Denali

We stay at McKinley Village Lodge which is new and quite lovely. All the staff are new and, as it turns out, untrained. This becomes a problem at breakfast when our waiter does not really speak English so simply agrees to everything we say. Hence he must return to the table periodically to tell us that they are out of something. We finally get our meals but without the extra beverages we'd ordered. Jackie had ordered tea. From three different people. This includes the manager. I decided to go to the snack counter where the manager was filling in for absent staff, explain the no tea situation. She says, "I've had a hard time getting them to understand 'tea'." I have a hard time understanding that. I ask her for the tea (again). She fills the cup to the very brim with hot water. I look at the cup and then to our table across the dining room. We stand there. I say, "I won't be able to carry it because the cup's too full." I feel like I'm in an alternate universe. We eat our breakfasts but Ron never gets his milk and we are without toast. At one point we'd been offered a variety of bread including "roe" which we decided must be "rye". We'd have settled for any toast but got nothing for a long while. Finally, toast comes but not for Ron, who's ordered roe. He's having bad luck. I ask about Ron's toast and wonder at the same time what's happened to the jelly. Now we are all done eating when the waiter comes with Ron's toast white toast - no roe - and 4 little ramekins of jelly for which we have no use and of which the waiter seems so proud. Larry gently tells the manager that the breakfast had been problematic and that it was obvious the waiter needed help and training. She seems distressed but is without any substantive response. The whole outfit needs a couple of kick-ass County managers to get the staff together and set the place up. We could do a nice job. Putting our frustrations aside, we get on our school bus for a trip into the park proper and a natural history tour that will take 4 to 5 hours. We gear up for large animal sightings and excellent photo ops. Our guide is a laid-back, aging hippy with a great sense of humor who has us all laughing our asses off before we leave the parking lot. En route to the first stop, he begins to talk about the park ecosystem, our obligations to the land, and the culture of Alaska. Fascinating. Among other things, he's a biologist and one who thinks nothing of sacrificing a bit of break pad anytime someone announces an animal sighting. Several, but not all of us, see a caribou aside the road, moose and Dall sheep in the distance and hares (not rabbits) scampering all over the place. It's pretty cool. He keeps us a little on edge with predictions about seeing the mountain - Denali itself. First, it's not very likely, then with some blue sky in the distance, it improves to 50%. In the end, the mountain reamins shrouded behind the clouds, but the 6 million acres of the park more than console us. We have an excellent talk by an older Athabaskan Native and in this area we see a moose and her baby apparently being stalked by a bear. Mercifully, it's at a distance so we cannot really see what is transpiring. Harsh, that. It be great to be on our own in Denali. If you go, I recommend renting a car and driving there yourself. There is basically one road through the park that is 91 miles long. You go to the end, turn around, and come back. In the winter, this is done on snow machines (for some reason they don't call them snow mobiles) or dog sleds. Alas, we leave with only the briefest view of the park since we must board the Wilderness Express car of the Alaskan Railroad for our trip to Fairbanks. Ah, luxury. A wonderful dome car with 2 spacious leather seats (reclining) on each side, a full bar for alcohol and coffee, and a pleasant guide to explain the train as well as the terrain. Wonderful views as we move steadily through the moutains. Most of our car has gone below to the dining area while we lucky ones remain up top. When we go to dinner, we've moved out of the mountains a little and so there is quite a bit less to see. I am sad when we start going through towns and are back on the flat. We arrive at our digs in Fairbanks where we'll be for the last 2 nights of the trip and when we are not thrilled with our room, we get a cabin adjacent to the main lodge. Jackie and Larry get to move, as well. SCORE! We have our own little place with bedroom, front and back porch, little kitchen area and a bathroom. We rock!