Underwood Concert – 音乐会
Dec 11-15, 2021 - Right after being fully vaccinated eight months ago, we booked a few nights at The Resorts World, the newest…..
Dec 11-15, 2021
Right after being fully vaccinated eight months ago, we booked a few nights at The Resorts World, the newest and most expensive built casino/resort property, in Las Vegas to attend Carrie Underwood's Reflection Concert. The Resorts World is also owned by the same parent company of Crystal Cruise Line, Genting Group. One unique feature of the resort is the Famous Foods Street Eats, a food hall with cuisines most from South Asia. On Saturday, we drove five hours directly to the resort from home and checked in Conrad, one of the three hotels within the Resorts World. After settling down, we immediately went down to Famous Foods Street Eats to try various Asian dishes. We were so excited about the claypot rice before our trip based on the information on their website. To be honest, the beef claypot rice from Geylang Claypot Rice (芽笼砂煲饭) was not very impressive, not served in a hot claypot as expected, and got cold quickly. Mama San Combo from Kuru Kuru PA was delicious, including a Chicken Wing, Kurobuta Pork Jowl, Chicken Hearts, and Rice Ball with Seaweed Seasoning. Since we were so disappointed with the claypot rice, we ordered another dish from another vendor, Googgle Man's Char Kuey Teow, the Rice Noodle with Chinese Sausage, Shrimp, Manila Clam, Crispy Pork, and Egg. The noodle dish was terrific and met our standards. Later in the night, we tried another vendor Fuhu Shack, ordered the Roast Peking Duck & Steam Rice Bowl after the concert. The roast duck was perfect.
As Delta variant was surging in the country, we started to question whether we should attend the indoor concert. We even put the tickets for sale until one hour before the show began. The tickets weren't sold, so we went to the concert anyway. The concert was almost sold out. Although the law requires wearing face masks indoor in Nevada, only about 60% of them wore the masks, and a lady, sitting next to us, was singing along all-time without a face mask. With precaution, we wore double masks during the performance. The Underwood concert was at the brand-new, state-of-art theater inside the Resorts World, the largest and highest stage in Vegas, and the performance was high-energy and impressive. We enjoyed the experience and hope we will attend more live music events in the future.
Sunday morning, we had traditional Chinese breakfast, 豆浆油条（soybean milk and Chinese churro), in Chinatown. Then we stopped at O'Reilly, the auto part shop, to figure out our vehicle's Check Engine Light code. Yesterday, on the way to Vegas, the Check Engine light suddenly turned on before arriving at the resort. The car seemed running fine. For precaution, we want to know the issue with the vehicle. A technician at O'Reilly told us that it was the issue of CAMSHAFT sensor. We had the same problem before and had replaced the sensors. We could do nothing at this point since the local Benz dealer was closed on Sunday. So we just kept our fingers crossed and hoped nothing serious would happen. Continuing our plan, we visited Seven Magic Mountains in the Nevada desert, an art installation by a Switzerland artist. On the way back to the town, the Check Engine light went off. What a relief! Las Vegas Chinatown has so many Asian restaurants. We went back there and tried Shanghai Taste for lunch. We had 生煎包 (Pan Fried Dumpling) and a few other dishes. They all tasted as good as those in Shanghai. We liked them so much that we went back there the next day.
We tried several other food venues within the resort in the next couple of days. We also had more food at the Famous Foods Street Eats, and we found our favorites. The best one was the rice noodle with Chinese sausage, shrimp, and veggies at Googgle Man's Char Kuey Teow. Watching the chef cook the noodle in a big wok using the traditional fired stove right in front of us was fun. Too bad we didn't take any pictures. Roast Peking Duck & Steamed Rice Bowl at Fuhu Shack was also delicious. We kept going back to these two places. We found the touchscreens all over the food hall were easy to use to order the foods, contactless.
Cross from the resort, there are many small restaurants. One taco place around the corner called Tacos El Gordo was standing out. It seems always packed with customers, a lot busier than any other taco places. So we decided to give it try. It’s a fast food place. You wait in line, place your order, pick up your food and then pay at the cashier’s window. We didn’t understand most of the items on the menu. Since almost 99% customers were speaking Spanish, we couldn’t get much help from the other customers, so we just went for the most popular tacos. The wait was worth it and the tacos were delicious.
We had a great time in Las Vegas.
New Telephoto Lens-长镜头
Dec. 5, 2021 - We always felt our 70-300 mm lens was not powerful enough to get a clear picture of wildlife in the far……
Dec. 5, 2021
We always felt our 70-300 mm lens was not powerful enough to get a clear picture of wildlife in the far distance on the previous trips. We had eyed a new Sony 200-600 mm Telephoto Zoom Lens for a while, and we bought it when it was on sale this holiday season. To check it out, we went to a birdwatching place in Phoenix, Tres Rios Wetland. The 700 Acre wetland is connected to the Phoenix water treatment plant. Tres Rios consists of a flood protection levee, pump station, overflow wetlands, mesquite forest, and open water marsh areas. There are an abundant amount of birds in the area. Seeing a Great Blue Heron was chasing a white Snowy Egret on the river was a treat. A significant number of Neotropic Cormorants were flying over the sky constantly. The lens worked great, but we just need more practice shooting fast-moving objects in a far distance.
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – 墨西哥普托巴亚尔塔
Nov 24, 2021 - The last port of call was Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas……
Nov 24, 2021
The last port of call was Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The Majestic Princess was docked at Terminal 3 in the early morning. Once we walked out of the terminal, the taxi drivers and tour operators wanted our business. Instead, we were brave enough to get on a public bus nearby under the current COVID situation, costing $1 to go to Malecon Boardwalk. Along the boardwalk, there was a range of gift shops, restaurants, art galleries, and art sculptures. The first attraction that caught our eyes was the Flying bird-men of Papantla, an impressive and color-filled ritual performance. The ritual started with one person playing music on the top of the pole; four men climbed up the pole. After a few dangerous dancing movements, four men headfirst down to the earth started rotating and flying like birds. The performance was colorful, dangerous, and spectacular.
The sculptures along the boardwalk are beautiful, some eccentric. As we walked along the beach, we saw brown pelicans flying at the height of tens feet above the ocean, then beak first diving into the water to catch fish. We watched them for more than 30 mins. It was amazing.
We continued to stroll along the boardwalk into the Romantic zone. The beach was beautiful and crowded. There were a lot of restaurants along the beach. We found a place, Langostinos, serving Huachinango Entero Frito. We were pleased, as shown in the picture. The fish was fresh but could be more tasty and salty. After lunch, we walked to the nearby Lazaro Cardenas Park. The whole park is decorated in brilliant mosaics by local artists. You can also pay to get your love note on mosaic-decorated benches. The entire area was filled with colorful, energetic, and exciting atmospheres.
After exploring the old neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta for a little while in the afternoon, It was time to go back to the ship. We called Uber cheaper than the regular taxi without even bargaining the price. A few mins after we confirmed the pickup, we saw the car towards us, but it didn't stop. We didn't know what was going on and quickly texted the driver, and he promptly replied that he needed to drop off someone first. Thanks to the technology that solves the problem, we were in a non-English speaking place.
Crossing from the cruise terminal, a big shopping mall and Walmart were nearby. We went to both the mall and Walmart to learn about the local life a little, and it's not much different from any shopping mall or Walmart in the US. After returning to the ship, from our room balcony, we watched the last few people rushing back to the ship before our ship sailed away. Goodbye Mexico, see you next time.
Mazatlan, Mexico – 墨西哥马萨特兰
Nov. 23, 2021 - The second port of call is Mazatlan, the Mexican state of Sinaloa, only 196 nautical miles from Cabo San……
Nov. 23, 2021
The second port of call is Mazatlan, the Mexican state of Sinaloa, only 196 nautical miles from Cabo San Lucas. The vessel was docked at Mazatlan in the early morning. We chatted with a couple of volunteers at a street corner; they were snowbirds from Canada and were very friendly and helpful. They provided us with some tourist information and recommended the walking route marked with the blue line.
The downtown Mazatlan is centered at a plaza surrounded by many art galleries, restaurants, and colorful impressive sculptures. The streets, along with colorful buildings, were clean and quiet. Police or security guards were standing at some of the street corners. We strolled to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral with tall twin towers. We went inside, and it was beautiful as always. From the Cathedral, we headed to José María Pino Suarez Municipal Market, which started more than 100 years ago. The market had a range of vegetables, fruits, meat, and seafood vendors booths. The seafood selections in the market were limited, smaller than expected. We didn’t buy anything. We needed to get back to Teatro Angela Peralta, the theater, for a public tour at 11:00 am. The guided tour costs $2.00. We had some language barrier with a worker at the ticket office. Fortunately, the wife of another couple who came from Mexico provided the translation. The theater was built in 1883 and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1975. Standing in ruin for years, the theater began a restoration in 1987 and re-opened in 1992. The theater was beautiful and elegant. We learned a little about the interesting story of Angela‘s wedding and death.
After seeing the theater, we were hungry and started to look for a lunch place. Two days ago, during the destination lecture on the ship, Vickie, the presenter, recommended a traditional Mexican dish, Percado Frito, a whole fried fish. It was on our must-to-do list in Mazatlan. We asked a volunteer at the plaza to recommend a local-style lunch place and hoped to find the fried fish. He pointed us towards Mariscos Preparados “Chon,” two blocks away from the square. It is a small restaurant with a Mexican vibe. We were the only customers there, and they didn’t have whole fish and only had fried battered red snapper steak. It was delicious.
After lunch, we strolled towards the beach and planned to walk back to the ship. Along the coast, there were a few scenic viewpoints. A vendor was frying the whole fish on the beach, which we had been looking for earlier. But it was too late, and we were too full from our lunch. So we just kept walking. The weather was nice, sunshine and a little hot. After walking for one hour under the sun along the beach, we were tired and hopped on a Pulmonia Taxi, gas-powered open-air taxi that looked like a golf cart, and went back to the ship.
We were exhausted. But there was still one more place to visit in Mazatlan, El Faro Lighthouse, one of the highest lighthouses in the world. Chenggang decided to go out again while Connie stayed on the ship. He walked 2 miles to the bottom of the hill and hiked 745m up in gravel and 336 pave stairs path to reach the summit. The lighthouse is old and not very impressive, compared to the lighthouses we visited in Oct on the east coast, but the view of the city of Mazatlan and the Pacific ocean from the top of the hill was breathtaking. The lighthouse seemed to be a popular place for locals. As the sun was setting, it was time to return to the ship. We like Mazatlan a lot, and it is beautiful and has its characters.
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - 墨西哥卡伯圣路卡斯
Nov. 22, 2021 - Cabo San Lucas was the first port of call in Mexico, but this was not our first time to see its beauty. Nineteen……
Nov. 22, 2021
Cabo San Lucas was the first port of call in Mexico, but this was not our first time to see its beauty. Nineteen months ago, after we left Los Angeles starting our 90 days world cruise, we had a medical emergency on the vessel, and the captain decided to reroute the ship to Cabo San Lucas to drop off the patient. We couldn’t get off the ship at that time. However, we glanced at Cabo San Lucas and the famous sea arch, El Arco, from the ship.
Cabo San Lucas is a resort town at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. Our ship anchored at Cabo around 11 am, and we were tendered to the shore. They packed us into a lifeboat used as a tender boat. Of course, there was no social distance on the boat, but at least everyone wore the mask. As soon as we stepped on the marina, we were swamped by many street vendors trying to sell the tour tickets or water taxis. Since we did some research and knew the price range for the water taxi to Love Beach, we settled down with a $30 round trip for both of us to the beach. We had to pay $20 first, would pay the rest one hour later when they picked us up from the beach. On the way to the beach, we changed our mind to only stay there for a shorter time. We asked the water taxi driver to wait for us on the beach. He seemed to be very nice and nodded his head and agreed. The boat ride to the beach was terrific, while there was quite a bit of traffic on the water near the Love Beach. The beach was beautiful and calm. We did a short walk to the other side of the peninsula, called “Divorce Beach.” It’s less crowded, but the water is much rough.
After snapping a few pictures, we went back to the water taxi landing area. Our boat was nowhere to be seen. An English-speaking local helper on the beach assured us that our boat was coming. We had waited for another 40 mins, and suddenly, we saw our boat coming towards our way. We waved, and the local helper tried to call the boat on a two-way radio. But the boat went to go around the Arco and sailed away. As the boat disappeared on the horizon, we decided to find a water taxi back to the city. The local guy found another boat to take us back to the Medano beach. The beach was very crowded, and we didn’t feel comfortable staying for very long. We walked away from the beach and headed back downtown, walking along the marina shore. Even just a few blocks away from the beach, the area was very friendly and quiet. We had the fish tacos and calamari at Baja Cantina, facing the marina. They were delicious but more American style.
After lunch, we went to the resort corridor on the west side of the town to check out Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, a luxury resort where our friend would stay in two weeks. When we walked into one of the resorts, the gate guard stopped us as he could tell that we were not their resort guests since we asked for beach access. He told us to turn around and access thru the Grand Solmar. We followed his direction. This time, we were little smart and walked passing the resort guard of Grand Solmar without acting suspiciously. The resort was lovely and luxurious. The beach was just as beautiful as other places but without the crowd. We walked along the coast to Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, taking a few pictures and sending them to our friend. It was a time for us to go back to our cruise ship. As the sun was setting down behind the mountains, our ship sailed away. We enjoyed our first visit to Mexico very much.
Majestic Princess, at Sea -盛世公主号
Nov. 20 – 27, 2021 - Once cruising restarted gradually, we were eager to go out and cruise again after we were fully vaccinated…….
Nov. 20 – 27, 2021
Once cruising restarted gradually, we were eager to go out and cruise again after we were fully vaccinated. We bet that the pandemic would be all over by the fall after most people would be vaccinated, as all experts predicted. We booked a seven days Bahamas cruise trip on Crystal Serenity for early November, the same ship of our 2020 world cruise trip. We were excited about going back to the vessel again. However, as the Delta variant virus quickly spread worldwide during the summer months, we didn't feel comfortable doing a cruise and getting out of the country. Everyone on the cruise ships were required to be fully vaccinated, and there were multiple COVID-19 tests required during the cruise trip, starting from getting the travel health visa and before embarking. However, there were still a few breakthrough cases on the cruises. Fearing that we might be quarantined outside the states if we were tested positive for COVID or became a close contact of someone who had been tested positive while on the ship, even we had no symptoms, we had canceled our booking at the last minute before the final payment was due. A couple of months after our Bahamas trip cancellation, we had spotted a good deal of seven days cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico by Majestic Princess for the Thanksgiving week. When both kids decided to stay in New York City during the holiday, we jumped on the deal. Los Angeles is only six hours away from home, and we can drive there instead of flying. Another main reason for taking this cruise was that the Princess has a much preferred COVID protection program that gives us peace of mind. In the worst-case scenario, if we were infected with COVID, we would not stuck anywhere outside the states and could still come back and drive home. Princess requires the negative COVID-19 test result taken two days before embarking. We went to CVS to take the Rapid-Antigen test, which our health insurance covers. Less than one hour after the test, we got our test result. It's NEGATIVE!
On Nov. 20, we left home at 6:30 am and drove directly to the world cruise port of Los Angeles. After 6 hours of driving, we parked our car and walked about 200 feet to the check-in tent. The check-in process went very smoothly. After showing the vaccination certifications, the negative test results of COVID-19, and our passports, we were on our way to the ship. We felt very exciting, in the meantime, kind of nervous as we stepped on the gangway. "Is it safe?" "Do we risk our lives?"
With precaution, we had set a few rules for ourselves. We decided not to go on organized shore excursions to avoid close contact with others for an extended time. Using elevators was not an option for us, and we used stairs going up and down. Sometimes, we felt exhausted after taking ten flights to the Sun Deck or eight flights to the Marketplace for a buffet. We dined most at the main dining restaurants or specialty restaurants. We didn't share the tables with others and always chose private dining options. We participated in some activities, like lectures and concerts, only when we could find the seats keeping social distance from other passengers. We wore masks all the time in public areas. Fortunately, the ship was not crowded at all, with only about 45% occupancy, and almost all were wearing masks in public. Once we were on the ship, we felt safe and comfortable as on the previous cruises.
Since we explored the ports by ourselves, we spent most of the onboard ship credits on specialty restaurants on the ship. There are three specialty restaurants on Majestic Princess, Harmony, Crown Grill, and Bistro Sir La Mer, each charging $29 per person. Harmony is a Chinese restaurant. We dined there on the first night. We started with Peking duck salad and steamed pork spare rib as appetizers, followed by hot sour and wonton soups. The main courses are Kung Pao Chicken and Stir-fried shrimp with sugar peas and mushrooms. Cantonese chow mein with assorted vegetables and braised crispy tofu with shiitake mushroom and baby bok choy were served as side dishes. In addition, we ordered wok-fried lobster with winter bamboo shoot and dried scallop chili sauce for an additional $12. The evening was wrapped up with two desserts, red bean crème brulée and green tea cheesecake. The dinner was delicious but not as good as we expect to be the creations of the one Michelin star chef.
On the fourth day of the cruise, we went to another specialty restaurant, Crown Grill, a steakhouse. Both appetizers, Mediterranean-style lobster cake and seared jumbo sea scallops with herb beurre blanc were excellent. We ordered 16 oz premium beef chop, and Chilean seabass and brioche-breaded king prawns for the main courses. The beer chop was tasteful, but it was too much meat to finish it up. The seabass and king prawns were perfect. The triple chocolate treasure, a Princess signature desert, was not disappointing.
The last night on the ship, we went to the French restaurant, Bistro Sir La Mer. Each of us ordered Bisque de homard, a lobster bisque. The soup was served in a bowl covered with pastry top hat, and it had a lot of lobster chunks in it, and it was the best lobster bisque we had ever had. The waiter was super friendly. He brought in two appetizers, Pate en croute and Salade de saison, followed by the main courses, seared duck, and roasted jumbo scallops. Every single one of them was delicious. Finally, we had Ile flottante aux agrumes, crème balls covered with netted egg shield, and Barre chocolat for dessert. They looked beautiful as well as tasted delicious. We consider Bistro Sir La Mer the best among the three specialty restaurants.
We couldn't stop comparing the food between the Princess and Crystal. Overall, the foods at Princess' three specialty restaurants are decent, but they are still a couple of notches below Crystal's. Besides the food, there is no comparison for the onboard entertainment and enrichment program. Crystal is way much better. We never got bored on any of the sea days during our world cruise on the Crystal Serenity. There were so many excellent enrichment programs and entertainment we could attend. But we did get a little bored on the sea days during this Princess seven days trip.
P.S. The blogs about the experience at three call ports will be posted later on.
Boston, MA - 波士顿
Oct. 2 – 4 and Oct.11 – 13, 2021 - We visited Boston, and completed our Freedom Trail walking and many more.
We didn’t write about Boston visit in detail in the previous two posts on New England trip. Our daughter joined us on this trip from New York City, as we mentioned earlier. We had flown to Boston at night on Oct. 2, and she took an early train to Boston the next day. Then three of us went to the Quincy Market to have a quick lunch there first. After lunch, we started our Freedom Trail walk from the Faneuil Hall, a middle point of a 2.5 mile-long path from Boston Common to Bunker Hill Monument. The trail connects many historic sites in Boston. We toured USS Constitution, built-in 1797, and the oldest commissioned ship in the world. Although it is designated as a museum ship, it can still sail with its own power. We were impressed by the complexity and size of the vessel built more than 200 years ago. Once we reached Bunker Hill, we turned around and walked back to the ferry stop next to USS Constitution to ride a ferry back to downtown. We finished the other half of the trail from the Faneuil Hall to Boston Common. It was the first time any of us had completed the Freedom Trail entirely. Felt tired, we found a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown and had a delicious Chinese dinner. We picked up our rental car the next day and headed out to Acadia National Park.
On Oct. 11, we drove back to Boston and returned the rental car. We preferred to take public transportation as we stayed in downtown Boston. At night we had a lovely dinner in Little Italy. The next morning, we visited MIT and Harvard while our daughter was working from the hotel. For some reason, both campuses were not very impressive to us this time. But we had a delicious lunch in a Chinese Restaurant nearby MIT. In the afternoon, we dropped off our daughter at the Amtrak station first, and then we did a walk around the bay. We were glad to have her on this trip. She was a good travel companion and had fun to travel with. Although we live more than a thousand miles away from each other, we always found a way to spend some quality time together throughout the year.
The two-week New England trip was ending. The journey to the east coast was incredible; glad to meet our friends and fulfill our long-await dream to visit Acadia National Park. On Oct. 13, we visited Boston Public Garden in the Back Bay area in the morning. We flew home in the afternoon.
Vermont -佛蒙特州
Oct. 8 - 11, 2021 - Vermont is our 46th state to visit. We did the scenic road drive in the state and enjoyed the best fall foliage we have ever seen.
Oct. 8 – Oct.11, 2021
We left Bar Harbor on the morning of Oct. 8. On the way to Maine's capital, Augusta, we saw an enormous "prison"-like building up on the hill, wondering what it was. After driving over the Penobscot Narrows Bridge nearby, we pulled over at the bridge lookout. We found that the bridge observatory was open to the public as well as "the prison," the famous historic Fort Knox, of which we were not aware. The bridge observatory offers 360-degree spectacular views of the Penobscot River and the Bay below. It is the tallest public bridge observatory in the world. Fort Knox is nearby, overlooking the Penobscot River. The massive fort was constructed between 1844-69, more than 150 years ago. The fort was commissioned but never saw the war. We all were amazed by this well-preserved pentagon shape building.
Left Fort Knox, we headed to Belfast for a quick lunch break. We didn't spend too much time there. Afterward, we went directly to the State House in Augusta, the capital of Maine. We missed the guided tour because of the side trip to Fort Knox, so we just walked around inside of the buildings. We try to visit the government buildings if possible while on travel. Typically, the government buildings in the states or the countries are among the best buildings in the area, being well constructed and maintained and offering some history.
Today's plan was altered once we found out that our old friends from Philadelphia would be in the same area. For some of them, we hadn't seen each other for more than 15 years. We were very excited to meet them at the footbridge in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, at sunset. We wanted to have dinner at the Boothbay Harbor to have some time to catch up. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any outdoor seating in the area as our friends preferred due to COVID-19 concerns. We decided to drive back to the inn our friends stayed in to have rice porridge, which they made in a slow cooker in the morning, along with many side dishes they brought home. With precaution against COVID-19, our friends were fully prepared with homemade food for the trip. The dinner was great and comfy. We chatted for hours before we left for our hotel.
On Oct. 9, we started our exploring in Vermont. The name of Vermont comes from two French words vert (green) and mont (mountain), the "Green Mountain State," as on the Vermont license plate. Three-quarters of the state is covered with forests. Vermont is the best place to see fall foliage in the country. Once we drove into the White Mountain in the region of New Hampshire and Vermont, the forest exploded with bursting red, orange, and yellow. In some areas, the fall color was near the peak or at the peak. It was the best fall color we had ever seen. We made a few scenic views stops on the way to Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Once in the park, we did a short hike to the Pogue and South Peak Loop. It was a lovely hike with a great view. Continuing our journey, we stopped at Woodstock, Vermont. We planned to have dinner at Woodstock. But the area was flooded with tourists, and we could not find a place to dine in, so our only option was to continue driving and go to Rutland, Vermont, directly where our hotel for the night is located. Once checked in, we had Chinese food at a local Chinese Restaurant. We all were starving, so anything would taste good to us.
On Oct. 10, we had a full schedule today. We visited Cold Hollow Cider Mill first. Besides selling cold-pressed apple cider, they also sell legendary cider donuts. The apple cider was made of McIntosh apples grown nearby. The juice was fresh and sweet, the best we had ever had. The donuts were also delicious. The whole store was full of tourists. Unfortunately, the cold cider mill didn't run on that day. A couple of miles from the mill is the Ben&Jerrys Waterbury Factory. Due to COVID-19, the factory tour was suspended, but the ice cream store was open. We ordered Ice Cream. They were good as always.
Speaking of Vermont, a photo of a little Stowe Church in fall colors is everywhere, on the internet, on social media, postcards sold in the stores, and displays in art galleries. After a Google search, we located the photo shot site near Aveda Salon. We went there in the morning to snap a few photos but were not satisfied because the weather was not so great, mostly cloudy. Our next stop was Stowe Foliage Arts Festival. The festival features over a hundred vendors with the best of local crafts, food, and art. It also had live traditional craftwork demonstrations. The exhibits were of high quality. We had lunch at the festival. The festival site is connected to a nearby park with a lovely trail. The weather got a lot better in the afternoon. So we went out hiking in the park. With much of the bright red, orange, and gold color in full display, we had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of Vermont's fall foliage.
As the sun poked out through the cloud more and more in the late afternoon, we went back to the photo spot to take more pictures of that famous small white church. Everyone wants to take photos with perfect lighting conditions, just like the postcards. We had to park far away and walk to the photo site as many people and cars were there. After hundreds of pictures of that little white church taken, we finally made it to Middlebury, Vermont, late, where we stayed for the night. The dinner was a take-out from a popular local Thai restaurant in downtown Middlebury as no tables were available for dining in. Like any other day on this trip, we had to wait one and a half hours to get our food. But the food was not bad at all.
On Oct. 11, before we headed back to Boston, we toured the Lincoln Family Home. It is a beautiful mansion on more than 400 acres overlooking Green Mountain and the Taconic Mountain, with a Europe-style garden. The estate was a summer home built by Lincoln's son, Robert. After we toured the house, we drove back to Boston. Vermont is our 46th state to visit.
The Green Mountain
Acadia NP, Maine -阿卡迪亚国家公园
Oct. 4 - 7, 2021 - We fulfilled a long-wait dream to visit Acadia National Park. We had a lot of Maine Lobsters and New England Clam Chowder.
Oct. 4 – Oct.7, 2021
Acadia National Park is mainly located near Bar Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine. We initially booked the trip for the fall of 2020; just like all the other planned trips in 2020, it got canceled due to Covid-19. We rebooked everything after both of us got fully vaccinated.
We flew to Boston on Oct. 2. The following day our daughter joined us coming from New York City. Together we did some sightseeing in the city. On Oct.4, we picked up the rental car in the morning and headed to Bar Harbor. We made a quick stop at Hampton Beach, a popular beach resort in New Hampshire, not too far away from Boston. It was very windy with dark clouds over; there was no one on the beach. Next, we visited Portsmouth, a New Hampshire port city founded in 1630. We tasted our first lobster roll of this trip at a small cafe at the Market Square. We went to see Strawbery Banke of 17-18th century-old houses. Our next stop was Portland, Maine. We toured the famous Portland Head Lighthouse and had our first clam chowder of the trip from a food truck, Cousins Maine Lobster, served on the lighthouse parking lot. Then we headed downtown and walked around before continuing our journey. Before arriving at Bar Harbor, we wanted to find a place to eat since it had already passed dinner time. As usual, we searched on Yelp. We decided to try out the Pho Hoa Grill in Banger, 45 miles away from Bar Harbor. The Pho Hoa is a tiny Vietnamese restaurant located in the residential neighborhood, with only two small dining-in tables mainly for take-out and delivery. Without Yelp, the tourists like us wouldn't find this place. However, the food is delicious. We arrived at our hotel quite late. Check-in was very smooth, and our room was spacious and clean.
On Oct. 5, the first full day in Bar Harbor, we planned to hike around Jordan Pond and sightseeing in other places. We left the hotel around 9:30 AM and headed to Acadia National Park. Finding a parking spot near popular hiking trails was almost impossible. We were driving around and looking for a parking space for a while until we decided to change our plan for the day. Instead, we went to a couple of less crowded scenic spots along the coast, Otter Cliff and Otter Point, before lunch. The weather was good, and we had a very lovely walk/hiking. We wanted to have lunch in downtown Bar Harbor. Once again, after driving around looking for a parking spot for more than 30 minutes without any luck, we ended up ordering to go and went back to the hotel.
The Otter Point
We had a reserved ticket to drive up to Cadillac Summit Road for the afternoon. To control the vehicle traffic to the famous summit, the Acadia National Park has adopted a driving up ticket system. The park releases the tickets for a nominal fee 90 days before the day of the visit. We hiked down, and up a half portion of the North Range Trail from the summit, then we stayed until the sunset. The Cadillac Summit is beautiful, and it has gorgeous panoramic views of surrounding bays. The fall foliage in the mountain has just started to change color but is not near the peak. The summit is worth visiting, but honestly, it doesn't have a WOW effect on us for some reason. After the first day experience, Acadia National Park is no longer on our best national park list. We had a late dinner. After waiting for a table for 45 mins, we finally had our first steamed lobster of the trip. The lobster was good but pricy. $49 gets you a small lobster only. We also had the local famous blueberry soda, steamed clam, and clam chowder (again).
View from Cadillac Summit
TheSunset at Cadillac Summit
A ticket to see the sunrise at the Cadillac Summit is also required. We only got the ticket for daily use before the trip. There is another chance to snap the tickets at 10 AM two days before the day of the visit. Luckily, we were able to get the sunrise ticket at 10 AM sharp for Oct. 6; all tickets were gone in a couple of seconds after 10 AM. The Cadillac summit is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. The view of the sunrise is breathtaking, one of the best we have experienced. After the sunrise, we went back to the town to have breakfast at a popular local place called Jeannie's Great Maine Breakfast. The food was good, very homey style, but the portion was huge, way too much for any of us. The owner told us that it's meant to be that way so that you won't be hungry for the rest of the day.
We learned from yesterday's parking trouble and decided to take advantage of the park's free shuttle service. After breakfast, we took the Island Explorer bus, a free park shuttle for a park loop ride that stops at the Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Jordan Pond. We hopped on and off at each stop. Jordon Pond area is always crowded. Besides hiking trails, Jordan Pond House Restaurant is a historic spot for popovers and jam with a terrific view of the pond and surrounding mountains. The line to put a name down on the waiting list for the table was long. The wait to get the table was even longer. During our one and a half hour waiting for our lunch seating, we hiked a portion of Jordan Pond. The fall color around the pond was fantastic. Once seated, we tried out their famous popovers and seafood chowders. The popovers were interesting and tasted pretty good. After recharging, we popped on the shuttle again to go to the Bubble Pond. We walked around the mirror-like pond, and it was beautiful and very peaceful. We then took the shuttle back to Bar Harbor downtown. It's low tide time of the day at the Bar Island Trail. As the ocean water is wading away, the path to Bar Island emerges above the water. Hundreds of people were walking on the path to the island. We spot many live starfishes, sea snails, and other small ocean creatures on the floor along the trail. The gravel sand bar connecting to the island is exposed only one and a half hours before and after the low tide every day. It was a fun experience. After the hike, tired of a long wait at the restaurant, we decided to have dinner at a less crowded India Restaurant.
Bubble Pond
Oct. 7 is our last day in the park. We decided to get out of the tourist crowded places in the park. We first stopped by at the most photographed bridge in Acadia National Park, the Somesville Bridge. The first time we learned about the bridge was at the Acadia Inn we stayed. Many copies of the framed pictures of this white-painted footbridge in front of a small house reflected on a motionless pond were on the wall through the inn. The beautiful picture got our attention and inspired us to see it. Left the bridge, we went to see Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a popular spot, but the parking lot is small. We had to wait for a while to get a parking space. The lighthouse is picturesque, viewing from the granite boulders below the lighthouse. After the lighthouse, we headed out of Mount Desert Island, hoping to have some good lobster meals. Our first stop was the Gateway Lunts Lobster Pound. Unfortunately, they only opened for take-out, and no lobster was served due to the staff shortage. We decided to have a bowl of Clam Chowder. It was a different style compared to the clam chowder we had the other days, but it tasted terrific. Continuing on the road, a sign of a $9 lobster in front of a store caught our eye. We decided to make a U-turn to check it out. The deli and grocery store sells live lobsters for $9 per pound. However, since the store doesn't have a steamer, that is not an option for us to buy the lobster there. Instead, we ordered a lobster roll for $16, and it was good. We were on the road again, heading to Winter Harbor. We found a store called Winter Harbor Lobster Co-op that sells live lobsters for $10 per pound and a small fee for steaming. The store has many tables and benches up the hill for customers to enjoy fresh steamed lobsters there. We were so excited and ordered one lobster first. The lobster was so fresh, and the meat had a little bit of sweet taste. It was the best lobster we have ever had, so we immediately ordered another one.
The most photographed bridge in Acadia National Park, the Somesville Bridge
With two lobsters in the stomach and feeling satisfied, we got on the road again and headed down to the Schoodic Point, across the Freshmen Bay from Bar Harbor. The Schoodic Point is part of Acadia National Park, less popular with the tourists but has the best view of large veins of dark basalt between more giant granite boulders and sea surfing pounding the shore. Once there, we realized that it should be an excellent spot to see the sunset, so we decided to stay for a couple more hours. We were not disappointed. The sunset we saw from the Cadillac Summit was good. But this one was a lot better. It was one of the best sunset views we have experienced. On the way back to the hotel, we had another lobster dinner. $18 for a steamed lobster and an ear of corn is a pretty good deal compared to the first lobster at Bar Harbor's downtown restaurant. A lesson learned: wanting to have good lobster for cheap? Avoid downtown Bar Harbor. Going outside Bar Harbor, just 20 minutes drive, can save you a lot of money on the lobster meal. Two of us had three lobsters, two clam chowder soups, and one lobster roll for the day; what a good day is to end the trip to Acadia.
The Sunset at the Schoodic Point
Fairbanks, Alaska - 极光，淘金和鹤鸟
Aug.19-29, 2021 - In Fairbanks, We relaxed at a beautiful AirBnB rental, and enjoyed gold panning, birdwatching, and river cruising. We saw the Northern Light from the plane.
8/19-29/2021
Visiting Fairbanks is the last segment of our 2021 Alaska trip. We will stay in Fairbanks for ten days without too many must-see items except hoping to see the Northern Lights. The aurora season starts from Aug. 21, but it becomes more active after Sept. 15. Knowing the probability of seeing aurora light may not be great, we went ahead to book an Airbnb for ten days just to relax and enjoy the cool climate.
The Airbnb rental is a newly-constructed one bedroom above the owner's garage on a mountain ridge away from the city light, ideal for Northern Lights viewing. The contemporary room is beautifully decorated, and the owner lives in a house on the same property but separated from the unit. Here is what we say about the place in Airbnb Review.
"What a gorgeous place for us to stay in Fairbanks for the last ten days. The location is great. It's quiet with a beautiful view. It's also close to the restaurants and shops. The Chalet was extremely clean and very well decorated. Everything looks brand new. The kitchen had everything you needed. The washer and dryer were super helpful during our long stay. It's a home away from home, and we had a great time. Kristin was an amazing host. She was very helpful and answered all our questions quickly. This is the BEST Airbnb I have ever stayed in! I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to stay in Fairbanks! – Connie"
The University of Alaska Fairbanks, called UAF, is 10 min driving distance from our Airbnb place. Its campus on the hill is vast and beautiful. One afternoon, we visited Georgeson Botanical Garden on the campus, a well-designed and maintained research facility. Although the growing season in Alaska is short, surprisingly, we find that the vegetables growing in the garden are much larger than what in the low 48 states. Visiting the UAF Museum of the North is the highlight of the trip. We also attend the 75th-anniversary celebration of the Geophysical Institute to see the exhibit booths and tour the satellite antenna site.
On Aug. 22, today's weather is one of the best during our ten-day stay in Fairbanks. We booked the famous riverboat tour in Fairbanks, Riverboat Discovery, a few days ago. The riverboat tour business started 100 years ago, and Brinkley's family still runs the company. Our captain is the great-granddaughter of the founder. It is not just a river cruise. It takes us to see an Athabascan Indian village, view a team of dogs mushing an ATV, and watch a small plane taking off and landing on water. Of course, the scenery along the river is also fantastic. It is the best riverboard cruise we have had, but we only have had three so far.
The next day, we go to Gold Daughters for gold panning, one of the popular tourist things to do in Fairbanks. We pay $20 for a bag of paydirt and using the panning equipment. They guarantee we would find gold in the bag from Fairbanks Gold Co. Before we try our luck on the paid paydirt, they recommend using the dirt from a pile of paydirt hauled from a local gold mine to practice. They teach us a few gold-pan techniques. We have spent about two hours there, and it was exhilarating to find a lot of tiny pieces of gold flakes, enough to put into a necklace locket we purchased from their store. The gold we panned is worth less than what we paid, but we are super exciting and fun to find GOLD. After gold panning, we drive across the highway to the other side of the road to see the Tran-Alaska Oil Pipeline, learning a few things about the construction and design.
One morning we walked into a local bakery near our place. We noticed a post of the Sandhill Crane Festival in Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, 15 mins away from our Airbnb. That reminds us of our trip to Kearney, Nebraska, in 2018 to view Sandhill Crane's migration. We enjoyed seeing thousands of sandhill cranes and Canadian goose on that trip. It was a pleasant surprise to see the Sandhill Cranes here in Fairbanks. We visit the Creamer's Field several times to watch and take many pictures of those beautiful creatures in the next few days.
The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is a must-see place in Fairbanks. It is one of the best auto museums in the world, with a world-class collection of vintage automobiles and period fashions, telling the story of the rich and colorful auto and transportation history in Alaska. Among all other gorgeous and spotless cars, a single-cylinder car, 1905 Sheldon Roundabout, gets our most attention. It was the first automobile in Alaska built by 24-year-old Bobby Sheldon to win over the attention of a young lady without seeing a real car. Unfortunately, he didn't win the heart of the young lady, but Sheldon went on to become a legend in Alaskan automotive history.
We also visit a few other places, North Pole, Chena Hot Spring, Pioneer Park, and Wedgewood Bird Sanctuary. We had a terrific dinner at a historic Pump House on the shore of the Chena River.
To see Northern Light is the main reason for our extended staying in Fairbanks. The aurora activity is moderate during that time. Plus, the weather is either cloudy or rainy most time. The chance to see the Light is not great. But we still try to stay late to hope to see the Northern Light on a few of those days. We check the website and find out whether the aurora is active or not—we set up our camera to take a picture of the sky every 5 mins. After we stayed all night until 2-3 am on consecutive days, not seeing any aurora light, we thought the chance to see it was slim, so we went to sleep early one night. The following day, we check out our camera, and we find a few pictures of the Northern Light taken from the window of our stay. We missed it! In the following few days, the weather continues not to cooperate. However, on the day we leave Fairbanks, the weather is nice. Our flight is a red-eye flight. After taking off, we finally see the Northern Light we desperately want to see on the plane. What a way to end our trip to Alaska!
Denali National Park， Alaska - 灰熊，驼鹿和驯鹿
Aug. 15-19, 2021 - We saw many bears, moose, elks and other wildlife in the park. One day, we took 800+ pictures.
8/15-19/2021
Denali National Park is the fourth national park in Alaska we are going to visit. Since the Alaska Denali Star Train tickets were sold out before we could snap, we took the Park Connection bus from Anchorage to Denali instead. It turns out that an alternate is a good option. The bus ticket costs $100 per person and the total travel time is about 6 hours, cheaper and less travel time than the train. The bus ride is very comfortable, and we have a coffee/restroom break at Talkeetna. We arrive at McKinley Chalet around noon. Our room is not ready, so we go right to the Karstens Restaurant for lunch. McKinley Chalet Resort is on the shores of the Nenana River and a short distance walk to the commercial area of restaurants and shops. The room is comfy with a separate sitting room. The resort provides shuttles to the park and on property.
After settling in, we take the shuttle to the park to check it out. Again, the visitor center is closed due to COVID-19, but the gift shop is open, so we get the bear spray for $50. Since most people carry bear spray while they hike, having one with us provides a sense of safety protection. Dinner is Chinese/Thai take-out. The food is pretty good. After traveling for a while, we always want to have Asian food as comfort food, whether authentic or not.
On Aug. 16, we ride the park’s free Savage River Shuttle to the Savage River Loop Trailhead. The Savage River Loop Trail is a beautiful flat trail along the river. It is an easy hike for us and is pretty scenic. While waiting for the return shuttle, we decide to hike a small portion of the Alpine Trail to get a feel of the trail. Then we ride the shuttle back to the sled dog kennels near the park headquarter. Twenty-four sled dogs were in the kennels. All dogs start to balk loudly and jump up and down to their tiny houses when we walk in. Somehow a little mouse gets into the area under the bushes. One of the dogs catches the mouse finally, but the ranger takes it out of the dog’s mouth. It takes 15-20 mins for the ranger to get the mouse out of the area and calm down the dogs. It is a pretty funny scene for us. Since the next shuttle back to the visitor center is still an hour away, we hike on a roadside trail near the bus stop. Back to the resort, we have dinner at Karstens Restaurant.
On the third day, the 17th, we take the Eielson Visitor Center Transit bus, 66 miles into the park. This transit bus is the most popular bus route in the park. We made the reservation a couple of months in advance at $60 per person. The weather is cloudy and occasionally drizzling. Since we are on the bus most of the time, we don’t worry about getting wet, but in the beginning, we do fear that the poor visibility may prevent us from spotting any wildlife. It turns out to be a perfect day trip. We spotted so many wildlife, Bears, Moose, Caribou, Dally Sheep, and birds along the way to the visitor center. We spot a grizzly bear not too far away from the road before our bus driver does. We get a good shot of it. The bus arrives at the destination before 1 pm. Initially, we thought we would ride the same bus back, but we changed our mind at the last minute to spend more time exploring the area. We do a couple of short hikes then walk down on the Thorofare Ridge Trail. We spot a black bear lying down on the river bed and eventually move to a nearby tree from a far distance. What a treat!
On the way back, we get on an empty bus called a camper sweeper to collect the campers or visitors left behind. The bus driver is super informative. He cracks a few jokes and talks about permafrost. Because of climate change, the permafrost in some areas in the park is thawing to cause the landslide. He points out several permafrost landslides along the road. He says that one section of the road we drive through is sinking at the rate of 12 inches per day. The workers are constantly adding gravels from the river below. We don’t think we want to drive through it by ourselves even if we are permitted. We see even more bears, moose, and caribou on the returned bus. We take about 800 hundred pictures on that day. It is super awesome to see so much wildlife.
After a nine-hour tour and another hour of shuttling back to the town, we are hungry and crave good food. We want a take-out from that Chinese/Thai place, but the waiting time is about one hour and 45 mins, so we go to a Serbian restaurant, Moose-Aka’s, the next block. The restaurant has a 5-star review on Tripadvisor and has a long waiting time too. Somehow the host messes up the seating queue. After two hours, we finally are seated. We order Turkish coffee, which is different from the coffee we usually drink. We have a Russian Salad surprisingly similar to the one we make at home. The appetizer sampler platter and other main entrees are all very delicious. The staff apologized for keeping us waited so long and paid for an appetizer. It is a long day.
Today, Aug. 18, is the fourth day in the park. The weather is the best so far, partially cloud and sunshine. We go back to the park and ride the Savage River shuttle again to hope to see Denali Peak. We hike through the 4.1 mile Savage Alpine Trail, starting from the south side and exiting the north end. The hike is terrific. It can be challenging at some points but not too hard. The view at the top is fantastic. Disappointingly, we don’t see Denali Peak due to the cloud. Back to the town early, we have the Thai food for dinner without a long wait.
On the final day in the park, before catching the 4 pm train to Fairbanks, we do a short Horseshoe loop hike and have lunch at the Karstens Restaurant. The resort offers a complimentary shuttle to the Train Depot and handles all the luggage. We are in the GoldStar Service Class of Denali Star Train to Fairbanks. The GoldStar Service Class includes the dinner on the low deck. Due to COVID 19, we have an option not to share the table with others, which we choose along with the other 10% of the passengers. We have been very cautious about social distance and not having contact with others on this trip. The train ride is great for us to see the remote area of Alaska. At the end of the journey, the experience of picking up the check-in luggage is horrifying. The bag claim area at the depot is not big. The room is full of passengers waiting for their luggage, shoulder to shoulder. It is a perfect place for the virus to transmit. Unfortunately, one of our two bags is the last one coming out. After 45 mins horrifying scene, we wonder if we might get the virus now. We pick up our rental car at the airport, and we are on the way to our Airbnb place at Fairbanks.
Cooper Landing， Alaska -红鲑跳龙门
Aug. 11-14, 2021 - We hiked 2 miles to the Russian Falls and saw thousands salmons waiting for their turns to jump over the falls.
8/11-14/2021
Today starts the second segment of our Alaska trip. We check out the hotel around 9:30 am and drive to the Copper River Center at the Wrangell-St Elias National Park. The Visitor Center and Ahtna Cultural Center are closed due to COVID 19. A hand-built fish wheel by Ahtna people is on display. The river's current pushes against the submerged paddle and rotates the wheel, passing the baskets through the water where they intercept fish swimming against the current. Fish wheels are very effective in catching the fish so that they are banned from public use. We are told that there are eleven wheels in use on Copper River. On the way to Cooper Landing, we stop by a few places for scenic views. We also go to Sheep Mountain Lodge to look for Dally Sheep on the Sheep Mountain. We can not see any of them on the slope, and the café at the lodge also closes due to the lack of staff.
Today's weather starts with cloudy and drizzling. However, the rain stop when we arrive at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge. The resort is well built and maintained. Our cabin has a wood fireplace. It is the first time that we use a wood fireplace. We have to call the front desk to get the instruction on how to light up the fire. The resort's restaurant offers excellent food and has an incredible view of the mountains and the river. We have a great dinner on the first day there.
On 8/12, we drive two and a half hours to Homer Spit to catch the Danny J Ferry to Ismailof Island in Halibut Cove. The ferry ticket to the island was purchased in advance. Danny J is a small fishing boat that can carry only 29 passengers. Everyone stays outside on the deck and wears masks. The boat ride also includes a visit to Gull Island, a bird sanctuary. We see Tufted Puffins, a lot of Common Murres, Gulls, and Bald Eagles. A Sea Otter floats in the sea on its back and is enjoying a meal of a live starfish. The ride to the island takes about 45 mins. After docking, we walk up a steep ramp into the Saltry restaurant due to low tide. We order a combination seafood platter and a Saltry taco. The food is good. After lunch, we walk on the boardwalk around the island. It is a great experience. At 4 pm, we embark and went back to Homer Spit. At the Spit, several charted fish boats are unloading their fish tour trophies, lots of fish. The largest one we saw is 70 lb Halibut. Before we drive off to the resort, we have another Fish and Chips. The Halibut fish is so delicious.
The next day, we hike 4.5-mile roundtrip on the Russian River Falls Trail. At the base of the falls, a pond of salmons is waiting to jump up the cascading waterfalls and swim upstream on the homeward journey to their birthplaces. We take a lot of pictures of salmon jumping. Unfortunately, no bears show up to catch the fish. Seeing salmon jumping up the waterfall is one of the highlights of this trip.
On Aug. 14, before we head back to Anchorage, we do an 18-mile-long loop drive on gravel Skilak Lake Road. Alaska.org provides Audio Recordings for the road tour. Since there is no cellular service in the area, we couldn't listen to them. There is no option to download them either. We see no major wildlife except ducks and birds but have great views of a few lakes. Potter Marsh Bird Sanctuary is just outside Anchorage. We stop there for a quick visit and head to Anchorage downtown, and check into our hotel.
The dinner tonight is at Crow's Nest on the 24th floor in Hotel Captain Cook, with stunning panoramic views of the city, Chugach Mountains and Cook Inlet. We order four appetizers, Pork Belly, Crab Cake, Raw Oysters, Caesar Salad, and one main entree, Seafood Cioppino. They all are outstanding. After dinner, we stroll around the downtown area and do a dry run from the hotel to the bus stop for tomorrow's bus ride to Denali National Park. Since the bus will leave in the early morning, at 6:30 am, and we have a few suitcases to move, we want to make sure we have the quickest and easiest route to the bus stop.
Kennecott, Alaska - 冰川和铜矿
Aug. 8-11, 2021 - We did a 5 hour guided hike on Kennecott Glacier, and toured the tallest wooded building in the country, a 100 year old copper mill.
8/8-11/2021 -Glennallen/Kennecott, Alaska
As the daily new cases of COVID-19 were spiraling down many months ago, we started to plan an extended summer vacation for this year. Alaska was easily on the top of our list. The first time we visited Alaska was 2017 on a seven-day Holland American Cruise to Alaska. We visited several coastal cities and Anchorage during the trip but never made up to Denali and Fairbanks. Although the initial thought was to visit all national parks in Alaska, after some research, we decided only to see two national parks, Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias accessible by vehicle. We hope we could visit other parks in the future.
We flyto Anchorage on Aug. 8th and drive three and a half hours to Caribou Hotel at Glennallen for the night. The hotel is old and not well maintained. At least we have a few hours of good sleep. The shuttle to McCarthy/Kennecott picks us up at the hotel at 7:00 am. On the way to Chitina, the driver, Jason, picks up seven more passengers. Jason is very quiet but good at spotting the wildlife. The highway ends at Chitina. The road from Chitina to McCarthy is unpaved but well maintained. Many travel advisory websites warn not to drive rental cars on McCarthy Road. The road condition is better than any forest road we often drove on before. Although we could easily drive to McCarthy by ourselves without any issue, we believe we made the right decision to leave the driving to the other so we can enjoy the scenic view along the road.
After four hours slow ride, we get off the shuttle bus at the footbridge over Kennicott River near McCarthy. We walk over the bridge with our suitcases to the other side to meet our hotel shuttle from Kennicott Glacier Lodge. Our initial impression is that the only way to McCarthy/Kennecott is to walk over this long footbridge. We wonder how the people who live in the town get vehicles and other supplies over to the other side of the river. Do they drive across the river during the winter when it is frozen, we even asked? No. The fact is that the car bridge is not too far away from the footbridge for the residents of the towns to drive through. It is another Alaska tourist marketing trick we fall for. However, it is the best way to control car traffic in a remote town where the main road is muddy and poorly maintained.
Kennecott is 5.5 miles away from the footbridge. We arrive at The Kennicott Glacier Lodge, the only public accommodation in the town. The lodge faces the rocky, dirty-looking Kennecott Glacier, not the clean white glacier we expected. Too early to check-in, so we store our luggage in the lobby and go to the dining hall for lunch. The lodge has a three-meal plan that costs $65 per person. As soon as we finish our lunch, our room is ready. We stay at South Wing Building, a new building with private bathrooms. The main building was a mine-worker dormitory many years ago. The rooms in the main building has only shared bathrooms. After settling down in our room, we walk across the street to Alpine Guide Office to sign up for the tour to the mill in the afternoon and the glacier hike the following day.
The dinner is one seating at 7 pm with a fixed menu. The food is okay, but the weather is perfect, turning from rain to sunshine before dinner. All couples are seated outside. We have a great time. Three tables down, we overhear an old lady and her grandson talking loudly to other guests about their trip. She is the famous Grandma Joy, visiting 58 th out of 61 national parks with her grandson. After the meal, we do a google search on her. Her story is amazing and inspiring.
Wrangell-St Elias National Park is the largest national park in the US, with more than 13 million acres. It is a very primitive national park. However, inside the park, there is an old copper mining town, Kennecott. At the peak, the copper mill employed more than 500 people. $100 million had been invested in the infrastructures and equipment, and the mill produced $200 million worth of copper. It is a national historic site now. After National Park Service acquired the mill, the site has been renovated. The mill tour takes us to inside the building. The milling operation was highly automatic in the standard of its time. The mill was shut down in 1938 and became a ghost town until National Park Service took over it.
The following day, we go on a glacier hike with a guide and another couple, Mary and Philips, from Maine. Our guide was Alex from the Alpine Guides. We hike 2 miles on the dirt trail, then 0.5 mile on the white Root Glacier. The weather is drizzling, but the scene is beautiful. The glacier extends miles and miles. After a five-hour hike, we get back to the lodge, have a quick lunch, and take the hotel shuttle back to the footbridge. Once again, we walk over the long footbridge with our suitcase to the other side of the river. Our shuttle driver Jason is waiting for us. On our way back to Glennallen, we see a black bear on the roadside.
Hike on Root Glacier in Kennecott
We have Thai take-out tonight. The food is terrible.
We use Kennecott and Kennicott through the writing up. Kennicott was used for river and glacier. When the mill was started, someone misspelled the name with e instead i for the place.
Vaccine, RV and Zion
April, 2021 - After fully vaccinated, we went to a night hike in Arizona desert, and rented a RV with a couple of our friends to visit Zion National Park.
While the COVID-19 pandemic still dominates our everyday life, as more people are vaccinated, we see the light at the end of the tunnel. Both of us were fully vaccinated on April 17. On that day, we joined REI's Arizona Star Walk event. The tour guide took us on a two-hour hike under the stars in Tonto National Forest. It is the first time since the last March that we had physical interaction with other people, although we all wore masks and kept physical distance. The star walk was joyful and educational. We made the first step to come out of the shadow of the pandemic.
The next day, we were pondering where our next trip would be, from Cancun to Iceland. Then we decided to rent an RV to visit Zion National Park on Tuesday (4/20). It took us a couple of hours to make the reservations for RV and campgrounds. It is the shortest time from deciding to starting the trip. It illustrates how eager we for us to get out of home and go back on the travel. RV travel is always on our top of the bucket list. We used to talk about renting an RV from Seattle and drive it to Alaska when we retire. This trip could be our test drive for RV travel. We rented an RV from Cruise America. Cruise America has three different sizes of Class C RV, extended, standard and compact. To our surprise, the standard RV at $109 a night was cheaper than the smaller one, compact one. It has two beds and a full bathroom, comfortably for four adults. We rented it for six nights. After chatting with our friend, Steve, he and his wife, CC decided to join us on the trip.
On Tuesday (4/20), we picked up an RV from Cruise America in the afternoon, packed our stuff, filled the refrigerator, and drove to Flagstaff. We stayed at the KOA Holiday in Flagstaff. The KOA campground was decent, and staying was pleasant. The next day we drove to Zion National Park.
On the way to Zion, we stopped at the world-famous Horseshoe Bend near Page, AZ. The outlook becomes the major tourist destination in reference by social media in recent years. It is our first visit to the site. The view is gorgeous, and there are not too many people around. We were glad to make the stop.
Private vehicles are not allowed to drive to the scenic canyon area inside Zion National Park. The park provides free shuttle service to various locations. Since the pandemic, due to a reduced number of seats available, the park requires tickets for the shuttles. A portion of the tickets for the shuttle was released online at 5 pm on the day before the day of the visit. Those tickets are usually gone within minutes. Since we had a late start from Flagstaff, we were still far from reaching Zion before 5 pm. We were driving on Highway 89, with no community nearby, before 5 pm. But somehow, we still had a strong 5G cellular signal. 15 mins before 5 pm, we pulled over to a national historic site on the roadside and got the phones ready to grab the tickets. Fortunately, one of three iPhones was able to get noon shuttle tickets for the next day. We were so happy and excited to visit Zion National Park.
Our RV campground, Zion Canyon RV campground, was just outside Zion National Park. One way to get there is to go through the tunnel in the park. It is free for small vehicles but $15 for an RV. Since the tunnel is narrow, the park ranger has to stop both traffic to allow RV to go through only. It is also the first time to use our lifetime senior national park pass. We made it to the campground before dark. CC made four delicious hot dishes with one soup for dinner. After the gourmet dinner, we lighted the fire and enjoyed our first day in Zion.
Our RV is on the right.
On 4/22, we got up early to get our morning coffee from a local coffee shop near the park. Interestingly, most customers wore the masks but not the workers. We felt great having the first-morning coffee walk with a magnificent view since the pandemic started. We got on the shuttle a little bit earlier before noon. There are nine bus stops, but half stops were closed due to loose rocks. We rode it to the last bus stop, Temple of Sinawava. We did a 2.2 mile Riverside Walk along the Virgin River and took a lot of pictures. We didn't go into Narrows because we didn't have the dry suit and were afraid of toxic Cyanobacteria Bloom in the river. Then we rode the shuttle back to the Grotto. From there, we hiked 3.7 miles going through Kayenta and Lower, Middle, and Up Emerald Pool trail to arrive at Zion Lodge. On that day, we did a 12-mile hike total and 26000 steps. Everyone was exhausted. However, CC still managed to cook four hot dishes with one soup for dinner. Life was good.
The next day, after yesterday's 12-mile hike, we just wanted to relax and made a moderate 3.3 mile Watchman trail near the visitor center. Finally, after climbing 370 feet elevation, we reached the top to have a beautiful view of the Temples and Towers, lower Zion Canyon, Watchman Peak, and Springdale. Then, we went back to our RV to get our next shuttle tickets.
Last day at the park, we decided to attempt Angel's Landing via the West Rim trail. The West Rim trail starts at the Grotto. Not long after short walking on the canyon floor, the steep incline goes up for a little bit until we get to a zig-zag Walter's Wiggles that takes us up to the top of the ridge above the Canyon. We took a break and had a light snack at Scout Lookout. The traffic at the entrance of Angel's landing was crowded since there is one way going up and down. After watching people going in and out, we decided to climb the first section of the chains and come back. We did manage to take some nice pictures of climbing Angel's Landing. It was worth the effort.
The first RV experience was great. The staying was comfortable, but driving was not. We had to switch the seats every hour or so to avoid car sick. We were not sure we would rent Class C RV again for a long distance travel and this RV life is not cheap either. It works out to be $250 per night and $0.69 per mile.