Departed hotel travelling to Denali National Park. Stopping at small town of Nenana (population 500) – gambling prohibited in this town except for every spring, when they host the Nenana Ice Classic -- a popular event that awards cash prizes to those lucky enough to guess when the annual ice breakup will occur on the nearby Tanana River. Winners must predict the month, date & exact minute that a specially constructed wooden tripod will crash through the icy surface. We bought two tickets – fingers crossed 2019 prize was approximately $311,000. 

Arriving at entrance of Denali National Park Joel and Tina dropped us at downtown Denali for a 2hour stop for lunch and walk around shopping area – We had pizza and beer at Lynx Creek Pizza. Back on our coach we travelled to Denali Visitors Centre, the centre offers visitors a chance to learn more about the park by speaking with park rangers, viewing the park film, "Heartbeats of Denali", the film is about 20 minutes long. It is a non-narrated film that shares with you the various seasons, landscapes and wildlife of this beautiful place. Interesting to look at the parks history. Then off to our accommodation Denali Park Village. Attended the Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre, joining heroine Fannie Quigley and an unforgettable cast of characters in this true-to-life Gold Rush tale of adventure in early 1900s Alaska. It's a great mix of colourful storytelling, spirited music and humour, was a fun evening.  Enjoy an all-you-can-eat meal; including Alaskan salmon, barbecue ribs, fork mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, old-fashioned baked beans, drop biscuits and blueberry cobbler. Met up with Rhonda and Stephen from New Zealand and Richard and Grace from Queensland many drinks and laughter went down that evening.