Alaska Cruise

Days 1-3  – Vancouver and Day at Sea

I’m off to a slow start in writing my trip report. Day 1 was travel to Vancouver. I started in t he morning taking the dogs to Benny’s Dog Resort. The lady checking me in acted like she remembered them from last year. I’m guessing she didn’t really, or she might have “lost” their reservations. Anyway, Layla was excited to be there and couldn’t wait to jump in the wading pool.

The first adventure was our taxi ride to the hotel in Vancouver. I’m pretty sure the cab driver has to replace his brakes every month. I doubt his fenders last much longer. We made it in one piece, but Tammy was a little green when we arrived. We got to the hotel a little after 8 pm local time, but with the two hour time difference, we decided it was too late to go out to eat. That would also make more room for Cruise food.

Day 2 was getting on the ship. We’d picked the hotel because they had complimentary shuttle service to the pier. Our shuttle left at 11am, so we had a leisurely morning. The hotel had a decent breakfast buffet, and I managed to get Tammy down stairs in time for the shuttle. The check-in process was fast, and we were on the ship and headed for food soon enough. We departed Vancouver at 5pm and headed north. Since the sun is up until almost 8:30 we got to see a good bit of the scenery.

In the evening we have a table with three other couples from Robson Ranch. Two of the couples were also on our Scotland and Ireland tour. We were talking about the difference between eating at the self serve buffet and the dining room with the waiters and reserved seating. One of the ladies referred to the buffet as eating at “The Trough”. Tammy agreed.

Wonder of wonders, I got Tammy to skip desert, so we could go to the early show. The entertainment was a comedian, and he was good. Fortunately we were sitting in the very back, because he loved to pick on the people sitting in the front. They said he would be having a late show on the next night. I’m not very good at staying up, but we may try it.

Day 3 we’re starting to get into the swing of the cruise. We didn’t have any trouble sleeping till 7am local time, and Tammy is already wearing a path in the carpet to the coffee bar. Today is a day at sea as we have left Vancouver Island behind on our way to Ketchikan. (We get there at 7am in the morning.) There’s not a lot to see today.

Being a day at sea, the casino was open, so I decided to try a poker tournament. They use the electronic tables rather than dealers. The tournaments are meant to last about an hour with the blinds doubling every 10 minutes. We made it almost 20 minutes and the computer crashed. The sole lady at our table was hitting everything, and the computer decided to pick on here. There were four players to the flop and she hit trip Queens. There was a bet and a call in front of her, but the system wouldn’t let her do anything. They worked on it for maybe 20 minutes and decided to return our entry fees back. They then worked another 30 minutes to get the machine to quit showing the same spot and reset for a new game. I took a chance and tried again. This time the tournament made it all the way to the end, and I finished 2nd out of 8. Tammy was excited to hear I’d made a $100 profit, but I’m afraid how many times she might spend that $100 before the end of the trip.

Most of the day you could just make out the coast off to starboard. The skies were overcast and spotty rain showers. The seas are about as flat as you’ll ever see in the Pacific with a slight swell. However, there is just enough swell to keep Tammy’s color a light shade of green. This is the first time the motion has bothered her, and its whacking her pretty good. She even turned down ice cream. I insisted she get out of bed and eat a little lunch, and later she admitted it helped. However, after dinner she skipped the show and headed back to bed. I’m hoping she gets better, but not as much as she is.

Day 4 – Ketchikan

I woke up around sunrise and opened the curtains to see what was happening outside. To my surprise, the town of Ketchikan was just outside my window. Now I’m not talking about being able to see the town. It was right there.

The best news is that Tammy is feeling better.

We opted for the purely tourist activity in Ketchikan. We started at the Lumberjack show. Yes, it was corny, but it was also a good show. They did the underhand chop, standing chop, axe throw, two man cross cut, spring board chop, hot saw, and log rolling.

Then it was on to a private park with great examples of totem poles and some recreations of the native Clan homes. Our guide did a good job of giving us an overview of the city and some of the stories that go with the totem poles. Since the park was privately owned and operated, it could be a little different. Right across from the Clan houses was a large metal building with some of the owners collection of antique cars. The most interesting was a Stanley Steamer.

Ketchikan is on an island with no road access to the mainland. You even have to take a ferry to the next island to go to the airport. Being in a temperate rain forest, it gets an average of 13 feet of rain every year spread over around 250 to 300 days. If you’re going to Ketchikan and expecting sunny skies, you haven’t done your home work. We got lucky. The skies were overcast and there was a light drizzle from time to time. However, the hard rain held off, so it was all good. Sunny skies just wouldn’t be right. The other interesting fact we learned about Ketchikan is that for every person on the island there are two bears. We were glad to learn that the island was 30 by 50 miles, so there was no crowding.

In the past the economy was based on fishing and logging. When the last mill closed, many of the town’s people were concerned about what would become of them. I guess the timing was right as the conversion to tourism was easy. They’ve got dock space for four cruise ships in downtown and enough jewelry shops to keep the wives busy. They seem to be doing a decent job of handling the transition. There are obvious changes. For example, they now have a Walmart that our guide pointed out as we drove out to see the totem poles. It was located down a side street and we only got a quick glimpse of the sign. The town made a pretty good deal, so Walmart is not allowed to sell any produce that would compete with local grocery stores. The other funny fact about the Walmart is that it is the largest store in town, but the second smallest Walmart in the world.

Next stop – Icy Point.

Day 5 – Icy Point

We woke up to low hanging clouds and patches of fog rolling off the hills. If you are a negative person, it is dull and gloomy. If you are a positive person, it is almost magical looking. It must be magical, since Tammy actually turned up the heat in our room.

Don’t ask me how, but when I was picking shore excursions for this trip, Tammy allowed me to pick the Kayak adventure. Yesterday Tammy realized that she has agreed to go kayaking in a place called Icy Point, but it was too late to back out. We slept in late and got our now routine morning coffee. Then it was a short wait until the hamburger bar opened at 11:30. A little more resting, and it was time to head for our Kayak adventure. I hadn’t read the tickets completely, and the meeting place was ashore rather than the usual theater on the ship. By the time we figured it all out, we got to the assigned place with 2 minutes to spare. Actually that was all the better to not give Tammy any time to back out.

We got our group assembled, and the guide noted there were 13 of us. I’m not usually superstitious, but after the dream Tammy had about the whale landing on my kayak, I was not too sure. Anyway we headed out and really enjoyed the next couple of hours. We saw a couple of bald eagles and a 100 foot gray whale. Actually, it was a 100 foot gray boat named “Whale”.

The only problem came when we got back. After sitting with out legs out for 2 hours, it was a challenge getting out of the kayaks and walking. Oh there was one other little detail. When we got back, there were only 12 people in our group. I’m not kidding, we ended with one less than we started with. About a third of the way through, one of the guides pulled up on a beach next to a cemetery with one of the couples. He got out of the kayak and a chase boat came and picked him up. The guide sent his single kayak with the chase boat and did the rest of the tour with the man’s wife.

We had a little rain while we were on the water, and another rain shower as we walked back to the ship. I got back to our room and I think I counted to 10 before Tammy was under the covers. She’s not getting a long nap, since I have to get her up in a couple of minutes. We have dinner reservations at the steak house in 35 minutes. What are my chances of getting her down there? I’ll let you know.

9:00 pm

I managed to get Tammy up, dressed, and down to dinner with 5 minutes to spare. It was one of those incredible dinners with a great waiter, fabulous food, and fun company. I won’t bore you with how good the food was, but I must mention desert. We each ordered a desert, and the waiter insisted on bringing an extra Tiramisu for the table. Only Tammy had enough room left to even taste the Tiramisu. Then there was a slight delay with the checks, and Tammy couldn’t stand watching a desert go uneaten, so she made it disappear. She is now laying next to me making all kinds of strange noises.

Tomorrow is Juneau.

Day 6 – Juneau

Tammy was still making some funny noises this morning. When I suggested we head up for omelets, she let me know there was still no room for food. However, there is apparently always room for her caramel coffee drink and a cookie, so we headed for the coffee bar.

We had a rather long tour today. It was basically a whale watching tour with lunch included. We left town on a bus to get to the harbor where we would meet our boat. We were sitting right behind the driver, and the dispatcher kept calling him and telling him to stall. This turned out really good as the long route took us near the Mendenhall glacier. As we got close, he was told to keep stalling, so he drove in through the visitors’ center. We couldn’t stop, but at least we got a good view of it. Then it was off to meet the boat.

On the way to see the whales we passed Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles, and some rare black bird. You could tell in the distance where the whales were by the 6 or 8 boats floating near by. As we got closer we started to see multiple spouts near the boats. We were told that Hump Back whales are solitary and that all they would be doing is eating, and they do all their family making in Hawaii. The whales would come up and take maybe 6 or 8 breaths before raising their tale for another dive. We could tell the day was something special when the captain and guide both got excited about the numbers of whales we were seeing. It was pretty much non-stop whales for maybe an hour. No body seemed to care that it was raining. We had whales coming up within 100 yards of the boat and the closest was probably 100 feet away. Yep, we had a whale something like one whale length from our boat. Remember, they are only eating, so there is no broaching going on. Neither the whales or the boats were in danger of a damaging collision. The boats just floated around and the whales seemed to ignore them while putting on a show. Since whales eat from 1000 to 2000 pounds per day, I seriously doubt they had whale feeders hidden under the water. If so, they had a big bill for whale chow.

On the way back to town, we stopped at their lodge for a salmon lunch and a chance to stretch our legs. A cool addition to the lodge was an aquarium they had stocked with the tidal creatures from near by (Star fish, sea anemones, hermit crabs, mussels, etc). Just as we boarded the boat for the ride home it went from light rain to real rain. Perfect timing.

Tammy is snoring right now, but she won’t admit it if you ask her. I’m going to wake her up here in a minute to head down for happy hour and dinner. I’ll let you know how it goes.

8:30 pm

It went better than I expected. She got up and was dressed in short order. We headed down for happy hour to meet our group. I did perform one basic test on the way out the door and offered her one of the pillow chocolates from last night. She turned it down. As I thought, she has not recovered from last night yet.

At the happy hour we heard about the unlucky lady in our group.  It seems she went for the helicopter trip to the Mendenhall glacier.  The flight up went fine , but while they were there the fog closed in and the helicopter couldn’t come  back to get them.  They got to spend 3 hours standing on the glacier waiting for the clouds to lift.

The other people at our table were all coming home late, so we didn’t expect them for dinner. Sure enough, they didn’t show, and we headed up to the trough to eat. We headed back to our room for a pit stop before the early show. When we got there the door would not open. Somehow the deadbolt had set itself. We found our steward, and he called for security to open the door. We headed off for the show. After 10 minutes we decided we couldn’t take an hour of that singer, so it was back to our room. However, the door was still locked. This time the guy with the key showed up quickly and we settled down for the evening.

Tomorrow is Skagway. This is the excursion Tammy has been waiting for. We visit a dog mushers camp and get to pet puppies. I’m just hoping she doesn’t decide to take a sample home with her.

Day 7 – Skagway

This is turning into Tammy’s sleeping tour of Alaska. She’s in bed before the boat leaves the harbor, and she’s still asleep when we dock at the next harbor. Pretty cool way to travel.

Skagway is what you think of when you say tourist town. It started as the jump off point for the Yukon gold rush. It has a deep harbor, so big ships could drop people off. Then it was just a “short” walk over the mountains to get to the Youkon river, where you could build your own boat for the trip down river (after the ice melted in the spring). As you know the gold rush lasted less than 2 years. That was a shame since some enterprising soles were building a railroad over the mountains. The railroad took 2 years to build, so it was finished just as the need ended. The railroad was then extended into Canada, and since Skagway is the farthest northern ice free port, they had a new lease on life. Today, Skagway exists to give the Cruise Ships a place to stop. To that end they’ve kept downtown looking like it would have during their port days. I guess they thought the mud streets and tents of the gold rush wouldn’t work.

If you need a reminder about the effectiveness of government, there is a highway that also goes over the same mountains as the railroad. The railroad was built by private industry and took 2 years. The highway was built by the government and took 70 years to complete. When the highway was completed, it effectively ended the need for the railroad as transportation, so now the railroad hauls people from the Cruise ships up to see the scenery.

The highlight of our stay in Skagway was visiting the dog sled camp. They gave us a look at some of the equipment and brought the dogs out. These dogs are very social and went around getting pets from the audience as we were told about the dogs. Everything changed when they started hooking the dogs to the sled. The dogs went nuts and couldn’t wait to start running. They had a little training track laid out and let the dogs pull the sled around. Running on the gravel helped build their paws and the drag of the sled in the sand helped build muscle.

Then it was on the the true highlight. They brought out the 8 day old puppies for people to pet. Since they were so young the owners held them, but let people pet them. They claim they have figured out that socializing the dogs actually makes them better sled dogs later. I think it’s just a great sales technique, but who cares.

Tomorrow we cruise by the Hubbard Glacier. We’re to be at our closest at 8 am. What are the odds Tammy misses it?

Day 8 – Hubbard Glacier

Alarm clocks are a no-no on vacation unless absolutely required. Therefore, I left the curtains open in our room last night to insure I would be up before 8am. With sunrise before 6am that gave me plenty of margin. Sure enough, I was up and dressed, then the challenge was when to get Tammy up. I went for 7:30 knowing it was likely to take a couple of tries. It worked, and we were headed to the deck in plenty of time.

We’ve been enjoying the cool temps on this trip. I think the highest temperature we’ve seen so far has been 61 or 62 degrees. I thought yesterday on top the mountain it was cold, but I was wrong. When you’re up next to that much ice even Tammy was cold.

The glacier was definitely worth getting up for. The conditions were such that only small pieces were calving. Therefore, the captain could take the ship within one quarter of a mile of the glacier. That’s the closest he is ever allowed to go, and he said it was the closest they’d been all year. It must have been unusual, since many of the crew members were coming out on deck to snap pictures also. We had a naturalist on board that was doing a running commentary, most of which was decent. As the ship got to its closest point, he let everyone know the captain was using the bow thrusters to fine tune our position. He also noted that we used the bow thrusters for docking and undocking. It seems they are very useful, so the captain likes to have a good bow movement every day (his joke – not mine). After about 30 minutes, the ship turned around and started back out.

At that point Tammy and I headed to her favorite coffee bar. She has been getting a frozen something, but she went for Hot Chocolate this morning. You know you’ve been there too many times when the waitress knows to bring 3 oatmeal cookies before you even ask.

You might think the caffeine would keep her awake, but you would be wrong. We had a slight delay getting back in the room as it was being cleaned. We headed up to the buffet to get a glass of fruit punch. Wow, I think everyone on the ship decided to eat breakfast at the same time. After the short delay we were back in the room by maybe 9:30. It is now 11:30 and Tammy has been sound asleep the whole time. Should I wake her for lunch? Today is a sea day on our way to Seward, and the only thing we have to do is eat and have our bags packed by 10pm.

4pm

I tried waking her and ended up eating lunch on my own. It was my last shot at the burger bar. I knew it would be a waste of my time to try getting her up again, so I played another poker tournament after lunch. I finished second again. This time there were only 5 players, so my winnings were $40. While I was there I burned through the $5 credit I had for the slot machines (didn’t take long).

By the time I made it back to the room, Tammy had showered. She wanted me to go get her a cookie, but I refused. If she couldn’t get her pants on, then she couldn’t have another cookie. We were soon off to the coffee bar. As soon as we had nourishment, it was back to the room to pack. Packing is now virtually done. We’ve got a few things to use this evening, and most everything else goes in the back pack. We’re ready for dinner and the show. Bags go out at 10 pm tonight and we meet to leave the ship at 7:30 am. Then it’s on a bus to Talkeetna. I don’t know what the internet access will be from here, so who knows when you’ll hear from me again.

Day 9 – Seward to Kalkeetna

We docked in Seward and left the ship at 7:30 in the morning. We had scheduled an after cruise tour, so it was onto the buses. Our first stop was in Anchorage for lunch. Heaven knows we didn’t need to eat, but that didn’t stop us. Our guide had pointed out several places, but of course we got lost. We did make it back to the bus, but with no time to spare.

The first stop was at a wildlife conservation center. Their claim to fame was reestablishing two viable herds of woodland bison after they had been declared extinct. It seems a bush pilot spotted a small herd after the species had been declared extinct. They brought them in and their breeding program was successful. They have now introduced two herds back into the wild that are close to 250 animals each. They also had bear, wolves, caribou, moose, eagles, and a lot of others. The animals are mostly in natural habitats. Some have been brought in because they were injured (eagle with one wing) or they needed to be removed from around people. One of their bears was becoming a fan of the trash dump, now he enjoys hanging out in his favorite tree.

As we headed inland the skies got a little brighter and the windshield wipers didn’t have to run all the time. You know they’re hard up for entertainment when they stop the bus at a grocery store. Apparently Cubby’s is a well know grocery store in this part of the state. It was maybe 60 miles north or Anchorage, so it doesn’t has much competition. It was a real hoot watching all our fellow cruisers come out of the store with sacks full of food. The real highlight of the stop was the 2minutes when the clouds got thin enough to actually cause shadows to form.

Then it was on to Talkeetna. At first I was concerned when I learned our lodge was 2 miles out of town. There isn’t much to do here, so I sure didn’t want to walk 2 miles to do it. Then they explained when the shuttles would run us into town. I was paying attention to the shuttle driver when he was telling people the good places to eat, so we made our way to his first choice. We were there before 6pm, so the outdoor seating looked like the thing to do. The food was great and the waiter was enjoyable. He even pointed us to where the locals go to buy their ice cream. I had heard the secret from the shuttle driver and asked our waiter how to get back to our lodge. Magically four taxi passes appeared, so there was no waiting for the shuttle for us. The group decided I was worth having along after all.

The girls made it to one gift store while I listened to the concert they were having in the town square. The female singer was trying hard, and the crowd was giving her encouragement. Unfortunately, she just can’t sing. However, that didn’t seem to be bothering anyone.

We’re now back in our room and letting the cool air in. I have a feeling Tammy and I may have a difference of opinion on temperature management tonight. The room has no A/C, so Tammy will want the window open. I’m not a fan of sleeping with temps in the 40’s. Wish me luck.

Day 10 – Denali

We’re getting good at logging bus time. It was a couple hours from Talkeetna to the National Park. The highlight on the drive up was a stop at the Alaska Veteran’s Memorial. It’s not near anything and is a nice park. After we got to the park and had a quick lunch it was onto park buses for the tour. We opted for the long tour, since it was supposed to have a much better chance of seeing wildlife. When you think it, animals are spread pretty thin up here. The lack of sun means limited growing season, which means less vegetation. Less vegetation means fewer grazing animals, and therefore fewer predators.

We couldn’t have been much luckier. We had some of everything in weather. We actually saw the sun for close to an hour, but then the clouds returned. We had a couple periods of rain, and periods of not rain. The temperature ranged from tee shirt to down right cold. In other words, what ever kind of weather you like, we had it during the seven hours we were on the park bus.

Tours are a little awkward in Denali. There is one road cutting through the park. We took it 62 miles. Then we turned around and came back. As the guide said, “Both sides of the bus see the same thing, just at different times.”

Everyone was hoping to see wildlife, and we were not disappointed. We actually saw our first wildlife before we even left the parking lot. A hiker decided to change pants in the parking lot. He got a standing ovation from the women on our bus.

We had been warned that the Dall sheep would look like white dots near the tops of the mountains, and that was true with the naked eye. Bears and Moose could look like black dots in the valley floor. However, the park buses come with technology. When we spotted something, our driver would stop and turn off the bus to avoid bothering the animal. (They are pretty used to the buses, and seemed to completely ignore us.) While everyone was snapping pictures, our driver would get our his camera and zoom in on the animal. Then video was shown on screens in the bus, and we were all amazed at how much he could zoom in.

Before it was over, we’d seen Dall Sheep, Brown Bear, Caribou, and Moose. You can throw in a variety of birds and ground squirrels. Right near the end of the tour, we came across a young male Moose was out to please. He walked up onto the road and right by our bus.

Day 11 – Dogs and Train

Tammy agreed to get up early one last time to visit another dog kennel. They promised puppies, and they delivered. When we pulled into their parking lot the owner and one of the dog handlers were standing at the front door with arms full of puppies. Our driver reminded us that there would be no free samples, and they would be double counting the puppies at the end of the tour. After the puppies were returned to their mothers, we got an overview of the operation and a demonstration of a training run. They hooked up 12 dogs to a 4-wheeler and were gone. They use the 4-wheeler when there is no snow. It weighs 600 pounds, so the dogs can’t go too fast. It also gives the rider the ability to steer and maintain control. They use the engine to offset some of the weight on hills and use the brakes to keep the speed down when needed. The goal is a 10 mph pace for about 2 miles this time of the year.

After the snow falls and they can use the sleds, the training gets more serious. They’ll start making 5 to 10 mile runs, then doing multiple day trips. They’ll build up to 50 miles per day by the start of the Iditarod. The run I wanted to see was their first big team run in the Fall. Once everything has a solid covering, he hooks 45 dog to his pickup truck and heads 100 miles to town. Apparently that is not too unusual, and they have no problem using the main highway.

They put on a very nice show, and the wife did a very thorough presentation of what was involved in getting a team ready and the logistics of doing the Iditarod. They start with 16 dogs that will eat 10,000 calories per day per dog. That’s over 1,000 pounds of dog food. The dogs also run in boots to protect from ice cuts. I think I heard they can go through over 1,000 boots during the race. Then the driver needs food, batteries, fuel for heating water. All this stuff is bagged and delivered to each checkpoint.

In their presentation there were some aerial pictures of the checkpoints. Sometimes the teams will rest at a checkpoint, and you could see 15 to 20 teams bedded down. We were told that if possible they liked to rest on the trail. The problem with stopping at a checkpoint is that it turns into a doggy slumber party, and the dogs don’t get as much rest.

Then it was back to the lodge to meet the rest of our group before we took our last real bus ride to Talkeetna. There we had an hour to walk around and of course eat before boarding the train to Anchorage. It was a more comfortable ride, and the cars had a bubble top to enjoy the scenery. What the train was not was fast. Our bus was waiting for us at the far end after delivering our bags to the hotel. We had been in the hotel maybe 15 minutes when Tammy crawled under the covers and said anyone getting her up in less than 12 hours was a dead person.

Tomorrow we have a day to look around Anchorage before catching our flight at 8:40pm. Then its back to the real world. It’s been a good trip.

One hurricane related note. We heard that John and Helen were on their way back from Bermuda. However, at this time Dallas is as close as they can get to home. We’ll see if we have house guests when we get home.

ps. I had a bit of entertainment last night. At 3am my cell phone rang. It was the driver we have arranged to pick us up at the airport, and he was waiting at baggage claim. The only problem was that he was 24 hours early. We have an overnight flight that leaves on the 28th and arrives on the 29th. Looks like we told him the flight was the 28th. OOOPs.