Seward to Anchorage

9/4
This morning we began the land portion of the trip. We woke up in Seward to light rain, but decided to get off the ship and wander the town anyway. There wasn’t too much to see—it’s quite tourist-y, and many of the shops were closed. But there was some character to the town—the funny names of some of the establishments (Once in a Blue Moose, A Bucket of Butt—Halibut, that is), and the many, varied murals—some beautiful and others more informational. (Shiri, the last photo in this set is for you...)

After enjoying our last lunch on the ship, we were on our way by about 1:00, on the 2 ½ hour bus ride to Anchorage. The rain had stopped and the scenery was so beautiful, especially huge patches of a plant called “fireweed”, which has a purple blossom that works its way up the stalk in the summer and then turns bright red in the fall. We actually saw a small strand at the rest stop that had one with the last flower on top and the other a full vibrant red.

The leaves were beginning to turn as well, but I hear there will be more of those as we travel north. We rode for a very long time along the “Turnagain Arm” of the Pacific where Cook kept sailing in the hopes of finding a Northwest Passage, only to be disappointed. We did see glimpses of 2 Beluga whales, but really short glimpses—not the wildlife we were hoping to see, but the sight was so beautiful, as we traveled through the forest and along the water. We reached Anchorage at about 4:00and got settled in the hotel. We wandered the city a bit—a “Farmer’s Market” which was more of a Swap Meet, a pretty little park near the Visitors Center, but there wasn’t too much to see so we bought some groceries for the train ride and then went back to the hotel to enjoy the gym and the free wifi to reconnect with the outside world.

Prince William Sound and College Fjord

9/3           

Not much to talk about today. The seas were still pretty rough this morning, the clouds were low (though it wasn’t raining) and visibility was pretty poor, so we slept in later than usual. Yoram was feeling much better, so we did go to breakfast and then decided that a walk on the deck in the fresh air would be better than a run in the gym, so we walked for about an hour. There wasn’t much to see, and it was so strange to walk with the ship rocking back and forth, but the fresh air did feel good and the brisk winds were refreshing. We didn’t really want lunch, so we grabbed some fresh fruit and went to watch them create an ice sculpture—it took him about 15-20 minutes to create an eagle from a 75 pound block of ice. 

We relaxed for a bit and went to the Indonesian Tea offered in the dining room. It was delicious: crepes filled with brown sugar and coconut, deep fried banana, and delicious spice tea (and this from one who usually doesn’t like tea). Yoram had Sumatran coffee, which he enjoyed, too. We shared a table with the parents of the Irvine boy who had been in the show with Yoram—turns out he’s a pharmacist at the Kaiser hospital in Irvine, right near where we live!

Once tea was over, we were approaching Price William Sound, so we sat in one of the lounges and looked outside. The rain had stopped, but it was still pretty cloudy, but just looking out was relaxing. We were looking forward to dinner, which was advertised as the “Master Chef’s Surprise”. It began about ½ hour earlier than usual, and once it started, we understood why. First of all, we noticed that there were no linen napkins on the table, and we wondered why. We understood when the evening began with “Act One, the server’s ballet”, as they danced in, in full chef’s regalia, and twirled the napkins around to the music until they reached our laps. This was followed by the appetizer, brie cheese baked in phyllo dough and encrusted with hazelnuts—beautifully presented and delicious! The came “Act Two:Salad Presentation”, as the wait staff once again danced their way in with all of the tools necessary for the salads: bowls, tongs, pepper grinders—they juggled veggies and danced the salads to the table. The main course was relatively calm, but delicious, as most of the food has been the entire cruise. 

By this time, the advantages of the best table in the house (right at the center of the stern of the boat) once again became evident, because we had entered the College Fjord, a narrow inlet where multiple glaciers come in from the sides and 5 or so huge ones (the 2 main ones being called Harvard and Yale) meet at the very end of the fjord. By this time, the clouds had lifted, and we cruised past the glaciers as the waiters presented the grand finale: Baked Alaska, once again served with style by the wait staff, and sooo good!

Just as the captain reached the end of the fjord where all the glaciers meet, we finished and headed outside to enjoy the sight in the fresh air. The clouds had thinned out considerably, and there were even patches of blue in the sky and patches on the ice-covered mountains where the sun shone through. The sight was breathtaking, and we stood out there for about an hour as we gradually moved back out of the sound. As we slowly sailed out, more and more of the glaciers revealed themselves—4 parallel ones on the starboard side of the ship, the patch of sun at the tip growing larger, at one point illuminating a strand of trees that were starting to turn golden, and the stunning panorama right in back of us. That experience alone, like so many others, would have made the whole trip worthwhile. We need to have our suitcases packed by midnight tonight, and tomorrow we have the morning in Seward before we take the train to Anchorage. 

This time on the boat really has been amazing. I think I could have easily been cynical and superior about everything, because there are definitely some characters on board, and some of the stuff was pretty “kitsch-y”, but instead I chose to go with the flow, and thoroughly enjoyed everything about it! Makes me realize that I might enjoy other things a lot more as well if I just let myself enjoy them and don’t worry so much about what people think of me…

Glacier Bay

9/2

This morning we sailed into Glacier Bay, a National Park area that is a long, narrow bay that was originally one solid ice sheet. As the glaciers receded, the bay filled with glacial runoff, which in turn filled with floating icebergs which have fallen off the glaciers as they “calve”. We ate breakfast watching the shear mountain cliffs flow by, and were out on the cold, windy deck by 8:30, as we started to sail into Tarr Inlet, a small arm of the bay, and right up to the face of Margerie Glacier. We stayed up there despite the cold and the light rain beginning to fall, because the view was incredible. We were quite close to the glacier, chunks of ice would float by with seals sitting on them, there were sea gulls soaring past. 

But best of all, every few minutes, you’d see a bit of movement and a chunk of the glacier itself, sometimes pretty small, but one or two absolutely enormous,  would crack off and crash into the sea. The bigger chunks were followed by a water fall (ice-fall) of smaller chunks, dislodged as the big one fell) It was a 3 step process: first we saw the chunk split away and crash into the bay, a split second later we heard the crash as the sound of it hitting the water reached our ears and then eventually we felt the rocking of the ship as the wake generated by the splash reached where we were, and saw the rubble of ice that had fallen into the water by the glacier.

 

After over 2 hours, the captain began to turn the boat around and it was raining a little harder, so we decided to come in and drink some hot chocolate to warm up. We realized that the gym is in a prime place on the ship—right at the front at the very top level, so we thought it would be a great time to run on the treadmill while looking at the magnificent view as we sailed back out of the bay. We had a great workout, and showered and headed in for lunch. We rested for a while in the room—by this time the clouds were pretty low and it was raining quite hard. We were heading out into open seas and it was getting rough. We went for tea in the dining room, and the heard a “briefing” about what happens next for the land portion of our trip. Who know it could all be so complicated! Some luggage goes with us on the buses and trains, some gets dropped off at our hotel room every night, some we won’t see until our final stop in Fairbanks—all needs to be out by midnight on Saturday (we don’t get off the boat until noon on Sunday) so don’t forget to leave out clothing for Sunday (“we’ve seen people on the buses in their pajamas and kids without shoes because they packed everything”). I guess for us it won’t be a problem, because we were so freaked about having enough “smart casual” stuff to wear that I only packed 1 pair of jeans 2 t-shirts and 1 sweatshirt (Yoram has a little more, but not much), so we’ll be traveling really light for the 5 days of the land trip!!

Dinner was formal again tonight, and the food was really amazing—another chilled fruit-based soup, apple this time (I think one of the top 10 things about this trip for me are those fruit soups!!) filet mignon and lobster (surf and turf), and for dessert, little white chocolate chef’s toques filled with light chocolate cake and milk chocolate mousse. Delicious!! 

But poor Yoram was feeling really pretty bad by this time, so he just went down to bed without eating anything. He doesn’t even feel up to the chocolate dessert extravaganza tonight!!! (more about that in a minute.) They had an internet “Happy Hour” (the clock on my ridiculously expensive 100 minute plan ran twice as slow as usual) so I went up to try to get some more scheduling done for work, and indulged in a quick email to Roni. Later I’ll probably check out the show (An Evening at the Symphony) before visiting the dessert fiesta and bed. I was so sorry I hadn’t brought the camera with me for the dessert event—it was amazing! There were two long tables, the entire length of the pool, filled to the brim with every variety of artistic desserts!! It looked like one of the cooking shows the girls watch—baked glazed good in the shapes of lobsters, crabs, turtles and fish, huge ice sculptures surrounded by extravagant, lush floral arrangements, and cakes decorated with intricate garnishes of chocolates of all types and colors, and every flavor imaginable. Along the other end was a huge chocolate fountain and fruit kebabs to dip into it. The bakery staff was introduced, and came out carrying more gorgeous cakes, dressed in costumes, and added their bounty to the already full table. Everything was delicious, the highlight being the chocolate cakes and the most incredible light, rich coffee cake. Wonderful…

Alaska Day 5: Skagway, and Yoram's theatrical debut!

9/1

Another amazing day in Skagway. It started early, we docked at about 6 AM, had an early breakfast and were on shore by 9 for the one excursion we signed up for with our travel agent. There was definite blue in the sky, even early in the morning, and we were looking forward to the trip up to the White Pass. Skagway is an old gold mining town, and our first stop was to the Gold Rush Cemetery to hear the story of the legendary Frank Reid who shot and killed the outlaw and con-man Soapy Smith, but was himself mortally wounded in the shootout. The cemetery was so sad—so most of the gravestones had 1889 as the year of death—prime gold rush era, but many, many of them were markers of the graves of children 2, 4 or 8 years old. I guess I don’t understand the allure of the “get rich quick” idea which would prompt a couple to sell everything to move to this godforsaken part of the world in the hope of finding gold, only to wind up, more often than not, failing--conned out of everything or dead.

Anyway, we started the drive up to White Pass, driving along the route the old railroad took, stopping often for photo-ops. The scenery was beautiful—low clouds snaking their way in between the mountain ridges, some blue skies in the background and at the bottom lush vegetation: spruce, pine, hemlock aspens, etc. As we got higher, there were numerous waterfalls rushing down the cliffs at the sides of the road, and then we were in the sub-alpine zone, with the same growth, but all stunted and wind scarred. 

The view was amazing, all the way up and down, and the skies got clearer and clearer. The bus driver and tour guide, who is a local, of course, kept marveling at the weather—I guess it really was an exceptional; day—same thing we’ve been hearing all trip! We were back at the boat by noon, changed and went for a hike, this time up to and around a beautiful glacial lake, Lower Dewey Lake. The way up was only about a mile, but it was quite steep. Soon we got our first glimpses of the lake—emerald green with glacial silt, and perfectly reflecting the lush vegetation which surrounded it. There was a path all the way around ten lake, offering different views all around: a mountain with a glacier on top at one end, swampy grasses at the other. It was so peaceful up there, and the trail was just beautiful. At the far tip of the lake, we found the place where the rivers came in and followed them upstream a bit—icy, clear mountain water. Never see that in Southern California!

After enjoying a rest on a rock above the lake in the bright sunshine, we headed back down to enjoy a little of Skagway. The town is very touristy, for sure, but very small, and much of it has been maintained to look much as it did 100+ years ago. We shopped a little, stopped in at the Skagway Brewing Company for Yoram to try a local favorite recommended to him by the tour guide: Spruce Tip Blonde Lager. Apparently, they pick the very tips of the spruce trees in the spring and use them to make the beer! It gives it a citrus-y flavor and is quite unique. Apparently the old sea captains rationed it and gave it to their sailors to avoid scurvy because of the high Vitamin C content. It was fun mixing with the town residents, one of whom was telling is girlfriend about how a friend of his “cold-cocked” a bear who wanted to mess with his dog! We sat for a while enjoying the warmth of the sun on our faces and the beauty of the Skagway harbor before heading back to get ready for dinner.

The show for the evening was simply advertised as Barnaby—we knew nothing about  him, but our dinner companions said he was funny, so we decided to give it a shot. He was a comedian, juggler, singer—about 60 years old, skinny as a rail, long white hair standing alone on stage. He began juggling 3 balls and telling jokes, and he was really funny! Comedy doesn’t translate well, but he really was very good. At one point he brought up a boy from the audience to help him with a trick, asked him where he was from and he answered, “Irvine”! Anyway, his grand finale was tossing 5 rings into the audience. Then as he juggled 3 of them, he put a kazoo into his mouth and, without words, indicated that the audience members who had the rings should throw them up towards him and he would catch them around his neck. Yoram had the last ring, and he, again without words, directed Yoram to throw the ring to the far side of the stage and he would run across and catch it around his neck. Yoram’s throw went wild, Barnaby threw it back and I caught it, my throw went wild, so he, still with the kazoo, brought Yoram up onto the stage, gave him a kazoo, and indicated that he should “do the show”. Yoram (or should I say, Joe?) was a great sport. He gave the directions with the kazoo, Barnaby.threw the ring, and Yoram tried to catch it around his neck. It took him 3 tries, but finally got it!! He did himself proud, as one of the stars of the Showroom at Sea. After his Dover Castle experience, maybe he chose the wrong career? And Irvine was well represented on the stage that night.

After the show, we saw that there was line dancing upstairs, and we decided to give that a try. It was really fun! I’m always intimidated by those kinds of things because I don’t know the dances, but they taught us, and after a while I caught on, and we had a great time, and got a little exercise before bed.

Day 3 and 4: Ketchican and Juneau

8/31/11

Two days to catch up on! Yesterday we wanted to get an early start. Even though the trail was only listed as being about 3 miles each way, it was quite an elevation gain, and one of the brochures said that the trail wasn’t too clearly marked after the 2 mile mark, Yoram was afraid we wouldn’t be back in time for the 2:30 ship departure and they’d leave without us—which apparently they actually do if you’re not back in time! Anyway, we asked for Room Service for 6:30 in the room and there it was—right on time! The food was wonderful again, and by 7:15 when the gangplank was down we were ready to hit the town of Ketchican. Ketchican is the rain capital of Alaska; apparently it rains there all the time, so we were thrilled when we saw only some clouds and even a few patches of blue in the sky! The trailhead was about a mile out of town, so we got a flavor of the town on our walk out—definitely not the showpiece of the state. Rusty trucks, old bikes left by the side of the road, at one point a mangled seat from a car was in our path. But we reached the trailhead pretty soon and headed up Deer Mountain—3 miles and 3000 feet. The trail was quite rocky, and the ascent was pretty tough and steep through a temperate rain forest—drooping moss, overgrown trees, firs and hemlock. Soon, though, we got to the mile mark and had our first view of the harbor—magnificent! We kept on going, up and up and up, occasionally catching glimpses of the view from the trail. Somewhere between the 1^st and 2^nd mile we switchbacked to the other side and got our first views of Lower Ketchican Lake—crystal clear blue and huge below us. It’s clearly fed from the mountain streams all around it. By that time, the trail was difficult again, but the views made it really rewarding, they were so beautiful At one time we looked down and saw a completely frozen lake—at the end of August! I guess it never defrosts. The view from the top was incredible. We were above the low clouds that would roll in and out; at first the lake below and the surrounding area would be in full view, then suddenly, we’d look back and it would have completely disappeared behind the clouds and mist!

After a while it got cold (it was about 54 degrees at the bottom and we were pretty high) so we headed back down. That’s where things got difficult. It was soooo hard going down! The rocks were wet and slippery, and the steps between them were so big, the pounding on my knees was awful! Plus, our calves were already sore from having done the elliptical the day before, so that was tough. And we kept twisting our ankles on the slippery rocks. But we finally made it (took us longer to go down than up) and with tons of time to spare, to wander the lovely town of Ketchican. There actually was a really nice city park, and nearby a bridge where people were staring into the water. I smugly thought how sad it was that this was the closest they would come to the beauty of the streams we saw in the wilds of Deer Mountain, when I realized they were looking at more than just the river. The waters were black with salmon—hundreds and hundreds of them, side by side all facing upstream! They were clustered towards the outer banks of the river, where the current was a little slower—just kind of chillin’ there, but almost wall to wall thick. A few blocks later (downstream) we figured out why they were resting, as we came to the fish ladder next to a 5 foot high rushing white-water rapid. Every few seconds we’d see a flash as a fish would jump out of the river and try to jump up the rapid, more often than not, hitting its head on the rocks or the concrete side of the fish ladder. It made me so sad to watch them force with which their heads hit those obstacles!

Anyway, after doing a bit of shopping, we headed back to the ship for a very late lunch by the pool and a much needed soak in the Jacuzzi. By the end we were pretty cold and soggy, since our feet were soaked through from the wet trail. We relaxed a little at the pool, and then it was time to get ready for the complimentary cocktail party which our tour director was having for our group. It was up on the highest deck, and the view was wonderful. Drinks and appetizers were free (finally Yoram got to have some alcohol—we have been too cheap and the prices too high for us to have bought any) and I had a delicious virgin strawberry daiquiri (basically a strawberry smoothie). Then it was time for dinner, again delicious, and the evening’s show—the 4 guys from the performing cast doing doo-wop music in close harmony. It would have been great had it been just them, but they had the band accompanying the, and I guess they couldn’t hear the band because they were in tune with each other but not the band! But it was fin anyway. After the show, we did a bit of research to prepare for today and went to bed.

When we woke up this morning, we were already pretty close to the port of Juneau. Juneau is much bigger and nicer than Ketchican, and despite the forecast of rain, it was cloudy but not raining. The clouds were high enough to give us a good view of the harbor and we couldn’t get off the boat until 10, so we decided to walk around the deck so we could try to stretch out our muscles. We did the 12 laps which totaled 3 miles, and really enjoyed with view, with Yoram stopping every now and then to take photos as we closed in on the port.

In town, we decided to go for the hike that would give us the view from the top of the Mendenhall Glacier, the town’s main tourist attraction, and a thing of magnificence! So we boarded the Juneau city bus, packed in like sardines, and began the long route to the trailhead, stopping every few blocks along the way. Most people got out at the stop for the Visitors Center, but we stayed on a few more to the place where we could walk a mile and a quarter down the road and get to the trailhead for the West Glacier Trail. Right from the viewpoint at the trail head, you could see the grey water of the lake and floating in it, huge, blue icebergs which have detached from the glacier at the very back of our view. 

We started up the trail, which was also very wet, but a lot less steep and much less rocky. After crossing some rushing streams and climbing part way up we got our first view of the glacier. 

I don’t know how to describe it with words—a vast field of ice, varying in color from dirty gray to white to the most vibrant, shocking blue imaginable. It was just breathtaking! We continued up and up, each time, getting a different view of the glacier, until we could see a second glacier in the background. 

It’s obvious how much the glaciers have receded: the bottom one only flows into the lake at a small area; the rest almost looks like it has been dammed off, because of the stones and silt the glacier left behind as it receded. Also you could tell that the top glacier had been connected to the bottom one at some time, but now there was a huge rocky area between them. We finally reached the top,  a little over 3 miles, with views of the mountains to the left of us, the glaciers straight ahead and the lake and harbor to the right—so worth the hike up! 

We sat up there a while, had some fruit and relaxed before heading back down. This time the trail back down was much easier, and we took a side spur which led us right to the shore of the lake—freezing! There we met a couple with their 2 dogs, locals, who, after a short conversation, offered to drive us to the Visitor’s Center—which was huge because that saved us the mile plus walk back to the city buts the ride, and then another 1 ½ mile walk to the Visitors Center! Once we got there, we decided that since they had saved us 2 ½ miles of walking, we could do the East Glacier Trail, which led us up over the opposite side of the glacier. It was a nice enough trail, but the views from the other side were better, and we were getting pretty tired, after the morning walk and the 7 mile earlier hike. 

By the time we finished the loop, it was pretty chilly and starting to rain, so we made a quick stop in the Visitors Center, had a look at the salmon viewing platform (there weren’t nearly as many here, but they were red and HUGE!) and splurged on the Express Bus back to the ship.

It has been a quiet evening—hot showers (it was really cold by the time we got back, and again, our feet were soaked through), and now catching up on some stuff and getting ready for tomorrow. I can’t wait, though to see the photos from today—it’ll be incredible if they capture even a small portion of the beauty and grandeur that we witnessed up on that mountain.