Alaska

A Bucket List Item

I’ve long been interested in visiting Alaska. Like Hawaii, it seems like a foreign country just because it’s so far away and hard to reach. So here we are, on a cruise, and the place looks a lot like Norway, its forests are immense and healthy from what I can tell.  Its mountain tops are snow capped. And it’s bloody cold! At the end of May no less! Because I refused to buy the ship’s wifi (I have cellular service on land if not out at sea), I decided to report on our trip not through my usual daily Facebook post, but on a Substack essay, the link of which you, my readers will get through an email, for which I will also post a link on Facebook. As an added bonus, my substack essay will also not disappear down some rabbit hole like random Facebook posts do until, years later, they magically appear again as “10 years ago you did xyz. Share now.”  I think I’m beginning to dislike Facebook. Anyway. Writing it here is as much for me to remember my trip as it is for you, family, friends, readers to share what I saw in Alaska and, perhaps, how I felt about it. This post is long. It’s a 7-day cruise and I include lots of pictures, some taken by David (no credit given).

P S I’ve just been told the post is too long to email and it will be truncated. But you can always click the “read in app” link at the top of the email, or, perhaps at the end there will be a link that allows you to download the rest of it.

Saturday, May 27th, 2023

We leave Estacada about 10:30 am to drive to Seattle to board the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Bliss at 3 pm. Just before we leave, Suzy texts me that she and Monica have landed at Denver and will take the connecting flight to Seattle in 40 minutes. We are ready! Both David and I had our sixth Covid shot on Thursday (in preparation for the Petri dish of viruses that is a cruise ship), and I had my regular eye treatment yesterday.  While driving to Oregon City for that, our car decided to act up. Luckily, there was a VW dealer 2 miles away, and we left it there for the mechanics to figure out what’s wrong and to fix it. Julia came to pick us up and drop us home. And luckily, we have the VW camper van to drive to Seattle. But that is about two inches too high for the cruise line’s parking garage, so David has to make phone calls to arrange different parking with the same company as we’ve already paid for the spot.  Traffic was not light and I get a bit nervous about missing the cruise—we should have left at 9 am—but we get lucky, find the parking lot, are met by a lady checking our cruise details who phones her boss to tell him to pick us up and take us to the pier. There isn’t a taxi in sight, and we’re grateful for her experience with clueless people like us. We reach the pier with half an hour to spare only to have Suzy frantically text and finally call us. She doesn’t have her passport. She can’t go. She can’t board the ship. She is at Seattle airport to say they won’t even let her get on the bus transfer to the ship. Her passport, like mine, is expired. She thought she could enter Canada—there is a stop in Victoria, BC, on the itinerary—with her drivers license, the way we used to do it to cross the border via car. Canada must have changed its border requirements in the recent past. Or perhaps it’s US immigration. After all, we can’t have all those caravans of illegal Canadians streaming over the border

It was only when I checked in on the NCL app, that I discovered my passport had expired. The other option was to bring the naturalization certificate. But I also have a REAL ID from Oregon, my drivers license that is supposed to let me fly to Canada and Mexico. I brought both. It turns out that my REAL ID will not let me enter Canada. Apparently because Oregon does not border Canada like Minnesota did. I had a REAL ID in Minnesota too. It was quite a procedure to get one, but it turns out that if you have a passport, you can really save yourself both the hassle and the money to get a REAL ID. This was the very first time that I used my naturalization document. I have had it since 1986 when Reagan was president, and the picture doesn’t even look like me. It got me on the ship though, for which I’m grateful.

Suzy was out of luck. After some considerable back and forth and communication with her travel agent, she was able to get said agent to go to her house to retrieve her naturalization document and FedEx it to the Seattle hotel she had booked in the meantime. Only since Monday was a holiday, she would not have it until Wednesday morning. On Wednesday she and Monica will fly to Juneau, then take a water plane to Icy Point where she will finally join us on the Bliss.

Without Suzy and Monica on board, David and I tend to hang out in our state room. We check our dinner options and choose the Garden Café for our first dinner on board. The buffet has many choices, from pasta, to pizza, to hamburgers, to roast meats. Later, I even discover “A Taste of India” and decide that would be tomorrow’s dinner. Tonight we have the prime rib, and I think of Sofi.

Leaving Seattle.

And we found the card room, but we haven’t been able to find any bridge players.

The beds are comfortable, the TV has BBC news, Fox, and MSNBC (although I can find neither Alex Wagner nor Lawrence O’Donnell), and I haven’t clicked on Fox. BBC has more world than American news, but that’s fine with me too.

Sunday, May 28th, 2023

We spend all day at sea. We’re on our way to Sitka, where we will dock at 11 am tomorrow.

The ship is huge. This view is towards the bow from our veranda, and we are midship.

For dinner I tried the “Taste of India,” but was not impressed. David had roasted pork from the roasted meats section and that was quite good. Not as good as the suckling pig Chris roasted for us just before Mother’s Day though!

Afterwards we hung out at the Sugarcane Mojito Bar where I had to ask my server to add soda to dilute the sweetness of my drink.

Monday, May 29th, 2023

Islands in the water come into view after breakfast when we walk around the observation deck on level 15.   

We dock at Sitka at 11am.

At 1:30 pm we have our first shore excursion: The Best of Sitka. We visit the Bear Fortress, the Raptor Rehabilitation Center, and the National Historic Park.

The Bear Fortress is a sanctuary for orphaned bear cubs. At first I was shocked to see what looked like captive bears in very small area enclosed by high rusted metal walls. Then I read the sign posts with the history of the “fortress.”

According to our guide, after bears awake from their winter hibernation, during which they subsist from heavy food consumed prior, they need to “clean out” their system, and they do this by eating lots of skunk cabbage.

I did not stoop to smell it, but the skunk smell, we’re told, is unmistakeable. And it works. For the bear at least.

At the Raptor Rehabilitation Center, injured raptors (mainly bald eagles) are treated and released back into the wild.

Those who have lost the ability to fly are kept at the center and taken care of for the rest of their lives. These two are not caged, but they cannot fly and are given an area inside where they spend nights.

At the National Historic Park, we see totem poles. Here’s one hiding in the woods:

The ones in the woods and outside are all replicas. The original ones are in the hall. Some of them are being restored.

There is also a canoe in this museum with information on its construction. It is a recent build, a way of teaching canoe making to the young. This canoe is carved from one tree. The paddles and the seats are made from what is excavated from the tree. It is then filled with hot lava rocks which makes the wood expand by up to 6 inches. This also causes cracks to form in the wood.

“Butterflies” are then carved and inserted to fix/heal the cracks.

There are trails and creeks and green stars and Devil’s Club, a plant that David does not want to get too close to as it will sting. I tried to put him next to it to show its size.   

 We came “home” to have dinner at The Manhattan, the best restaurant we’ve been to so far. I had the roasted chicken (Roasted New York strip was their recommendation, but I couldn’t eat beef twice a day, having had it for lunch), and although it was very good, I could eat less than half of it. In conversation with the server (why am I getting half a chicken when one chicken I roast at home makes three dinners for David and me?), he told me to have the recommendation next time. I had Tiramisu for desert and thought of Fern.

And Chris. It was good. Chris’ tiramisu may be better.

Tuesday, May 30th 2023

We docked at Juneau at 7 am this morning. Our excursion today was a whale watching tour and salmon bake that had us assembling at 7:30 am. We decided to have room service for breakfast as our state room is midship, and it takes a good while to go to any food area. David called the night before for a 6:30 am room service breakfast. He asked for coffee, two boiled eggs, orange juice, and croissants. The knock came at the appointed time. There was a pot of coffee with two cups, two Saran Wrap covered glasses of orange juice, one plate with two little croissants, a large bowl full of coffee creamer, a tray with sugar and sweetener packages, a container with salt and pepper packages, and a small jar of ketchup that looked just like strawberry jam. No butter. No eggs. David said, this is the strangest tasting strawberry jam I’ve ever had.”  It was too late to complain or rectify the situation, so David had a croissant with ketchup and I ate my croissant dry.

We found the assembly area (the theater) and were bused to the whale watching boat by the very funny Derek, who pointed out ChickenMcNugget junction named after the first and only McDonald’s in Juneau.

The whale watching boat, thank Heavens, was enclosed. I had no idea how cold it was going to be on the water. The life jacket location, and the fact there there were at least two for every one of us, carried no interest for me as I was convinced I would not survive if our boat sprung a leak. Not in that water. We saw lots and lots of whales, but they were all much farther away than whales we had seen from shore at Depot Bay at the Oregon coast.

David took lots of pictures of water where whales used to be. And one or two where the whale is still on the surface. And what is a whale’s favorite snack? Why, it’s krill cheese sandwiches! Our guides tried hard to make us all laugh.

The captain also took us to a buoy where sea lions fight for squatting rights.

And he got on!

This was the farthest point out on this whale watching boat ride.

The salmon bake was an outdoor buffet style lunch at Gold Creek, a picturesque scene.

The salmon was barbecued and drenched in a sweet sauce. Not my favorite. A little walk to see the creek better yielded this:

The sign said “salmon is spawning here. Do not disturb.”

A little further up the path, people panned for gold.

We got back to the Bliss just in time for its 1:30 departure to Icy Point where we’ll dock at 7 am tomorrow morning and hopefully, fingers crossed, will finally meet up with Suzy and Monica.

Back on board, I thought I should have “my picture took” by David, not the professional photographer. That chandelier was a sight to behold!

It seems we are taking a detour up a fjord. Looks a lot like Norway! There are lots of small icebergs floating next to our ship.   

I did not hear an announcement, but do believe this is the reason we went up the fjord: an actual glacier. Small, but nevertheless, it’s color tells me what it is.   

There are blue icebergs, which I thought was pretty spectacular.   

Wednesday, 31st May, 2023

Docked at Hoonah, Icy Strait Point at appr. 7 am. We’re sitting starboard in the observation lounge sipping breakfast coffee, and I am envisioning Suzy and Monica swooping in on their seaplane, landing by the bridge, and rappelling up to the gangway.

On the other side are the cable car and zip line stations. Since it is the first day we’re actually seeing patches of blue sky, we might go up the cable car and see what’s in the other side of the mountain. On the other hand, the Captain told us this morning that this island has the highest population of bears in the world. They have just woken up from their hibernation and are hungry. Salmon are not running yet, so we should do the math. I’m thinking they should eat some skunk cabbage.

Here we go. Up up and away.

Our ship is far down below.

And ….. we are still in America, hence the warning signs.

The view could be spectacular if it weren’t so cloudy. Mountain tops are covered in snow even though the elevation is modest.

And just in case we didn’t hear the captain’s warnings, here it is again. And he looks like a bad fella, ready to eat you!

There’s even a faint rainbow on the way down:

And finally! They’re here! Driven by car from Hoonah airport across the bridge right up to the ship.

There were numerous shows onboard every night, and we tried to see the “Beatles Experience” one night, but The Cavern has limited seating and there was standing room only. Which is not an option for us oldsters. Tonight, however, they performed in the theater, and we thoroughly enjoyed them.

Thursday, 1st June, 2023

We docked at Ketchikan at 7 am

We took a tour bus through the city of Ketchikan to Saxman Village where native people spoke about their family life and performed ritual dances in this clan house for us.

It is a plank house, popular in the PNW and made entirely from cedar.   

An elder introduces the dancers. He sits in a chair at the back left during the performance.

At the end, audience members are invited to dance, given blankets, and a ten-second dance lesson.

Children, we are told, are free to participate in the dance, or not, as they please, but this little tyke (3 or so perhaps) had great fun walking among the dancers and giving us a few twirls every now and then.

The totem pole park adjoining the village has a number of storied poles, but the inclement weather—as well as the cruise ship’s schedules—did not allow much exploration. We also hardly had time to watch a pole maker at work in his shop.    

We depart Ketchikan at 3 pm for the second of the long journeys. We will arrive in Victoria, Canada, at 8 pm tomorrow.

Friday, 2nd June, 2023

At sea all day. Suzy booked us into the musical, Six, at 4:30 pm. Found a spot in the observation lounge and we’re sipping mimosas.   

This is the view almost all day from the ship, the west side of Vancouver Island as we sail south toward Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia.

Six, the musical, tells the stories of Henry VIII’s six wives in a pop concert where the wives compete which each other about who suffered the most from Henry’s treatment. “Divorced, beheaded, died, survived.” Oh well.

The highlight of the day came when we visited Butchart Gardens in Victoria. We docked at 8 pm, and after some delays, a bus took us on the 45-minute ride to this 55-acre garden that was started by Jenny Butchart to beautify the dugout limestone quarry which had supplied her husband Robert’s cement plant. It is over 100 years old and was designated, in 2004, a National Historic Site of Canada. I took too many pictures to include here, but a Wikipedia search will yield both the history and a gallery with pictures taken in the daytime.

For us, thank heavens, there was a full moon:

The sunken garden (this is where the lime quarry was):

We got only to the entrance here before our time ran out.

David at the Sturgeon Fountain:

I never knew how many different colors of rhododendrons there were, numerous shades of pinks, blues, whites, oranges, and purples. And the crepe myrtles!

And dahlias.

Victoria must be a great city. We drove through it shortly before 11 pm, and while it was beautifully lit, I would really much rather have walked its streets in daylight.

Saturday, 3rd June, 2023

We docked at Seattle at 6 am. Suzy and Monica, because they boarded late, were told to leave first, at 6 am.  This turned out to be fortunate for them as they had no lines to contend with. We, on the other hand, we’re told to leave between 7-8 am, because we decided to carry our own luggage, not have the crew collect it at 9 pm the previous night and then we search for it in the terminal by color tag. Still the line wound up and down the ship’s length. The reason for the delay? No immigration officers were on hand. It started moving once they showed up, and, as it happened, we were suddenly first in line as the three stations happened to be at the exact spot where we were in the massively long line. So we were back on land, luggage in hand, shortly after 8 am.

Because Suzy and Monica’s flight back to Miami was not until 7:30 pm, we stayed with them for a while and visited Kubota Garden in Seattle.   

 Home

We are home now, and I have a few reflections on our cruise.

It didn’t occur to me until we got to Hoonah and took the gondola up to Icy Point, that there really wasn’t anything worth seeing up on top of that mountain other than a hike in the woods with possible bear danger. Why stop there? Obviously it was a good thing for us personally because this is where Suzy and Monica caught up with us. But as Suzy pointed out to me later, and as was evident in other things once we paid attention to it, it is a way for the cruise company to save money. Buying a dock in the middle of nowhere is much cheaper than paying docking fees in Sitka proper, or Ketchikan. Or Juneau. We saw the Princess cruise ship dock right downtown Ketchikan where cruise guest could walk off the ship and be downtown. It took our bus ten minutes to reach downtown as we docked well away from where anyone could simply walk to go where they wanted to go on their vacation. And the minimum for any excursion was $89 per person. That’s $180 a couple on the Princess didn’t have to pay to go shopping in Ketchikan. Our ship, the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Bliss, had about 5,000 people on board. It was a huge ship. Obviously not everyone left on an excursion every day like we did, but someone inclined to do the math, might figure out the windfall selling excursions and savings by docking away from city centers.

So much for Icy point. My other issue, beside the size of the ship, is the time on land. I know there are people happy just to be on a ship. I am not one of them. I go on a cruise because I want to see things in places I have not seen before or places I want to see again. A cruise ship is a very convenient hotel that travels with me. But that’s all it is. A place to sleep. When we dock at 10 am and leave at 3 pm, that doesn’t give me enough time to see what I want to see. And there were a lot of instances where we had to cut our visit short in order to catch the bus to get back onboard.

So the next time I take a cruise, it will be on a much smaller ship, and I will carefully study the itinerary of the trip to make sure I have enough time onshore to see what I came to see.

Alaska, the tiny bit we saw in a very short time, seems to me to really be the last frontier. It is wilderness, pure and simple. It is forests, mostly evergreens, and fjords. Quite a bit like Norway, minus Oslo. We were only in Alaska’s panhandle, so I cannot say anything about the rest of the state, especially the place from where one woman some time ago claimed she could see Russia from her porch. Then again, who wants to see Russia anyway?