See Part 1 which covered the road trip through Canada into Alaska, Fairbanks and Denali National Park. Below, we start from Anchorage.
Anchorage
We packed the tent up early because it felt like it was going to rain. Driving south and near Wasilla, we were struck by the beauty of the area. It did rain and when we hit Springhill Suites in Anchorage, it stopped. While in Anchorage, we tried halibut and chips (expensive for lunch) at Humpy’s, but we were much more impressed with the beer. We went to Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria which was so crowded there was a 40 minute wait. It was worth it. Busy, but service was very good. We had the “Classic”.
We took advantage of the Internet access at the hotel and booked accommodations instead of campgrounds due to the weather forecast – rain for several days.
Kenai
We took our time on our drive to Kenai. It was threatening to rain.
We stopped at a few scenic spots:
Just a note about the hotel rooms: throughout this trip, they have had very good window coverings so we could sleep. We had not seen night since we left home!
We drove out to Homer the next day and dined at The Homestead Restaurant. It was a nice place with white tablecloths and a nice wine list. We started with oysters on the half shells. The oysters were pretty good, but there was no juice from the oysters on the shell. We asked that our fish be cooked on the rare side. We were assured by the server that they cook the fish lightly there. We were quite annoyed when we got our fish and it was overdone. At this point, we decided that people don’t know how to cook fish in Alaska. It definitely was not worth the drive to eat at this restaurant.
Near the Kenai airport, we saw a caribou close-up. It was nice!
Seward
On the way to Seward, we stopped at the Russian River area of the Chugach National Forest. We parked and took the trail along the river. There were bear warnings posted, but as in other areas, we did not see any.
The 2 mile trail was really nice and easy. It had a thick padding most of the way.
There were many spots along the area where you could walk out to the river’s edge. Many, many people were standing in the river fishing; especially where the Russian and Kenai rivers meet. 
We also stopped in Cooper Landing to eat at Cooper Landing Health Clinic Fish Fry (cod, halibut, shrimp, fries, coleslaw). Delicious!
In Seward, we stayed at Le Barn Appetit for 3 nights in the “Captains Quarters”. Crepes were included in the room price. We shared the Crepe Du Jour which had spinach, egg and reindeer sausage all 3 days we were there. It was delicious! One crepe was enough for two of us and we are eager eaters.
After breakfast, we spent a little time with Basil, a sled dog that the owners were taking care of.
At Kenai Fjords National Park. we took a couple of hikes on two different days. The Edge of the Glacier Trail – per the park website: “a moderately strenuous hike that leads to a wall of blue ice at the edge of Exit Glacier (1.2 miles).” 
The Harding Icefield Trail – per the park website: “The trail is strenuous! Hikers gain approximately 1000 feet of elevation per mile.” One way, the trail is 4.1 miles (8.2 miles round-trip). Looking at the map, we made it past the 2.4 mile mark, so we probably did 5 miles. It was pretty warm that day and we were running out of water, so we decided that we did a good day’s work for two people so out of shape.
Higher and higher
Pretty close to the glacier. The 3rd picture is where we stopped and the area we skipped.
Kenai Fjords Tours – Captain’s Choice Tour
We saw humpback whales, harbor porpoises (no picture), 
sea otters 
and sea lions.
They pointed out many birds, but the puffins were the neatest oned to watch because the action of their wings is so unusual.
Oh and don’t forget the bald eagle.
The weather was really nice and the scenery beautiful:
We saw another glacier up close.
And we waited to see it calving also. 
We were on board with many people who had multiple cameras, long lenses with rapid shooting capability. We had a small point and shoot camera that we got a few months ago that we had been cursing since the beginning of this trip. Why? It does not have a view finder and those black screens are useless in the sun. We were guessing a lot of where to point while taking pictures in the sun.
We saw one of the big ship tour at sea, which we considered. There were so many people that it looked at least 3 deep to get to the edge of the ship. It would have made it difficult to see anything if you ended up in the back. We are glad we decided on this small boat tour.
We checked out the Seward Brewery for a beer and liked it so much we returned another day for dinner. The burgers were good and so were the beers. The service was very good and the atmosphere nice and relaxing. There was a guy performing with his guitar and singing. He was good and people clapped when he finished a song. The volume was just right because you could talk normally and listen to him at the same time. We had a very enjoyable and relaxing evening.
We went to the Salmon Bake restaurant not far from where we stayed. We again asked to try to get our salmon not so hard cooked. The waitress said she would try. It was cooked through, but still moist and the flavor delicious. The beer was served in jars and was also delicious. This was a very rustic and relaxing place to dine. We were glad that we ate here and would come again.
Back to Anchorage
After our Captain’s Choice tour, we drove to Anchorage to rest before our long drive to get to Haines to catch the ferry to Juneau. Millennium Alaskan Hotel is a very nice hotel with wonderful surroundings that we did not take the time to enjoy. Our room was very nice with a sitting and desk area, toilet with sink room separate from the shower and sink. We looked out on some greenery. This was a very clean, modern and comfortable room. The location is a bit far from things, but not a problem for us. We ate at Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria again and had salads and a large pizza - again, good food, beer and service. No wonder it’s always crowded! We had to wait again, but not as long as before. We ordered a large so that we could eat cold leftover pizza on the road.
Tok
There was beautiful scenery on the way to Tok. In fact, we talked about how beautiful it is in Alaska many times. We didn’t expect so many mountains. We mentioned that we should come to Alaska again. 
We got to Westmark hotel in Tok. We wouldn’t recommend staying here. We were planning to leave at 2 or 3am so we just needed a place to sleep. Fast Eddy’s Restaurant was pretty good (burger and patty melt). The service was excellent. When we woke, we saw night for the first time and began our drive to Haines.
Haines
We were rewarded with more moose during the early morning.
It was again very pretty during our drive to Haines: 
After a short nap in a parking lot, we checked in and boarded the ferry ship Malespina for our 4.5 hour trip to Juneau.
Juneau
It took a while to disembark the ferry and get to the Travelodge (then Best Western Country Lane Inn for the second night – problem with getting reservations). We both liked the feel of Juneau right away. The trees were taller and greener and it just felt good (oops. No pictures in Juneau). We really didn’t do any sightseeing here other than driving around and getting ready for next ferry trip (2 day).
We made it downtown though and found an ‘Oysterfest’ in progress. Of course, we participated. We shared 6 oysters on the half shell with two sauces from a chef from New York: one was a shallot, vinegar type and the other was made from Alaskan Porter, Makers Mark and Brooklyn pickles. We shared another 6 on the half shell from 3 different oyster farms. We had draft Alaskan American Pale Ale too. Everything was very good. We then continued on our quest to find Tracy’s King Crab Shack and ordered a combo (1 king crab leg, 4 small crab cakes, crab bisque), half a Dungeness crab and coleslaw. Mmmm. We had the best King crab we ever had. The crab cakes were really good and the crab bisque rich. The in-season Dungeness crab was okay. We’ve had better. We had a couple more beers. We roamed around downtown for a little while then decided to finish off by sharing a delicious chocolate gelato from Heritage Coffee Co & Café.
Matanuska Ferry – Juneau to Prince Rupert
On board the ferry at 2:30pm, we got our keys from the purser for our outside cabin. We had bunk-like beds, a place to hang things, a pullout table, one chair and bathroom. We were pretty comfortable during the whole trip. The ship had a lounge, solarium, cafeteria, bar and a couple of other seating areas.
Our cabin and out on deck.
(Some people slept in the solarium.)
During the almost 2 day journey, there were talks given by a woman who worked for the Tongass National Park. We found her talks very informative – letting us know what was ahead and things like we would be going through narrow passages, when to lookout for wildlife, history about the various towns where we would stop. Again, it was very pretty.
We had a lovely sunset,
saw sea otters hanging out on a buoy, 
daw many humpback whales (no pics) and attended most of the ranger talks. We made sure we were on deck when we were going through the narrow passages. 
A passenger played nice jazz so we went into the bar for a drink.
We relaxed and looked around. We saw people working the ports, fishing and kayaking.
The ship stopped at the ports in Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert.
We had wonderful weather the whole time and only had thick fog for about an hour or two before arrival at our destination of Prince Rupert.
Disembarking was pretty fast since there were not many cars on board. We were really glad that we were on this ship because it is the only ship on this route with a ranger on board. Also, the food was good and reasonably-priced, the cafeteria looked professionally run and the crew was very pleasant. We would take this ferry again and maybe stop at the different ports.
Towards Home
We drove to Prince George where we reserved a night at a Days Inn. The place was kind of old. The good news is that it was pretty late when we got in and tried to find any place to eat. We ended up at Cimo Restaurant. We had a very tasty Caesar salad, delicious bison ragu spaghetti and a very good boneless shortrib with mash potatoes and grilled vegies. Delicious! Later, we checked tripadvisor and found that it was 3rd on the restaurant list for Prince George. We were so lucky.
Remembering that trip today (2024-Jul-14)
We failed to mention:
- The feeling of being in the “Last Frontier” while driving along the big open spaces-drinking up the beauty with your eyes and then, at times, feeling the loneliness of “only you” being on the road.
- We had car noises/trouble. Yikes! Luckily, we found a good place to pull off. It turned out to be packed mud in and around the wheel wells. It was hard to get that mud out and we used tools and kicked hard to get it out.
- At least one of the glaciers we visited had markers showing the location of the glacier’s edge on that year. (Must be a longer hike now that it is 13 years later.)
- It was a very special trip and we are so glad that we did it.
