North to Alaska
Don’t forget to check out last week’s post here-it was supposed to auto-post and did not.
My DH and I just returned from our third cruise to Alaska. I know that sounds odd-three times? If you choose to cruise Alaska, there are pretty much two ways to go-the inside passage to Skagway and back, or one-way up to Seward. We have cruised the inside passage twice and to Seward once. Each trip was at different stages in our lives:
In 2004, our boys were rising Sophomore/Jr’s in high school.
In 2007, they were rising Freshman/Sophomore’s in college!
And in 2015, we are now Confirmed Empty Nesters. We talked about whether we would go back again and we decided we would want to go back at yet another major life stage-with grand kids. That one may take awhile!
If you have not visited Alaska, it is hard to convey how vast, beautiful, majestic and unique our 49th state is. Alaska is the largest state and has 6600 miles of shoreline. It is twice the size of Texas yet has the lowest population density of all 50 states. One third of the state is in the Arctic Circle.
The raw beauty of Alaska is breathtaking with vast forests, robust mountain streams filled with salmon, and of course those amazing blue-ice glaciers.
Our trip on the Princess Ruby took us from Seattle, to Ketchikan, then to the glaciers, Juneau and up to Skagway. We stopped oh-so-briefly at Victoria, BC on the way back. We were not really thrilled with our ship experience but Alaska continues to amaze us.
Each time we’ve gone to Alaska we’ve taken very different land trips. This time, as empty nesters, we were looking for a little more adventure. Of course these were very mild “adventures”, but it did take us in for a close-up view of the land.
We kayaked the Clover Pass area of the Tongass National Forest near Ketchikan, eventually visiting Eagle Island. We happened upon a Bald Eagle nest with two cute little nestlings. Fun Fact: Each year thousands of Bald Eagles migrate briefly to winter at Starved Rock State Park, near my home town in Illinois.
We were able to kayak right up to the shore to view the wildlife and water’s edge. It was a beautiful, tranquil trip and we actually burned off some of those Cruise Ship Calories!
On to the glaciers:
We were scheduled to cruise the Tracy Arm but two big icebergs stood in our way, so we cruised the Endicott Arm instead. This turned out to be an excellent alternative. Although several boats pass through the Tracy Arm daily during the summer, very few are go into the Endicott Arm.
Although I have no photos of it, we saw both mountain goats and humpbacks-both apparently fairly rare to see in the Endicott Arm. It was cold-maybe 40’s with a drizzle. We were happy that it wasn’t raining-a light drizzle is about as good as it gets. It was 108 at home that day!
My photos cannot begin to impress you with this sight. Those waterfalls are hundreds of feet high, the land thousands of feet high with the steep walls plunging to an ocean depth of nearly a thousand feet. The scale of the land and glaciers was mind boggling. So you could be 150 yards from shore and the water beneath you is a thousand feet deep.
The combination of the beauty of the water, towering rocks, scrub vegetation, dozens of thundering waterfalls, and gems of blue ice was amazing.
Look at that color! It was like a giant gem floating in the water.
Up to this point, we thought we had seen nothing but spectacular. Seeing the glacier raised the bar of “spectacular”. It was such a majestic sight. I was sad to leave-when will I be back?
Our next port was Juneau. On previous visits, we spent zillions of dollars taking a helicopter ride to and also ice climbing opon the Mendenhall Glacier. We decided to not book any tour, as the weather can be very iffy. We planned to ride the Tram up to the top of Mt Roberts, but when we arrived, it was socked in and raining.
We had a very distasteful and unpleasant experience with aggressive excursion vendors so we decided to head into town. Well, the town was pretty much jewelry stores and more jewelry stores with a few chachky stores thrown in. And once again, the stores had people stationed at the door that hawk at you to come in. ICK! I always try to ferrret out stores that feature local artists-I found a few but they were not of great interest to me.
We decided to bail and go back to the ship. By then we were far enough away that we tried to hail a cab-no such luck in Juneau. You cannot get a cab when the cruise ships are in town.
But the weather had cleared so we took a quick trip up the tram to the top of Mt Roberts and had a nice time gazing at the scenery. We headed back to the ship for……more food!
And to top it all off, we saw this from our dinner table at the end of a spectacular day!
Skagway was a much better experience. We had booked a hike of the Chilkoot Trail followed by a float back on the Taiya River. Most people take the White Pass rail tour, which is spectacular, but we have done that before. The weather was only mildly rainy which is good for Alaska in the summer. We even saw some sun! The hike was slightly challenging and beautiful.
At one point we hit this horrific smell and our guide was on alert-you smell a bear before you see them. Sure enough we found this fresh print in the soft mud and a path of beaten-down plants in the area. One of our trail mates was ready to run back to the ship!
The Chilkoot Trail was a main route to the Klondike during the gold rush. The forest is lush and dense, filled with birds, animals and wildflowers. Once we waddled a few miles, we hopped in a raft for a gentle ride back to our drop-off. The scenery along the way was gorgeous and the skies cleared to allow actual sun to penetrate!
Skagway was the end of the “road” so we set out for almost 2 days-at-sea. We had a very brief stop in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
We did not arrive in port until 7PM and had to re-board by 11:15 so there was very little time to play.
I’m waving at some of my Canadian friends-Margaret, Jan, Teri and others I surely forgot. I’m sure they saw me from hundreds to thousands of miles away!
We had just enough time to take a quick tour of the town and enjoy a sunset drink. Victoria is a town I’d like to return to. It was beautiful, friendly, clean and just a wee bit quirky. We just have to go back to Alaska and Canada!
Oh, almost forgot-this is the sum total of what I bought-great restraint, aye?
I’ll be linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday too so be sure to check out the links.
I sure hope you weren’t wearing flipflops when you smelled the bear! Thanks for showing how beautiful Alaska is. I understand the appeal of seeing it by ship, given the road system there. I have wondered about how crowded, touristy places on the cruise ship route might be. Juneau sounds like a bummer.
No-I do wear appropriate foot wear when hiking, giggle! I may have given Juneau a bad rap but I’ve been there three times and each time the town itself did not amuse me. I’d love for someone to tell me I just missed the good parts. I actually wrote the Juneau Chamber of Commerce and complained specifically about that situation with a particularly nasty vendor-he needs to be run out of town.
Hi Jenny, Thanks for sharing your Alaskan experiences. I commented on FB that I too have been to Alaska 3 times. My trips are over a longer period of time than yours, but I would also consider them milestones. My first time and first cruise was in 1977 as a 22 yr. old “explorer”. Second trip was in 1988 with my sister and her son, celebrating his high school graduation. Third trip was in 1996 with my husband for our honeymoon. Love everything about Alaska, as a visitor. Can’t say I would be prepared to live there. I have thoroughly enjoyed my land tours as far north as Fairbanks to Anchorage, as well as cruising the Inside Passage from Vancouver, the Gulf from Seward to Vancouver and roundtrip from San Francisco. I would return to Alaska in a heartbeat. I may be partial to it because the scenery reminds me of my Norwegian roots.
I would be interested to hear why you weren’t “thrilled” with your ship experience.
How fun to share those experiences Linda-Alaska being a milestone experience for you too! I’ll bet it reminds you of Norway, someplace I would like to visit also. To see Alaska as a 22 year old-that must have been absolutely magical! And on a honeymoon too-what a great place to celebrate. I don’t get tired of it. And no, I have no thoughts of living there either!
We have been to Alaska so many times! We have friiends in faiirbanks and love to see them before we head out somewhere. Ihave all those same photos……..in fact I think I have the same iceberg too! LOL
Tracey Arm was the one we did last year on the ship but I MUCH prefer College Fjord. You actaully get up close to the glacier and see the ice calving!
Fairfanks would be a hard place to live! I haven’t been to College Fjord-sounds wonderful. We did see calving when we saw the Whittier glacier and it is an amazing sight. Lucky you to go so often!
Jenny, what an amazing trip! I have always wanted to visit Alaska and hope to do that trip someday. I enjoyed seeing the photos of your boys, too! It goes by SO fast, doesn’t it? Also, your California flip flops cracked me up. It reminded me of a trip my husband and I took to Chicago for Christmas about 10 years ago. We North Carolinians had to go immediately shoe shopping, since my husband had thought that he would be fine in his Birkenstock sandals for the Chicago winter, as long as he wore them with socks. HA HA! :-)
Oh no-sandals in Chicago in winter! That’s a chuckle. And sadly yes, our kids grow up so fast but it is awesome to relate to them as fellow adults!!
I loved our Inside Passage trip for our 40th anniversary. We felt like royalty on the Holland America ship. We took the rail trip from Skagway and I gave hubby a gift of a float plane trip over the Mendenhal glacier. You could never get me in a tiny plane. But the most wonderful time was an early sunny morning in Tracy Arm watching those incredibly ice blue icebergs float past us, each one a sculptured gem. I got lots of photos there. We sailed out of Vancouver and back, which was just a two hour drive from home in WA. I even lost five pounds on that trip with all that fantastic food! By the way, our mid-July trip had no rain!
I will follow your blog because I want to get back into art quilting again.
Unfortunately we were not happy with Princess. What a lovely time you must have had! Lost 5 lbs?? Not me! If you want to get back into art quilting have you considered Studio Art Quilt Associates? They’re the best!
What a cool trip! I’m so glad you got to go back.
Oh me too! See you in Houston!!
One of these days I’m going to get to Alaska! Thanks for sharing your “inside” view.
Oh Debby if you ever get a chance to go you will love it-it is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. It is so amazing!
Oh wow Schatzi-how awful! I had read one blog post about that and thought it was an anomaly. Thank you for letting me know about that. So sorry about your quilt though!
Waving back attcha, Jenny! ;-) If you come to Canada, why not make a Western swing? Fly to Edmonton, drive down to Calgary (if you come for Stampede, my sis might be able to get us some great seats for the rodeo), and on to Banff and then through the mountains to the Okanagan, then on to Vancouver and Victoria? We have SAQA members all over that area…Just a thought! ;-)
I do not need a travel agent-you have my itinerary all laid out! I would love to visit you and also see the stampede.
I was looking for Ice – when my mom took the cruise to Glacier Bay there was so much and her pictures were wonderful – years ago now. I am now assuming it must be totally the wrong time of year as no one else addressed this issue. What you showed us was very lovely and I just happen to have two friends on the cruise right now. I’m sorry there wasn’t a wonderful quilt shop or the store you were searching for with local artist items. I really would have expected that. Thank you for sharing. I’m looking into the train across Canada – hear that is a wonderful trip too.
Either way you go Susan, Alaska is wonderful! Very different experiences-3,000 people on a ship vs a train on land. I too hear it’s wonderful!
Our first experience in SE Alaska was on a Holland America cruise ship. we too quickly learned to avoid the stores with the hawkers outside, trying to get you to come inside to spend money. But we lucked out, as we were the last week of the cruise season and our week had been added last minute, so most of those shops had already closed and stores opened had great sales. We have since been back several times, but on our own boat. Have met many that have enjoyed exploring SE Alaska by walking on/off Ferries and planning their trip accordingly and some of the smaller boutique ships take you to non tourist destinations. If you get a chance, visit Petersburg as it has a lot of fun things to do nearby and great hiking trails, but definitely not packed with cruise ships & tourists. They also have a great quilt guild, which I bet they’d love to have you come teach.
QuiltShopGal
http://www.quiltshopgal.com
Great advice-thank you! I would like to go back but never on a gigantic ship-we are over that! Interesting concept to use ferries.