On the Riverboat with Princess Cruises
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The sun didn’t set by the time we turned in at 10:30pm on our first day of our Princess Cruise. We are in the land of the Midnight Sun after all and we are approaching the longest day of the year.
Alaska, Land of the Midnight Sun!
Our trip starts in Fairbanks Alaska where we will be spending 5 days on land exploring America’s Northern most state.
Guy Glaeser (pronounced Glacier) our tour guide set up a great day for the early arrivals. Staying in the Princess Riverside Lodge offered an excellent home base for all our excursions and today we set out to explore the Chena River.
We were led on a historical tour regarding the heritage of the Athabaskan People and the early settlers of Alaska.
The Mushing Camp!
Our first stop was watching the cutest demonstration of Alaskan mushing dogs training at their kennels. The energy was high as the musher ran his dogs along a trail. The dogs pulled his “summer” sled on wheels with great speed and determination. The other dogs that had the day off seemed a little jealous of the dogs running the track. They stood atop their doghouses barking and turning in circles trying everything to get off their leashes.
These dogs love to run and they don’t want to stop.
As their musher said, “it takes 2 days to teach a young pup to run and 2 years to try to teach them to walk!”
It was a relaxing tour with a fun stop at a traditional village where some great young people hosted demonstrations and talks regarding their heritage.
The Athabaskan Fish Camp!
The village’s heart is the fish camp. Up here the winters are long and hard and people needed to catch, dry and smoke salmon to last the season and feed not only them,but their dogs as well.
Salmon Dries by the riverside!
Sled dogs were the only way to travel long distances and the dogs had to remain healthy. Their health was paramount to survival. From alerting the village about bears to taking the men out to hunt and fish they were an important part of the Athabaskan way of life.
We walked through temporary fish camps, hunting camps and a more permanent village. Camps and villages were cleverly designed. They were built for survival from the elements and predators.
It is a well-oiled machine, this tour by Princess Cruises. We walked in groups from station to station to learn about every aspect of early life in Alaska. They kept the talks short and moved us along holding our interest with jokes and great visual aids like grizzly bear pelts, stuffed moose and traditional clothing.
Takin' the wheel from the Captain!
The riverboat tour was an excellent history lesson but the highlight for us was going to the Captain’s Wheelhouse. This operation is in its 60th year and it has remained all in the family. Founded by Jim Binkley in 1950, it had 20 people aboard its inaugural voyage. Today it has grown to a giant organization run by the grandchildren and extended family of Jim. Our Captain was a certainly a youngster, but highly professional and friendly. Ryan Binkley had spent his life working on the boat and by the time he turned 18, he had so many hours as a deckhand, he was automatically eligible to become captain.
Hanging with Lance Mackey!
The boat tour ended with a great surprise. Lance Mackey, 4 time Iditarod and 4 Time Yukon Gold champion was standing by to meet and greet the passengers. He is the Lance Armstrong of dogsledding. He’s the Tiger Woods of mushing and Dave and I are huge fans.
We watched the Iditarod on Discovery cheering for Lance Mackey when he was trying for his second consecutive win and have been fans ever since. He has an amazing story of surviving terminal cancer, fighting back with great determination and then becoming the greatest Musher in history. Not only did he win both races four times he won them all in consecutive years and held the title of both the Yukon Gold and Iditarod for 2 years at the same time!
Here he was standing at the dock to greet us all.
It was already a busy day, but we had an afternoon of panning for gold. Visiting an old mine we listened to the history of the Alaskan Gold rush then tried our hands at panning ourselves.
We managed to pan $28 worth of gold, not a bad haul for 20 minutes of work.
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Sounds like a wonderful excursion! I get the feeling you’re really enjoying this trip, even though it’s not your normal method of travel. Keep it up and you just might convince me to try cruising someday…especially in Alaska.
.-= Lisa @ The World is Calling´s last blog ..Masada =-.
Looks fabulous so far! Quite a difference from your European adventure but stunning nonetheless!
.-= Alison´s last blog ..Forgotten Postcard Contest Winner Announced =-.
I’m more of a city girl myself, but that looks like exactly the kind of tour my parents would love. Fun stuff.
.-= Gray´s last blog ..Perspectives on Long-Term Solo Female Travel =-.
Sounds truly incredible! Great job on the gold panning! We used to pan on our vacations but never made anything.
.-= Bethany´s last blog ..Palm Canyon Hike in the Anza Borrego Desert =-.
We had a lot of help with our gold. Our driver Bill was helping us and showing us great technique. So really, it was all him. when we got close to the end, we kept calling him over for tips because we were afraid of it all falling out.
WOW the land of the midnight sun is an amazing photograph, sure looks peaceful!!Enjoy guys.
Hi Janice, it is pretty cool. We have never encountered all this sunlight before. Being from Canada, you would think that we would have ventured farther north. Not yet, but Alaska has inspired us!
Amazing pictures! You really have a knack for that. It looks like it’s going well so far. Hopefully the weather continues to be amazing for you all. Thank you for keeping us all updated!
Thanks Joel! We really have lucked out with weather so far!
Looks like a wonderful cruise and a beautiful place! Did you guys get to eat a bunch of dried Salmon? ..Looks good!
.-= Migration Mark´s last blog ..World Cup of Cuisine: 32 Culinary Nations Battle in South Africa 2010 =-.
We haven’t. It was odd, they don’t have any dried salmon for us to taste. However, in Canada smoked salmon is really popular so we have come close to eating dried salmon. I would love to try the really dried out stuff though!
I’m impressed with all the activities Princess has lined up for you! I’ve never been on a cruise because I thought I would be bored silly and feel trapped but this post is really turning me around.
I would really love hanging out with all the sled dogs. I’m impressed that you did so well at panning too because I’ve heard that’s difficult.
.-= Jennifer Barry´s last blog ..Eat Locally, Wherever You Are =-.
Thanks Jennifer. If you are going to do a cruise, the Alaskan cruise is the way to go. It is exciting just being in the far north with almost 24 hour sun. But I do hear that Princess Cruises has some awesome other cruises, the Montreal to New York, Fall Foliage cruise sounds pretty astounding as well!
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In all of my years working on board cruise ships, I never made it up to Alaska somehow so I’m definitely jealous. Other crew members who had been always said that it was the highlight of their ‘ship life’ experience.
Seems like you’re enjoying your time up there quite a bit as well!
.-= Earl´s last blog ..Do I Need A Floating Camera Strap? =-.
Earl, you have got to get yourself to Alaska! I think that it is probably the ultimate cruising experience. We are definitely enjoying our time here. This group has been amazing!
Loved reading about your experience on the Riverboat Discovery! Great photos too. Whenever I have guests visit me here in AK, the Riverboat is on our list of things to do.
What a bonus to meet Lance. I’m happy you’re enjoying your visit to this great state.
Travel safe,
Susan
http://www.susanstevenson.com/blog
Enjoyed reading about your Riverboat Discovery adventure. What a bonus to meet Lance Mackey! He’s our local hero for sure.
Whenever guests visit us, the Riverboat is always on the ‘to-do’ list. It’s interesting and entertaining.
Not a bad gold haul either. The most my guests have ever found is about $15 worth. It’s great fun.
Safe travels,
Susan
http://www.susanstevenson.com/blog
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