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.