Juneau: Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017

This was our most daring adventure, at least from my perspective. We took a helicopter--which we have done a couple of times in Hawaii--up to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier part was a first for us. When we arrived at the helicopter office, they suited us up in Mountain Hardware pants and jackets and gloves and had us change out our shoes for heavy boots. We toured over Mendenhall and Suicide Basin glaciers and then landed at the helicopter company's "base camp" (see the tiny tent in background of following picture) at the foot of a 250 foot ice fall. We had to put on crampons and they gave us a trekking pole before they then took us for a 40 minute walk around the glacier.

Now you know where the term glacier blue originates...such beautiful colors!

When we got back, we went to the Twisted Fish restaurant down on the pier for a fabulous lunch. I had halibut sliders and Hal had a smoked salmon (both hot and cold smoked) plate. 

Then we took the tram up to the top of Mt. Roberts for a nice overview of the surrounding area.

Our ship, the Zaandam, taken from the tram.

Also saw this person in a glider while we were at the top of Mt. Roberts

This carver, I assume of Tlingit origins, was working on a totem in the shop on Mt. Roberts

Carving in a tree on Mt. Roberts trail

Alaska Day 2: Denali Wilderness Tour, Friday, Sept. 8, 2017

Eight hour bus trip into the park and so worth it. We saw moose mama and 2 large calves, wolf from the Riley Creek pack (1 of only 70 wolves in this 6.2 million acre park), Grizzlies (1 loner close up and 2 different mama bears, each with 2 cubs, at a distance), ptarmigan, golden eagle, grouse, ground squirrels, AND Mt, Denali !!!

Ptarmigan

Wolf from Riley Creek pack

Grizzly bear

Moose mom and calves

Marianne, Hal, and Wendy with Denali in the background.

Gorgeous and massive Denali

Last Day in Alaska: Ketchikan, Friday, Sept. 15, 2017

I am going to work backwards since I have been unable to post our travels on a regular basis. Our last day was in Ketchikan and we docked late and then left for our float plane tour of Misty Fjords Park at 12:30. Our pilot Ray was a retired commercial pilot and took us over the park's fjords and glacial lakes to Punchbowl Cove, where we were able to land the plane and actually step out onto the floats--very carefully--to look around at the often sheer rock walls. 

We returned and walked up to the Creek St area of town which has historic houses and lots of tourist shops. It was once the "red light" district of Ketchikan. 

We then walked uphill to the Totem Heritage Center.

Returned to ship for an evening departure, heading for the inland passage.

Alaska Day 1: Anchorage to Denali

Beautiful train ride. Rvers, lakes, mountains and fall colors.

Maine, Day 8: Friday, Aug. 12, 2016

This was our last full day in Maine and so there was a fair amount of washing and packing to do. In the afternoon we went to see a quilt show being put on by a good friend of Marianne's. This was just one of several things we got to do because Marianne has lived in the area so long and knows a lot of the locals -- including local artists! Earlier we had been to the studios of Greg Mort and Barbara Ernst Pray, also acquaintances of Marianne's and wonderful artists! I would gladly have brought home just about anything done by Greg Mort, but had to satisfy myself with a poster and a book :-/

On Saturday, we loaded up the car, bid our sad goodbyes to Marianne and confirmed plans to have another reunion next year--in Tucson!
Drove back to Boston and hung around waiting to check in. We departed first, then Anne and finally, Wendy. Everyone made it safely home. Overall a very good trip.
There are LOTS more pictures posted in a Flickr album.

Maine, Day 7: Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016

At Wendy's urging, we changed our original plans and decided to go to Monhegan Island on the ferry or as it's called there, the mailboat. There was quite a bit of rushing around as we had only one option for departure time and it was well over an hour's drive. But we made it!

We encountered fog on the outbound trip (an hour's ride) and it came and went all morning.

Monhegan is a tiny village with fewer than 50 full-time residents, although the population swells in summer. There were some beautiful flower gardens as we walked around.

We got some food in the village and walked down to lobster cover where we had to shoo away the very bold seagulls while we ate our picnic lunch.

Then we wandered along the south end of the island, encountering an old ship wreck along the way, finding more collections of cairns, and viewing more dramatic coastline.

Back in town, we headed straight for Monhegan Brewing Company to quench our thirst!
As we wandered back through the village, we mosied in and out of gift shops and galleries and Wendy bought art, while I bought great long sleeved T-shirts.
The ferry captain pointed out the building complex that belongs to the Wyeths (of art fame) on a nearby island.

There were lobster traps with their multi-colored buoys almost every where you looked. We got to see a lighthouse both on Monhegan Island and the one at Marshal Point we had previously visited.

Wendy took this very sweet photo of Hal and me on the ferry ride back.

We got into Clyde Harbor about 4:30.

We all felt too tired to cook, so finally settled on a place to eat in Rockland, and headed home after a very full day.

Maine, Day 6: Weds, Aug. 10, 2016

Since Marianne's cottage is right on the Sheepscot River, we decided to take out the flotilla: one canoe, one tandem kayak, and one single kayak.

Unfortunately, it has been a dry summer and the river was very low, forcing us to lift our craft over a rather treacherous beaver dam about 100 yards upriver from launching. We saw and followed a beautiful heron for a bit although I was not able to catch it with my camera--probably Wendy did and maybe she will send me a picture to post...hint, hint.

We made it all the way to Long Pond Lake (I understand there are several bodies of water with the same name in Maine), got rained on a little bit, made it back (over the damn dam), and hung around working on puzzles, reading, and relaxing.

I think this was the day we drove to a veggie stand and got some lovely things to make a salad. We cooked meals at "home" when we were not out and about. The cottage was great for that with a fully equipped kitchen.