hermit’s Rest …

… and the Desert View Watchtower …

… which were designed by Mary Colter in 1914 and 1932.

In the tower I loved how the small windows forced you to focus on one part of the landscape, instead of trying to take in everything.

Since we had a week, we took some time and visited Walnut Canyon National Monument …

… Glen Allen Dam, Horseshoe Bend, Lee Canyon, Wupatki National Monument …

… and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

Sunset Crater Volcano was fascinating, and I kept wondering how much of what we were seeing was “normal” and how much was from the 2022 Tunnel fire.

Regardless, it was all fascinating.