Day 2 July 5, 2022 Afternoon and evening

After the museum self-tour, we had lunch in a private room at a restaurant called The Cookie Jar. As we were driving to it, I wondered where the heck we were going. I swear we drove through the parking lot of a Toyota dealer. Maybe it was easier for the driver to park the bus that way.

I had a salad and a huge French Dip sandwich. It was good, too. I ate half and a few bites of the second half. Why do restaurants serve such huge meals? I don’t mind when I can take it home and have the rest of it for a second meal, but it seems such a waste when we are traveling. I wasn’t hungry the rest of the afternoon. A helper from Nat Hab, named Jack joined us for lunch and the drive to Denali. I wondered why we needed a helper with only 8 guests, but we’d see what he’d do the next day. Part of it was that he was in training.

 The trip to our next stop took two hours. Along the way, we stopped in a little town called Nenana. Our bus driver explained how to pronounce the name. The rhythm for the name is the same as banana. There was another town along the way that had a similar-looking name, but a different emphasis on the syllables. Tanana is pronounced like Canada. Who knew we’d get linguistics lessons along the way?

LOST PHONE

In Nenana, we stopped for a restroom break and a look-see at a wooden building along the river. They sold crafts made by locals, such as scarves and carved walking sticks as well as a lot of artwork. The guy who let us in did watercolor scenes of Alaskan wildlife. They were very well done. I realized that when an artist is trying to make a living creating art, sometimes they paint similar scenes in each drawing. He told us that the scenes of wolves in the snowy forest were what people bought. I wandered around looking at things and didn’t see anything I needed to take home.

Right before we left, I decided I should use the restroom. An arrow pointed down a hallway and there were two rooms. Both doors were open. I had a choice. They were not gender-labeled. I started to go in the second door and saw a wall-mounted urinal covered with a plastic bag, which helped me to decide to change directions and go to the first room.

After locking the door, I sat on the toilet and looked at the toilet paper rolls on the wall. I could hardly believe it when I saw Cathy’s phone sitting on top of the toilet paper rolls. Thank goodness, I went in there! After washing my hands, I put her phone in my back pocket. Everyone headed for the bus and Cathy had no idea where her phone was. I walked back to where she was standing in the aisle of the bus talking to Karen.

“I have just saved your life,” I said.

“What?” She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. I pulled her phone out of my back pocket and handed it to her.

She looked at the phone, then at me, and said, “You just saved my life. Thank you.”

I’ve left my phone in bathrooms before. I was so glad I saw hers there and could rescue it. We avoided that horrible feeling you get in your gut when you are traveling and can’t find your phone. Ick.

WILDLIFE: MOOSE AND MOSQUITOS

We were about 20 miles outside Denali when I saw a moose in the brush really close to the highway on the right. I shouted, “Moose!” The bus driver pulled over and we watched it walk away. Several people got off the bus to take pictures. I felt safer on the bus. Moose can be mean.

We made it to our lodgings at the Denali Bluffs Hotel at about mid-afternoon. While we were unloading our stuff from the bus in the parking lot, I saw this sign. I asked John to take a picture of it with me making a frightened face. I posted that on Facebook with the caption “They make them big here in Alaska.”

Our room was smaller than the one at the Staybridge Suites in Fairbanks, but that’s reasonable since it wasn’t a suite. It was still a very nice room.

DINNER

We met the group for dinner around 5:30 in the parking lot. We were introduced to another helper from Nat Hab, whose name was Colby. Our attention was directed to the restaurant way up the mountain and told that it was half a mile up a switchback road to the restaurant. He offered to drive us up to the restaurant more than once, but we all declined. We walked and what a trek. I don’t think we quite realized the steepness of the walk. Colby did offer to drive us multiple times. The restaurant was a beautiful place and had an amazing view. Here’s a picture of the Lodge sign.

We walked back down that switchback road to get back to our hotel, too. When I checked my Fitbit app back in the hotel room, every circle it had was filled. I’d walked 9,637 steps, 3.84 miles, 1,716 calories, 33 floors, and 47 active minutes on our first full day of our Alaska Safari. I marveled at the number of floors I’d walked Whew, no wonder I was tired.

The next day, Day 3, July 6, we would be going on a hike in the morning at the Denali Visitors’ Center and the Denali Park bus tour in the afternoon.