Retired Nomads - Part 2 : Seattle, WA & Barrow, Alaska - Land Portion pre-cruise Coral Princess

This was our 21^st cruise and our first time to Alaska. We had taken the Coral on the 10 day Panama Canal a couple of years ago. I organized our own pre-cruise portion and that worked out well taking the Alaska Railroad. I bought the Alaska TourSaver coupon book, which saved a lot of money. Most things in the coupon book were 2 for 1. I also booked all of our tours online about a year in advance to make sure to get the times I needed to fit it all in. Unfortunately, since we both were still working we didn't have unlimited time pre and post cruise.

We had 7 days on land prior to boarding the ship. I purposely set up a long layover in Seattle on the way to Fairbanks so we could see a bit of Seattle. Unfortunately, I got very sick on the plane and I can assure you that having to vomit in an airplane bathroom was not pleasant. I called my doctor to see if they could call in a script for what I figured was the issue. (they did and we picked it up in Fairbanks)

We stored our carryon bags at Ken’s Storage between carousels 12 & 13 under the escalators ($5-$9 per item) and took the Light Rail from Sea-Tac to Westlake Center where we grabbed the monorail to the Space Needle where we had reservations for brunch at the revolving restaurant. The reservation includes the cost of the elevator to the top (and eliminates the long wait in line) The views of the city were amazing as was the food. (wished I had been feeling better to enjoy the food more) There were 3 courses with several choices in each category. We made several revolutions around as we ate. We took the monorail back to West Lake center and then walked to Pike’s Market and took in the sights and smells. Fresh flowers, fish market (yes, they tossed the fish), various food stalls and souvenir shops.

views from the Space Needle

views of the harbor

walking back to light rail

Still full from brunch we grabbed 2 of the largest peaches I have ever seen (over a half pound each!) and took them for dessert for after whatever we found at the airport for a light dinner. We walked back to West Lake center and took the light rail back to Sea-Tac.

We arrived in Fairbanks late that night and called for the free shuttle to Pike’s Lodge where we spent 3 nites (1 nite free with coupon) in one of their cabins. (at this point we had been awake longer than 24 hours and we got a couple hours of sleep before having to get up for our 7:36a flight to Barrow.) It was a nice clean well appointed cabin and our only complaint was that the cabin was hot! Seemed there were heaters to keep pipes from freezing or something and an open window would have been welcome if they opened. I imagine most times of the year it’s not an issue. It was a convenient place to stay and very nice.

I booked the tour for Barrow through Northern Alaska Tours which included the transportation on Alaska Air and the city tour with a local company. We made a stop at Prudhoe Bay (Dead Horse) for fuel and to drop off supplies as our plane was half cargo and half passengers.

Then a short time later we were in Barrow which is the most northern town is the U.S. We had a fantastic local tour guide Eli for the day who showed us the sites and entertained us with stories and history about the area. We stopped at the Arctic Ocean where we dipped our fingers in…burrrrr. (too much trouble to remove our shoes and socks to dip our toes in) We saw a couple of snowy owls, a seal, loons, ducks and other birds. We stopped at Pepes North of the Border for a pretty good Mexican lunch where we received our Arctic Circle Crossing certificates. Then finished our day tour which included a stop to see Inupiat Eskimos performing traditional dancing and the blanket toss. There are normally more there to perform, but their Olympics were being held in Fairbanks and most were there. They had a nice museum there and some locals were selling their crafts. I bought a cute pair of earrings made of seal fur and skin from a local artist. The Inupiats in Barrow are a whaling community and there were huge bowhead whale jaws to stand in and get photo ops. Two people on the tour decided they wanted to join the Polar Bear Club and took a dip in the Artic Ocean. Water was in the range of 0* or low negatives. Burrr. They had no bathing suits so they went in their underwear. To earn the certificate they had to completely submerge and stay under for I think 30 seconds. It’s not something I could have done, but was a great photo op! The lady who did it had me take pictures with her camera and my husband also got some great shots that we will email to her. A very nice day here. (record heat for the area---still cool for my standards) We stopped at the local supermarket to pick up something to eat while waiting for our return flight. (no food at their small airport and it was dinner time) Everyone on the tour was getting a kick out of the high prices in the market. Everything has to be flown in so of course it’s expensive. Got some cheese and crackers and enjoyed them while we waited for our flight---that was quite late and we had time to walk around town some more. So, already going on next to NO sleep we arrived in Fairbanks around 11:00p instead of 9:20. We rented a car for the next day and went back to the lodge.