Day 2 of our honeymoon started with a morning riverboat cruise down the Chena river that runs through Fairbanks.  Needless to say there were a few people along for this short trip.

Along the way we witnessed a landing and take off of the most popular transportation in Alaska, as well as a visit to the sled dog training home of David Monson.  His wife Susan Butcher has won the Iditarod four times but she passed away in 2006.  You can see more information at http://www.trailbreakerkennel.com.

We even were able to touch the pelt of the fiercest animal around, a wolverine!

In the afternoon we boarded a bus and headed to Denali for a two night stay at Princess Cruises Wilderness Lodge – (https://www.princesslodges.com/princess-alaska-lodges/denali-lodge/).

The views along the way and at the lodge are just majestic.  Alaska is mainly a wilderness.  This was not Bay County, Michigan.

View from the bus

Another view from the bus

The mountains were beautiful too

A view from the Lodge

A view a short walk from the lodge

On day 3 we take a trip into the Denali park.  Spoiler alert, we do not get to see Mount Denali (aka Mount McKinley) because of the clouds.

Second road trip of the year, and this one was different than any I have taken before.

Because…

Wait for it…

I went with my fiancé!!

Meet Mary Martini.  We are planning on getting married on August 10th this year, and celebrating with a cruise to Alaska.  That will be a trip with lots of pics I am sure.

And now I also have a whole bunch of new genealogy work to do.  I will have to live to my 90’s to get it all done, if genealogy research can ever get done.

On this trip we visited Chris, Lia and Emma and had a great time and watched Emma play a great soccer game. Then traveled to PA to see Brian, Amy and Sammy for another great time and to watch Sammy play baseball (and break his hand in the process).  Then traveled to Virginia to spend some quality time with Stephanie and Steven, along with Steven’s parents.  Then back to Columbus for a night and finished the trip off with a visit to see Ron and Pat Guoan and Bill and Judy Black, including a rousing game of 6 player Sequence, and on the morning we headed home we stopped and visited Anna Mae Wires along with Rick and Norma.

We visited a prison in Mansfield Ohio where they filmed Shawshank Redemption.

We visited the Indian Echo Caverns in Pennsylvania.

And up to the Star in Roanoke (after visiting Black Dog Salvage).