Puskas FamilyAlaska Vacation: 7/6/1991

John: An almost no drive day today... just 20 miles going to the train depot and back... of course ten miles of that was driving around lost! They sure screwed up by calling their streets by three different names, they are all one way (the wrong way), and the maps don’t really reflect what the roads are really doing... Other than that, Anchorage is very pretty. It’s surrounded by big mountains and have bore tide (2nd largest in the world). A bore tide is one that a lot of water goes into a restricted inlet. This creates a wall of water when the tides come in (sometimes 20-40 feet high!). We did not see this phenomenon occur due to timing. (It came in around 1-2 am!). Anyway, we got up at 4:45 am to catch the train. It was easy, as I was awake since 2AM. After heading out in the wrong direction and getting lost in the train yard, we finally found the depot. The train was actually a diesel rail car, which is a self propelled train car. (There were two of these hooked up together.) The train was pretty full. The scenery was fantastic along the way. The engineer was great, he stopped the train at all the scenic spots for picture taking, and also stopped the train whenever dall sheep, moose or bears were spotted. The kids and I rode up in the front of the train half there and all the way back. The engineer let the kids blow the whistle at all the remote crossings. We saw many moose (with babies), and two black bears... (one cub and one quite large black bear a few miles away.) I hope my pictures come out. We also stopped by three different glaciers... some probably 200-300 feet thick. We saw more moose and bears from the train than on the tour bus in Denali Nat’l Park. It was great that the engineer stopped the train when critters were spotted. The trip took 4 hours to get to Seward. We ate our sack lunch on the train, so when we got to Seward we were ready to explore. We hiked into “down town” Seward (about 10 blocks). We went to the Seward Museum and a few gift shops. We walked back to the docks and watched people have their pictures taken with their halibuts they caught on their fishing trips. Also watched the fishing boat crews fillet those fish. They throw the fish carcasses to the sea gulls. Susan & I went aboard a US Coast Guard ship and got the VIP tour. Nice boat! It’s a 110 foot long with a crew of 18 men. We ate supper at Ray's right on the shore. We caught the train back after the engineer bought the kids and me ice cream cones! The Alaska Rail Road really takes care of their customers! We were exhausted by the time we found our way back to our campground. We left the bunks set up so we could just crash when we got back... but when we got back, someone else snarfed our camp spot! We drove around the joint and parked on the black top very near where our spot was. We all slept like dead people and slept in in the morning.

ODOM: 27837

Kari: We saw tons of moose and some bears. The engineer let Susan and I toot the horn. When we were on the dock, we saw a big fish with eye balls sticking straight out. (A rock fish or red snapper fish). The train ride was very fun and neat.

Notes: It was still very light outside at midnight... it’s pretty weird not getting dark at night. After three weeks, we have spent a total of $1530 cash, plus $455 on gas credit cards total... for a grand total spent of $1985.00. Total miles driven = 3975