Here's a little overview of our Alaska cruise:
Our first stop was at Ketchikan. This town was built around salmon, literally! Salmon Creek runs through the old part of town and all the buildings were built out over the creek where the salmon were running. Even the brothels! (Although today they're just museums to the prostitution industry. We didn't pay to go inside... if I'm spending money at a brothel, I'm usually not looking for a tour of the place.)
Ketchikan has the largest collection of totem poles in the world, and so of course, we had to go gawk at them. There were all sorts of cool designs and figures, but this one caught my eye. What in the world is up with that square? Was there something there that was removed to protect our puritanical sensibilities? Maybe they moved it to the brothel museum.
Our next stop was in Juneau, where we went on a shore excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching tour. When we got to the glacier, the driver told us we could go directly to the visitors' center or take a little side path that takes you to see the glacier before heading into the visitors' center. We opted for the hike and not 50 feet from the trail head, spotted a bear cub in a tree, then a mother bear and two cubs in another tree! They were there to gorge on all the sockeye salmon that were spawning in the creek. Evidently there had been a big male that had come through recently, which is why they were up in the trees. We didn't think it was anything dangerous at all being so close to them... probably because I knew that if there had been bear trouble, we could have outrun most of the other people on our tour.
Here's Mendenhall Glacier. Photos don't give this justice. It was a sight to behold. And the blue of a glacier is indescribable. I'm just glad we got to see it before global warming adds it to the ocean depths. There were markers showing how much it has receded in the past 50 years. This picture was taken from the spot where the glacier's edge reached back in 1952!
The highlight of the cruise for me was cruising up the Tracy Arm fjord to the Seward Glacier. The mountains were so wild and rugged and tall and all the ice floating in the water was totally impressive. The whole time we were cruising up the fjord, I could help but think of Greig's "Hall of the Mountain King" because I could totally imagine that this is the place where trolls and giants lived. That or the Mines of Moria were in one of the mountains.
At the end of the fjord, two glaciers drop into the water. Seward Glacier and South Seward Glacier. It was amazing to see the giant jumble of blue ice tumbling into the water. It was also nerve-wracking at this point, when the ship spun 180ยบ to leave the fjord. I'm sure the helmsman was biting his nails at that one.
Our next stop was Skagway. Here you can see our cruise ship "Norwegian Star" docked and in the background see yet ANOTHER glacier high up on the mountain. This town was totally wild west, although since the population increases ten-fold when the FOUR cruise ships come in several times a week, (seriously, the population is less than 900 people and there are over 3000 people on each ship!) Of course, with all those tourists, a ridiculous amount of stores were selling jewelry... and not cool Alaskan-designed jewelry but the exact same jewelry we saw in the cruise ports at the Bahamas and Florida.
We went on a tour of White Pass, where people hoping to strike it rich in the Klondike traipsed up from Skagway. Of course, what took them weeks of arduous climbing, risking their lives and sanity, we traveled in about an hour. This picture is the view down the valley from White Pass.
At the top of White Pass, which is in British Columbia, it gets so cold in the winter that the trees are all completely stunted. Here's a picture of me as a giant in the dwarf forest. Hey, I WAS the Mountain King!
Moe's Tavern is the oldest continuously operated bar in all of Alaska! It was so smoky inside that I didn't go in an see if it was Moe Sizlack bartending.
On the way back out of Skagway, the sun set behind the rugged mountains enclosing the fjord and I was able to get this picture. It can't capture the size and scope of the vista, so you'll just have to visit it yourself if you want to see it in all its glory. (And I'd recommend sooner rather than later, because those glaciers are getting any bigger!)
Our first stop was at Ketchikan. This town was built around salmon, literally! Salmon Creek runs through the old part of town and all the buildings were built out over the creek where the salmon were running. Even the brothels! (Although today they're just museums to the prostitution industry. We didn't pay to go inside... if I'm spending money at a brothel, I'm usually not looking for a tour of the place.)
Ketchikan has the largest collection of totem poles in the world, and so of course, we had to go gawk at them. There were all sorts of cool designs and figures, but this one caught my eye. What in the world is up with that square? Was there something there that was removed to protect our puritanical sensibilities? Maybe they moved it to the brothel museum.
Our next stop was in Juneau, where we went on a shore excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching tour. When we got to the glacier, the driver told us we could go directly to the visitors' center or take a little side path that takes you to see the glacier before heading into the visitors' center. We opted for the hike and not 50 feet from the trail head, spotted a bear cub in a tree, then a mother bear and two cubs in another tree! They were there to gorge on all the sockeye salmon that were spawning in the creek. Evidently there had been a big male that had come through recently, which is why they were up in the trees. We didn't think it was anything dangerous at all being so close to them... probably because I knew that if there had been bear trouble, we could have outrun most of the other people on our tour.
Here's Mendenhall Glacier. Photos don't give this justice. It was a sight to behold. And the blue of a glacier is indescribable. I'm just glad we got to see it before global warming adds it to the ocean depths. There were markers showing how much it has receded in the past 50 years. This picture was taken from the spot where the glacier's edge reached back in 1952!
The highlight of the cruise for me was cruising up the Tracy Arm fjord to the Seward Glacier. The mountains were so wild and rugged and tall and all the ice floating in the water was totally impressive. The whole time we were cruising up the fjord, I could help but think of Greig's "Hall of the Mountain King" because I could totally imagine that this is the place where trolls and giants lived. That or the Mines of Moria were in one of the mountains.
At the end of the fjord, two glaciers drop into the water. Seward Glacier and South Seward Glacier. It was amazing to see the giant jumble of blue ice tumbling into the water. It was also nerve-wracking at this point, when the ship spun 180ยบ to leave the fjord. I'm sure the helmsman was biting his nails at that one.
Our next stop was Skagway. Here you can see our cruise ship "Norwegian Star" docked and in the background see yet ANOTHER glacier high up on the mountain. This town was totally wild west, although since the population increases ten-fold when the FOUR cruise ships come in several times a week, (seriously, the population is less than 900 people and there are over 3000 people on each ship!) Of course, with all those tourists, a ridiculous amount of stores were selling jewelry... and not cool Alaskan-designed jewelry but the exact same jewelry we saw in the cruise ports at the Bahamas and Florida.
We went on a tour of White Pass, where people hoping to strike it rich in the Klondike traipsed up from Skagway. Of course, what took them weeks of arduous climbing, risking their lives and sanity, we traveled in about an hour. This picture is the view down the valley from White Pass.
At the top of White Pass, which is in British Columbia, it gets so cold in the winter that the trees are all completely stunted. Here's a picture of me as a giant in the dwarf forest. Hey, I WAS the Mountain King!
Moe's Tavern is the oldest continuously operated bar in all of Alaska! It was so smoky inside that I didn't go in an see if it was Moe Sizlack bartending.
On the way back out of Skagway, the sun set behind the rugged mountains enclosing the fjord and I was able to get this picture. It can't capture the size and scope of the vista, so you'll just have to visit it yourself if you want to see it in all its glory. (And I'd recommend sooner rather than later, because those glaciers are getting any bigger!)
1 comment:
where are the pictures from the "friends of dorothy" cocktail hour?
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