Note: Due to the large number of photos, the photos will follow the trip sections. Hope it is not too confusing.
Getting checked in at the pier was very straightforward and within an hour we were on board where we met Don and Caroline, the final pair of our cruise group. We had a couple hours to explore the boat. We chose to spend most of our time out in the Seattle sun; a rarity we could not pass up.
Our ship cast off at 5:00 PM and we watched the skyline of Seattle disappear. The sun was low in the west, and everything was washed with the light of one of the year's longest days. We were cruising the inside passage on our way north to Alaska.
After the air turned chilly, we headed inside, got settled in our rooms, and gathered in the dining room where we had our first meal. The food was very good. It would obviously take some experimentation to figure out the ins and outs of meals on the ship, but we had lots of time to work that out. With dinner behind us, we went for an evening stroll on deck 9 and then turned in for the night.
The next morning at breakfast our ship approached Cambell River on our port side. Linda and I have traveled to this small town at least three times. One of the visits was when we drove up to Port Hardy to fish with John and Loretta Sutherland. As we watched the town drift by we chatted about our other adventure which brought back memories of staying a night at an RV campground that overlooked the inside passage. Within an hour we actually spotted that campground on the port side. We were sure that it was the place we had stayed. I looked up the post in the Canyonwren Travels blog and sure enough, it was the same campground.
The islands of the inland passage were amazing! We moved steadily along with an ever-changing horizon on all sides. We were able to spot several whale spouts and I caught a brief photo of one humping up to dive. We spent quite a bit of time looking for whales but they were few and far between on this trip. We were lucky to spot those that we did.
As we watch the boat move through the straits, we spotted some Dalls Porpoises playing in the wake around the ship. Linda was near some folks as they spotted the porpoise. One of them said with great confidence that they were viewing a pod of baby Orchas. The black and white colors of the Dalls do resemble Orchas, but they are very small compared to actual killer whales. Later on, the ship's naturalist explained the differences and set everyone straight on that issue.
We moved north and entered Seymour Narrows. This area is very narrow (hence the name) and the tidal currents are amazingly strong. Once through the tight narrows, we gathered for a fun game of Skip-Bo. We played on until we drew near an area that we were told was one of the best places to see whales and other sea life. Blackney Passage is another narrows where the ship has to move carefully through. The concentration of krill, a small sea crustacean and the main food of baleen whales, is very great. Because of the krill, whales gather to feed except for when we traveled through the passage. We spent time up on the rails, watching and hoping, but luck avoided us.
Once past the areas of ocean life, we went to dinner at one of the specialty restaurants onboard called the Polo Grill. We had a wonderful meal, but in the end, it was obvious that we had to approach meals in a different manner. There was way too much food and everyone overate. By the end of our trip, everyone had come up with a way to eat without eating too much. It is a skill you have to work on every time you sit down to dine.
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| We had a beautiful view as we left Seattle. |
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| Caroline and Linda enjoyed the views. |
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| Linda, Steve, and Jodie settled right in. |
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| View of the sun deck area of the ship. |
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| View from the inside passage of a campground we stayed at in 2006. |
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| Photo taken in 2006 of a ship in the passage. |
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| Yes, we had great weather through the passage. |
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| Don, enjoying the scenery going by. |
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| Dalls porpoises, not baby killer whales. |
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| The only whale photo I was able to take. |
On Sunday we dropped the hook in the waters of Ketchikan where we would then tender into the heart of the town. It was a nice day with no rain and we were given a shopping assignment by Caroline. Caroline asked if Linda and I could walk to Creek Street and go to the shop that sold the Ray Troll shirts, calendars, and other items. There she wanted us to pick up three calendars that she would use as gifts.
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| Near our dock in Ketchikan. |
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| Linda liked the sign until she realized what she was seeing, then she really liked it and thought it was hilarious. |
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| At the entrance to Creek Street. |
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| The red light district of Ketchikan. |
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| AnneMarie's art; quite the find! |
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| Looking up Creek Street. |
We toured the town and caught a tender back. That evening we ate dinner in the Grand Dining Room and then took a late evening tour of the upper decks to see if we could spot some whales. We were told by the ship's biologist that this area was full of whales and the odds were in our favor to spot some of those mammals. We spent about an hour and a half looking for signs of anything. The sun sets very late up north and we were able to see well till about 10:30 PM. We got chilled and never spotted anything, but it was fun trying.
At Icy Strait Point (Hoonah,) Alaska we anchored in the bay. Linda and I took a tender into the port. This whole port had been established to provide livelihoods to the island residents, the vast majority of which were First Nation. Everything was centered around the cruise ships and is all very new.
We disembarked the tender and walked up to a very new gondola. There we stepped into a cable car and were transported straight up to the top of a nearby mountain. This gondola takes you to an area where you can ride the world's largest ZipRider, featuring 6 ziplines dropping 1330 feet. Linda and I did not sign up for the ZipRider but it looked really fun. Our gondola dropped us at the mountain top and we walked around for a bit. The view was obstructed by fog, but if the fog hadn't been there, we would have had a grand view at the overlook.
We rode back down to the base and then hiked a nature trail over to the old cannery area where the shops, museum, and food were located. It's a very nice place to look around, but Linda and I avoided spending anything at this stop.
Back on board our ship, we went to dinner at Toscana Italian Dining Restaurant. The food was very good and made for a wonderful evening.
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| Hoonah gondola to the top and ziplines. |
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| Riding up. Our ship was the smaller one. |
The next morning everyone was atwitter. It was the day we sailed to visit the Hubbard Glacier. The weather was slightly foggy as we approached Yakutat Bay. The captain came on the intercom and explained that we would sail into the bay and then weather permitting we would go as close as possible to the glacier. This all depended on the icebergs that had been calving off the face of the glacier and the local weather that the glacier itself creates. We glided into the bay and as we drew closer to the far end, the fog lifted! What a spectacular sight. There was one larger ship near the glacier, so we stopped and slowly rotated giving our ship a 360-degree view of the area.
Due to the iceberg flows near the glacier face, our captain explained that he felt it unsafe for our ship to get closer, so we remained at our original location as we viewed this amazing place.
After a couple hours, we moved out of the bay and headed to our next port located in Sitka, AK. We would cruise all night and would be at the port for our morning tender ride to shore.
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| Entering the bay to see Hubbard Glacier. |
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| OK, a bit carried away with photos here, but can you blame me? |
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| Enough already! |
The next morning we woke up on the hook and caught our tender shuttle to shore, where we met our guides for a tour of the Alaska Raptor Center and a guided walk through a forest.
Our guide named Sam was from Florida and she had been working summers in Sitka with her family. She was quite knowledgeable about the area and we were able to learn quite a bit about totems and the local history. We really enjoyed the tour and the weather cooperated providing a short period of rain and low clouds.
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| One of the guests at the Alaska Raptor Center. |
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| We learned all about totems. |
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| Russia owned Alaska at one point, thus the Russian Orthodox Church. |
Thursday morning, June 29th, we were anchored in Juneau, AK. We left the ship and found the bus that we had arranged for a tour of the Mendenhall Glacier. On our first cruise to Alaska back in 2013, we also visited the glacier. We wanted to find out if we could see if the glacier was retreating due to global warming. Steve, Jodie, Linda, and I left our bus and hiked the trail out to Nugget Falls. We goofed around taking photos and then hiked back to the main glacier viewing area and took more pictures. Check out the two photos from our first trip and see if you can see that the glacier has retreated.
In town, we did some shopping and visited the various sights of Juneau. We took a photo of the Red Dog Saloon. The last time we visited, we spent some time in the saloon but this time an exterior photo was all we had for our visit.
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| Mendenhall Glacier today. |
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| Mendenhall Glacier in 2013. |
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| Now. |
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| Then... Global warning? |
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| Twins! |
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| The Red Dog Saloon is a very popular place. |
Back on board the ship we had lunch and then watched Juneau fade into the distance. Our next stop was the small town of Wrangell.
When we woke in the morning we were docked at Wrangell. Our group gathered on the pier and we walked along the bay to an area where petroglyphs could be found among the rocks. They have provided beach access for wheelchairs, so Don and Caroline were able to go with us. The petroglyphs are on the beach among the rocks. You can wander around to inspect them. The site is a sacred site for the First Nation people so the government is trying to keep everything as natural as possible. This means that the ocean tides have been scrubbing the rocks and someday the glyphs will be hard to see.
From this point, our group split up and went in several directions. Linda and Jodie hiked inclines and stairs up to the top of Mt. Dewey. It was quite the hike, over 1000 steps. They said it was definitely worth it. The view of the whole town and surrounding area was beautiful.
Steve and I went looking for Dan Roope's fly shop somewhere in town. Dan Roope is a Coeur d'Alene native who moved to Wrangell many years ago. I thought a stop at the shop might be nice, but we decided that his shop was probably in his home and we didn't want to hike too deep into the city's neighborhoods to make an appearance.
Don and Caroline did a bit of shopping and returned to the ship.
Everyone boarded the ship and it headed out to cruise the Outside Passage around Vancouver Island. This passage is always anticipated because the ship travels in the open ocean and many times the seas are a bit rough. We were lucky, however, and the movement on the ship didn't wasn't enough to bother anyone too much.
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| Wrangell panorama. |
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| Back to the future. The phone book was from 1995. |
Our final port was located at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on Vancouver Island. The ship was moored at the pier next to a huge Carnival Cruise ship that held 4500 passengers. We exited our ship as quickly as possible so that we could be on our next tour before the thousands of passengers exited their boat. Our tour was to the famous Butchart Gardens.
This stop was one of the tours that Linda was super excited to see. Our bus took us right to the gate and our entire group entered and explored the beautiful gardens. Even with all the people, the gardens were spectacular. So much color and variety. It definitely lived up to all the hype. When we had explored the sights, we got back on the bus and shuttled back to our ship.
It was early enough that Linda, Jodie, and I were able to take a walk out on the breakwater near our ship. When we returned we cleaned up and everyone met for our final group dinner before we disembarked our ship early in the morning.
That evening after dinner everyone said their goodbyes and returned to their cabins. Baggage needed to be packed and placed in the hallways before 10 PM, so that the crew could get them organized and transported to the area where we disembarked.
The next morning we woke up, showered, and enjoyed our final room service. We met Steve and Jodie and we exited our ship together gathering up all our luggage as we went.
Our shuttle took us to our car and we packed it full for the final leg of our journey. Traffic was a bit crowded in Seattle, but once we got out of the business areas, it was smooth going. Linda and I took turns driving and we had a relatively uneventful trip back home.
We decided to embark on this adventure for several reasons. Exploring Alaska still calls to me. We haven't been able to put a trip of our own together yet. This was a way to get a quick bite of some of the places we've wanted to see to put them on the list for a longer visit next time. Most importantly, this was a time to spend with good friends and leave some cares and responsibilities for a while. We enjoyed this exploration and time spent with people we love.
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