Whoo! Whoo! All aboard!

Last fall I won two tickets for the train in a raffle. We were within about a week of losing them if we didn't use them, so Doug and I packed a backpack with some goodies and hopped on the train. Our tickets were good for a round trip ride to Denali National Park from Fairbanks. We chose to upgrade our tickets to first class on the trip there to really get the full experience. The first class cars have glass tops so that you can see everything while you're riding. What a blast! We were like two kids at Christmas. The trees were beginning to change colors and the views were breath taking. We got to Denali around noon and took a bus to "town". Denali is really small to say the least. We grabbed some lunch at the Salmon Bake Restaurant and strolled through the shops filled with all things Alaskan. The train departed at four in the afternoon and we got back into Fairbanks at eight in the evening. The Alaska train is such an important piece of Alaskan history and has really become a popular symbol of the rugged Last Frontier.