Enjoyed a quiet cup of coffee by the lounge window with a view

Today’s highlight is the 5 hour alaska rail trip from Danali to Talkeetna  (teklanika train car) with dome glass ceiling..  And there’s only one car on this train just for this connoisseur princess group

The view from the train is epic!! I knew it’s going to be beautiful but still It blows my mind…. I can’t believe I get to stare at these views for 5 hours… I’ll let the pictures speaks for themselves….

The lodge at Mt. McKinley princess wilderness lodge is rustic, cozy and super nice

Enjoyed a big breakfast and a walk around the Princess Lodge community /village… getting ready for our next adventure which is a 6 hour Tundra wilderness tour

The tour again is on a converted tour bus with an expert guide/ driver that helps us spot wild life

Besides the wild lifes.. Of course there’s the breath taking views again

And selfies with them…

Today our small group of 29 people motocoached to Denali from Fairbanks… Its about  a two and a half hour drive on highway lined with beautiful Birch trees, white and black spruce, aspens.. Etc

The stop in between called Tatlanika RV campground is interesting…

As soon as we arrived in the vicinity of our lodge/Denali National Park area we were in awe..   The mountains are definitely calling and it’s incredibly beautiful and serene here

They really pampered us with fine dining tonight…. Surf and turf (prime rib and king crab) 🤩

After dinner, we went for a walking tour that lasted 3 hours…. Super fun with a knowledgeable cool guide and cool group…..felt like we were beginners that accidentally stumbled into an advance nature’s class… Someone in the group kept saying he really wish to see a moose during the tour, we saw nothing and just when all hope is lost, they appeared right at the very end when we were leaving… Every one cheered and laugh… What a happy ending….

1St day of the 17 day land and sea connoisseur tour with Princess…

First stop was the gold dredge 8 tour and the fun part is we get to pan our own gold 🤩

The afternoon steam boat ride is jam packed with activities

The tour was great with seaplane take off and landing show, learning about the Athabascan culture , Alaska husky training and sled demo… and Reindeers

Full day of fun and tours arranged by Princess

Still trying to get used to this land of the midnight sun…. Trying to persuade the body to sleep at night  even though it’s bright outside

Today is the first day of our princess 17 days land and sea tour…. So we moved from our airbnb to princess river lodge

Fun fact! You wouldn’t think of it but there’s a significant mosquito issue here in Fairbanks during this time of year…. And they are big!! 🤣

It’s an easy day today as we are still recuperating from yesterday’s epic 14 hour day trip

Woke up at 4am to this amgazing view outside

Here are the birds my merlin app captured

Joined a local wild life tour today to go to the artic circle

First stop is the great Alaska pipeline that ran vertically through Alaska…. It’s majestic

The drive to the artic circle sign is 5 hours…. Beautiful sceneries every where but desolate…the drive on mostly empty dirt road with few cars and people and no cell service…. But nature put out a show for us….

Our Guide /Driver Kevin whose main job is a Marine biologist is very knowledgeable and can talk straight through the 5 hour drive there dispensing tons of valuable info

Arrived back at our hotel almost 9pm.. A total 14 hour tour…. Amazing!!!

We left our home at 3:20 am to catch a 6 am flight from LA to Seattle and then change flight to Fairbanks Alaska…. We did the alaska cruise 15 years ago， this time it’s the land and sea cruise and we are very excited about checking out the land part, especially the national parks of Alaska

Love the very unique and cozy airbnb, a time capsule for us to relax and reminiscing about yesterday years… Today the sun is going to set at 12 am and come back up tomorrow at 4pm 🤣🤣, the sun here works extra hard….

Fun fact!! There’s no sales tax in Alaska!! Woohoo…. Only 5% tax on alcohol…

We were so looking forward to returning home after long away for so long …., did not expect to have a great meal at the airport but we did…. 3 decades ago I remembered having a wonderful pasta in Kyoto so we decided to try the pasta restaurant at the airport and we did not disappoint…. It’s so good that we each had two plates of pasta…. One of my dish even had tofu skin on it together with shrimp and scallops, how amazing is that!!

Well its time to say goodbye to Japan….from Hokkaido to Kyoto to Tokyo, we cherished and love almost every moment of it…. It’s for sure a cultural spa 🤗

Last full day in Japan we just about ran out of steam… So instead of scheduling full day of touring or hop on and hop off buses

First we had breakfast at a beautiful Starbucks overlooking the imperial garden, and then walk to the Tokyo train station to get tomorrow’s train ticket to the airport

We decided to only visit one of two unesco sites in Tokyo : national museum of western art design by the great Le Corbusier

The museum is another gem of brutalist design

The museum is amongst a cluster of other museums and the zoo right on Ueno Park and the whole park is buzzling with tourists and food fairs all in anticipation of the cherry blossom bloom

So for dinner, since it’s the last meal, we went all out and went to two yakitori place… Heavenly 🙌🙌

We need to say goodbye to Kyoto today after a whirlwind 5 day stay…. Kyoto is right up there on top 5 of our favorite city now…

Took a JR and then a shinkansen…. This time we go even bigger with our ekiben feast