UMTravels

The forced march is over for a couple of days.

This morning’s schedule is much more reasonable… bags out the door by 9:30am, out of the rooms at 10am, and onto the bus to the train station at 10am.

I used my time billing some hours, cleaning up email, uploading photos.

At the gift shop next to the Visitor’s Center I finally found the Denali souvenir that I wanted for myself — the Denali Topo Map Bandanna. I’ve got them for Glacier, the Grand Canyon, and a couple of other National Parks. Cool, and practical.

There is always another “shopping opportunity” on a tour — the next one was the Alaska Railroad depot gift store. Scored a t-shirt for Pucci at 75% off (though it was marked at 50% off at $10) and a couple of pins for my collection and some schedules for Dwight.

All that and I’m not even on the train yet for what promises to be a great eight hour train ride. According to guy at the coffee shop — the views from the train are better than from the park itself… and one of the other folks on the tour looked at the Denali Cam up in the visitor’s center and the mountain was 75% out from the clouds.

Make that more like 100%:

Well, there are some clouds up there, but not many.

Both lunch and dinner were on the train. The salmon spread for lunch was just the right amount of food for a light lunch. The salmon for dinner was a little overcooked — what is it about Alaskans that they all overcook their salmon (or at least so far).

Here is the scrolly bar with all the pictures — some of which show more of the dome car, and some videos as well:

Got to the hotel about 8:30pm, time for Ross to take a nap before we head out to see what they gay bars in Anchorage are like — all three of them within a two block area.

The plan was to sample all three. The reality was we didn’t make it past the first one because of one of the oddest drag shows I’ve ever been to. Seems most of the patrons were either straight or lesbians. Add a full kitchen and the stage for the show OUTSIDE in 40 degree weather under half a quonset hut, and you have a good time Alaska style.

Left at midnight to avoid the inevitable drunken brawls Alaska is famous for.

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