Days 7 and 8

After Ketchikan it was time to start wending our way homeward.  Most of day 7 was at sea, sailing down around the outside coast of Vancouver Island and then into the Straight of Juan de Fuca (which the announcements persisted in mispronouncing).  It was a good day for sleeping in, working on the blog (until we used up our pre-purchased internet minutes), reading, and packing back up.  Mike thought he had done a very efficient job of packing until he found an additional closet of clothes he had missed. Tami spent a cold hour up on deck looking fruitlessly for more whales.

Walking into Victoria

We caught an early dinner so we would be ready to get off in Victoria.  Apparently every cruise needs to stop in at least one foreign port (we think it has something to do with maintaining their non-US registration).  Therefore they make a point of stopping in Victoria even if it is just for an evening.  We were able to disembark about 7:30 pm and had to be back on by 11:30 pm.

Not to be dissuaded by a short time span and closed shops, we walked into downtown Victoria and found a pub.

Mike testing the maple bacon amber

The pub had wifi, so we were able to get some more blog work done over a couple pints.  Mike particularly liked the maple-bacon amber.  You can’t get more Canadian than maple flavored beer, eh? Tami thoroughly enjoyed her double chocolate porter. A Mariners game was playing on the pub TV but they unfortunately lost. The walk back to the ship was a pleasant walk after dark in Victoria.

Evening in Victoria

The next morning we woke up back in Seattle, just a few miles from home.  First we had to wait to get off the ship, however. At least our assigned waiting place was in the theater so we had cushy seats to wait in. Many people were assigned to places with little or no seating. Finally the time came for our group (Gold 7) to go.  A short bus ride and we were home.

Pre-game warm-ups… Oba!

Of course we still had to do the Seattle tourist activity like in the rest of the ports we had visited, so we headed downtown to see a Sounders game.  And what a game – the Sounders kicked Salt Lake butt 4-0, their first defeat of the season!!

Just about ready for kick-off

Here come the refs! And 40 years of the Sounders

Just about ready for kick-off

Day 6
This was our long awaited art stop. Unfortunately we were only scheduled to be here until just before noon, which meant we had no time to waste. Fortunately the local shops are also not about to waste any time when a cruise ship is in port, so most everything is open by the time the first tourists de-plank.

Ketchikan

We had spotted in advance a number of galleries, and noted their addresses, including one owned by Marvin Oliver and his wife Brigette. Martin Oliver is a particularly talented NW native artist we have admired for many years. If I remember correctly, he also teaches at the UW.
We made a beeline for the Oliver shop (Alaska Eagle Arts). It was next to a Ray Troll gallery (an artist we have enjoyed for many years and have several t-shirts by – if you don’t know who Ray Troll is, you should certainly google him). Martin’s wife was managing their shop and we talked to her for a while. It turns out that while they run the shop in Ketchikan during the summer, their regular home is in Seattle and they have their print making shop in Ballard, a matter of blocks from our office! We got on their email list so we can get notices of when they have events in Ballard.

Dock Street, where the best shops were, including Marvin Oliver and Ray Troll

While in the gallery, we saw a long coat made out of a Pendleton blanket. The blanket was designed by Marvin and we have one of them hanging up in our office. They have someone who takes those blankets and makes coats out of them. The one in the shop was Tami’s size, but longer than she would wear with any regularity. However, Brigette said they can have them done to your measurements, to any length you would like.

A totem in Ketchikan

While we walked around town after that Mike worked on Tami to consider getting one made for her. She gradually came around to the idea (they are not inexpensive) so after seeing the rest of the downtown area we went back and ordered one in a more Tami appropriate length. We had the measurements taken on site so they could start work on it right away. Tami was really thrown when Brigette’s first question was, “What’s your dress size?” We recovered as quickly as possible and came up with a suitable answer after admitting that Tami owned no dresses. We can’t wait for it to arrive!

Ketchikan from the water

We also found a woodcut print of a salmon cannery. We are going to have a lot of framing to do when we get back. Thank Thor for Aaron Brothers. Tami was also delighted to discover that one of the city buses was completely covered by Ray Troll designs. She needed to get a picture, but the buses only run every twenty minutes and were not all Troll buses. Tami had resigned herself to disappointment as we trudged back to the dock, but just then Mike exclaimed, “LOOK!”. Tami was actually afraid she was about to be run over by something large but then looked up to see a Troll bus headed to the bus stop in front of her!!! So we have a picture!!!

Ray Troll bus

We also found a shop that had outdoor equipment and clothing where the locals shop. There was a bin of very large rubber bands, four for $1. I’m still curious what those are for. We also found a Seahawks hard hat. Now, if that had been Sounders…

Rubber bands…???

Getting back to the ship was a bit more involved than expected. When we got back, only 15 minutes before last call, there was a VERY long line stretching back to the next ship and then doubling back towards ours.

If only it was Sounders

Apparently there had been a problem with one of the fork lifts that maneuver the gang planks into place (they have to be repositioned as the tide goes in or out) and we all had to wait for things to get straightened out. We figured there was no point in actually waiting in line. We grabbed a couple drinks (hey, it was morning, just a chai and a diet soda) and found a place to sit and watch the line instead.

Eating chocolate, waiting to board

Tami kept herself entertained by taking pictures of people in the funny hats they were wearing and making up captions in her mind. Perhaps that’s another blog someday. Once the line finally wound down, we jumped on the end and boarded.
This afternoon we couldn’t decide whether to go to the vodka tasting or the wine tasting, so we did both. And both were good! Tonight is another formal night, so Mike will once again attempt to shoe horn himself into his black pants. Probably even tighter by now.

Fries!!

Day 5
This was a day at sea, but not just any day at sea – we toured Glacier Bay National Park, which is basically only accessible by boat. It was a day of scenery and wildlife. We went to bed the night before with visions of beautiful scenery since we watched the movie on the deck, Saving Mr Banks, accompanied by gorgeous mountains slipping by the deck in the gathering dusk. A bit chilly, but that’s what blankets are for.

A last view of Skagway

Saving Mr Banks in a beautiful theater

We entered the park before we were even out of bed (and we didn’t sleep in THAT late). For several hours we sailed up the fjord just watching the scenery go by. Finally we got to Margerie Glacier and sat just off of it for an hour or so watching her give birth to icebergs large and small (calve is the technical term).

Calving glacier

Everyone waits breathlessly, and then when one goes, there is an audible “aaawwww”. We all swing our cameras around, hoping to get an action shot.

Margerie Glacier emerging into the bay

There is also the constant gunshot sound of the ice cracking. Sometimes it presages a calving, but most often it signals that somewhere in that mass of ice it is preparing to calve. It can be quite loud and each one makes everyone hold their breath, waiting to see a chunk of ice plummet to the water.

Glacier debris

The water below the glacier and all around the ship is surrounded by many chunks of ice, mostly small but some larger, which are the result of previous calving. We also went and watched a second glacier for a while, but that one was not calving for us.

Mike checking the map to make sure we’re in the right place- the glacier in the background

We were amazingly fortunate to have sunny skies and calm winds for Glacier Bay. One of the crew told us that the previous three sailings, which is the season so far, had entailed heavy rains and cold winds in Glacier Bay. We had sunshine and while it was cold from the wind as we approached the bay, as we sat and watched the glacier it was downright balmy in the sunshine. The crew member had a huge grin and was also clearly enjoying the weather.

Face of the glacier

We also had several Park Rangers come on board as we entered the park and they provided a very good commentary. As a point of interest, some of the glaciers are receding but others are also advancing. As we sailed up the fjords there were many other glaciers visible as rivers of ice encroaching on the bay. Two hundred years ago, when John Muir visited the bay, the glaciers extended much farther into the bay. We were not paying enough attention to the commentary to figure out if the balance was recession or advancement.

Cruising in Glacier Bay

One thing we did learn, though, is that a major part of the equation is the interface with the sea, rather than the overall air temperature. It is mostly the water seeping up from below into the ice that causes the calving. So both water temperature and level could influence this. A complicated equation.

Later in the day, after Mike overdid it on reindeer chili, was wildlife viewing time. Tami had a wonderful time spotting this and that. We spotted lots and lots of sea lions (of course we could do that at the Ballard Locks), several humpback whales, a couple of sea otters, some galavanting porpoises, and one grizzly bear. Understand that most of these were not up close, sometimes several miles away, but we SAW them (sort of).

A chunk of glacier

For a while we were sitting next to a group of hunters (wearing camouflage) who were particularly adept at spotting the wildlife with their very high powered binoculars. By eavesdropping on them, we were able to spot a good deal more than we would have on our own. And while they were sometimes far away, the overall impression was one of amazing abundance.

That’s a whale spout on the right

At one point Tami was trying to find a supposed grizzly that one of the hunters claimed to see on the beach, but she was constantly distracted by groups of sea lions and porpoises in the foreground.
The sea lions were especially interesting because they would frequently swim by in groups of three or four and plunge through the water perfectly synchronized. We also saw several chomping happily away on fish they had just caught, ignoring the seagulls’ constant attempts to grab the fish away. The porpoises were beautiful as they leapt out of the water repeatedly. The humpbacks were mostly moving along close to the shore, but we could follow their progress by tracking their spouts, and occasionally see their tails rise out of the water. Many of us were lining the decks spotting all kinds of wildlife. Just after we spotted our first whale spouts and had been watching sea lions for quite a while, our favorite naturalist came on to announce that some sea lions had just been spotted on the starboard side (our side) of the ship. Our railmates were all better at spotting wildlife than he was.

Deckside wildlife

We spent hours on deck so we were quite exhausted by dinner time. We only had enough energy to hit the buffet line and then stumble to the comedian show, which was actually quite good. It was a fellow from Seattle but his line of jokes about cruising were spot on. After returning to our room we wallowed in a little more delicious Skagway chocolate before turning out the lights. On to Ketchikan!

A beautiful end to the day

Day 3
Today we hit Juneau. At population 32,000, this is the third largest city in Alaska. Actually, a bridge that we are fairly sure was not here last time (1982) connects Juneau with the community of Douglas just the other side of the fjord.

Juneau in the sunshine

Town also extends much farther south than it did when we were here so many years ago. Our memory is that the Red Dog Saloon, which we visited back then, was at about the southern edge of town. Now it is at the north end of the super tourist shops and has its own souvenir shop. We did not go there. The south end of town is not much fun, but we enjoyed the rest of town.

Community art

The weather has been absolutely unexpected and fabulous. We awoke and emerged from our dark cave this morning and made our way to the upper deck only to discover clear blue skies and warm temperatures. In Alaska! It made the sailing through the Inside Passage to Juneau even more beautiful. We unfortunately slept too late to catch the whale sightings reportedly espied as we entered the passage, but Tami did claim to see another spout. A small one with no visible mammal to follow, but it was a spout.

View that includes a glacier peaking through

We were soon docking in Juneau, the first of four ships to hit town today. We headed immediately to the north end of town where we knew some of the more authentic galleries were supposed to be located and were rewarded with some nice local arts.

Go Sounders!

We both found some native design sunglasses in Sounder’s green – score! Mike did wear down under the weight of all the shopping bags (actually they were mostly full of the layers we kept stripping off as the day got warmer).

The packhorse

As the last of the four ships disgorged their hordes, we felt the sidewalks become overly crowded so we headed for the Mt Roberts Tram. It is a quick trip up the mountain where you have a great view of the town and surrounding mountains and water. There are several trails and we thought about taking the trail back down the mountain to town until we saw the warning signs about steep trail, unmarked in places, muddy at times, etc. We could just imagine ourselves lost on the hillside in Juneau as the ship pulled away.

From Mt Roberts

After such strenuous activities, the only solution was to find an appropriate bar so we found the Hanger Bar that overlooked the floatplane dock and waterfront and enjoyed some local brewskies with appropriate deep fried treats.

Goodbye to Juneau

Back to the ship in time for yet another delicious dinner, including king crag legs, Granny Smith apple and cider soup with yogurt and calvados, chilled. We are just pulling away from the dock at 10:25 pm. Tomorrow is Skagway!

We wondered how we would do in the smallest of rooms with no windows. So far my main reaction is that it allows us to sleep in better. The room is certainly cozy, but we don’t spend much time there. We are becoming adept at finding uncrowded spots on the ship to camp out, read, blog, etc. Our favorite seems to be the farther reaches of the buffet restaurant on the Lido deck. Most of the time there are at least some sections that are not being used, and so are almost deserted. That gives us a quiet table with floor to ceiling windows.

Our little cabin

Tami would like it if we could peek out the window when we wake up to check on the weather, but it’s not too hard to jog down the hall to find a public window to peer out of.
Down here in the bowels of the ship it is also quite stable. If we were on a higher deck we would feel more motion when the ship gets to rocking. It has also been extremely quiet. There is not much action in that part of the ship! Our cabin is at the end of the hall next to the self-serve laundromat, so we are waiting to see if it becomes noisier as people become stinkier with time, but sofar, sogood! (That’s for you, Keenan).

Day 2
Tami found a jigsaw puzzle up on the activity deck, so we’re stuck here for a while. Just have to watch out for the occasional misdirected ping pong ball. Mike found one puzzle piece, so he’s happy with himself.
This is a day at sea, so we’ll be looking for shipboard activities. Not too much on offer this morning (mostly sales pitches gussied up as lectures), but this afternoon there is an actual natural history lecture and a wine tasting (with appetizers). That should get us through till dinner.
We are experimenting with our new technology for this trip’s blog. The iPad is our computer, but we found a keyboard to use with it that makes typing much easier. It works quite well, but we notice that the apostrophe, the “a” key and the “o” key are particularly prone to not typing. So while we try to catch those, we cnt alwys!

Mike at work on the blog

Mike also found a great gadget to transfer pictures directly from the camera’s SD card to the iPad- slick!
So now we sit on the uppermost deck by a huge picture window, watching the sea as we steam towards our first stop tomorrow, Juneau. We passed along the west shore of Haida Gwaii earlier this evening. We spotted splashes by some sort of sea creature. No idea what that was, so we like to imagine it was something exciting. We are hopeful that we will see some whales on this trip- ’tis the season.
The natural history lecture was, well, kind of weird. It seemed to be more of a motivational speech about taking on seemingly impossible feats. The speaker is a self-proclaimed naturalist who lives on a small remote island somewhere in Alaska. He moved there years ago knowing nothing about wilderness living and somehow managed to survive. That seems to be his qualification as a naturalist. Not a lot of talk about the flora and fauna, so we will view future lectures with skepticism.
The wine tasting was thoroughly enjoyable with a nice selection of 6 wines and very tasty appetizers to accompany them. Our table mates at the tasting were also very enjoyable. Sharon and Shannon are both from Minnesota and we gathered that they don’t drink much wine. They were having one heck of a good time, though, even if they really didn’t seem to like many of the wines. Hard to stop oneself from reaching over and grabbing the glass before the waiter takes away that sample of $100/bottle wine that they don’t like because it’s too dry. But we exercised restraint and expressed joy along with them over the delectable chocolate truffles that were served.
Tonight was Formal Night. No, Tami did not wear a dress, but she did change out of her Sounders shirt for the event. As Mike was dressing, a loud and heartfelt “UH OH” was heard in the cabin. Turns out that Mike hasn’t worn his suit in a very long time and had forgotten that he always wore a different pair of slacks with the suit and that the suit slacks were too small, by a good margin (not even close to buttoning). Good thing he had a belt he could hold them up with, and by keeping his jacket buttoned no one was the wiser or embarrassed or shocked by a more serious wardrobe malfunction.
Dinner was delicious again, including smoked duck breast and asparagus soup with salmon dumplings. Tonight we passed on dessert to the shock of the waiter (it seems that not many pass on dessert). We are now enjoying the calm seas and grey skies, hoping that the clouds lift a little higher by tomorrow.