Thanks...actually SRQ Guy's itinerary looks very good if I can get away from doing the bear watch - which would also save us 1,100. I really wanted to get some shots of them catching salmon and teaching the cubs, but if the weather could add alot of risk to the trip, and there are spectacular mountain scenes to see and photograph elsewhere, perhaps we can leave it for another time.

We did get fairly close (accidentally) to a brown bear mother and cubs at Yosemite last year, and it was a pretty thrilling experience to be out in the wild with such an incredible animal...seeing them in Alaska would be a thrill - but not if we miss out on alot of other important things to see.