Skagway

It was foggy and drizzly when we pulled into Skagway on Friday morning. Across from the docks, the rocky mountainside was painted with signs and logos from many ships which have sailed into this port. We found out later that it has been a tradition from the early 1900’s that each ship’s maiden voyage to Skagway is commemorated this way.

We haven’t signed up for any shore excursions or tours on this trip since we like to explore on our own and don’t necessarily want to spend a bunch of money so someone else can show us exactly what we could have seen by ourselves. We walked into Skagway and stopped in at the White Pass and Yukon Railroad to see if we could get on the afternoon train. There were seats available and we were told it would not sell out today so we decided to spend some time walking around town first. Skagway is at the northern tip of the Inside Passage and takes its name from the Tlingit word “skagua,” which means “the place where the north wind blows.” Only 850 people live here year round. It didn’t take long to walk the streets! We stopped in the Post Office, in a chocolate shop (where we bought a snack and talked politics with the guy behind the counter), and in a replica of an old saloon (where Rich set off the alarm by jumping over the railing to pose next to the mannequins at the bar). One thing we have noticed on our two cruises is the proliferation of diamond stores in every port. Now why in the world would anyone come to Alaska to buy diamonds? It’s a little sad to see these neat historic towns turn into touristy fake versions of themselves as they once were. I suppose it is a double edged sword as the tourist industry often keeps these little places alive, but at the same time, they lose their identity as anything but a tourist stop.

At 12:45, we loaded up on the train for our 3.5 hour excursion from Skagway to the summit of the White Pass, a 2865 foot elevation. During the Klondike gold rush days over a century ago, the railroad was blasted through the mountains in 26 months; ironically, by the time the railroad was finished, so was the biggest part of the gold rush. Over 35,000 men worked on the railway and 35 died during construction. Our train ride was pretty exciting, with beautiful scenery, scary trestles, dark tunnels and historic sights along the way. And we didn’t have to pay the cruise line an extra fee for scheduling the excursion for us. LOL

We arrived back on the ship in the early evening and took it easy for the rest of the night, other than my frustration over the internet getting in the way of my fun. haha

Ketchikan Photos

Missing Photos

Okay, I have been uploading photos for over an hour and somehow most of them did not get on the blog. I am bummed and running out of time on my internet tab on ship. I believe all of the photos that actually got posted were from Juneau, except the first one, which is Ketchikan. I will try to get the rest of the Ketchikan pix up tomorrow. I am frustrated and going to bed! Sweet dreams, everyone!

Photos and More Commentary from Ketchikan and Juneau

It’s Friday and we spent the day in Skagway, but I want to catch up a little bit on the last few days so will save today's report for tomorrow!

A few things I learned about Ketchikan: It is known as the Salmon Capital of the World and also as the Rain Capital of Alaska, with about 162 inches of precipitation each year. There is a higher concentration of Alaskan Native people in Ketchikan than any other city in the state and “Ketchikan” is said to mean “Eagle River” in Tlingit. It is also home to many recovered totem poles from around the area, which are now displayed in the Heritage Museum that we enjoyed visiting. It is so interesting to learn about the history of the Alaska Native people and all that they have accomplished over many years, despite all of the hardships they have faced.

The first several photos are from Ketchikan and then the rest are from our visit to Juneau. We had a lot of fun there with Kyle and Emily, who took us on a little sightseeing tour of the area. We saw the amazing Mendenhall Glacier, which is huge, but continues to retreat as the glacial ice melts. We encountered a baby black bear while we were in the park to see the glacier! It was coming straight for us and I was a little freaked out, even though it was just a cub. It was totally disinterested in us, though, and just kept going. Kyle is working part time as a canoe guide and takes people out toward the glacier to get a close-up look. After leaving the glacier, we enjoyed a scenic drive out of town to the Shrine of St. Therese, which was established by the Catholic Diocese of Juneau and is set in a beautiful, lush forest. Stone “stations of the cross” encircle the outside of the chapel and a rock labyrinth invites visitors to walk and pray.

We are in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest temperate rain forest in North America, covering almost 17 million acres, including nearly all of Alaska’s Inside Passage. Funny, Juneau has 262.2 miles of hiking trails and only 41 miles of roadway. Here’s some trivia for you: Alaska has one mile of road for every 42 square miles of land, compared to the US average of one to one! Juneau is named after a gold prospector named Joseph Juneau who came to the area with Richard Harris in 1880. The town was first named Harrisburg but that name didn’t stick and ended up being called Juneau instead. Wonder how poor Mr. Harris felt about that!

After spending the day in Skagway, we are now on the water again on our way to Glacier Bay. More updates tomorrow!

Juneau

We arrived in Juneau this morning and met up with Kyle and Emily downtown. It's cool and drizzly, definitely Alaska weather. We walked around a little bit, stopped in a neat little coffee shop for a hot drink and then went to rent a car for the day. Coincidentally, Emily and Kyle's shipment of stuff from Dutch Harbor arrived today so Rich and Kyle have gone to pick it up while Emily and I are hanging out at their apartment. They have a cute place not far from the Governor's Mansion and across the street from an old cemetery. Interestingly, many of the houses around the Governor's Mansion have Obama signs in their yards. LOL We had a great lunch at the cafe where Kyle is working part-time and are going to go on a driving tour around Juneau and the area when the guys get back. More later!

Ketchikan

We arrived in Ketchikan early this morning, had some breakfast and went into town about 8:30 AM. It was cool and cloudy, reminded me of Dutch Harbor in that respect, though it looks nothing like the Aleutians. Lots of trees, lush greenery, and definitely a bigger town. Rich was hoping someone would ask us where we were from so he could say we wanted to see how the city folks live. LOL We spent a couple of hours walking around town and went to the Totem Heritage Museum which has preserved quite a few totem poles from the area as well as a variety of Alaska Native artifacts. Many of the houses are built on the hillside and have long outside stairways leading up to them. I am not sure I would want to make that climb every day. :) We had a short stop in Ketchikan and had to be back on the ship by 1:30. Had some lunch and I had a very soothing facial this afternoon. I loved it! But then they wanted to sell me $350 worth of products so I had to make myself say "no thanks" and walk away. We had dinner in a restaurant called Sabatini's--good food, but way too much, as always. We then went to see a comedian in the theater. I figured it would be pretty lame but he was actually hilarious and we enjoyed the show. Came downstairs to try to quickly check emails and blog (the pennies are ticking away on my internet meter!) Last night, it took me at least an hour to upload photos to the blog so I am going to wait and do those another day. Hope everyone is doing well; I feel weird being so out-of-touch! We will be in Juneau tomorrow morning and hope to see Kyle and Emily, though we were unable to reach them by phone today.

Cruisin'

Our last night in Vancouver, looking out the hotel window.

Greetings from onboard the Coral Princess, cruising toward Ketchikan, Alaska, where we will arrive early tomorrow morning. Yesterday we had a very smooth and easy embarkation in Vancouver, no long lines, no issues, and we walked right to our cabin on the Dolphin Deck on the 9^th level. We have a good sized room with a balcony; the shower is tiny but otherwise we have plenty of space. We sat on the upper deck of the ship while a band played, everyone enjoying the sights as we sailed away from British Columbia, waving to the people peering over the rail of the huge bridge overhead. We have discovered that this is an old-fogies cruise, which suits us just fine. We are some of the younger people aboard, which means that everyone is riding the elevators so we get the stairs pretty much to ourselves, and when we went out walking around at midnight this morning, we thought we were on a Ghost Ship. LOL This is in sharp contrast to the Caribbean cruise we took with Rich’s brother George and wife Nadine a couple of years ago, a Carnival ship that seemed to be filled with very young people with nothing but partying on their minds. I know, my age is showing. We kinda like being the 50-something youngsters with the retirement crowd rather than the old folks on the party boat. Haha

Instead of our dining room dinner last night, we decided to eat at one of the specialty restaurants. We were told to make reservations because it would fill up fast. Much to our surprise, there was no one else in the restaurant when we arrived. J We had a nice dinner and lots of attention from the bored staff.

The ship is huge and we are still learning our way around. We are climbing all 14 flights of stairs and getting our exercise. There’s a work-out room but we haven’t made it there yet, though it’s definitely in our plans. We did stop in the casino when we were walking around at midnight and it was almost deserted at that hour; guess everyone else was in bed. Rich lost a little money and we moved on. LOL

This morning we had breakfast in our room and Rich went to a meeting to find out about some photo editing classes that are being held on board. Basically, the meetings are to sell you on taking the classes. :) After the lunch buffet, we walked 350 steps to the very end of our deck to the Laundromat—we have been carrying dirty laundry with us since Colorado. While the clothes were washing, I went to have a massage that I pre-ordered from home (on our last cruise, I was not so well informed and by the time I got on board, there were no empty slots). It felt SO good and completely relaxing. Nice! Rich had put the clothes in the dryer so we then went back to get them and to iron our dressy stuff for the formal night tonight. Okay, we do NOT have formal clothes and are not about to go get any, but we will be presentable and not embarrass ourselves.

The water has been smooth so far; I took some Dramamine yesterday but I haven’t had any trouble today. The temperature outside is only in the 50’s so I feel like I am back home in Alaska already. :)

I started this earlier today so I could just cut and paste and not waste precious internet minutes typing. Internet is $.75 a minute! Well, that's if you pay as you go. I bought a plan for a bunch of minutes which whittled it down to $.40 a minute. What a bargain. LOL Anyway, we have been to our nice formal dinner and chatted with some folks from Toronto. I'm now in the "card room" using my laptop and Rich has gone to the casino to see if he can win enough money to pay for my internet habit. LOL