I finally talked Chuck into taking a cruise since I
wanted to see Alaska and that is one of the best ways to do that. So we started our trip by flying to
Vancouver, BC. We got there a day early
so we could see the city. It was every
bit as beautiful as we’d heard. Since we
only had one day, we did a “hop-on hop-off” trolley. It toured the city as well as Stanley Park
which is a gorgeous urban park on a peninsula.
We also made a stop at Granville Island to see the shops there.
The next day we boarded the Holland America Zaandam and
sailed out to sea that afternoon. We
quickly fell in love with cruising; what’s not to like? So many food choices from breakfast delivered
to your stateroom, buffets at almost any hour, or fine dining with an excellent
menu. During the day there was an
assortment of activities, from computer classes to cooking classes, an
excellent library and gym, and outstanding scenery at every turn. The evenings had great entertainment in the
showroom which we followed up with relaxing to live music of several varieties
in the various lounges, and we even did a little dancing.
Did I mention that we were headed to Alaska? Our first port was Ketchikan. There we went to one of the Saxman Totem Pole
Park, the largest one in the area. The
rest of the day we spent browsing in the many shops and making a few purchases
too. We found that the shops had lots of
reasonably priced stuff, so I was happy about that. As we sailed out of Ketchikan that evening we
passed through a strait that had lots of whales. Mostly we saw fins and blowing, but it was
fun to watch for them.
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| Vancouver's cruise port (Canada Place) |
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| Saxman Totem Park |
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| Creek Street, Ketchikan |
As we slept, the ship took us to the port of Juneau, the
state capital. It is the third biggest
city in the state (about 32,000), but is only accessible by plane or boat. The surroundings are steep mountains, the
Tongass National Forest and the Juneau Icefield. We took a city tour that also went to the
Mendenhall Glacier. This glacier is in
retreat (as are about 95% of Alaska’s glaciers), forming Mendenhall Lake at its
base, which didn’t exist 100 years ago, at the base of the glacier. Although the glacier has lost about two miles
of length, it is still 12 miles long.
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| Floatplanes abound in Juneau |
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| and glacier ice |
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| so do shops |
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| Mendenhall Glacier |
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| Juneau |
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| leaving Juneau |
Our third port was Skagway. The town has only about 900 permanent
residents, but an interesting history.
It was the beginning point for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896-98. We rode on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad,
which was built along the route the gold seekers traveled but not completed
until 1900, after the short-lived rush ended.
It is a beautiful three hour round trip to the summit and passes briefly
across the Canadian border. At the top
we were in snowy surroundings with the bluest ponds of melted snow.
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| Climbing the mountains |
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| the Canadian border |
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| At the top of the pass |
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| coming down from the pass |
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| the other train along the cliffs |
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| crossing one of the bridges |
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| town of Skagway |
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| railroad station |
The day after Skagway we sailed into Glacier Bay National
Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Two
USFS Park Rangers boarded the ship to narrate the day’s travels. Not all cruise ships get permits to enter the
park, that was an advantage of sailing with Holland America since it is one of
the cruise lines that has been sailing Alaska for many years. There are fifteen tidewater glaciers in the
park, which is only accessible by ship or plane. The most exciting part of the visit was
stopping by the Margerie Glacier for about an hour. This glacier is about a mile wide and 21
miles long, and is one of the few glaciers that is not in retreat. The ship’s captain had told us that if we
watched it, we would probably see some calving (when chucks of ice break
off). Well we hit a spectacular day of
calving; the best the crew and rangers said they’d ever seen. We saw and heard (they make a loud crash)
many large chunks break off, one that was enormous. They bay is full of ice chunks, but they are
not big enough to be considered icebergs that could endanger ships.
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| entering Glacier Bay National Park |
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| approaching Margerie Glacier |
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| splash from calving |
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| calving ice |
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| inside the bay |
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| passengers obsering from the bow |
From Glacier Bay National Park we headed out of the
inside passage and across the Pacific for a day at sea. We ended the day with dining on filet minion and
lobster, a “Dancing With the Stars” competition of passengers that had taken
the offered dance classes, and some music and dancing in the Crow’s Nest. We arrived in Seward the next morning where
we disembarked from the cruise ship to finish week one of our Alaska trip. Next
week I’ll write about our land travels into the mainland.
