We stayed at the Artic Adventure Hostel last night, which was cheap and did the job. 🙂 Our bedroom was tiny but was equipped with a refrigerator and linens. We had to make the bed up – big deal – it was literally half the price of other motels. There was a kitchen with microwave, fridge, stove, dishes, etc. for us to use.
By the time we rented the car (2007 Grand Prix) and got there, it was 10 pm. I was feeling quite icky and the only thing I could even fathom eating was soup, so we went to Walmart and got soup for me and a frozen pizza for Walter, then heated it up at the hostel. We went upstairs and I promptly crashed! When we got up we went to McDonald’s for breakfast, then headed up to the Princess McKinley Lodge. The motif of the room is cute – moose everywhere!
When we got there, it wasn’t time to check in yet, so we killed an hour, then boarded a shuttle to Talkeetna to go on Mahay’s Three Rivers Jetboat Tour. That jetboat was neat! The whole thing is covered and made of glass, so you don’t get wet or too cold from the wind, and you can see everything. The boat can go up to 30 mph.
The captain of our ship was Steve Mahay, the owner of the company, and he was a neat guy! We went up and down two rivers but couldn’t navigate the third because the water was too low. That was disappointing, but we got a refund for a portion of it. That was pretty nifty though because we had a TourSaver buy one get one free coupon to begin with, so it only ended up costing $55 for both of us!
Along the way we saw a bald eagle and an eaglet. The pictures of the eagle and eaglet didn’t come out too good, but we did get video, and when I am done playing with the video I will upload those in a different post. We stopped and saw a huge beaver hotel which had been deserted when water levels went too low. Walter held a beaver skull – icky!
We also went to one of Steve Mahay’s old trapping lodges. He used to trap animals to sell the pelts and showed us all sorts of stuff about that. The entire tour was VERY informative and fun and I strongly suggest you check it out if you’re going to be in Talkeetna!
The full set of pictures from the Jetboat tour is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/48311514@N00/sets/72157601786878395/
When the Jetboat tour was done, we boarded the shuttle back to the Princess, checked in, then went to eat in their Twenty Three Twenty (named for the height of Mt McKinley, 20,320 feet) restaurant. The girl at the front desk had described this as “like Applebees” but it wasn’t! It was higher than Applebees for certain. Walter got a bacon cheeseburgerand fries ($9) which he said was no better than Hardee’s Six Dollar Burger, and I got a chicken parmegan sandwich ($10) and some fruit instead of fries. The sandwich was good, but it was not worth $10!!! As soon as we got done eating, I crashed again. LOL
Carolyn and Walter's Alaska Wedding 