Hashcake's Seattle / Alaska holiday

[hashcake]

Seeing that feek and the king of groove seem to think I spend all of my time globtrotting, I thought I would post a photo per day of our holiday.
Hopefully I will be able to post more interesting photos once we arrive in Alaska (internet connection depending).

Day 1 - coming into land at Seattle airport.

Day 2 - Linda pointing at a tall tourist atraction
Most people know the name of this building but for the benefit of Clive, - This is the Space Needle

Day 3 - Flying to Fairbanks, Alaska
The view was stunning, at one point I thought about digging out my new double layer coat and asking the captain if I could take an oxygen mask and sit on the wing because shooting through the window was a real pain

Coming into land

 

[mrtoad]

dont forget to have a starbucks original

my aunt lives in aberdeen...washington state

 

[Adeyb]

my brother lives in Redmond, Washington!

 

[hashcake]

dont forget to have a starbucks original

We went to the orginal cafe and there is one more or less on every street corner.

 

[feek]

Not like you to have a coffee Darran!

 

[hashcake]

Day 4 Fairbanks - Alaska

The University of Alaska Museum

Brown Bat

Michio Hoshino
Until today, I had never heard of this photographer.
Now I have seen some of his work, I am truly in awe of him and inspired.
Anyone who is into wildlife photography should google him.

 

[hashcake]

Not like you to have a coffee Darran!

Rob the coffee is free at this hotel and it's very good

 

[feek]

Like the shot of the building Darran. Reading that biography of the photographer you'd better keep out the way of any bears!

 

[hashcake]

Day 5 - (day 1 of the land tour)

From now on, things should get more interesting.
We took a fantastic trip on a paddle steamer down the Chena river and also went to a Athabaskan village.

The view from the rear of the paddle steamer

Floatplane (we will be going on one of these next week)
I was surprised how short the run is for these to take off and land.

Athabaskan girl.
The parka she is wearing takes 6 months to make!
I love learning about people and their cultures and this young lady and her impressed me with their desire to share their knowledge.

Alaskan oil pipeline
It's not just the feat of engineering that impresses me with this pipeline, the effort they put in to preserve nature and wildlife leaves me with a sense of feeling that the state of Alaska is cut above the rest of the USA.

 

[smooth]

Superb Darran!

Alaska is one of my dream destinations so I am going to be following this thread closely.

My fave of the set so far is your day 3 aerial shot - not sure if it was done in PP or it was the effect of the window/conditions but it has a really nice retro quality that I really like!

Keep posting (when you can get online!).

 

[feek]

Nice shot of the plane taking off and am really impressed with the portrait shot of the girl. Keep em coming mate. Rob

 

[hashcake]

Superb Darran!

Alaska is one of my dream destinations so I am going to be following this thread closely.

My fave of the set so far is your day 3 aerial shot - not sure if it was done in PP or it was the effect of the window/conditions but it has a really nice retro quality that I really like!

Keep posting (when you can get online!).

Cheers Matt, I used contrast masking on that shot as I think gives it a lift.
I appreciate you following this thread

 

[hashcake]

Nice shot of the plane taking off and am really impressed with the portrait shot of the girl. Keep em coming mate. Rob

Thanks for you support Rob, I really appreciate it.
I'm hoping I will get a chance to meet more native Alaskan people and learn even more about their culture.
As you know, I'm not one for portaits but these people are really interesting.

 

[feek]

Darran, have a look in the meeting place forum- Am organizing a meet between 15th-20th Aug. Let me know which day suits you? Rob

 

[hashcake]

Day 6 - Denali
We tooks the Wilderness express train to Denali today.
This is well worth doing if you ever decide to visit Alaska.
Not much time today, I will try and post a photo of the train tomorrow.

Shot from the Wilderness express train en route to Denali

Dall sheep - Denali national park

Mount Mckinley - Denali national park
Sorry about the quality, this was a rushed shot taken from the coach

 

[feek]

Love the last one Darran-Has a painterly feel to it, and the scale is unbelievable, those foreground hills/mountains are dwarfed by Mnt Mckinley Rob

 

[hashcake]

Day 7 Denali & Talkeetna

The view this morning from the hotel in Denali

Husky homestead.
Before we set off to Talkeetna, we visited a Husky place were they breed their own dogs for sled racing.
Jeff King is one amazing guy and has published a book which I have bought.
He has won the Iditarod 4 times, anyone interested in dogs should check out the website: www.huskyhomestead.com

Male Alaskan Husky puppy

Jeff King and his retired (from sled racing) dog Cheddar

The wilderness express en route to Talkeetna
The cruise companies own their own double decker coaches

 

[feek]

Any chance of smuggling one of those Husky pups back for me mate- I'll buy you a large starbucks for your trouble:shrug: Rob

 

[hashcake]

Any chance of smuggling one of those Husky pups back for me mate- I'll buy you a large starbucks for your trouble:shrug: Rob

No problem Rob, just remember, these are Alaskan Huskies not the big fluffy Syberian Huskies people keep as pets in the UK

 

[menthel]

Darran, love the piccy of the girl, its a cracker. Looks like you are having a great time!

 

[feek]

Come on Darran- I'm getting withdrawl symptoms-Wheres todays offering? Rob

 

[hashcake]

Finally, a decent internet connection!
They were charging 65 cents per minute on the ship and the connection was crap.
We are currently sat in the BA lounge at Vancouver airport waiting for our flight home.

Day 8 - Anchorage - heritage centre run by the natve Alaskan Athabaskan people.

Whale Skeleton

Totem pole (not just part of the native American Indian culture as I orginally thought)

Day 9 - Seward - Kenai fjords
We took a whale watching tour before boarding the ship.
You will have to wait for the whale shots

Sea lions

Our view as we set sail from Seward

 

[hashcake]

Day 10 - 8 Yakutat valley

View from our cabin, this was taken as we entered Enchartment bay.

The impressive Hubbard glacier.
This photo doesn't do it the justice it deserves, I will post a better one when I get home.

 

[feek]

Thought you had been eaten by Bears. Seems like you've had a brilliant time. Will be looking for more of these when you get back. Rob

 

[hashcake]

Day 11 - Juneau
Our helicopter flight to Mendelhall glacier was cancelled due to bad weather
However, we took a shuttle bus to an obvservation site for the glacier.

This one was was take at the 'Red Dog' Saloon.
It's an orginal western style saloon complete with sawdust on the floor.

Tramway

That's all for now, the battery is about to run out of steam on the lappy and I am knackered.
I will add the final photos when I get home.

 

[johnp]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Darran - great photos and very jealous!
We quite often visit my wifes cousin on Vancouver Island who has a view from his deck across to the Straits of Georgia - so always seeing the tour ships passing by heading to Alaska, and thinking we need to be on one of those one day....

The bear sign is very appropiate - we have had a couple of close encounters with black bear in the Rockies and on Vancouver Island whilst out walking - local advice is to sing as you walk so they know you are there - enough to frighten anybody and anything in my case...

John

 

[hashcake]

Day 12 - Skagway & British Colombia Canada

Emerald lake in British Colombia

Icey stait point.
The ship couldn't dock here so we were taken ashore by tenders.
Our excursion was whale watching.

Female Orca and her baby

Orca preparing to dive deep

One of many sea lions we saw as well as harbour seals and sea otters

 

[hashcake]

Day 12 - Ketchikan

This trip was to watch bears, sadly we didn't see any
View taken from a 1959 De Haviland float plane

View from the Island

Plenty of Bald eagles to be seen but this was the only shot I managed to get of one in flight and it is a young bird less than 2 years old.