We were at Icy Strait Point only for a few hours, but it was very nice port. Several Eagles were around the ship. The views of the mountains were great. We did go on shore to visit the museum about the salmon canning that they did here in the past. It was a bit too realistic. They have what they claim is the longest zip line in the world with six 5,330 foot ziplines dropping 1330 feet and reaching speeds of 60 mph. I can believe it because it starts at the top of a mountain ending near the ship dock. No, we did not go on the zipline. Maybe if we go on another Alaska cruise. We headed back to the ship so Mom could go to the next class at America's Test Kitchen. I attended a Thomas Kincaid seminar. I did not know that he painted the letter N in his paintings as a tribute to his wife. As a hint, he would put a number near his signature of how many times it could be found in the painting. They had nine on display and, of course, to sell. Later in the day we watched a whale and a seal from the balcony. I decided to take a few pictures of the art and artifact displays on ship. They were even more incredible in person. Then we decided to walk around the ship and came upon the cruise director and the instructor for the America's Test Kitchen at a sip and savor event. We had a great conversation with both while enjoying a glass of wine. The event offered a choice of two select wines for only $5 and speciality appetizers. I really enjoyed talking with the test kitchen instructor. Dinner was once again great. We enjoyed sitting near the windows watching for wildlife.. Here is the menu. Off to the mainstage for a performance by a Mentalist/Comedian. He was very funny. After that, the crew had a talent show. They did a great job and were able to present traditional show of the Philippines.
Here is the picture of our towel animal.
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Up early, at 6am, to go on our first official excursion.
Free room service is great.
Our planned excursion at Juneau is to see whales. We thought that would be our first chance to see them but while we ate breakfast in the room I noticed a humpback dive and show its tail not 100 yards off the ship. There were at least two because one immediately came up with its mouth open feeding. After a quick breakfast, we had to be on the dock ready to go before 8:30am.
Well evidently, it’s Friday.
We met our naturalist who would be with us for our whale watching tour.
The boat was new, and we only had 12 instead of 20 on the tour so we all had great views of the whales. We pulled up a crab pot as part of the university’s study. The goal is to detect if an invasive species crab has migrated up from the lower 48 states. If it does it will decimate the Dungeness crab population. I pulled out the pot which is like a crab trap.
It had caught a dogfish, liar crab, 6 sea stars. The naturalist insisted on taking out the dogfish, but I took out the rest.
After mom documented the count and types caught, they were released. I re-baited the pot and threw it back out. She was looking at baleen which is what the whales use to strain out water and keep the fish to eat.
We found at least 5 humpback whales. Several blew/spouted and dove showing their tales at first from a distance.
Then a little closer.
One was lunge feeding along the shore. It was incredible because we were within 100 feet of the whale. We did not purposely get that close to them, but one whale came up close to us. We were able to identify 3 of the whales by their tale markings. All was recorded so the university can track the individual whales in the Juneau area.
Back to the ship for a quick lunch and next to the shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier National Park.
When we arrived, we were able to walk to the waterfall and see the glacier.
We could walk right up to the base of the waterfall. The glacier was in the distance but there were many icebergs in the lake.
As we walked to the bus stop along a railing, we heard a sound below us. It was a black bear.
It walked along the other side of the rail for about 50 feet before turning back into the forest.
When it first appeared from the forest, we were no more than 3 feet apart. We were on opposite sides of the railing, but it was not interested in us. I was very glad we had not brought any snacks to the park as we were warned not to.
After returning to the ship to change shoes and drop off the backpack, we went back into town for a little shopping.
Back to the ship to change clothes for dinner, then a cocktail at the crow’s nest bar at the top of the ship. Tired we returned to the suite to watch sail away from the balcony.
As usual we had a towel animal waiting for us.
Even though it was 10:30 pm it was not yet dark. On to Icy Point tomorrow.
The captain announced that the icebergs were too thick in the Tracy arm fjord, so we will be going to Endicott glacier instead.
We got up knowing that today was going to be chilly and it was. So, we dressed in layers and headed to breakfast.
BTW it is Thursday or, so the elevator floor shows.
I know it is silly, but it really helped after about a week. I will try to restrain myself in future posts.
As we started into Endicott Arm we could see waterfalls on the cliffs.
The ice was flowing past the ship as we moved in toward the glacier.
Huge hunks of ice that are larger than school buses were floating by the ship.
It was time to get to the bow for a better view. Wow did we!
Later the glacier came into view. This was our first sighting of the glacier. It only got better. A wall of ice with blue color spread over much of it.
If you zoom in, you can see a yacht size cruise ship up near the glacier. It will move out before we continue much further. Okay if you could not find it, I have some more pictures of the 145 foot long ship.
Yes, the glacier is huge.
Our turn to move up close.
We had a great view from our balcony.
It is time to get out on deck.
Isn’t it just like a glacier to photobomb your picture. LOL!
We stayed for over an hour pivoting slowly around and around so everyone could get to see the glacier. No caving but the weather was great. The sun was out and almost no wind. Because of the amount of ice in the water, the captain decided that this was as close as he felt was safe for the ship.
On the way out from the glacier, we passed many burgs with seals and pups resting on them.
One large hunk of ice passed directly below us that showed where a mother seal had given birth.
She was coaxing the pup to take its first swim. I watched as she got the newborn to swim and kept pushing it up. Amazing!
The video is not very stable, so I apologize.
That was not the end of our wildlife viewing.
On our way back to sea, we passed a wide beach that had two rivers flowing. We saw 5 brown bears. Two were on a peninsula and quickly moved back into the forest.
Three on the river continued to eat directly in front of us.
The captain stopped the ship and maintained position for more than 30 minutes.
It was great, and everyone was watching from that side of the ship. The three looked to be a mother and one year old twin cubs. If so, they will leave her later this year to be on their own.
I am sorry about the bounce in the video but just to give you an idea about the level of zoom I was using, here is a picture with no zoom at all.
Then our last look at Tracy Arm.
We have dinner at 8pm and the food is always fantastic and elegant. Tonight, we had Alaska crab and watched Orca swimming behind the ship from our table.
Later, we returned to our room and saw a sea otter below us from the balcony. Of course, we had our towel animal waiting for us.
The sun set 9:59pm but as I write this at 10:52pm, it is still light out.
I had 6 Escher prints in my office at the college for years. It was great to see them on the ship. M. C. Escher was from the Netherlands so it was not that surprising to see them. The aft stairs had at least one on each floor. Art was everywhere on the ship. More about those pictures later.
This morning we woke to an Alaskan shoreline. This was the view from our balcony.
We had breakfast in our room so we would not miss the arrival of the first port.
The dock is positioned so we look directly down from our balcony to see the town.
We packed the backpack and dressed for our hike up Deer mountain trail. We did 5 hours of hiking in the rainforest.
Oh and just so we did not lose track of the day of the week, the elevator floor shows that it is Wednesday.
There are lots of eagles here. Kevin use to say that the Alaska state bird should be the huge mosquitos and that the eagles are everywhere. We have thought of Kevin a lot and I’m sure we will even more on this trip.
As we walk into town we can see Deer mountain in the background.
It looks like we may get wet. Ok that is silly if we are going on a hike it is almost always wet. That is why we have a plan and a backup plan and … Ok you get the picture.
We had researched the hike and found that we should stop at the visitor center just off the dock for a GPS.
The GPS can be used in case of an emergency to call for help. We also noted the time we should return and at that point the visitor center would attempt to contact us or send help. We always have a backup plan.
We were glad to have good hiking boots. The climb to the top 2 3/4 miles and just over 3000 feet in altitude.
A good start but we have a lot more to climb.
The trail was wet, and it is definitely a rainforest. There are creeks everywhere flowing down the mountain. Many were flowing down the trail itself. That along with the mist and occasional sprinkles got us pretty much soaked.
I know it is hard to tell from the photo but the leaves on this plant were several feet tall and the leaves were more than a foot wide.
We did have a very nice overlook. We were able to climb up over 2500 feet in just under 2.5 miles of hiking and then the rain really started to come down heavy. We started back down. The trail became a rushing creek at some points. The total was a 5-mile hike. Got a cab to meet us at the trailhead and take us back to the visitors center. Turned in the GPS with 5 minutes to spare. They joked that we made it back and no rescue party needed. We returned to the ship to change clothes and went back to Ketchikan to buy thicker socks. Back to the ship to get warmed up in the hot tub and an afternoon snack. Hey, eat as much as you want on a cruise because it's already been paid for. Dinner was fantastic. The menus have so many things to try like Cucumber-Green Apple- and Mustard Goat Quark!?! No, we did not try that or the Tomato Braised Pork Ossobuco. There were plenty of choices of more familiar things to eat. After a walk on ship we watched a comic at the main stage. He had been on the tonight show with Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and Jimmy Fallon. At 11pm outside it looks like the sky just before it is dark a kind of twilight. Oh, here is our evening towel animal. Isn't it cute.
We started today with the ship rocking and rolling, and it has been interesting. The captain warned us that the seas would be a bit rough for the day and he was right. We woke about 6am and had coffee sent to the room. Fancy! We feel so special and a bit out of place.
The horizon is moving up and down and we stumble a bit but so far no sea sickness.
After a walk down the infinite hallway…
… we had a great breakfast and talked to a very nice couple.
Oh, it is Tuesday, as the floor of the elevator's rug shows.
America's Test Kitchen was on cooking salmon.
It really is like being on the set of the show. Mom will definitely attend more of these during the cruise.
After that we had great hamburgers for lunch made at the “Dine-In” a grill by the enclosed pool.
Neat sculpture.
We are rocking and rolling.
Then we went to a presentation on the art displayed in the gallery. There is an incredible amount of art brought on board by the Park West Galleries. They have representatives who present the art in shows, answer questions, and can sell the pieces to passengers. More on this later but just to say there are very few places on ship that do not have art on display. In the midafternoon, Mom did an Alaska beer tasting where she won 3rd place in a trivia contest. She got a certificate for a free cocktail of her choice. I raided the desert bar. I don't know who had more fun. Her trying 5 different beers or me trying several fancy deserts.
After a stroll around the ship, we came back to get changed for our gala night dinner.
For desert we were brought a special cake and several of the waiters came to sing “Happy Anniversary” to us. The captain sent a note of congratulations as well.
This year, we will have been married 40 years.
So much fancy food, it was hard to decide and figure out what the food contained.
I knew I was in trouble when a single menu included Escargot, Truffle, and Romanoff.
When we returned to the suite, a new towel creature greeted us.
As I look out over our balcony, we are moving into the Hecate Straight that will take us to Ketchikan, Alaska ,our first port of call on this trip.
Hopefully the sea will calm, and we will no longer be rocking and rolling. Why does some old joke about the motion of the ocean and not the size of the ship... never mind.
I know... I cannot help myself. But our ship did come in this morning at 6:30. We are off to breakfast just a short walk from the Inn. Our cab arrived at 11:30 to take us to the port. We had a very smooth check in and entry on to the ship. It was a bit overwhelming to step on board. We toured the ship and found our room was available immediately. And of course our first towel creature. Soon after that our luggage arrived. We then had quick lunch at the buffet. Went to the "welcome for first time cruisers" given by the cruise director, then back to the suite to unpack. Then we toured the ship. Wow! They have a lot of interesting art and pictures on the ship. They also help you keep track of they day of the week by changing the carpet in the elevators. Cute! It is official we are on the cruise. At 4pm, outside to the aft deck 9 to have a drink and watch the sail away from Seattle Port. Back to the room to finish unpacking.
We went to a drawing at the shops for a bottle of champagne but no luck there. Dinner at 8pm in the main dining room, it was very nice, very fancy with ornate furnishings. Back to the 'mainstage for an introductory stage show. We have noticed that almost all the music is from our high school years or at least something we like. It was a fun Vegas style show. Then to a jazz bar for more music and a drink. A late-night desert at the buffet and back to the room to bed. Whew, vacations can be exhausting. Time for some sleep on a moving ship. It will be a new experience for us both. We left New Mexico with temperatures near 100 degrees and 15% humidity to arrive in Seattle with a temperature of 58 and misty. It was a bit of a shock to our systems to have that change but we quickly adjusted. Our driver... yes, the Inn sent a Town car to pick us up. Seriously, a driver, suit and all, drove up, picked up our bags and opened our doors for us. It was something new for us. It was a very nice ride to the Inn. When we arrived, the driver opened our doors and brought our bags into the lobby. I know. We need to figure out how much to pack and what we don't really need. We stayed at the Ballard Inn. It was built in 1902 and has been an inn since 1920. The Inn has a great feel of a time and character. Dinner was fantastic at the hand thrown pizza shop with craft beer on the same block.
We are very excited about our 40th anniversary vacation celebration. Against the popular belief of many who thought we would not last 6 months when we were married, Shawna and I are still holding to our long - long - long honeymoon. Yes, kids were still like that. This trip will check several things off the “bucket list”. Our suite has more square footage than our RV and will have a balcony, so we can watch the beautiful scenery of Alaska as we pass through the fjords. We will be watching for glaciers, whales, orca, waterfalls. All my research has shown that we will be pampered and over fed. Everyone remembers that food does not have calories on vacation, so we WILL be having desert. We have pre-booked several boating and land excursions to get close to the glaciers, whales, orca, seals, otters, eagles, and bears.
On the cruise, we leave Seattle to visit Ketchikan, Twin Sawyer Glacier, Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, Victoria, BC, Canada, and then back to Seattle. Along the cruise we will have 3 sea days. We hope for calm seas and blue skies. Thursday morning Shawna checked the banking. This is something we do every day.
We had a surprise because the credit union Visa site had been hacked. Ok fine, that happens from time to time. We called, and they told us that our current card will be good until June 13th but that our new credit cards were being sent to our home address. For us that was not much help since we will be on the cruise ship long before the cards were to arrive and far too late to get them back to us since we are in New Mexico. So, the dilemma of not having our credit card for the 14-day Alaska Cruise was very upsetting. So today from 8am our time till 3pm we were talking to our credit union and Visa back and forth. They could not extend our credit card to be active until we got back home so they promised that they would send out an “emergency replacement card” to arrive within 24 hours. We doubt that is possible because we are in a small village with limited delivery service. Even Amazon promises 2 days delivery and we know it is usually 3 days before our package will arrive because of our location. Incredibly the card did arrive before 2pm Friday. Great Right!? Not quite. The card did arrive, but it was not working. After several calls to the credit union the card was working, and everything was ready for our trip. Whew! What an interesting few days. |
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