August 4, 2014 - Glacier Bay - Blue Ice

Ranger Heidi and Ranger JT boarded our ship at 6 am, but I slept through it. We sailed farther into Glacier Bay and Heidi's commentary made me think about the five senses in relation to glaciers. You obviously can see them. Margerie glacier, our first stop, is one mile wide and 250 feet high - twice as tall as the ship. The ice is white and various surprising shades of blue. It is dynamic, moving 7 feet a day. Every onnce in awhile, you see a piece of ice calving off and splashing into the water.  There are black striations across the face of the glacier, making it look like marble.

You can hear the glacier groaning and popping and cracking. Sometimes it sounds like a shotgun. 

You can feel it, even if you are not close enough to touch it. It makes its own weather. A cold wind blows off the glacier and chills all of Glacier Bay. Some passengers have gone on helicopter tours (at other ports) where they have actually landed on a glacier. The rangers brought some glacial silt with them so that we could feel the silt. I felt it. It looked grainy and I thought it would feel like sand, but it was more powdery.

Ranger Heidi said that the water near the glacier is less saline than the water at the head of the bay. I suppose that if you could taste the glacier, it would taste like fresh water.

I couldn't smell the glacier, but the absence of smell probably means something. That nothing grows here? There is a lot of life here. There is a lot of green on the slopes right next to the glacier. Scrub willow? There are lots of gulls and a few eagles. We saw an eagle perched on an ice floe. We also saw a harbor seal lying on an ice floe. A pair of otters were spotted on the other side of the ship, but we didn't see them.

After an hour at Margerie Glacier we turned around and sailed out of Glacier Bay, passing several more glaciers. It was sunny today, so the colors of the water and ice were more vivid.

We sailed along coastline for hours without seeing any buildings or houses, though we saw a few kayakers in Glacier Bay and a few fishing boats in Icy Strait. Once we passed the last point of land and entered the Gulf of Alaska, the water started to get rough. There were 8 to 10-foot swells and they continued halfway through the night.

In the evening we went to the Captain's Circle party. The turnout was low, perhaps due to the ship's motion, but also due to the small number of repeat cruisers on this trip. There were only 20 Elites (15+ Princess cruises) and we were the second Most Traveled Passengers, so we were honored with free drinks, special recognition in front of the entire room, a free photo of ourselves with the captain, a bottle of champagne and a "tombstone" - a glass block commemorating our cruise. It's a nice perk that we don't often get because many of the cruises we take have hundreds of Elites and we do not rank very high in the hierarchy.

August 3, 2014 - Skagway - Fast Ferry to Haines

The weather was fabulous. It was shorts weather, at least for these Alaskans. So we put on sunblock and headed off the ship at 7:30 am. Today the Haines Skagway Fast Ferry was operating on its more limited Sunday schedule, so our plan was to take the 8 am ferry over to Haines and come back on the 1 pm ferry.

The ferry is a catamaran that travels at a speed of 22 knots.

It has its own dog (Lulu), a small crew, and free coffee. One of the crew members, Jess, welcomed us on board with singing. He entertained us during most of the 40-minute trip by singing sea chanties, pointing out waterfalls and other noteworthy sights, explaining the natural history and social history of the area, and teaching us a few words of Tlingit. The scenery was beautiful, too. The ferry ride was not so much transportation as a tour.

Upon arrival in Haines, we began our 5k volkswalk at the dock. The options were a 5k loop and a 9k out-and-back. These walks were sponsored by Dairyland Walkers, out of Wisconsin, and will probably only be available during the 2014 tourist season. The chance to walk in Haines is much appreciated. 

We started out walking along Beach Road, which followed the shoreline. The beach was full of tents, as the Southeast Alaska State Fair is going on in Haines this weekend. We came to a little park overlooking the water, and there were more tents and a camper park. On the other side of the road was an old cemetery.

We turned up Main Street, where the directions said we would find the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center and the Hammer Museum. It was early and the Sheldon Museum was closed. I thought maybe the Hammer Museum was an art gallery and hoped it would be open. Well, it wasn't open, and it wasn't an art gallery. It was a museum devoted to hammers - as in tools. I would have paid the $5 to go in if it had been open.

We proceeded toward the Visitor Center ( open, and with public restrooms) and at this point we realized that the written volkswalk instructions and the accompanying map had diverged at the intersection of Beach Road and Main Street.

Back to that intersection, adding another kilometer to our walk. We proceeded for a few uninteresting blocks and then climbed a steep hill into a modest but tidy residential neighborhood.

We walked to what seemed like the edge of town, and then zigzagged through a more typical Alaskan residential neighborhood where you could see a lot of junk in yards, a lot of blue tarps, and a lot of houses that needed serious TLC to be rendered habitable.

Arriving at Main Street, we walked through three of the four blocks of downtown. There were some cute shops, all closed on a Sunday morning. The quilt shop was called Material Girls, and the book shop (which I was a little surprised to see here) was called Babbling Book. The IGA grocery store was closed, but it was going to open in 10 minutes (and there was already a line). We decided to buy some snacks there because we were not sure if we would find any place to get food on the remainder of our walk. (We were wrong.)

Main Street

Back down the road toward the Visitor Center and onward toward the American Bald Eagle Foundation. Haines is the Bald Eagle Capital of the World. We didn't go in. Not sure if it was even open.

We shortly arrived at Fort William H. Seward, on a hill overlooking the water. It was built starting in 1903   during a time when there was tension between the US and Canada over the border. The buildings were all the same style and the fort was carefully laid out. The result was an installation that is much more attractive than most Army bases. All the buildings were white clapboard with red, blue, or green trim and shingle roofs. They were arranged in a square around a 6-acre parade ground. The officer's houses were really nice vaguely Victorian structures on the highest ground and facing the water. The officers got to bring their families and they could hire enlisted men (cheaply) to work as servants. Their duties consisted mostly of guarding and firefighting. Because it was very remote at the time it was considered foreign duty, so they got extra credit for their "deprivation." The Alaska Indian Arts Center is now in one of the buildings, and there are totem poles and a spirit house in the parade ground area. There were also more tents here.

At the end of WWII Fort Seward was decommissioned, and the entire cemetery was moved to Sitka. In 1947 a group of five WWII veterans bought the fort (85 buildings and 400 acres), sight unseen, with the intention of preserving it, living there, and operating small businesses there. Some of these families still live at the fort. These families contributed to Haines by starting what later became the state ferry system, Haines' art galleries and theater, the Hotel Halsingland (located in former officer's quarters), and  and Alaska Indian Arts (located in the former hospital).

It was not far back to the dock. We decided to forgo doing part of the 9k walk and just sat in the sun until it was time for the return ferry. We watched some of the beach campers go swimming in the ocean (Lynn Canal, to be exact). It was a warm day, but it wasn't warm enough to heat up the water much above 40 degrees F. I guess they just wanted to show off all their tattoos. 

The ferry trip back was extremely pleasant. Jess had a whole new act for the return trip. We passed the state ferry, the Malaspina, on the way back. It would seem to be the slow ferry.

Upon returning to Skagway, we wandered around the town for another hour before returning to the ship. The weather was just too nice to go indoors. When we did go back onto the ship, we sat on our balcony for a long time and looked at the water and the mountains. It was so peaceful.

We were supposed to leave at 8:30 pm, but the Captain made an announcement that our departure would be delayed due to a medical emergency. The ship was going to wait until an air ambulance could come to evacuate the ill passenger. Skagway is really small and you can see almost all of it from the ship. We saw the air ambulance take off from the airport. It looked like a very small turboprop, so I suspect they went to Juneau. We finally left around 10 pm. At that time we went to ashow by the comedian, Gary Delena. We have seen him before. He is ok. He had a few jokes that were very funny and a few that were offensive, and many that we have heard before.

July 30, 2014 - Vancouver, BC - Vancouver, I Hardly Knew You, Eh?

About 19 years ago I came to Vancouver on a business trip. I spent three long days in a conference room and didn't get to see anything of this magnificent city. Today we had a chance to spend some quality time in Vancouver. Our ship arrived at 7:00 am and didn't leave until 4:30 pm. For 99% of the passengers! Vancouver was the end of their cruise. For us, and for two other couples we know of, it is simply the beginning of our next cruise.

As "in transit" passengers, we still had to go through customs, etc. when we got off the ship, but it is SO much easier when you don't have luggage. So we got off, put on our sunglasses, and began our walk in shorts and t-shirts. What a difference two days makes!

We started our volkswalk at the cruise ship dock and soon we found ourselves in Gastown. This is the oldest part of Vancouver. A lot of effort has been put into restoration, with good results. One of the first things we noticed was how polite Canadians are. They stop so you can cross the street, and they even wait in line at the bus stop.

One of the special attractions in Gastown is a "steam clock." It was built in 1977, but it looks much older. It is powered by steam and it emits a little cloud of steam from time to time. Every 15 minutes it makes a tooting noise.

After Gastown comes Chinatown. Vancouver has the third largest Chinese community in North America (after NY and SF). It reminded me of Chinatown in Honolulu, with lots of small grocery stores selling unidentifiable (to me) items.

 

We bought some almond cookies at a Chinese bakery, and soon came to the "skid row" area, which reminded of us of Portland, Oregon, though not nearly as dilapidated or depressing. After a bit we arrived at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens. This was a peaceful, beautiful retreat in the middle of the city. Mext to the garden was a monument to the Chinese railroad workers and dock workers who played an important role in the early history of Vancouver.

The next "town" was Yaletown. This was where the railway workers lived. It is now a residential, shopping, and cafe area, probably very expensive to live in, but fun to walk through. There was a row of beautifully restored houses that the workers once lived in.

Next we walked through a vibrant section of Downtown. There were small parks, food trucks, public art, concert halls, museums, and office buildings. The main libraby was in a stunning building designed by Moshe Safdie.

Part of one street was blocked off and there were some sculptural benches made of slices of wood. People were sitting on them, enjoying the sunshine.

One interesting thing we noticed about Vancouver is that there are lots of residential buildings in every section of the city, even downtown. Many of them are high-rises, but there are a lot of smaller buildings, too. We walked just one block away from one of the main downtown streets and found ourselves in a pleasant residential neighborhood with lots of trees and very little traffic. For a big city, Vancouver seemed very livable.

Back in the business district once again, we passed lots of coffee shops (think Seattle), and modern glass and steel office towers, fountains and mini-parks. People dressed in business attire were sitting in these parks and we didn't see any homeless people here.

Heading downhill towards the water, we finally arrived back at the cruise terminal and completed our 10k walk. We reboarded the ship without much difficulty considering this was a turnaround day, found our new cabin, and found all of our stuff had been moved to the new cabin in our absence. We enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful views of Vancouver's scenic harbor from our balcony. As the ship sailed away we watched floatplanes land on the water, we saw dolphins leaping, and as we sailed under the Lion's Gate Bridge, people on the bridge and in Stanley Park waved at us.

July 28, 2014 - Ketchikan - We Are Water

The Book club selection for this cruise is We Are Water, and that describes Ketchikan, the rainiest place in North America. We started our 5k walk before it started raining, but it soon started spritzing and that very quickly turned into a steady drizzle. We got our raincoats out just in time because the drizzle turned into serious rain and stayed that way for the rest of our walk.

After reaching the visitor's center, we proceeded to the iconic arch proclaiming this city to be The Salmon Capital of the World. There were lots of stores her selling Native art, in addition to all the jewelry stores. How do these jewelry stores survive? There is nothing Alaskan about them. Do that many cruise passengers buy jewelry when they cruise the Inside Passage? There are a number of shops that clearly indicate they are "Locally Owned," but what they don't tell you is where their merchandise comes from. Can you spell C-h-i-n-a?

This is the heart of totem pole country and a little park downtown had some nice specimens.

After enjoying the totem poles, we came to the infamous Creek Street. This is an area of boardwalks next to ________ Creek that used to be the Red Light district during gold rush times. Rather than proceeding through the extremely touristy areas of Creek Street, we took advantage of the salmon viewing opportunities in the creek. We headed towards a wooded area and up stream to a waterfall and a fish ladder. We saw a few salmon in the fish ladder.

Next we headed through a shabby neighborhood. There was a boarded-up house for sale for $53,000. According to the real estate agent's poster, it had 1 bathroom and 0 bedrooms. After a while we came to a fish hatchery and an eagle rehabilitation center, but they did not seem to be open to the public. A short distance away was the Totem Heritage Center, a city-operated museum that was open to the public.  There were some old totem poles inside, along with some other artifacts. The totem poles were in poor condition. I don't see how anything made of wood could last very long in this climate.

After the totem museum we headed back out into the rain and through a nondescript neighborhood. Well, there were  few cute houses. Many of the houses are built on steep grades and you can only get to them by walking up slippery-looking wooden staircases.

July 27, 2014 - Juneau - D'You Know Juneau?

I heard a nasty rumor that it would be 81 degrees and sunny today in Juneau. As with many rumors, it turned out to be false. It was in the upper 50's with intermittent drizzle. Perfect walking weather.

We started and ended our 10k volkswalk in heaven, otherwise known as The Alaska Fudge Company. Walking down Franklin Street, we realized that the cruise industry has brought enough jewelry stores and souvenir stores to Juneau to allow for one for each legislator. I do not exaggerate. Nestled in amongst the touristy shops are some very nice shops selling local art, Native art, quilting supplies, and Alakan Amber-themed paraphernalia. (Alaskan Amber is a locally brewed beer.)

Juneau only has a few blocks of flat land and then it rises up steeply to Mt. Roberts. As a result, this walk has a lot of climbing. The route is cleverly designed so that you climb for one block and then go level for one block and climb for one block and level for one block, etc. You start at 1st Street, and by the time you reach 8th Street, you are way up there. At 4th you pass by the State Capitol building. It was open on Sunday because there were 5 ships in port today. On the opposite corner there was a historical museum that was closed. (It was also closed the last time we were here. We think it is permanently closed.)

At the top of the hill(?) we passed several small houses where miners lived during the gold rush period. We turned inland and entered the canyon between Mt. Roberts and Mt. Juneau. This is a popular hiking area, and it was easy to see why. The road follows Gold Creek into the valley. You can see the flume built by the gold-miners, but there is little other evidence of civilization. We hiked down the road for a mile until it ended at a trailhead. There is a mining museum here, but we didn't stop in. It was beautiful here. This is a temperate rainforest and it is very different from the hiking trails in Anchorage. The trees are mostly evergreens and they are very tall.

After returning along the same road to the inhabited portion of Juneau we walked passed some interesting houses and then took a turn onto Calhoun Street. It curved around and led us past the Governor's Mansion, Cope Park, Gold Creek (again) and to the cemetery. Most of the cemetery was old and uncared for, but we passed by the cemetery of Joe Juneau, the person for whom Juneau was named.

We walked back towards "downtown" past some schools and took the bridge across Gastineau Channel to Douglas Island, then turned back to Juneau. We passed the state museum, which was closed for renovations until 2016.

July 24, 2014 - Hubbard Glacier

Our day started with room service breakfast. Ken went to a lecture on the ports and I went to the "book club" to find out what the book was. (It is We Are Water, and I have already read it.) We ate lunch in the dining room and I may have taken an afternoon nap.

Meanwhile, we sailed across the Gulf of Alaska uneventfully, and arrived at Yakutat Bay around 3 pm. By 5 pm we were near the face of Hubbard Glacier, 250 feet high. The water was littered with small icebergs, and a very cold wind was blowing off the glacier.

Tonight was the first formal night. Very few people were dressed up. After dinner we saw a production show called "Piano Man." We have seen it before, but it is a fun show, featuring the music of Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, and Elton John. I could do without Barry Manilow, but I really like the other two.

July 23, 2014 - Whittier, Alaska - The Yin and the Yang

We left the house at noon and drove down the Seward Highway toward Portage. This section of the Seward Highway follows Turnagain Arm to its end and is one of the most beautiful stretches of highway anywhere in the world. (It is also the most dangerous highway in Alaska, but that's another story.)

The tide was out, so we saw lots of mudflats - innocuous looking but very dangerous because the silt os like quicksand and the tide comes in very fast. I think the tides here are the second most extreme tides in North America, after the Bay of Fundy.

At Portage we had to stop and wait for the tunnel to open. The Anton Andeson Tunnel was built during World War II to provide access to Whittier, an ice-free port to be used if necessary to supply _____. It is the only land route to Whittier. You can get there by boat, and I think there is a small airport, but no commercial flights go there.  The population of Whittier is _________. Almost everyone there lives in one high-rise apartment building, built during WW II and known as Begich Towers. There is another large building built by the Army at that time, but it is now derelict. There is a state ferry terminal, a marina, a small hotel/restaurant, and two companies that provide day tours of Prince William Sound. It rains a LOT in Whittier.

When the tunnel was first built, it was a railroad tunnel only. You could drive down to Portage and drive onto a flatbed rail car to go through the tunnel. Some tie in the 90's the tunnel was altered to allow motor vehicles to drive through. It is only one wide line, so the tunnel is closed every half hour to allow traffic to come through from the other direction. Trains, tour bses, cars, and everything else have to wait their turn.

I have walked through the tunnel a couple of times. They allow people to walk through only one day a year, and only for a couple of hours. The tunnel is 2 1/2 miles long. There are 7 or 8 "safe houses" in the tunnel for emergencies. You have to wear a hardhat or helmet when you walk through, and you have to take the train back because they don't want to close the tunnel t traffic for more than a few hours. It is free to ride the train back. The toll to drive to Whittier is $12, but it is free to come back.

After emerging from the tunnel, it is about half a mile to the cruise terminal. Since 98% of the passengers arrive by train or bus, it was very quick for us to drop off our bags. We then hugged Scott goodbye and walked into the terminal, leaving the camera in the car. :(

The embarkation process was one of the easiest and fastest ever. We got on the ship very quickly and found our cabin. This time we booked at the last minute and so we have an obstructed view cabin. This means we have a window, but it is located between two lifeboats, so you don't get a good view. Nonethelss, the cabin is comfy and cozy and nicer than we expected.

The ship was scheduled to sail at 8:30 pm, so the mandatory muster (lifeboat drill) was scheduled for 7:45. we decided to wait and have dinner after the drill, as we figured they wouldn't seat us within an hour (or longer) prior to the drill. At 7;30 an announcement was made - the train from Denali was late, so the drill would be delayed 15 to 20 minutes and he woulld announce the drill 20 minutes before it would take place. Okay, there is already a bit of a disconnect here, as they should have been able to just announce that the drill would start at 8:05.

We knew it would take longer, so we ran down to the dining room to eat before the drill. Unfortunately, the dining room was closed until after the drill. Finally, the 20-minute warning announcement was made, but the drill didn't actually start until about 35 minutes after the announcement. By the time we were seated for dinner it was 9:30. We missed the show, but we did have a pleasant dinner.

So, the Universe gives, and the Universe takes away. Great embarkation and nice cabin vs. terrible muster experience. Of all the problems in the world, this really wasn't so bad.