August 24, 2012 - Friday morning we slept in at our hotel
and had a leisurely start to the day.
Check out time was noon and we couldn’t board our ship, Royal
Caribbean’s “Radiance of the Sea”, until noon so we had breakfast then remained
in our room (weather outside was cool and cloudy) and whiled away the
morning. Eventually we checked out and
took a taxi to the dock where the ship was waiting for us. Security and check in went fast and smoothly
so we were onboard quickly.
We checked out our room first – nice with queen sized bed
and window on the starboard (right) side of the ship. It is similar to a large RV with TV,
refrigerator, and snug bathroom. Then we
went up to the Windjammer café, which was the only one open for lunch, and had
a good snack. I have to watch out for
that dessert table!
We went back to our room, where our luggage had arrived, and
unpacked. Then we set out to explore the
ship which is very similar to the one we sailed on last February in
Panama. We returned to our room, put our
feet up and watched a movie on TV. At
7:30 pm we had our mandatory life boat drill on the outside decks. After that we went to the Cascades Restaurant
where we had our delicious three course dinner with wine as the ship set sail
at 8:00 pm down the Resurrection Bay into the Gulf of Alaska. After dinner we went to the Aurora Theater to
see a stage performance of the orchestra, dancers, singers, and a comedian I
had never heard of before – but he’s been on Johnny Carson and Jay Leno’s
shows. To bed rather late (for us).
August 25 – We slept very well and had room service coffee
in bed while looking out at the foggy, cloudy Gulf of Alaska. We cleaned up and had a large, filling
breakfast in the Cascades. Both last
night and this morning we were seated with friendly people from various places
– Nebraska, Montana, New Jersey and South Africa. Our wait staff is from all over the world.
Rita attended a shopping seminar in the morning on what
items are best to buy in upcoming ports and which stores are the best. Then we had lunch at a hot dog stand where
six different wieners were served. Rita
had a German bratwurst while I had an Austrian beef and veal sausage. Next Rita went to a diamonds and gem stones
talk. While she attended that I shot
pool on a table leveled by ball bearings and computers to sense the roll of the
ship and adjust the pool table accordingly.
The table remained level and the balls did not roll but I was distracted
by the obvious movement of the pool table.
In the afternoon it was announced that we were nearing the
Hubbard Glacier, one of Alaska’s largest.
We sailed into the Yakutat Bay and through numerous ice floes that broke
off from the glacier. The ship pulled up
much closer to the glacier than I imagined he would – about 500 feet – which is
close for such a big ship. We remained
there for over an hour and occasionally would hear a loud thunder and see a
chunk of ice break off and splash into the bay which is called calving. It was cold and everyone on deck (practically
the entire ship) was bundled up warmly.
Finally the ship turned around and headed back into the Pacific Ocean.
Rita and I headed to Starbucks and had hot caffe mocha. Then we came back to the room to rest a short
while and dress for dinner which was formal dress tonight. We had another very good meal – we’ll worry
about the extra calories when we get back home.
August 26 – More unusual and exceptional weather today. We docked in Juneau, Alaska, about 8:45 am
while we were eating breakfast with new acquaintances from England and
Iowa. Juneau, which gets about 90 inches
of rain a year (and much of it in August), was bright and sunny with not a
cloud in the sky. Once more, local shop
clerks assured us that this was most unusual weather. We’ll take it!
Our first order of business was to board the Mount Roberts
tramway, an excursion we had signed up for online months ago. The steep ride up is an 1800 foot ascent to
the top with panorama views of Juneau and the Gastineau Channel. At the top of the tramway are gift shops,
artisans, nature walks, restaurant and a bald eagle named Lady Baltimore who
was being rehabilitated. All the
facilities are owned and operated by the Tlingit Indians.
When we descended back to Juneau we inquired about a trip to
the Mendenhall Glacier but we felt we had seen enough glaciers and begged off
another one. Instead Rita did her
shopping up and down Franklin Street.
Normally Rita is not heavy into shopping but the ship’s shopping guru
had passed out coupons for a free bracelet and shops that gave free gifts
and/or charms for the bracelet. So Rita
went in several shops for her free “gifts” and used me as an excuse to leave
without looking at all their diamonds or whatever. Unfortunately Juneau (and I hear other
Alaskan ports) are looking much like Caribbean ports where ships dock with
numerous jewelry and diamond stores.
We stopped to read historic markers several places and
viewed the insides of the Red Dog Saloon and the bar at the historic Alaskan
Hotel. We ate delicious fish and chips
along with local brewery ales at the Flight Deck, sitting outside in the warm
sun watching sea planes take off in the channel. We continued walking and viewed the
non-descript Alaska State Capitol building and the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
that was built in 1894. Finally we
returned to the ship for a quick catnap before dressing for dinner, which was
delicious as always.
August 27 – Another day, another port, different
weather! When we docked early in Skagway
there were some parts of a blue sky but they soon disappeared as the clouds
came in. It was cooler than yesterday
but the real culprit was the wind gusting at around 30 or 40 mph (my
guess). There was a 90% chance of rain
predicted but it did not materialize before we returned to the ship. So we bundled up and started the day with an
excursion arranged and paid for in advance.
Luckily the bus for our tour was on the dock adjacent to the
ship and as we filled the bus we departed about 8:00 am with our guide and bus
driver Matthew who had a great sense of humor.
He slowly drove through Skagway, which looks like a movie set of a
frontier city, and pointed out various historical buildings. The town hasn’t changed much in 100 years and
is well preserved as the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (US Park
Service). More than a hundred original
buildings have been restored in Skagway and with the wooden planked sidewalks I
expected a gunfight any minute. Matthew
recounted much of the town’s early history, mostly with relation to brothels,
which he said were places where broth was made.
He pointed out one building as the first B&B in Skagway – Bakery and
Brothel with hot buns on all floors!
Our first stop was the Gold Rush Cemetery a little ways out
of town. The first graves were of
“Soapy” Smith, a con man whom most of the town hated, and Frank Reid, the man
who killed him but also died in the gunfight.
Soapy Smith was killed immediately and hated so much they left his body
in the street for three days. I guess it
started to smell. The town folk would
not bury him in the cemetery and put his grave three feet outside of it. Frank Reid was shot in the groin and died
twelve days later. You should Google
their story on the Internet. There were
many other graves in the frontier cemetery.
We continued on up the South Klondike Highway which went
along the historic route of the White Pass Trail. Miners, who are called stampeders here, were
required by Canada to bring a year’s worth of provisions with them which
weighed about 2000 pounds so they had to make 30 to 40 trips up the trail
before they could enter the gold fields.
Another parallel trail called the Chilkoot Trail, was more difficult but
still used by several stampeders.
Eventually some made it to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory where the
gold fields were located but very few found gold. More people made money off the miners than
the miners made. One was Nordstrom who
started as a shoemaker in Skagway and ended up with the Seattle based
department store.
We stopped occasionally to view waterfalls or scenic sights
and drove across the border into the Yukon Territory of Canada at the top of
the White Pass. Here we ran into heavy
fog but Matthew drove a little further than usual into Canada where we could
get out and have some nice views at an alpine lake. We never went through Canadian customs or
immigration. We turned around and
re-entered Alaska after our brief entry into Canada. But before the tour began we had to show him
we had our US passports with us just in case US border control wanted to see
them (they didn’t).
We returned to Skagway and asked to be dropped off at the
edge of town. We set out on foot to
explore the town, going in and out of several interesting shops. We visited the original log cabin built by Captain
William Moore, the founder of Skagway which means “land of the north wind” in
Tlingit language. We stuck our heads
into the Red Onion Saloon but it was too crowded to get a table. After a while we became cold and hungry so we
headed back to our ship and lunch followed by a rest in our cabin.
At dinner this evening we had a treat as we were eating
about 7:30 pm. All the waiters and
waitresses (about a hundred) started lining up as Greek music came over the
speakers. Soon everyone was clapping
their hands and the wait staff was waving napkins in tune to the music. They all gathered on the wide stairway (it’s
a two story dining room for hundreds) to form a sort of choir and serenaded us
with “Oh sole mio” to the delight of their audience. It was great fun and the announcer granted
that there may be some accents other than Italian since the wait staff is from
about 50 different nationalities.
Later we attended a party for Crown and Anchor members which
we now belong to since we are on our second cruise of the year – we cruised
with Royal Caribbean last February out of Panama with Gretchen, Chris and
Sophie-Claire. There were speeches,
snacks and champagne which was nice. One
couple in the audience was noted for having over 1000 nights of cruising – about
4 years of cruising! While we aren’t
dedicated ship cruisers yet, we are enjoying it more, especially the unpacking
all our suitcases, not moving rooms, free room service, big comfortable rooms, lots
of good food, and waking up in a new port most mornings. It’s more important in places (like Alaska
ports) where one cannot get easily by car – only fly in or cruise into town.
August 28 – After a great night’s sleep we woke up in Icy
Strait Point at Hoonah, Alaska, our stop for today. We are about 50 miles west of Juneau at the
entrance to the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Skies are gray with a lowering fog and some
raindrops on our window. We had
leisurely cups of coffee from room service and took our time getting up and
out. Our captain announced that it was
about 50 degrees outside and a good chance of more rain on the way.
After a hearty breakfast we departed our ship and were
transported to Icy Strait Point by tenders – the first and only time on this
cruise. We arrived at the Hoonah Salmon
Cannery plant which is owned by the Tlingit Indian tribe. The cannery was begun about 1904 and today is
turned into a nice museum and shops. We
looked around the shops then set out on a nature trail hike along the water. The trail went into dark woods with tall,
dense evergreen trees. The only wildlife
we encountered in the woods was one squirrel.
When we returned to the strait, however, we saw three
humpback whales at close quarters. As we
were to discover, the same three whales, and some harbor seals, swam up and
down the coast for about a mile, turning around and re-tracing their route
several times. They put on a great show
all day long and we were told they were “bubble fishing”. From time to time you could see them create
bubbles in the water then come up and breach with their mouths open to get the
herring they were after. It was an
amazing sight and difficult to photograph.
I may rethink about a better camera.
While several people paid hundreds of dollars to go on whale watching
boats, we saw them for free from the shore and pier. We also saw those whale watching boats and
kayaks chasing after the whales for their customers.
We explored the museum and gift shops some more then headed
back to our ship for lunch. After lunch
Rita went to our cabin to nap while I watched the whales some more. Heavier rain did arrive and a cold wind as
well. About 4:00 pm our ship hauled up
its anchor and we sailed south for tomorrow’s port.
August 29 – We docked in Ketchikan, Alaska, this morning and
after breakfast we met our tour on the pier for a 9:30 am departure. We had a short tour on a bus or truck dressed
up as an old trolley. Items pointed out
were the oldest church (Episcopal – 1902), the fish ladder (to help salmon up a
steep area of a stream), the pretty City Park, and finally the Totem Heritage
Center in an area named Saxman. Here we
departed the trolley for a brief explanation of the collection of totem poles
collected from Tlingit and Haida villages.
We also saw the clan house of the beaver sub-tribe. Tlingit people are divided into two major
tribes, raven and eagle, but each clan can have sub-tribes such as bear,
beaver, etc.
Eventually the bus departed once more and dropped us off at
Creek Street (by request) which was the red-light district starting in 1903
until outlawed in the 1950s. Some of the
brothels, Dolly’s House and The Star, are on the National Register of Historic
Places. One sign proclaimed that the
salmon went up Creek Street to spawn once but the men went several times. We walked along Creek Street, which is
actually a pier over Ketchikan Creek, and then up Married Man’s Trail which was
a secret entrance to Creek Street supposedly used by men who wanted to remain
anonymous. We saw salmon in the creek
working their way to the spawning area when the rain started. When we started it looked as if the weather
was partly cloudy with some blue skies and we were told it would improve. It didn’t.
That is not all that surprising as Ketchikan gets on average a little
over 13 feet of rain a year.
We walked to the downtown area and into a shopping mall that
had a quilt store Rita wanted to visit.
It was a good way to wait out the rain.
Soon we walked back onboard the ship, had our lunch and after a brief
rest headed back out with our raincoats this time. Of course, it didn’t rain again. We re-visited some of the areas we had seen
in the morning but this time walked to the salmon ladder and the salmon
spawning area. We did see several large
salmon in Ketchikan Creek. While walking
back to the area where Married Men’s Trail met up with Creek Street, we saw
tourists pointing to the shrubs next to the walk we were on. I asked them what they saw and they said a
bear. I asked if we were safe and they
didn’t respond so we continued down the steps to where they were located. Then about six feet away from us in the
shrubs I saw the small black bear and told Rita to hurry. It was exciting but you’d think the tourists
would have advised us to stop where we were.
We returned to the ship ready for an early departure around
5:30 pm. Tomorrow we do not stop at any
more ports but sail the Inside Passage.
We arrive in Vancouver Friday morning.
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