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Travelogue:
Alaska, June 2015
By Roger W.
Reini
By Day:
June 6 | 7
| 8 | 9 | 10
| 11 | 12 | 13
| 14 | 15 | 16
| 17 | 18 | 19
This is the story of a family trip to Alaska in June 2015 — a
cruise, followed by excursions to Denali National Park and to
Fairbanks.
Prologue
How did this trip come to be? For me, Alaska represented the
49th state in my quest to visit all 50 states. That was a minor
reason compared to all of the natural beauty and scenery there.
Later, in speaking with my aunt and uncle, perhaps while I was
telling them about the cruises I had taken (to the Bahamas, not
Alaska) or wanted to take, I asked if they’d ever be interested
in taking a cruise. My aunt said that an Alaska cruise would be
the only cruise she’d want to go on. So then we started to think
about when we’d want to go and what we’d like to do.
For a while, we considered a combination rail-sail tour: take
the train to Seattle, take a roundtrip cruise out of Seattle,
then return home on the train. But my aunt said she wanted to
see Denali National Park and Mount McKinley, which would not
have been possible with the rail-sail tour, so we ruled it out.
In August 2014, my aunt went to a travel show sponsored by AAA
and picked up some information. Here, our plans started to firm
up, and we made our deposits.
Who was going on the trip? My aunt Marie, my uncle Bill, and
cousin Barb (Marie and Barb were first cousins, which made me a
first cousin once removed).
Our itinerary had us flying to Vancouver by way of Seattle on
June 6, taking a 7-day cruise to Seward on Holland America’s
Oosterdam, overnighting in Anchorage, taking a train to Denali
National Park for a 2-night stay, then traveling to Fairbanks
for an overnight visit before flying back to Detroit by way of
Minneapolis. It would be a nearly-two-week trip of a lifetime.
But I had already made several trips of a lifetime: pilgrimage
to the Bahá’í holy sites in Israel; traveling to Uganda to see
my older niece graduate from high school and to go on a safari;
a trip to Finland to see one of my ancestral homelands; two
trips to the UK (another of my ancestral homelands), and so on.
I knew I would need at least one new jacket for the trip. I
received one for Christmas as a present from my aunt and uncle,
a travel jacket with removable sleeves and lots of pockets. It
wasn’t particularly heavy — not that it needed to be. My nieces
and nephew teamed up to give me an L. L. Bean tote bag filled
with many travel-related items (they also gave tote bags to
Marie and Bill).
As the cruise drew nearer, I read many travel guides and tour
books, visited multiple websites and investigated the onshore
excursions available on the cruise and land tour. Many of them
were interesting; many of them were expensive. We decided on the
excursions that appealed to us; it turned out we were in
agreement on most of them. As I had an account with the Holland
America website, and as they had notified me that I could sign
up for shore excursions and make spa and meal bookings, I booked
most of my excursions via the Web, while the others would use
our AAA travel agent. There was one “excursion” I didn’t book, a
dinner and show in Fairbanks, as there were two times available
and I didn’t want to select the wrong one; I would let the
travel agent book mine with the others.
The Sunday before our departure, it was 50 degrees with rain in
Detroit. Very unusual for late spring, but perhaps it would be a
preview of what to expect in southeast Alaska. I did a little
bit of packing, although the bulk of it would come in a few
days.
May 29: forecast for Vancouver in June 6 and 7 has highs of 20
(68) and lows of 13 (55) with 40% chance of rain Saturday and
80% Sunday. No other forecasts available yet.
June 2: forecast for Vancouver has improved, now highs of 24 and
26 with 10% chance of rain. Southeast Alaska looks to be cool,
and Skagway may be downright chilly!
June 5
It was my birthday. It was also the day before the big trip. It
was a regular work day for me, so I went into the office,
mailing two bills earlier than I would normally do because of
the trip. I had two meetings at work in the morning; I had
lunch; I worked on other items in the afternoon, and then I came
home.
When I arrived home, there was a package on the front porch. A
birthday present? No; it wasn’t even for me. It was for a former
boss of mine, but somehow it had been mailed to my address by
mistake. Our names both started with R, so I think someone
picked up the wrong address line. Unfortunately for him, I
wouldn’t be able to give it to him until I returned from the
trip.
Earlier in the day, I’d received an e-mail from Delta Air Lines
instructing me to check in for the flight. Now that I was home,
I could do so. In fact, I was the last of our party to do so;
everyone else was retired and could have (and did) check in
earlier. After entering my passport information and paying for
my one checked bag, I printed my boarding passes for each
segment of tomorrow’s flight. I hadn’t gone the smartphone route
yet, but I had been thinking about it.
I finished packing my main bag and set it aside. It weighed
around 28 pounds; good. By the end of the night, I nearly
finished packing my carry-on bag; I could not completely finish
until the morning. It weighed in around 21 pounds; that wouldn’t
be comfortable carrying for very long. But I might have to.
Top
June 6
Our flight to Vancouver would leave at 8:30, which meant we had
to be at the airport by 6:30. That meant an early wake-up for
all of us, though not so early for me because I lived closer to
the airport. I was up at around 4:20 and made my final
preparations. By 5:30, I was all packed and ready to go, so all
I had to do was wait for everyone to arrive. As I was watching a
vintage episode of "I've Got a Secret" on the new Buzzr channel
around 5:40, there was a knock at the door. It was Marie, Bill
and Barb. I got my bags, brought them to the car, locked the
front door, and we were on our way.
We parked at the Green Lot long-term lot at the airport and took
the shuttle van to the terminal. There, we checked our bags and
cleared security. Three of us had no trouble, but Marie had a
harder time due to having had replacement knees installed. She
made it through, though, and we were set. We got breakfast at a
McDonald's in the terminal, and I got an Economist magazine at
the Economist Newsstand. Our flight was leaving from gate A4, so
we took the tram to reach that part of the airport. While we
waited, I noticed someone wearing a shirt with a message about
the TSA; the S had been replaced with a swastika, so the message
was not complimentary.
It was a sunny day with few if any clouds in the sky as we took
off. I was on the right side and f the plane, so I could not see
my house when we took off. Dearborn and Dearborn Heights were
quite visible, though, and we could confirm that the Jeffries
Freeway I-96 had no traffic problems. Skies were clear
throughout Michigan and into Wisconsin and Minnesota.
At one point, it occurred to me to pull out the iPad and use its
GPS sensor to see where we were. I had the maps.me offline map
program, so I needed no data plan to pull up maps of where we
were. When I first checked, we were over Minnesota near TBD.
That was home to a famous bank that Bill and I had visited three
years before.
Clouds increased over the Dakotas, and the ride got a bit bumpy
at times. The seal belt sign was lit for much of the flight.
That didn't keep people from visiting the restroom, though. On a
long flight like that, it was a necessity. I had to get up and
use it on one occasion, which wasn't easy from a window seat.
Eventually, we were in the Seattle area. Thanks to new
regulations that allowed tablets like iPads being available for
use throughout the flight, we could see our path over the city
and could tell that the pilot was lined up dead on with the
runway (a very good thing).
Once on the ground at SeaTac Airport, we had a layover of some 3
1/2 hours. First, trips to the restroom. Second, McDonald's for
lunch. Third, some wandering around the concourses to waste some
time. I saw two musical acts performing and gave a dollar to one
of them. I visited the Hudson News store but got nothing. Before
long, we were at the gate for our next flight segment to
Vancouver, our ultimate destination. We had a small plane (still
a jet) and a short flight, perhaps 25 minutes in the air. After
clearing immigration and customs, we were officially in
Vancouver. That made it four provinces for me: Ontario, Quebec,
Manitoba and now British Columbia. And it also marked a
geographical milestone for me: I was now farther west than I had
ever been before (the previous holder of that record was Point
Reyes Lighthouse in California). That mark would be broken many
times over the next several days.
We caught a cab into town; the driver, Marinder, was most
helpful, getting us to our destination downtown, the Best
Western Plus Downtown Vancouver. Our rooms were on the 10th
floor but we're not adjoining; the men were in 1011, the women
in 1014. The view from our window was of a building under
construction.
What would we do for supper? We took a short walk in the area to
see what was there, but the answer to our question was "not
much." We ended up returning to the hotel to eat at the de facto
hotel restaurant, the White Spot. That was a casual restaurant
in western Canada that was on the order of Applebee's or Boston
Pizza. What did I have? I had Manhattan clam chowder and then
spaghetti and meatballs, both of which were very good. Now the
hotel did not have a snack shop, but there was a 7-Eleven across
the street, which was just as well. I went there and brought
back 2 bottles of Diet 7-Up, one of which I would consume that
evening, with the other being saved until morning.
There were many young people out and about that evening, but as
for us, we were in bed by 8 or 8:30 (11:30 PM by our body
clocks). Now Bill and I had to contend with LED lights in the
bed baseboard that we couldn’t figure out how to turn off. It
turned out that the switch was very accessible, but we thought
it was to turn off plugs by the lamps between the beds.
Top
June 7
I woke up around 5 AM, which was more like 8 AM to me. I hadn’t
adjusted to Pacific time yet; that would take a few more days.
And while I checked my e-mail and other things with my iPad, I
contemplated my current situation: I had traveled farther west
than I had ever been before in my life, and I would be able to
keep on saying that for the next 8 or 9 days. I’d be able to say
that until next Tuesday and our visit to the interior of Denali
National Park.
After everyone woke up, we went to the White Spot restaurant for
breakfast. We had vouchers good for a special breakfast at the
restaurant: scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage and
multigrain toast. And that breakfast was good, the toast
especially so. We got a good deal there. Now we didn’t have to
vacate our rooms until noon, so Bill and I went for a walk on
the nearby Granville Bridge. We had our cameras with us, and
there were a number of photo opportunities, such as the boats of
Granville Island and the many skyscrapers of downtown Vancouver.
There were also photo opportunities that wouldn’t be noticed by
most people, such as an amateur radio antenna atop the Executive
Inn. Back at the room, I downloaded the pictures to the iPad, my
first opportunity to do so on the trip. I left my laptop at
home, the first time I’d done that for a major personal trip
since my pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2007, for I figured the
iPad would be sufficient for my needs. And with 128 GB of space,
there was plenty of room for the pictures I expected to take.
When noon rolled around, we went down to the lobby to wait for
the 2 PM shuttle to Canada Place and the cruise ship terminal.
Marie and I went over to the 7-Eleven across the street to get
some snacks and drinks. I bought what I thought was a Diet 7-Up,
but only after consuming most of it did I learn it was a regular
7-Up. Oops! I needed to examine that bottle more carefully. The
lobby was crowded, but it eventually emptied out. We spent some
time talking with a couple from Dallas who were cruising
tomorrow; this afternoon, they were waiting for a Vancouver tour
bus to pick them up. At 1:50, the shuttle arrived to take us and
two other couples to the cruise terminal. Here began our
official re-entry to the USA. Yes, once we boarded the ship, we
would be officially regarded as being back in America. The
alternative would have been to clear customs in Ketchikan, our
first port, and I don’t think they could handle the load.
After clearing immigration and customs, we filled out a health
questionnaire: did we have vomiting or diarrhea, cold or flu
symptoms, or had we been in a country with Ebola in the past 21
days? The wrong answers on that questionnaire could lead to
confinement to quarters or being denied boarding. Fortunately, I
did not give the wrong answers. I checked in, received my ship
card (good for the room key and onboard purchases), and waited
for the others to catch up with me (I had been a bit faster and
got ahead of them). Just before we boarded, we had our official
Bon Voyage pictures taken, one group one and individual ones
(those may have been cropped from the group picture). Before you
knew it, we were aboard the Oosterdam, our home for the next
seven days (and part of an eighth)!
By this time, it was after 3 o’clock; lunch was only being
served until 3:30, we were informed. So after a quick stop at
our staterooms to drop off our bags, we went up to deck 9, the
Lido deck. Here, we got separated. The others went to the main
Lido restaurant, while I ended up eating at the taco/fajita bar
as part of poolside dining. I went that way because that was
where I heard the noise coming from. The food was all right.
Back at the cabin, I met our cabin steward Pisco when he
delivered the luggage. I commented to him that the bed, which
had been prepared as a single bed, should actually have been
prepared as two twin beds; he said he would take care of it
while we were at dinner, which was fine. I watched the safety
video on the TV, for the mandatory lifeboat drill would take
place at 4:15. We were given the audio cues and how to respond
to them. At 4:15 came the call to proceed to our lifeboat
stations. We did not have to put on lifejackets, unlike my very
first cruise. The drill went well, and our lifeboat had everyone
in attendance before most of the others. We didn’t have far to
go; lifeboat station 7 was just two decks below us. After 15
minutes and some additional safety messages, we were dismissed
to return to our business. For us, it was back to the cabins.
Shortly before setting sail, the captain announced that the bow
would be open this afternoon and on other special occasions
during the cruise; those occasions would be ones with prime
scenery, and departing Vancouver qualified. While Marie and Barb
decided to rest in their cabin, Bill and I headed to the bow. I
had my camera bag and was starting to take pictures when I
noticed that the dock at Canada Place was receding. We were
under way at 4:52 PM! The departure was lower key than on the
Disney ships; they would have a big production on their Lido
deck to celebrate our setting sail. As we pulled away, we could
see the sights of Vancouver, including Stanley Park and the
Lions Gate bridge, under which we passed as we headed out to sea
— not open sea, but the protected waters of the Inside Passage.
For the next several hours, we would cruise between Vancouver
Island and the mainland (note that the city of Vancouver is NOT
on Vancouver Island).
There was a small mailbox outside of everyone’s stateroom, and
ours had a lot of stuff in it. One item let us know about the
beverage package that was part of our cruise: $50 of drinks per
day. One item was a card telling us that we had reservations for
the Pinnacle Grill, the main fine-dining restaurant on board,
for Monday at 9 PM and to call to confirm our reservations (I
took care of that for both of our rooms). Another item turned
out to be a birthday gift from my sister Sharon and her family:
she had given me a DVD set of the cruise. Actually, it was a
voucher for the DVD set, for the set would not be available
until the last night of the cruise. That set would prove to be a
3-DVD set: one featuring the cruise experience that was actually
recorded during the cruise; one featuring the ports we visited;
and one featuring Glacier Bay. My uncle Bill received a similar
voucher, although it must have been intended for my aunt Marie.
Her birthday had been a week and a half earlier, while mine had
been two days ago. There was also the daily flyer of what was
happening on board; first, there was the one for today, and
later, there was the one for tomorrow.
I wandered around the ship for a while, seeing what was where on
the lower decks and taking a brief look at the merchandise in
the ship’s stores. If I wanted to buy a watch, I had plenty of
selection from which to choose. If I wanted to get Holland
America-themed merchandise, I could do that, too. There was a
model of the ship that caught my eye; I had bought the model for
one of the ships I’d previously sailed, the Disney Wonder.
Back at the room, I flipped through the TV channels; they
weren’t as extensive as the ones on the Disney ships, I thought.
There were several news and information channels (CNBC, MSNBC,
Fox, BBC), two ESPN sports channels, some movie channels, and
several ship’s information channels: cameras on the bow and the
stern, presentations on shore excursions, presentations on
shopping excursions, and a navigation channel showing the ship’s
position, heading, and the current weather. We would keep that
channel on much of the time while we were sailing.
Our dinner time was 8 PM, second seating. We had table 89 in the
upper Vista dining room (deck 3), sharing a table of 8 with two
other couples: Tom and Sue (from Minnesota and Wisconsin,
respectively), and Allan and Jody from Missouri. We were
introduced to the servers who would handle our table every
night, Galih and Hari. They did a very good job tonight (and
every other night, it would turn out) with taking our orders and
serving the food and drinks. Here’s what I had this
evening: French onion soup, shrimp and andouille with grits, and
a banana crisp cake topped with French vanilla ice cream. Yum,
yum! A salmon dish was on the menu, but I passed on it; I knew
I’d have many more opportunities to have salmon on the cruise
and on the trip.
When the meal ended, it was getting close to 10. The others
wanted to see the show in the Vista lounge, but I didn’t feel
like going. Instead, I took my camera and walked around the
decks, first the promenade deck (deck 3) and then the
observation deck (deck 10). It was still fairly light outside.
It was also windy, as I learned when I went to the upper
observation deck (deck 11); I didn’t stay there long. I did see
a cruise vessel from Norwegian Cruise Lines heading in the
opposite direction from us, towards Vancouver. Their cruise was
coming to an end, while ours was just beginning. Speaking of
endings, my first day on board was coming to an end. I went back
to the room to find that the beds had indeed been split as
requested. I downloaded pictures to the iPad and then called it
a night between 10:30 and 11.
Top
June 8
When I woke up for good around 6:30, the ship had passed
Vancouver Island and was now in open sea. There were some
swells, and the ship had a slight roll. It was time to develop
our sea legs. After everyone was awake and dressed, we headed up
to the Lido restaurant for breakfast. And here, we experienced
our first instance of difficulty finding a table in the
restaurant (this would be common in the Lido restaurant). We
ended up sharing a table with a couple from Wyoming. Now the
restaurant had several stations for getting food: a Continental
breakfast section, an omelet section, the standard full-service
hot breakfast section, a juice and dairy section, and a drinks
section. I went with a more Continental approach this morning,
selecting meats, cheeses, smoked salmon, a Danish, Special K,
V-8 and orange juice. It was pretty good, I thought.
After returning to our cabins for jackets, we all proceeded to
walk around the ship on the promenade deck. It was windy and
chilly, but that didn’t keep Bill from setting up his camera to
take some self-portraits of us on the deck. They turned out OK.
Three times around the deck was one mile, but we only went
around the one time. We decided to visit the Crow’s Nest on deck
10 to warm up and enjoy the view. Over the next several days, we
would visit the Exploration Cafe here frequently, often to get
bottles of VitaminWater zero mineral-fortified water. If that
water was sold elsewhere on the ship, I had no idea.
As we sat enjoying the view and drinking our drinks, I was
reviewing some of the news digests that had been published to
let passengers know what was happening in the world. The New
York Times published an 8-page digest of news, while there was a
4-page digest of Canadian news (I’d later learn about British
and German digests, as well). Not much had been happening in the
last 2 days. After we’d had our fill of the Crow’s Nest, we went
down to the Photo Gallery on deck 3, where we were able to
review the pictures of us that had been taken the day we boarded
(i.e., yesterday afternoon) and learn about the various photo
packages available to buy. Then it was back to our cabins
for a while.
At noon, we went to the Queen’s Lounge on deck 2 to see a film
about Native culture in Ketchikan, our first port of call. We
had to find seats on the extreme right side of the lounge, so
much so that instead of watching on the main screen, it was
easier for us to watch on the side monitor in front of us. That
didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the film. Then it was time
for lunch, and once again, we had a hard time finding a suitable
table for us. But we eventually found seats and enjoyed our
meals. I went Japanese today, choosing to have beef Sukiyaki,
udon noodles and fried rice, along with salad and a chocolate
cupcake for dessert.
In the 2 o’clock hour, we split up to attend the events of our
choice. While Barb, Bill and I headed to the Vista Lounge for a
presentation on Alaskan wildlife, Marie went to a presentation
on acupuncture. The wildlife presentation was a good one, though
I found myself wanting to nod off a few times. Our presentation
ended first, so we went over to wait for Marie’s presentation to
end. Then it was off to the Sports Bar for Diet Cokes to take
back to our rooms.
At 5 o’clock, the captain announced that the bow was open again,
as we were about to begin our passage through the scenic
Grenville Channel. We all went up there, but it was quite
windy out. Marie and Barb didn’t stay very long, and Bill left a
short time after they did. I ended up leaving around 5:30 after
I’d taken my pictures and after recovering my cap twice. That
cap was not camera-friendly.
I had developed a blister on the fourth toe on my left foot, a
place where I was prone to developing blisters. What to
do? Stick tissue paper around the toe as a cushion? I
tried that; it wasn’t very effective. Bill had a better idea: a
Band-Aid, and he’d brought some along. I put one on, and it was
very effective.
Tonight was the first Formal Night on the ship. Now that didn’t
mean that all the men wore tuxedos or all the women wore evening
gowns. None of us did; we were dressed up, to be sure, but not
in official formal wear. There were many places around the ship
where passengers could get official photos taken, but we didn’t
bother doing that. We were dining at the Pinnacle Grill this
evening at 9, so we went to the 8 PM show in the Vista Lounge,
“Northern Lights”. It was an OK show, most notable to me for
featuring a rap version of “The Lumberjack Song” (and not the
entire song, either). Never thought I’d hear that….
There weren’t many other diners in the Pinnacle Grill when we
arrived; those that were there were out of our sight, for the
most part. I’d taken a picture of the menu that was posted
outside of the grill earlier in the day, in order to decide what
I wanted to eat. There were seven appetizers from which to
choose, including caviar (at an extra price); three seafood
entrees, four meat entrees and three vegetarian entrees, along
with eight vegetable options. We all selected one of the beef
offerings for our main course. My selections were: first course,
lobster bisque; main course, 10-ounce filet mignon, with grilled
asparagus, sautéed mushrooms and whipped potatoes. That made for
an excellent meal, and everyone else was equally satisfied with
their selections. When the time came for dessert, we didn’t
select from the main dessert menu, for Marie and I were treated
to special birthday desserts. Today was not actually either of
our birthdays, but they had happened very recently; in my case,
it had been last Friday, the day before our flight to Vancouver.
But we’d mentioned this proximity to our travel agent, and she’d
arranged for this treat, no doubt. The pieces of cake were
rather large, large enough that we said cut them in half so
everyone could enjoy our birthday cake. It really hit the spot.
When we left the restaurant to return to our cabins, it was
10:30. It was still quite light outside, although the sun had
set. That was strange to our sensibilities, and it was only
going to get stranger as the trip progressed. Another sign of
the trip’s progress: the ship was crossing into the Alaska Time
Zone overnight, so we needed to set our watches back one hour.
We would then be four hours behind Detroit time.
Top
June 9
Thanks to the sun and our westward movement, I was up around
4:30 in the morning, Alaska time. Uncle Bill awoke fairly early
as well; we went up to the top decks, decks 10 and 11, as we
sailed into Ketchikan, our first port of call on the cruise. The
weather was sunny and cool. We all went for breakfast around
6:30; once again, we had a hard time finding a suitable table
for all of us, but we eventually managed to find one. The
breakfast items were the same items available as yesterday,
which was all right by me.
Our time in port was scheduled to be eight hours, from 7 AM to 3
PM. We had arranged for shore excursions, but they would not
start until later, so we did not need to leave the ship right
away. I took advantage of this time to use my MiFi portable
hotspot and catch up on my e-mail and Facebook activities; my
last time to receive e-mail was Sunday afternoon at the hotel in
Vancouver. As I did what I normally did, I received a notice
from Verizon that I had used 50% of my monthly data plan
allotment of 5 GB, or 2.5 GB. Given my normal patterns of usage,
that was expected; 50% after 20 days was fine. And having the
MiFi eliminated any need to sign up for the shipboard Internet
service, although later developments would make me change my
mind.
We all left the ship around 8:30 and had our pictures taken with
Lumber Jill as we headed into town — which was across the street
from the dock. There were plenty of shops near the dock; some
were souvenir shops, while others featured jewelry. I saw a
couple of things to get for my sister and brother-in-law, and I
got those; I also saw a potential birthday present for Marie,
but I held off on that; I’d have opportunity later to get it
while she wasn’t around.
At this point, we went our separate ways, for we were
participating in different shore excursions that started at
different times. While the others would be taking a catamaran
trip to Misty Fjords and flying back on a floatplane, I would be
going on a trolley tour of Ketchikan and the Saxman Totem Pole
Park. Mine departed first, and I had another stop to make, so I
left. I needed to look for another pair of socks, a thicker
pair, one designed for hiking, for I believed that the blister
on my toe was caused in part by too-thin socks. Fortunately, the
Tongass Trading Company had just what I needed in their upstairs
outdoors store; I would be well-prepared for the days ahead.
The trolley was available for boarding at the dock several
minutes early. In fact, by 10 minutes to 10, everyone who’d
signed up for the trip was on board. That let us head out early.
Our bus driver and tour guide Cameron drove the bus through some
of the back streets of Ketchikan, taking us past St. John’s
Episcopal Church, the oldest church in town; the Married Man’s
Trail, a well-worn path to the bawdy houses along Creek Street;
staircases that were high enough and long enough to be called
streets in their own right; and houses that were much more
expensive than we would think they should be, thanks to their
remote location. Groceries were much more expensive here, as was
nearly everything. Five dollar foot-longs at Subway? Not here in
Ketchikan; $12 was more like it. And Ketchikan was home to the
second-smallest Walmart in the world, said our driver.
The Totem Pole Village was in the community of Saxman, a few
miles southeast of Ketchikan. Here, totem poles from many nearby
areas were brought here to conserve, protect and repair them.
Many had been vandalized, but these were in good condition, for
the most part. Our guide explained that the poles told stories.
Some of the stories had been lost to time, but some were still
able to be interpreted. He told us some of those stories,
including the story of why Abraham Lincoln appeared at the top
of one totem pole (it was in honor of a ship bearing his name).
As he spoke, eagles would periodically soar overhead, looking
for meals. I was able to take a picture of an eagle soaring near
the Lincoln pole. At one point, as I was walking around, I saw a
familiar tugboat and barge heading up the channel. Our ship had
passed that tug and barge early yesterday evening in the
Grenville Channel. I noticed a gift shop across the street from
the park, although I didn’t go in. I wondered if the gift shop
would have been considered a Utotem (the name of a former
Houston-based convenience store chain).
After our time at the Totem Pole Village, we got back on the
trolley and headed back to Ketchikan. Most of us, myself
included, got off at historic Creek Street. Now Creek Street
wasn’t a paved street; it was a wooden deck along and over the
creek. Formerly home to several bawdy houses, it was now filled
with gift shops and other tourist-related items. One such shop
features carved bear statues; two of them featured the bears
carrying football-themed signs cursing the 49ers and praising
the Packers (what, nothing praising the Bears?). My
brother-in-law would have liked the one praising the Packers,
but I shuddered to think about how much it would cost.
As I walked back to the dock, I passed by a lemonade stand being
run by two children in support of a medical fund for a child who
needed an operation out of town. I was thirsty, so I bought a
cup in support of their cause. I passed by a store that
was announcing a Sunny Day Sale; sunny days were rare in
Ketchikan, but we had one today. I visited the Ketchikan Mining
Company and bought the gift I saw for my aunt, and I arranged to
have it shipped directly to her in Michigan, at a cost that was
half of what I paid for the gift in the first place.
Unfortunately, as I would learn two weeks later, I screwed up
when giving the shipping address. I wrote down the correct
number and street, but I put down my hometown and zip code
rather than hers. That would lead to its being returned to
sender and a phone call to my aunt, who gave them the corrected
address.
Two other ships were in port at the same time as the Oosterdam:
the Ruby Princess, which I’d seen earlier in the day, and a
Silversea vessel that docked while I was leaving the gift shop.
I decided to walk a little more around the dock area,
discovering a boardwalk north of the Tongass Trading Post. This
was where the Ruby Princess had docked; now there was a big ship
(the Oosterdam was no slouch, either). After a short time, I
turned around and decided to reboard the ship. The line was
long, but it moved quickly, and soon I was back on board. I went
back to the cabin to dump my things, and then I went up to the
pool area for another go at the taco and fajita bar. While it
was still good, I wondered in retrospect if I should have gone
inside the restaurant for lunch and, say, tried the pasta or
pizza offerings.
Back at the cabin, as I was doing another Internet check, I
received a very surprising message: another data alert from
Verizon, saying I’d used 75% of my data allotment. Over 1 GB in
4 or 5 hours? I wasn’t doing that much that would explain that.
Doing some digging, I found what the problem was: the Photo
Stream service. Thanks to uploading all of my photos onto the
iPad, those pictures were now being copied to iCloud servers.
That would definitely explain the usage! Clearly, I could not
permit that to continue, so I turned off the Photo Stream
capability. I also turned off the automatic downloading of
images in my e-mails. Would that be enough to keep me from going
over? I would find out soon enough.
This afternoon, there was a presentation in the Vista Lounge for
those passengers who were on Land-Sea adventures and would be
going on the land portion of their trips at the end of the
cruise. We fell into that category, so I thought it best to
attend. The others were still on their Misty Fjords adventure
and couldn’t attend (the presentation would be repeated on
Friday, so they could attend then). This presentation dealt with
the logistics of preparing luggage for the trip: prepare a
carry-on that you would keep with you at all times with your
essentials, a bag that would be taken separately to every hotel
or lodge you’d stay at (the “Meet Me Tonight” bag), and one or
more bags that would be taken to the final destination of the
trip (for us, the “Meet Me In Fairbanks” bags). We would receive
these tags in tonight’s mail delivery.
After the presentation, I returned to the cabin. It was a little
before 3 when I noticed that we had pulled away from the dock;
we were leaving Ketchikan. I didn’t know where Marie, Bill and
Barb were; I thought I had seen them boarding the ship after I
had my lunch, and I figured they were having their lunch. It
turned out that I hadn’t seen them board; they didn’t reboard
until shortly before the gangway was pulled up. I saw an
eagle flying alongside the ship for a while. Later on that
evening, around 7:30, we saw a whale! It was spouting right off
of our balcony. I got a picture of it spouting as well as of its
fluke (tail) as it sank back into the waters. Perhaps that would
be a good sign for tomorrow’s whale-watching trip.
After our Pinnacle Grill experience the night before, we
rejoined our dining room companions at table 89 in the Vista
Dining Room. I had the linguine tonight, which was pretty
good. During the meal, we could see a humpback whale
spouting in the distance (was it the same one we’d seen
earlier?), as well as one of the fishing vessels featured on
“Deadliest Catch”. As the meal ended, we saw a team of servers
come to our table. Marie and I were about to receive another
piece of birthday cake — and this time, it would be to the
accompaniment of an Indonesian birthday song serenade. There was
at least one such serenade, and usually more than one, every
night in the dining room, and tonight, it was our turn. I ate my
cake there, while Marie took hers back to her cabin for later
enjoyment. After we’d left, Bill decided to visit B.B. King’s
All Star Blues Club; I would have gone too, but I was too tired.
When I pulled out my reading glasses to do some reading, I found
that the frames had been bent and cracked; they were no longer
usable. Since these were store-bought glasses, that was no big
deal, as I had a spare. But I would want to get another pair to
serve as a spare.
Now for some comments about on-board entertainment. In the Ocean
Bar, there was a guitar-keyboard combo that called itself The
Band; that felt like sacrilege to me, for The Band meant Levon
Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, etc., Music From Big Pink,
“Up On Cripple Creek”, “Chest Fever”, The Last Waltz, and so on.
In the Explorers Lounge was a classical group called Adagio; I
did not hear them. B.B. King’s Blues Club featured the B.B. King
All-Stars; more about them later. There was a piano bar on
board; I didn’t go there, either. The Northern Lights dance
club? Forget it.
Top
June 10
Ketchikan’s weather was atypical for southeast Alaska: sunny and
dry. Juneau’s weather would be much closer to the norm: cloudy,
misty and rainy with some fog. It didn’t look too promising for
our shore excursions today, but we had our ponchos, so we were
ready.
We found it easier to get a table at breakfast this morning; I
suspect that was because we wouldn’t arrive in port until 9 AM,
so there wasn’t any pressure to get an early breakfast. I
enjoyed the breakfast, which included my first serving of salmon
for the day. As it turned out, I would have salmon at every meal
today, but I’m getting ahead of myself. After we docked, I took
my camera on a walk on the promenade deck. We were docked so
that the port side was closest to shore; our staterooms had a
view of the town of Douglas across the channel, so if I wanted
to see the city, I’d have to go elsewhere. On my walk, I saw
that we were stern-to-stern with another Holland America ship,
the Amsterdam.
We all had booked the Best of Juneau shore excursion; more on
that later. I was under the impression that we had all booked a
second excursion, a ride on the Mount Roberts Tramway, the
station for which was right beside the ship. I would later learn
that Marie and Barb had not booked that excursion; they thought
it would have been too much activity in conjunction with the
Best of Juneau. At the time, I didn’t know that, and I thought
that they were throwing away their money by not going. But no,
they weren’t. So Bill and I left the ship and took the tram the
1800 feet up the mountain. Given the weather, you might think
that the view from there would have been lousy. Well, it wasn’t
top-notch, but the mountaintop wasn’t concealed in fog, so you
could see down below to the ship, to downtown Juneau, and to the
other side of the channel. I guess you could say that the view
had character this morning.
As we rode up the tram, the operator (a member of the Tlingit
community) told the story of a friend of his (also a Tlingit)
who had a fear of heights. One day, he bought a tram ticket,
which was good for unlimited rides all day, and spent all day
riding the tram, up and down, up and down, over and over
again. By the end of the day, he had conquered his fear of
heights. Good for him!
While atop the mountain, we saw a movie on the Tlingit
community, visited the gift shop (they carried lithium AA
batteries Bill wanted for his camera — not particularly cheap,
but since this was an Indian-owned activity, he was willing to
pay a little more for them here). While we were up there, the
rain stopped and visibility improved, allowing me to get some
better pictures of the area and of the ship.
We went down around 11; Bill reboarded the ship, while I stayed
in town to look for a backpack. Now why was I looking for
a backpack? Well, yesterday I’d used the canvas tote bag that my
nieces and nephew had given me for Christmas in anticipation of
this trip. But it was a large tote bag, and I was concerned it
might be too large or too inconvenient for the land portion of
the trip (would I be able to easily stow it under seats or in
overhead compartments?), thus my search for a backpack. I didn’t
find one today. I did visit a shop specializing in Russian
goods; they even carried Soviet paraphernalia, such as flasks.
pins, etc. I tried on an ushanka, a fur hat with ear flaps
associated with the Soviet military. A guy passing by said that
with the hat on, I looked like Vladimir Putin. I asked him if
that was a compliment or an insult (ha ha). No, I didn’t get the
hat.
By this time, it was 11:45. It was time for us to board the bus
for the Best of Juneau. There were actually three buses for the
Best of Juneau, perhaps corresponding to the three activities
that made up the excursion: a visit to Mendenhall Glacier, a
whale-watching cruise in the Stephens Passage, and a meal at the
Orca Point Lodge. I thought that was the order that we would be
doing the activities, but it turned out that we would be doing
them in the opposite order: we would get the meal first, then
watch the whales, then visit the glacier. As it was
lunchtime, I was all right with that. As our bus driver Josh
drove us out on the main highway towards the boat dock, he told
us a few stories. As we passed by a McDonald’s, he told the
story of the day McDonald’s came to Alaska and how the
restaurant was sold out within two hours of its opening. He also
spoke of the Great Big Mac Airlift, the effort by bush pilots to
buy burgers in town, then fly them out to remote locales for
resale. Wow!
Our first stop was at Allen Marine in Auke Bay for our first two
activities. We boarded the St. Phillip (or, as one of the
lifejackets near my seat said, the St. Phil Lip) for our trip
across the Stephens Passage to the Orca Point Lodge, located on
one of the islands in the channel. The tide was out as we
docked; there was a great deal of exposed beach. There was also
a sandbar that connected to a nearby island, but we were warned
not to cross that sandbar, for it might disappear quickly. It
was chilly as we walked up the dock to the lodge. There, a
splendid meal awaited us: salmon or chicken (I had some of
both), a California medley of vegetables, cole slaw, rice, a
dinner roll, and a dessert that was something in between a
brownie and a muffin. I’m not a fan of cole slaw, so I didn’t
eat any, but the rest of the meal was very good. Service was
quick and speedy for the over 100 people who were there.
Afterwards, we wandered through the gift shop, although I went
outside to take some pictures. I could see some kelp that was
laying on the ground, waiting for the tide to come back
in. I don’t think it was raining, but it felt like it
could rain at any time.
Part 2 of the Best of Juneau began as soon as we reboarded the
boat. The captain proceeded to take us through the channel in
search of whales. The company offered a guarantee: if you don’t
see any whales on this cruise, we’ll pay you $100 at the dock. A
few minutes into the cruise, we saw our first whale. Actually,
we saw two whales, a mother and calf pair. They were surfacing
and spouting, and one time, we saw the mother breach! That was a
tremendous sight! As soon as I realized what was happening, I
got my camera up and started taking pictures. I knew that I took
some good pictures of the aftermath, the splash. What I didn’t
know until later is that I had in fact gotten a picture of the
whale completely out of the water. It was only half of the whale
in the picture, so it wasn’t a perfect picture. Still, it
represented my best-ever view of a whale on a whale-watching
cruise, and I’d been on 3 or 4 of those.
After those whales moved off, the captain set off looking for
more whales, and he found them for us. All told, we saw four
whale breaches today. That’s rare to see that many, the crew
said. We also saw some sea lions lounging on one of the buoys in
the channel, surrounded by other sea lions that wanted to be
lounging on that buoy. By 4:30, we were headed back to port. It
was time to head to our final destination, the Mendenhall
Glacier and Visitor Center. There were a number of trails that
one could walk or hike to get better views of the glacier, but
we spent our time at the Visitor Center. We didn’t have enough
time to visit any of the trails, plus the weather wasn’t all
that great. Still, we had a good view of the glacier, and I was
able to take some more pictures. I took around 450 pictures
today, almost one-quarter of the total number I would take on
the trip. Most of those were rapid-fire pictures of the whales,
trying to ensure I got that singular shot.
Was this tour indeed the Best of Juneau? I would say so. It had
glacier viewing and whale watching, plus an excellent meal.
That’a a great combination. Now when we got back to the ship, we
couldn’t board right away. We had to stand out in the rain for
several minutes while the crew reconfigured the gangway to
account for higher water levels as the tide came in. We
eventually got back on board, and we went to rest up in our
cabins. I downloaded today’s pictures onto my iPad.
Dinner was at 8 in the Vista Dining Room again, and it was
another good meal. Tonight, I had crab cakes and grits. The
appetizer contained salmon, which enabled me to say that I had
had salmon as part of all three meals today. After dinner, we
considered our entertainment options. At 10 o’clock, Bill and I
went to B.B. King’s Blues Club to catch the band’s final set of
the evening. Their first two numbers were extended jams,
somewhat jazzy; those were followed by more popular numbers
(that’s 60s and 70s popular, not the pop of today). They did a
good job. The Vista Lounge had the Indonesian Crew Show at 11
PM, put on by members of the crew. It sounded somewhat
interesting, and Bill and Barb went to it, but I was feeling too
sleepy, so I gave it a pass. Little did I know that the DVD of
the cruise would contain several numbers from the crew show, so
I guess I didn’t really miss it at all.
Top
June 11
When I awoke this morning, I could see a rock wall very close to
our balcony. We must be in a really narrow passage, I thought.
But no, it turned out that we were docked. We were in Skagway.
It was 5:45, well before our scheduled arrival time of 7 AM.
There was only one excursion for us today, a ride on the White
Pass and Yukon Route Railroad. More on that later. There were no
immediate time pressures on us, so there was no rush in getting
breakfast. Bill and I went for breakfast shortly after 7; Marie
and Barb would follow later. The food was good, as usual. One
could get spoiled eating like this.
There were three other ships in port today: the Ruby Princess,
which we had encountered several times during the cruise; the
Pacific Princess, successor vessel to the ship of that name that
was featured on The Love Boat; and the Disney Wonder, the first
cruise ship I ever sailed on (back in October 2010). The port
was going to be crowded today. Bill and I decided to walk into
town, which entailed a good hike from our dock location. I was
looking for a backpack, and he was looking for a post office. I
brought my iPad and MiFi along to do an e-mail check, for I
could not get good coverage at the dock. I could and did get a
good connection at the White Pass Railway station. We took some
pictures of the surrounding area, including some of us standing
by a very large snowplow used on the railroad. At the Alaska
Shirt Company, I found a decent enough backpack; I also found a
pair of reading glasses that I could use as a spare pair. We
walked up the main street to the post office, where Bill was
able to mail his postcards and get a picture of the post office
(it was to have something saying “Skagway, Alaska”). We could
hear a young woman calling for visitors to a museum that
celebrated its prior life as a bawdy house; she was really
getting into her part.
Another thing I was looking for was a cable for a mini-USB
connector to a regular USB connector. This would allow me to
connect my camera to my iPad; I thought that would make for a
faster connection than connecting the memory card directly. I
had several cables with me, but they all used a micro-USB
connection. There was a Radio Shack dealer in town that sold a
retractable cable that could take either a mini-USB or micro-USB
and connect it to a regular USB port; that was exactly what I
needed. Then we headed back to the ship. The sun was coming out,
and I felt myself getting warm on the walk. I was wearing two
jackets this morning; I’d have taken one off if I were going to
stay outside any longer.
Back on the ship, I visited the Crow’s Nest and Exploration Cafe
to get another drink of VitaminWater Zero and to attempt to
connect with the MiFi. The drink was good, while the
connection attempt was poor. It was completely unsuccessful, in
fact. I would now be without a reliable Internet connection
until Sunday, when we reached either Seward or Anchorage. That
got me to thinking about getting an onboard connection package.
But that decision would come later. First, we had a train to
ride.
We were booked for a 12:45 ride on the White Pass and Yukon
Route Railroad in one of their luxury parlor cars. When making
our initial choices for Skagway excursions, I chose a different
excursion that involved the railroad, one that went into the
Yukon Territory. It would have been another political entity for
me to add to my list of places I’d visited; it would also be an
8 hour excursion. The others decided to go for the luxury car
experience, and I decided to join them. Sure, it was $100 more
expensive, but it was shorter, and either way, I was sure I’d
enjoy myself.
We left the ship at 12:30 and were directed to the front of the
train, where we boarded one of the parlor cars. These cars had
been built for the White Pass line and were going into service
this year. The seats were comfortable, able to rotate 360
degrees. The car was very reminiscent of the parlor car
available to sleeping car passengers on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight
line between Los Angeles and Seattle, an experience I had had in
March 2010. The train started moving, and we were on our way.
The train wasn’t moving particularly quickly, as the summit of
White Pass was only 20.4 miles away. As we passed by many scenic
and historic sights (and sites), we enjoyed appetizers and
drinks. I had a bottle of locally brewed root beer, which was
very good, as well as hors d’oeuvres made with reindeer sausage,
some hummus, and a cheese-and-pesto spread. There were others,
but I forget what they were. Often, we could see the Klondike
Highway in the distance; that road went from Skagway to Fraser,
BC and eventually to the Alaskan Highway. That made Skagway the
only city in southeast Alaska that one could drive to from the
rest of the continental US without needing to take a ferry.
As we approached the summit, we could see an obelisk flanked by
the US and Canadian flags. This was the international border. We
crossed into British Columbia for a short distance so that we
could turn around — in reality, the engines changed their
position relative to the rest of the train. We were in the front
before, and now we were in the back. Our hostess/guide warned us
to expect a big jolt when the engines re-connected to the train.
She should have warned us to hold onto our drink bottles,
because my bottle of Perrier toppled over and spilled most of
its contents onto the rug. I had to get another bottle. We
descended the way we had came; this enabled me, at one point, to
take a picture of all four ships in port below us. An hour or so
later, we were back at the port and heading back to the ship
after a wonderful train experience.
Back on board, there was a flyer waiting for us in our
mailboxes: an entry form for a 5K walk on the Promenade deck to
support Holland America’s charity program On Deck For A Cause,
which benefitted six cancer charities around the world: American
Cancer Society, Canadian Cancer Society, Cancer Council
Australia, Cancer Research UK, Deutsche Krebshilfe (German
Cancer Aid) and KWF Kankerbestrijding (Dutch Cancer Society).
Bill signed up to participate; later on, so did I. We both
received T-shirts and a wristband for participating. The walk
would take place Saturday afternoon, the last at-sea day of the
cruise.
We all went up to the Exploration Cafe to get drinks, in my case
another bottle of VitaminWater Zero. That stuff was pretty good.
While we were there, I could hear a session of Name That Tune
taking place in the Crow’s Nest. I couldn’t always hear the
songs clearly, but when I could, I could easily identify what
they were. Back in the cabin, I finally decided to bite
the bullet and purchase an onboard Internet package. Since there
were only a few days left on the cruise, I decided to get a 100
minute package for $55. I recalled getting similar packages on
my cruises on Disney. As I retrieved my e-mail, I noticed
a sharp increase in the amount of spam I was receiving; in fact,
spam accounted for the majority of my messages. My laptop was
supposed to be deleting spam as soon as it was received; it was
no longer doing that, it seemed. Had it gone offline? Had there
been a power failure at home (yes, I would learn upon my
return)?
At dinner, we saw our dining companions again and asked about
their time in Skagway. They’d taken the Yukon adventure I’d
considered taking and had enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed
tonight’s meal of a fish cake, steak with collard greens,
strawberry bisque and another Gold Rush Baked Alaska. Everything
was good, as usual. For our evening entertainment, Bill, Barb
and I went to the Vista Lounge to see comedian Billy Garan. Barb
really enjoyed his act, while I thought he was OK.
Unfortunately, I was trying very hard to fall asleep during the
show. It wasn’t his fault; we had been so much on the go, and we
were being forced up earlier than we might want to be due to the
early sunrises, that I was quite sleepy.
Top
June 12
As we approached Glacier Bay National Park, the sun was up very
early once again. That contributed to my getting up around 5:30.
I checked the e-mail on my iPad; the connection was slow, and
most of the messages were spam, which I deleted quickly. We went
for breakfast in the Lido restaurant around 7:30. Today, I
changed my dining habit slightly: instead of the Special K
cereal I’d been getting, I chose to eat Kellogg’s All-Bran Wheat
Flakes with the rest of my meal.
The views of Glacier Bay were spectacular, and I wandered around
the ship looking for good vantage points. I went up on deck 10
for a while, and then I moved to the bow. I was wearing
two jackets and a long-sleeve shirt, but it still felt cool
there. The crew was serving hot Dutch pea soup to passengers, a
longstanding Holland America tradition; judging from the number
of cups taken, it was a successful tradition. I took a cup
myself; it was indeed hot, hot and hearty.
Back inside, we caught the 10 AM showing of “Beneath the
Reflections,” a short film about underwater life in Glacier Bay.
Afterwards, I went up to the Exploration Cafe for a VitaminWater
Zero bottle and a chocolate chip cookie, both of which were
good. I then went to the shops on deck 3 and bought that model
of the ship I had seen earlier in the cruise, as well as a map
and DVD of the Inside Passage and the wildlife that would be
seen there. This map was similar to one I already had, but this
one was customized for Holland America, showing the routes its
ships took through the Inside Passage. I gave my earlier map to
Bill.
Back outside, the ship arrived at Margerie Glacier, one of the
prime viewing opportunities in Glacier Bay. It still reached the
water, unlike most of the glaciers that were in the area. We saw
some calving, nothing huge, but it was enough to cause some
decent-sized splashes. We could also hear the ice breaking off
from the main glacier; it’s not an easy sound to describe. At
one point, I saw a seal lounging on an ice floe, with hardly a
care to the world. I got some good pictures of him or her. There
were many seagulls flying about as well; some of them got pretty
close to the ship. They were looking for easy handouts, no
doubt; the ship’s captain made an announcement warning not to
feed the seagulls. I could hear others talking about seeing
moose and mountain goats on shore; I had seen an eagle in the
trees earlier. At one point, I saw a small vessel near the
glacier alongside of us. From my later review of my pictures, I
believe it was the same ship that we’d used for our lunch and
whale-watching cruise in Juneau.
Back in our room, we gathered on the balcony in Bill’s and my
cabin for self-portraits with the glacier in the background. I
took some as well, setting my camera up to take 3 pictures at a
time (normal, underexposed, and overexposed) that I would
combine later to create HDR or High Dynamic Range pictures. I
took some of the three of them (Bill, Barb and Marie), and then
Bill took some of the three of us (Barb, Marie, me). After that,
we went to lunch. But we didn’t go to the Lido restaurant;
instead, we went to Dive In, a burger and hot dog grill by the
pool. It was quite busy there; many others had had the same
idea. After we received our meals, we knew why it was so
popular: the burgers were good.
We then went to the Vista Lounge for presentations on Glacier
Bay from the park rangers and on the Tlingit people who used to
live in Glacier Bay from a Huna Tlingit cultural guide. I found
myself trying to nod off during her presentation, but it wasn’t
from boredom. The others felt similarly sleepy. Marie said that
the guide’s voice and manner were soothing and relaxing, and our
bodies were responding accordingly. We went back up to deck 10
for more bottles of VitaminWater Zero prior to the presentation
at 4. This was a repeat of the Tuesday presentation for those
who were going onto land tours after the cruise. The others had
missed that presentation because they were on their Misty Fjords
cruise and flight, so they needed to see this; I did see it, but
I had some questions and was looking for answers. Yes, I found
my answers, and we were all informed about what we needed to do
on Saturday and Sunday morning.
Back at the cabin, I opened up the box with the model of the
ship and took some pictures of it. It was in one piece when I
got it, and I hoped it would stay in one piece until it got
home. The Styrofoam packaging would help with that, for sure. I
made another e-mail check; there were over 100 e-mails, nearly
all of them spam. I deleted them as fast as I could, but
unfortunately, I deleted an e-mail from Amazon I didn’t mean to
delete. It seemed to involve the change of a delivery date for
an item I’d ordered. I was very upset when that happened, for I
felt that was very important information to know. Fortunately, I
could login to the Amazon site directly to see what it was
about. And it was important: my order of The
Complete Peanuts 1995-1996, originally scheduled for
release on July 4, was now scheduled to be delivered next
Wednesday. Problem: I wouldn’t be home next Wednesday, I’d be in
Fairbanks, and I didn’t want the package sitting on the porch
for two days. I feared it might NOT be on the porch when I
arrived home. So I canceled the order. If it was indeed coming
out next week, I could find it in a local bookstore (and I did).
By this time, we were heading out of Glacier Bay. It was time
for the rangers and guides to return to park headquarters.
In the morning, a boat had come to the ship and delivered them,
and now it was returning to pick them up. This was all done at
speed; neither vessel was stopped. The NPS boat drew alongside
and matched its speed with the ship, pulled up to one of the
lower doors, and then the rangers and their equipment
transferred over. One misstep, and someone could have ended up
in the drink! Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and I watched
with several others as the boat drew away and returned to park
headquarters. Back in the room, I reviewed the pictures I
had taken today, once I had downloaded them to my iPad. They
turned out fantastic. And I wasn’t done with the camera: several
minutes later, we passed an area where a clear boundary in the
ocean was visible between the glacier meltwater of Glacier Bay
and the warmer and saltier waters of the Gulf of Alaska. That
made for some good photographs.
Tonight was the second of two formal nights on board, so we got
dressed up again for our dinner. As we went to dinner, I heard
the sound of chimes. I looked around and then saw one of the
uniformed crew striking chimes that he was carrying, summoning
everyone to the dining room. I’d never been summoned with dinner
chimes before. ASIDE: the famous NBC chimes derived from the use
of dinner chimes. The chairs in the dining room had white
slipcovers on them, giving a very elegant look to the tables.
Two of our dining companions, Tom and Sue, were not with us this
evening; they were booked at Pinnacle Grill. But Allan and Jody
were there. It turned out that on the previous formal night,
when we were at the Pinnacle Grill, they had observed their 25th
wedding anniversary, and the waitstaff had given them a special
celebration similar to the ones they gave for birthday
observances. If we had been present that night, we would
received our birthday celebration then, but we ended up
receiving it the following night. As for the meal, everyone
chose the same thing: Surf and Turf, filet mignon and lobster.
It was very good.
After dinner, I was feeling sleepy, so I went back to the room,
while the others attended the performance of “Rockin’ Roadhouse”
in the Vista Lounge. I don’t believed they particularly cared
for it; none of them were big country music fans. As for me, I
laughed out loud when I found a towel monkey hanging by our
balcony door.
Top
June 13
I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom.
It was not dark outside, not at all. I would call it more of a
late twilight. That was weird. I hadn’t experienced anything
like that since visiting Finland in June 1998. The sun would
rise around 4 AM, also very weird for me.
My uncle Bill was coughing; he had apparently come down with
something. That was not good. It certainly wasn’t good for him,
for he had to be feeling lousy. I feared catching what he had,
so I started to carry around a bottle of hand sanitizer and use
it frequently. My last cold had been in mid-April, two months
earlier; I was not in the mind for a repeat.
Before we went to breakfast, I checked e-mail; most of it was
spam, but there were some important messages, including messages
from my ham radio club’s mailing list regarding what to do about
one of our club transceivers that was malfunctioning: have it
repaired or look for a new one. Afterwards, I looked outside and
saw some mountains in the distance on the horizon. One of them
was likely Mount St. Elias, the second-tallest mountain in
Alaska.
We went for breakfast later than we had been going; this was a
day at sea, and we didn’t have to get up for any shore
excursions. I had the same items that I’d been having for the
last few days, although I had replaced the Special K with
All-Bran Whole Wheat Flakes; I also tried one of the sausage and
egg muffin sandwiches; it was all right.
At-sea days tend to be be filled with more onboard activities
and presentations, for obvious reasons. One such presentation
was in the morning in the Vista Lounge; the topic was on the 11
different Indian cultures of Alaska. We learned that that the
Eskimo people in Alaska prefer being known by their tribal names
than a collective name like Inuit. We learned a few other things
that, as of the time I was writing this, I no longer remembered
distinctly. After the talk, we went briefly through the
stores, which were very crowded due to big clearance sales; I
didn’t see anything that appealed to me. Afterwards came
another trip to the Exploration Cafe for a cookie and a bottle
of VitaminWater Zero; I would save this bottle for use on the
train to Anchorage tomorrow.
The early part of the afternoon was dedicated to packing. We had
to designate one of our bags as “Meet Me In Fairbanks” and put
in there anything we didn’t expect to use on the land trip or
didn’t need during the land trip. My suit jacket, my ship model,
and my canvas tote bag were among those items, as were my
long-sleeve shirts and my fleece jacket and one pair of shoes.
We also had to pack our carry-on (in my case, that was the
backpack I had bought in Skagway) and our “Meet Me Tonight” bag
(in my case, the bag I carried onto the airplane). The bags had
to be out in the hallway by midnight.
The 5K walk that was On Deck For A Cure began shortly after 2
PM. At 2, those of us who were participating had gathered in the
Northern Lights nightclub for brief formalities, and then we
walked up to the Promenade deck to begin our walk. It
would be 9 laps around the deck; that would constitute 3 miles
or 5 kilometers. Figuring that it would be chilly on deck, I
wore a long-sleeve shirt underneath my T-shirt. Suddenly, we
were under way! We stayed together for most of the first lap and
gradually started to spread out on subsequent laps. There were
some places where we got hit by strong winds; there was another
location where the strong odor of varnish could be smelled. Bill
was carrying his camera, and he would take pictures of us on
occasion. Now when I signed up for the walk, I did not specify
anyone for whom I was dedicating my walk, but now, as I was
doing the walk, I had decided that I would dedicate it to those
relatives of mine who had had cancer and had passed on as well
as to a former school classmate who was undergoing chemotherapy
for breast cancer (and who would report the following week that
she had completed her final round of chemotherapy). After lap 4,
I took a water break; after lap 7, I snacked on a cookie. And
around 3:05, Bill and I completed lap 9. We had done it!
After the walk, we all went up to the Lido deck to eat at the
taco bar. We got there fairly late, so the guacamole was all
gone. I took more of other items to compensate, but I missed
that guacamole. I got a Diet Coke at the Lido bar. Afterwards,
we went to the main restaurant to get some ice cream.
While there, I got a scare: I couldn’t find one of my wallets!
It was not in the pocket where I expected it to be. I got
scared and went back to where we had sat for lunch; it wasn’t
there. I went back to the bar; nobody had turned anything in. I
headed for the elevator to go down to the Front Office to report
the missing wallet, but before I got there, I found the wallet;
I had put it in the pocket where I normally keep a wallet, which
was NOT the pocket where I was keeping it on the trip.
Initially, I was relieved, but that was followed by intense
anger for putting that wallet in the wrong pocket. I did
have some ice cream, but I didn’t enjoy as much as I should
have. Still, the important thing was that it wasn’t lost.
For the rest of the afternoon, we finished our packing. I also
changed my clothes for dinner, as my sweaty shirt from the walk
wouldn’t have made for good dining room apparel. Shortly after
6, I went down to the Photo Gallery to pick up the DVD sets we’d
ordered on the first night, the ones that my sister had given as
birthday gifts. I was under the impression that the set would
consist of two DVD’s, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn
that the Glacier Bay DVD would also be included. I picked up
both sets of DVD’s, for Bill was feeling worse and was lying
down. Before we went to dinner, I started watching the Cruise
Highlights DVD; this was actually made during this cruise, with
shots of people boarding, our departure from Vancouver, the
galley tour from Monday, the Indonesian Crew Show from
Wednesday, a tour of the bridge, etc. Unfortunately, it didn’t
have an example of the birthday celebrations performed by the
Indonesian waitstaff. No, I didn’t see any of us in the video.
Tonight was our final dinner of the cruise, our final time to
see our waitstaff and possibly our dinner companions as well.
The meal was great, as usual. We used it as an opportunity to
give our servers some extra gratuities beyond what was covered
in the service fees charged to our accounts (we would do the
same with our room stewards). After we left, we went through the
Photo Gallery like we usually did. I showed everyone the picture
of me that had been taken on deck 10 in front of Margerie
Glacier, wearing my jacket and my Tigers World Series 2006 wool
hat. The pictures from our boarding were still there, too. Marie
decided to buy these pictures, some of which would become
birthday presents for me. That was very nice of her. Before
retiring for the evening, I took some pictures of the setting
sun from our balcony.
Top
June 14
This morning, we had to wake up very early; we had to leave the
ship at 6:10 and catch our train to Anchorage. To accommodate
these early departures, breakfast would begin serving at 5 AM. I
was partially awake when I heard Marie calling through our
shared cabin door, “It’s 15 after 5!” Startled, I checked my
watch; it was only 4:15. But given our need to get up early, I
decided that I was up. Having the sun shining brightly outside
helped with that. We were nearing Seward, and I took a few
pictures as we approached.
We were in the Lido restaurant shortly after 5. I took a bit
less for my meal than I had been getting; it was still good. It
was an enjoyable last meal on board. I did my final e-mail
check, using all but 4 minutes of my online package. I switched
back to the MiFi, but it was a weak 3G signal, not good for
anything.
By 6, we were at the Vista Lounge, ready to be given the order
to leave the ship. I believe we were among the first passengers
to leave, as our departure for Anchorage was among the earliest.
After 6:10, we received the order to proceed out, then down the
gangway one last time. Our cruise was now officially over. But
the land part of this Land+Sea journey had just begun. We walked
through the Seward cruise terminal and onto the Alaska Railway
car for our experience aboard the Scenic Cruise Train.
The trip would take about 5 hours from Seward to Anchorage. It
was a very scenic ride, one with plenty of opportunities for
taking pictures. There were several places where the waters by
the train tracks were very still, leading to many opportunities
to take pictures where one would have a hard time telling which
was the original and which was the reflection. From our table,
we saw an eagle in flight and two moose in the distance. I might
have gotten a picture of one of the moose. Closer to
Anchorage, we saw some Dall sheep high above the tracks on the
rocky hillside. We rode along Turnagain Arm for a long
ways; the tide was out, so the inlet was mostly mud flats. Due
to the high tidal variation and the presence of those mud flats,
nearly all boat traffic was prohibited, our guide said.
Shortly before noon, we pulled into Anchorage and boarded a bus
that would take us to the hospitality center. It was really the
convention center, but today it was being used as a temporary
rest area for passengers and travelers arriving in town before
their hotel rooms were ready. Those wouldn’t be available until
3:15. Now we were scheduled to go on an excursion to visit
Portage Glacier and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
That would leave at 1:15, but from where, we didn’t know. For
three of us, it wouldn’t matter from where it left, because they
decided they weren’t going. Bill was feeling really lousy and
just wanted (and needed) to rest and recuperate, while Marie and
Barb were just tired and wanted to rest as well. I still felt
like going, so I did. I learned that it would be leaving from
the hotel, so I’d have to go there with my bag; the hospitality
center would be closed upon my return. So I walked over to the
hotel, the Westmark Anchorage, and had lunch at the hotel
restaurant. I had a reindeer burger, which tasted like — beef,
not chicken. I finished in plenty of time to make the bus.
Our bus took us through Anchorage and down to the Seward
Highway. The railroad from Seward paralleled the Seward Highway
for much of the way, so the scenery was very familiar from a few
hours earlier. I recalled seeing the ruins of a 50-year old
house sunk into the ground; that was what was left of a house
that sank after the 1964 earthquake. It was so severe that the
town of Portage was completely wiped out. We turned off the
highway and drove a short distance to Portage Glacier. We
stopped at a dock there to board the Ptarmigan, which would take
us on Portage Lake to see the glacier. This was the closest
glacier to Anchorage, which explained its popularity. The boat
had two decks; I spent most of my time on the upper deck. As we
set sail, I could see some kayakers out on the deck, as well as
one paddleboarder. The glacier was not immediately
visible; we had to motor out and around some rocks before we saw
it. And there it was. I could not say how large it was relative
to the other glaciers I had seen, but it was indeed big. I
didn’t notice a lot of calving, but there was some. After one of
those instances, the boat started rocking and rolling. I had to
hold on to the railing to avoid being knocked to the deck.
After the glacier cruise, we got back onto the bus and went to
the nearby Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The center
specializes in rehabilitating injured animals and returning them
to the wild as well as taking care of those who are unable to be
returned to the wild. I figured this would be my best chance of
seeing wildlife up close on this trip, and I certainly got that
chance. There was a viewing platform for observing bears in
their large enclosure. I got to see three grizzly bears and one
black bear. With the zoom lens on my camera, it was almost like
I was close enough to touch them. But I wasn’t. That would have
been an incredibly bad idea, for if I had, I would have been
their supper. On a nearby tree or post, I saw an eagle
looking around and being majestic. He presented some excellent
photo opportunities. As I walked around, I observed some
elk and some caribou, as well as some moose. Over behind the
gift shop, there was a disabled eagle (damaged wing, unable to
return to the wild) in its cage, still looking around and being
observant. It, too, presented some great photo opportunities.
It was time to reboard the bus for the trip back to Anchorage.
It should have taken an hour, but it took more like two, for
traffic was backed up, stop and go, for most of the trip back.
It wasn’t obvious what the problem was. Once we returned to the
hotel after 7:30, the trip desk clerks said that there had been
a fatal accident on the Seward Highway and that we had been
caught in its aftermath. Now I had to get to my room, but I
didn’t know where it would be. The others would have checked in
some four hours earlier. I went to the front desk, and it
turned out that they had left my key there at the front desk.
Our rooms were on the 14th floor, next door to each other. They
were wondering what had happened to me; I explained about the
accident and the bad traffic backup. Now we could go for supper.
None of us felt like going anyplace else but the hotel
restaurant. But that was all right, for the food was decent
enough, if a bit pricy. I had salmon chowder for an appetizer
and fish and chips for the main course. The chowder was very
good, but the fish and chips were just OK. Now for the rest of
the evening, what would we do? In the case of Barb and myself,
we would rest. For Marie and Bill, though, it turned into a trip
to the emergency room. That was the only medical care available
on a Sunday night, but given that we were traveling, it was
necessary. While they were away, I went to sleep. There was
nothing else I could do, and I was tired. At one point, I woke
up in the middle of the night, and Bill was back in the room,
asleep or trying to sleep on his bed. That was a good sign.
Top
June 15
I woke up around 4:30 to make sure that I would be awake in time
for our departure. We had to have our bags outside by 6:30 and
catch the bus to the train station at 8:15. So that meant
an early breakfast. Unfortunately, nearly everyone else was in
the same situation, so there was a long line to be seated at the
restaurant. I ended up passing on breakfast at the
restaurant and eating an Atkins peanut butter bar in the
room. And that worked.
We boarded the bus for the train station at 8:15. The station
wasn’t very far away, but the driver took a roundabout route to
get there. Even then, we were delayed for a few minutes in
reaching the station; we parked alongside the curb for several
minutes. But eventually, we proceeded to the station to board
the McKinley Explorer. This was one of Holland America’s special
railroad cars attached to a regular Alaska Railroad train for
the trip to Denali National Park. We got underway a little bit
late at 9:26 AM. Today, the seats all faced forward, unlike
yesterday where half of them faced rearward. The cars had
wrap-around windows that went up to the roof, which guaranteed
an excellent viewing experience. There were also outdoor
observation platforms at the back of each car, which provided an
even better viewing experience (no window to interfere with
taking pictures).
Shortly after departing the train station, we passed by an Air
Force base and saw an F-22 stealth fighter taxiing. Not long
afterwards, we saw that fighter jet take off and immediately go
into a 90 degree bank as the pilot flew to who knows
where. We saw two moose scampering in the distance;
unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of them. We saw a
bald eagle flying alongside the train. We passed through the
town of Wasilla, home to former governor and vice-presidential
candidate Sarah Palin. The family compound was visible from the
train, although I never got a good sight of it. I did see that
gasoline was $3.28 at the Holiday and Tesoro stations in town.
though. That was quite a bit higher than in Detroit.
There was a forest fire burning near the town of Willow, and it
produced quite a bit of smoke. That interfered with our
view to some extent; there was even a time when the air
conditioning was shut off in our train car to keep from pulling
smoky air inside the train car. We saw some firefighters
alongside the tracks; we also got to see a helicopter filling a
bag with water from a river or creek, then flying off to dump it
on the fire. I got pictures of that; those would be unusual
pictures.
It is said that only 30% of visitors to Denali National Park, or
perhaps to this part of Alaska, get to see the tallest peak in
North America, one known by multiple names: Denali, Mount
McKinley, or simply the Mountain. Around mile marker 224, we
became members of the 30% Club, as we got our first views of the
Mountain. And those first views turned into fantastic views of
the Mountain from scores of miles away. There wasn’t a cloud in
the sky or around the Mountain.
As we traveled northward, I followed our progress with a guide
to the ride that was sold on board; I bought mine yesterday on
the Seward-Anchorage ride. They sold some other things on board
as well, including a water bottle filled with soda pop that
could be refilled indefinitely while on that train; I bought one
of those. And I drank from that water bottle while we had lunch
on the lower level (a bowl of salmon chowder and a bowl of
reindeer chili).
Not long after lunch, the train started traveling very slowly.
It continued that way for several miles, and then it ground to a
halt. We didn’t move for what seemed like hours. What had
happened? Apparently, due to the high temperatures, the rails
had bucked and developed a kink. If it wasn’t too severe, a
train could go very slowly over the kink, but this one was bad
enough to prevent all travel. We could have derailed and had a
bad accident. The rail was being repaired while we and two other
trains waited to the south. Finally, it was repaired, and we
could continue our journey. But arrival at the scheduled time of
4:40 was out of the question. In fact, we arrived at 7:30 and
were taken by motor coach to our destination, the McKinley
Chalet Resort.
Our first order of business upon arrival was to check at the
tour desk, because our delay had caused us to miss an excursion
scheduled for 6 PM, a wilderness experience and dog cart ride.
Rescheduling was not an option, as we had another event
scheduled for the only other available time; the only option was
a refund, which the tour desk processed. It was disappointing
that we wouldn’t be going on that excursion; then again, the
rest we gained as a result would do us good. We had supper at
the main restaurant of the lodge; I had crab bisque and a salmon
spinach salad, both of which were very good. So was the dessert.
Back in our room at cabin R, the bedroom had only one king-size
bed. I let the still-ailing Bill have that room, while I offered
to sleep on the couch, which happened to be a sofa bed.
Top
June 16
It definitely did not get dark at Denali National Park at this
time time of year. That contributed to my awakening around 4:30
and getting up by 5:15. But I had a need to get up early: we had
an early bus to catch. Our Tundra Wilderness Tour bus would
depart at 7, and we had to eat and finish our breakfast before
then. Instead of eating in the main restaurant with its $13
Continental breakfast buffet and $18 hot breakfast buffet, we
got our breakfast items at the Grizzly Grind (in my case, a
sausage & egg biscuit sandwich and a bottle of apple juice)
and ate them in the lobby.
Shortly before 7, we boarded the park bus designated as Tour 9
for the Tundra Wilderness Tour. Our driver and guide was Tom
Turk (so said the nameplate at the front of the bus). This bus
was a converted school bus, not a motor coach; no restrooms were
on board. There would be 3 or 4 stops during the tour for taking
care of necessities. We left the McKinley Chalet and stopped
briefly at the Princess Denali Lodge to pick up a few more
passengers, and then we were on our way into the park. The bus
was nearly full, but it wasn’t completely full; there were a few
vacant seats and a few extra box snacks.
Once past the Visitor Center area, there is only one road in the
national park, the Park Road, extending 92 miles into the
interior. We were not going all the way to the end of the road;
we would be turning around near the 60-mile mark. And past the
15-mile mark, the road was gravel. It was also free of traffic
other than park buses, other than the occasional vehicles from
campers. This kept the park as pristine as possible, making sure
that what was wilderness stayed wilderness. Now how could an
area that had a road through it be called wilderness? By
defining the wilderness such that the road was not included,
that’s how. If we were to stop and step off of the roadway, we’d
be in the wilderness.
As we rode along the road, we were told to be observant for
wildlife. Tom said he would watch as best he could, but his top
priority had to be watching the road in front of him as he drove
the bus. And there were places where the road was narrow and had
a sharp drop-off with no guardrails. And what did we see during
our tour? We saw Dall sheep high on the mountainside. We saw
several caribou out and about. At one point, high above a
gravel-filled stream bed, we saw a grizzly bear — a mama bear
leading her four cubs. They were not easy to see, even
with a telephoto lens. I had a lens with a maximum focal length
of 250 mm, and the bears were hard to spot. However, Tom was
equipped with a video camera with a longer zoom lens, so he was
able to zoom in more closely and show the bears on the video
monitors above each seat. That was a great help.
Since this was Denali National Park, one would think there would
be opportunities to see the Mountain. And one would be correct,
for we did get to see Denali on several occasions. The first
time, the mountain was mostly covered by clouds, though the
lower elevations were visible. For the other occasions, the
clouds had disappeared, and we could see the entire mountain in
all its glory, including the north summit and the taller south
summit, along with the valley in between.
There were a few stops to get out, take some pictures, and use
the restrooms. I availed myself of these opportunities, as it
was a wise thing to do. I had no desire to feel miserable during
the intervals between rest stops. One of these stops was at
Toklat River (around mile marker 50), where Alaska Geographic
had a bookstore. Here, I would buy two books, including one
called “The Spirit of Alaska”, a book of photography and poetry
by local artist Jimmy Tohill. Guide Tom had recited one of those
poems during our trip, and I was inspired to buy the book.
As we drove onward, we saw a vehicle on the side of the road
with people out in the field taking pictures of the wildflowers.
This was a photographic program put on by the Murie Science and
Learning Center, Tom explained. They were enjoying the
experience, undoubtedly. Hopefully, their picture-taking
experience would not be interrupted by a bear. A few miles
farther on, we did see another bear foraging in the distance;
not long afterwards, we saw a caribou looking very intently in
the direction of that bear. I do not know if the bear was aware
of the caribou; I know the reverse was definitely the
case. Were we about to see an example of Denali free-range
caribou (bear-claw lickin’ good)? No, it didn’t appear we would.
We drove on past Highway Pass and to the turnaround point. Here,
there was an opportunity to take pictures; more specifically,
there was an opportunity to have your picture taken with the
Mountain in the background. I took a picture of Bill, Marie and
Barb with the Mountain in the background, and then Bill took a
picture of Marie, Barb and me with the Mountain in the distance.
We got back on the bus for the return drive, and way off in the
distance, high upon a ridge, we could see a caribou. His or her
antlers were very prominent against the sky. We moved a little
bit down the road, but then we stopped. There was a bear very
close to the bus, possibly the very same bear we saw with that
caribou. Everyone got very quiet so that we didn’t disturb the
bear. He presented an excellent photo opportunity for me and the
others as he passed by. No, I didn’t get a close-up like the
ones at the Alaska Wildlife and Conservation Center on Sunday
afternoon, but this was Wild Kingdom! This was Nature, pure and
unadulterated!
Our last big wildlife encounter took place on the return trip. A
moose was in the middle of the road, and we had to stop to avoid
hitting her. She did move off to the side, and we got some
pictures before she moved off, possibly to rejoin her calves.
Near the end of the tour, guide/driver Tom passed around two
items. The first was a picture booklet of the highlights of the
tour, prepared especially for those who took the Tundra
Wilderness Tour and not available elsewhere. The second was an
order form for a DVD of the highlights of the tour, along with a
coupon for $10 off of the order. Bonus: the DVD would
include specific examples of the wildlife seen on today’s tour
and captured by the guide’s video camera. Given what we had seen
today, that would make for a spectacular addition to the
standard DVD content. I filled out my order blank and gave it to
Tom as we left the bus. it would take 2-3 weeks for us to
receive the DVD.
When we returned to the lodge, I was sorry the tour was over but
glad to get off of the bus. My rear was very sore from the
seats, or maybe from sitting on the seat belt buckle. Also, I’d
developed a crick in my back from turning to get the best photo
opportunities. While the others took the lodge shuttle bus back
to our cabins, I stayed at the main building and spent some time
in the gift shop, looking for gifts for my nieces and nephew. I
was successful. The main building was on top of a small rise,
and I walked down the hill to where our cabin was. As I passed
by one of the shuttle stops, I saw my uncle Bill waiting there.
He was feeling well enough to go for a short walk on one of the
walking paths in the area. I decided to go back to the cabin and
download my pictures to the iPad. As I was doing that, I turned
on the TV. There were tourist information channels such as the
Denali Channel and the Alaska Channel, filled with short
features on many of the places we had visited on this trip.
There were information channels for the lodge, containing such
things as the weather report and the departure time for the
various buses. There was also a Women’s World Cup game featuring
the US and Nigeria, which was taking place in Vancouver. I
hadn’t been able to watch the World Cup on the trip, so I kept
the game on and was treated to a 1-0 USA victory.
For supper this evening, we would go to the Gold Nugget saloon
and be treated to dinner theater: “The Music of Denali”. First,
the dinner: salad, biscuits, mashed potatoes, succotash (no word
on whether or not it had been sufferin’), beef brisket and baked
salmon, with house-baked apple crisps for dessert. It was good,
although I had had better brisket elsewhere. Afterwards came the
show; the waiters and servers for our meals were the performers
in the show, the subject of which was the first ascent of
Denali. The audience participated whenever the song “Land of the
Midnight Sun” was sung; it wasn’t easy keeping those hand
movement straight! Afterwards, we went back to our cabins and
turned in.
Top
June 17
We didn’t have to get up as early this morning as yesterday, but
I was still up around 6:30. Blame the sun for that. We had to
get our bags about by 8 so that they’d be picked up and waiting
for us at Fairbanks, where we would be finally reunited with our
“Meet Me In Fairbanks” baggage. We had plenty of time to eat our
breakfast in a leisurely manner before we caught our 9:30 motor
coach to Fairbanks.
I noted that our travels would no longer take us westward. That
meant that the farthest westward I had ever been would be the
turnaround point on yesterday’s Tundra Wilderness Tour. The way
I figured it, I had now been a little more than halfway around
the world in terms of longitude (150.2 degrees West here, and
39.1 degrees East for the House of Baha’u’llah in Mazra’ih,
Israel, or 189.3 degrees overall).
Despite a brief delay caused by construction on the George Parks
Highway, we made good time heading to Fairbanks. There was a
rest stop in the town of Nenana, where we stopped at a cultural
and visitor center devoted to Native culture. We could use the
facilities here (and we did), we could buy snacks and drinks
here (I bought a can of V8), and we could buy gifts (I bought a
DVD featuring scenes of the Arctic). We continued northward. At
one point, Marie said she thought she saw the Mountain in her
window, and she was right: we had seen Denali unencumbered by
clouds for a third straight day. The bus pulled off at a scenic
viewpoint, where we were still able to see the Mountain. It
would probably be the last time we would see it on our trip.
Soon, we were driving into Fairbanks. We passed by the airport
and then took some side streets to reach the home of the
Riverboat Discovery, which we would be riding this afternoon.
Before we boarded the paddlewheeler, we had lunch on shore: beef
stew, roasted vegetables (the grilled corn on the micro-cob was
great), apple pecan salad, and a German chocolate brownie. There
was a short period after the meal and before boarding where we
could visit the gift shop or brave temperatures of -40 (F or C,
they’re the same) in the 40 Below Room. There wasn’t anything in
the gift shop that struck me, and the line for the 40 Below Room
was too long (and I had had my share of 10 Below weather this
past winter).
After the meal, we boarded the Discovery III, third boat to bear
the name Discovery in the company’s history. It was a
family-owned company; the founder had been a riverboat pilot in
Alaska in the 1930s and ‘40s, and when the business dried up, he
converted his boat to a tourist boat and started taking
passengers along the river. Judging by the number of people on
board, the business was doing very well with the 3rd and 4th
generation family members. We found seats on the lowest
deck as we got under way. As we cruised down the river, we could
see some very nice homes, including modern log cabins. There
were three highlights of the cruise: a demonstration of a bush
pilot taking off and landing on the river in his floatplane; a
stop at the kennel for mushing dogs founded by the late Susan
Butcher, 4-time winner of the Iditarod race, and still operated
by her family; and a lengthy stop at the Chena Indian Village,
where we disembarked and got to see several examples of how the
Athabaskan people lived prior to and after contact with
Europeans — their buildings, their clothing, how they smoked
their salmon, etc. I found it all very enjoyable. The dogs at
the kennel were really enjoying themselves as they played and
trained. Some of the dogs went on a training run, pulling an ATV
behind them and getting to play in the river afterwards. On the
return trip, Butcher’s daughter Tekla joined us on board,
signing copies of the children’s book “Granite” (about the lead
dog during the Iditarod wins) that her mother had written
shortly before passing away. I bought a copy to give to my niece
Heather, who was about to start her career as a teacher and was
building up a collection of children’s books.
After returning to the dock, we reboarded our motor coach for
the short drive over to the Westmark Fairbanks hotel. On the way
there, we passed by a Denny’s — the world’s northernmost
Denny’s, as it turned out. The driver said the northernmost
McDonald’s was in Fairbanks, as well. Maybe it was the
northernmost one in the US and North America, but definitely not
for the world; I had visited the world’s northernmost McDonald’s
in Rovaniemi, Finland in 1998 (it may have since lost that
status to one in Russia). We arrived at the hotel around 6 but
didn’t have much time to settle in an rest, for our final
excursion of the trip was coming up.
We had to be back in the lobby to catch the bus for the Alaska
Salmon Bake and Show at 6:55. This took us to Pioneer Park,
which contained a collection of historic buildings from the
Fairbanks area. The salmon bake was mostly an outside affair
with some indoor seating; we chose to sit indoors. The food was
all right, although the consensus was that the meal at the Gold
Nugget Saloon at the McKinley Chalet was better. We then walked
over to the Palace Theater for that night’s performance of the
“Golden Heart Revue” (“Golden Heart of Alaska” referring to
Fairbanks). The cast did a good job portraying some of the
characters of early Fairbanks. One of the performers looked very
much like my niece Heather. Unfortunately, the hard seating
started to irritate my rear end before the end of the show,
putting a slight damper on my enjoyment of it. When the show
ended, we boarded the bus back to the hotel.
Back in our room, I discovered that the hotel’s WiFi connection
was very poor on the 5th floor. I had to go to the lobby to get
a good connection. One of the e-mails waiting for me was from
Delta Air Lines; it was time to check in for tomorrow’s flight
and print boarding passes. I decided to do that tomorrow, once I
was able to confirm everyone’s luggage situation.
Top
June 18
There was no time pressure this morning; there were no early
excursion buses to catch. I was up around 6:30; I took a shower
and put on my clothes. By 8:30, we were all up. My first order
of business this morning was to go to the business center in the
lobby to print out our boarding passes. As it turned out, only
Barb and Marie had to pay for their checked bags; Bill and I
didn't have to. I took care of that while I printed the
passes. Back in the room, I finished packing my bags. I
was concerned I wouldn’t be able to fit both the big canvas tote
bag and the backpack in my suitcase, but I managed.
Since there were few if any alternatives near the hotel, we
decided to bite the bullet and partake of the hotel restaurant’s
breakfast buffet. Yes, it was expensive, but it was good.
Afterwards, I was quite full; I had considered going on a walk
earlier, but I didn’t feel like it now. So my uncle Bill went on
a walk almost to downtown.
Our checked luggage was outside our rooms before 11, when it
would be picked up and delivered to the airport. Our flight was
scheduled for 9:30, so we had a long wait ahead of us. We
arranged for a late checkout from our rooms, enabling us to stay
there until 2. At 2, the lobby was crowded, and there weren’t
enough seats for all of us to sit together. Bill and I ended up
going outside to sit on the benches for an hour or so. It
turned out that most of those in the lobby were waiting for the
3 PM airport shuttle, so spaces eventually freed up in the
lobby. We found four comfortable chairs and camped out in them,
waiting until the 6:30 shuttle.
We could still use the hotel WiFi connection while we were
there, so that’s what I did. And because I did, I was able to
receive an e-mail from Delta: our flight would be delayed an
hour and fifteen minutes. Then I received a later e-mail:
it would now be delayed until after midnight. No need to hurry
to the airport when we had comfortable chairs at the hotel. Now
what would we do for supper? Eat at the airport? There were only
two dining options out there, neither of which were highly
recommended. Eat at the hotel restaurants? We’d lose our
comfortable seats. Now we’d seen another group receive a pizza
delivery in the lobby; that inspired us to order our own. It
wasn’t the world’s greatest, but it satisfied our hunger.
We took the 9 PM shuttle to the airport, and after checking in
and clearing security, we proceeded to gate 5 to wait some
more. Delta provided sandwiches, snacks and drinks for
everyone due to the delay, which I understand was caused by
weather delays elsewhere. And so we sat. The clock went
past midnight, and the sun was still up. But not long
afterwards, we were able to board the plane. Our return home had
commenced in earnest.
Top
June 19
This was a red-eye flight, and it wasn’t going to be
comfortable. I was in the middle seat, and both seats on either
side of me were occupied. I couldn’t lean back to get
comfortable, nor could I tilt my head back; the cushion wasn’t
high enough. All I could do was lean forward against the seat
back in front of me — which held a video screen. I could still
feel the spots where I had contacted the screen several days
later. I didn’t bother to take my jacket off before sitting
down, thinking I might get chilly on the plane; instead, I got
warm. At least I could roll the sleeves up on that jacket. And
on top of all of that, it never got dark outside. I don’t know
if the sun ever officially set during that flight.
Some five hours later, we were in Minneapolis. While the others
in my party waited for everyone else to leave the plane, I got
off before them. I hadn’t used the restroom since Fairbanks, and
I needed to go very badly. Fortunately, the restroom wasn't far
away. By the time I got back, the others had exited. I
walked back to get them, and we found a place to sit for a bit
so they could take care of their necessary business.
We had arrived at concourse D, but the flight to Detroit would
leave from concourse F. We had a bit of a walk ahead of
us. There were times when we wondered if we should have asked
for a cart to transport us, or at least one of us, but with
frequent rest stops, we managed. Now thanks to the delay in
leaving Fairbanks, we only had a short layover of an hour and a
half. We found some seats at the gate and waited. I think we
would have preferred to have had more layover time in
Minneapolis rather than the delay in Fairbanks; we could have
sat down to a proper breakfast in Minneapolis.
Now I had had difficulty with my carry-on on the first flight;
it would not fit under my seat, so I had to stow it in an
overhead compartment a few rows forward. When there was a call
for volunteers to gate-check their larger bags, I decided I
would do that. I took out my battery packs, my iPad and my
camera bag, and when I arrived at the bottom of the jetway, I
dropped my bag there. It seemed weird not to have my huge
carry-on with me at my seat; it also felt liberating, as I
didn’t have to contend with its weight (some 25 pounds). I had
an aisle seat, which was much more enjoyable than that middle
seat. The flight was fairly short, an hour and 9 minutes or so
of flight time. There was no need to visit the restroom during
that short trip.
By 12:37, we were down on the ground. Once again, we stayed back
and allowed the others to exit before us. That let us see our
bags being removed from the plane, and it was comforting to know
that they weren’t lost. After retrieving our bags, we waited for
the shuttle bus to the green lot. We waited — and we waited —
and we saw what looked to be multiple buses from the private
lots and the hotels arriving, but finally we saw a bus for the
green lot. Soon, we were at our vehicle and on the road. It was
lunchtime, and we stopped for lunch at the Leo’s Coney Island
close to my condo. I was starting to feel exhausted; my trip was
nearly at an end. The others still had to drive across town, but
I was almost home. And a half-hour later, I was home. The major
unpacking would wait until tomorrow. Three days later, I would
be back at work. My vacation was over.
THE END
Back to Travels page
©2015 R.
W. Reini. All rights reserved.
Written by Roger
Reini
Revised
June 29, 2015
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