Alaska: Hello Vancouver (Get us off this thing)

Alaska Post List

After one more full day at sea we finally landed in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). Unfortunately we had some issues docking and were not able to disembark on time. We both stared longingly at Canada Place, a mere 10 feet away. Folks on shore were dressed in red and white to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada's Independence. We were getting off the boat at Ground Zero of the festivities.

Disembarkment was suboptimal. We were led to the baggage claim area where bags from the same departure group were to be grouped together. Nope. Time to go hunting. Once we found our bags the terminal was a sea of people. More than one ship was in port which meant 1,000s were getting off ships and 1,000s were getting onto those same ships. To make matters worse about 1/2 of Vancouver was at Canada Place for the festivities. We were at a different hotel than our friends because we used hotel points to get a free stay. We figured we'd cab it but the line was horrendous. We hoofed it with our large suitcase, newly purchased carry-on, and dense backpacks.

After check-in we met the rest of the crew for lunch at Steamworks Brewery in the Gastown area. Thankfully the weather was nice and we could enjoy the patio vs eating inside. After lunch we walked to Stanley Park, the city's largest park. To get there we walked along the waterfront, which on a normal day would be fine, but with today being Canada Day we were dodging and weaving through walls of people enjoying the beautiful Saturday. Along the way we stopped at Canada Place to check out the Olympic Torch.

Stanley Park is huge. From one side you can get some great skyline views of downtown, and then turn a corner and you are in the middle of the woods. We decided to check out the Totem Pole Garden and The Rose Garden.

Our group left the park and headed back downtown. The others were not able to check into their hotel earlier so while they took care of that we decided to check out the street festival on Robson Street, the city's shopping district. The party did not live up to the hype of the brochure. We saw a street hockey game and one band. With dinner time approaching we headed towards our restaurant and found a decent (and uncrowded) beer bar. Vancouver had an excellent beer scene - it was hard to find Molson or Labatts on tap because they featured so many craft beers. The rest of our crew joined us at The Butcher and the Bullock for a drink before heading to dinner at Nightingale. Dinner was excellent! We had a great waiter that helped us choose the right craft cocktails, appetizers, and wood fired pizzas.

After dinner we said goodbye to Laura and Lee - they were leaving for home the next morning. We walked back to our hotel, had a drink at the bar and chatted with a man from California, then planned our next few days in town.

Alaska Post List

 

Alaska: Ketchikan - Misty Fjords and Seaplane Tour

Alaska Post Links

We got lucky again on this trip. Ketchikan is usually gloomy and rainy. Today we had a mix of overcast skies with a few sunny moments. Score! Today 4 cruise ships were docked in the tiny town. Dave's mood was much better this morning as he disembarked with a Diet Coke in-hand and received no hassle from ship security. Our morning was going to be spent fulfilling a bucket list item for Holly: landing on the water in a seaplane. We had a few minutes before our excursion pickup and headed over to the Tongass National Forest Visitor Center for our Passport stamp.

Ketchikan had all the charm of a turn-of-the-century frontier outpost mixed with tackiness that comes with being a tourist destination. The city did have a few very nice art stores.

We boarded our bus for the short trip up the main road (Ketchikan is isolated like Juneau is) to Taquan Air. The company has been shuttling goods and people by air for over 20 years. We were assembled with other tourists into a tent for our safety briefing before being divided into groups and assigned planes. Our pilot, Jess, was in his late-20's and moved to Alaska from Florida. Dave won the dispersing the weight lottery and scored the copilot seat.

Our 90 minute tour would take us over the Misty Fjords National Monument. As we've learned on this trip fjords are inlets sourrounded by rounded mountains created by glacial erosion. As we were flying Jess would narrate every few minutes then play some appropriate song from his iPod. The mountains were beautiful from our high vantage point and Jess gave us several up-close moments with the cliffsides. Our landing was in a long narrow stretch of the inlet. On the nearby shore was a brown bear grazing on some grass. Jess told us he's usually hanging around this time of morning. We got to climb out onto the pontoon for some better photos.

Thankfully take-off from the inlet and landing back in town were uneventful. We still had a few hours left on our shore leave so we decided to quickly take the Ketchikan Walking Tour allowing us to see Creek Street (old red light district), The Totem Pole Heritage Center, a salmon ladder, and totem poles placed around town.

We had a decent lunch at Alaska Fish House - more fried halibut. After lunch we frantically ran around town trying to find the perfect ulu knife and stone carving of an otter. We did well on the knife: we found one shaped like a bear made out of bleached caribou antler. We found a nice otter carving, but the perfect one was back in Skagway. If you find yourself in Ketchikan spend a few minutes browsing the family-owned Alaskan Stone Arts shop/gallery. After an exhausting tour of the shops we met up with the rest of the crew at a bar called Sourdough. It's a first-class dive that happened to be steps away from our ship's gangplank. It's worth a visit for all the photos of boats that have run aground (common in this area with the fog and changing tides). Thanks to Sourdough we boarded 15 minutes before departure.

The next time we'd set foot on land would be in Vancouver. We enjoyed our time in Alaska and we experienced many new things along the way. As luck would have it some killer whales decided to show up on our side of the ship a few miles away from port. Perfect!

Alaska Post Links

 

Alaska: Juneau Whales, Ice, and Legs

Alaska Post Link

We arrived in Juneau very early in the morning after a short trip from Skagway. Early enough that Dave was only on his second cup of coffee and had a meltdown when security would not let him leave the ship with his just-poured cup. The rationale was coffee may have dairy (he didn’t) and since the ship itself originated in Canada before our sailing agricultural products could not leave the boat. UGH!

It’s very strange that Alaska’s capital of Juneau can only be accessed by plane or boat. Over 30% of the city’s population works for the government in some capacity. The ship docks are conveniently located in the heart of downtown making touring very easy.

All six of us signed up for the Whale Watching & Mendenhall Glacier Photo Safari through the cruise line. Our tour was operated by Gastineau Guiding and they did a terrific job educating us the entire trip. One of the first things we noticed while taking our bus over to the boat docks was that bald eagles here are crows or pigeons back home. They seemed to be ever-present and very helpful for taking pictures. At the dock our group of 12 was led to a big boat with a comfortable enclosed cabin. The windows opened easily to allow for shooting. On our way into the bay we learned about the area in-general and certain cues to look for when watching the whales surface. Along the way we saw a few more eagles, seals, and a few ferries (a main source of transportation up here) along the way.

It didn't take too long to find our first whale. The typical pattern we looked for was 1) signs of an exhale spout 2) a few displays of dorsal fin while swimming 3) a larger display of the back followed by 4) display of the tail (fluke). Once we saw the tail we knew that whale would be out of sight for several minutes. Our small boat tour was great because we could maneuver around easily without dealing with a bunch of people. Our guide was an expert photographer/videographer and helped guests with varying equipment.

We had an overcast day so our photos weren't full of much contrast. The guide and captain did a nice job helping us get some great shots, including the fluke raise with a glacier in the background.

When we left the boat we took a short drive over to the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, part of the Tongass National Forest. Our guide took us on a nice walk along the forest path giving us a lesson in forest development from moss, to alder, to sitka.... and told us about how the salmon spawning process. As we walked toward the glacier we passed markers indicating where the edge was over the last 100 years. We also spent some time working on photography techniques to capture soft waterfalls and water droplets that looked like diamonds.

Our tour didn't bring us too close to the glacier nor the waterfall, but we did have a pretty nice view of the entire area.

On the way back to the bus we lucked into seeing a porcupine up-close climbing a tree. Boy was it ugly.

We split up when we arrived back in town so we could go to Tracy's King Crab Shack for lunch. Order at the counter, find a seat, and wait for the food to be brought to you. The crab legs were humongous and delicious.

We did not have too much time in town given our early cast-off time. We spent our remaining hours visiting the Alaskan Brewing Co. store, picking up glacier soap, and deciding that we didn't have enough time to walk to the distillery. We did have a beer in the Red Dog Saloon while listening to the dirty old man piano entertainer.

Before we waited on the long line to board the ship we saw the crowd-pleasing memorial to Patsy Ann, a dog that used to welcome incoming ships. Every native we talked to told us it was a must-see.

Once we weighed anchor we were on our way to Ketchikan. We were treated to some great views and a humpback whale giving us a goodbye wave.

We have a short video from our whale watching trip:

 

Alaska Post Link