Alaskan Cruise Post 7: Victoria, Canada

Our last stop (it's as sad to say that now as it was the day it happened) was Victoria, Canada.  It's just a few hours from Seattle, and we didn't arrive until the evening, so there was very little daylight left, and not a lot of light at that because of the rain.  It was still a precious town with gorgeous homes, bed and breakfast locations that make my heart weep a little, a gorgeous harbor, and sleepy streets on our nine o'clock double decker bus tour.  We passed mile 0 of the Canadian highway that stretches across the country.

More totem poles, they never get old. 

The harbor, which was approximately 546,789 times more beautiful than the below bridge/cloudy night/speeding double decker rained drenched window can express.  What?  You don't believe me?  OK, I'm willing to go back and try to recapture it's beauty through film.

One piece of china town, this area was much better than this one little neon lit restaurant displays, but it was the only semi-OK picture I could snag.

I want to live here.

Government building lite with what can only be called Christmas lights, but probably aren't, but I'm going to pretend like they are because I could really dig a town that believes Christmas is a twelve month celebration.  I personally celebrate Christmas for 13 months a year, I think it'll  catch on some day.

Cute widdle wight house and Washignton's mountains.  I spit on you Washington for being so close, you should have been at least three more weeks away because I wasn't ready to see you and your stinky little airport again.  OK....I don't spit on you, but I'm not pleased to see what can only be the end of my vacation looming in the distance.

Sea wall and sunset and a mountain range that I think I exhausted in my previous paragraph's discussion.

Statue waving goodbye...or hello...or goodbye...or hello.  It's like the glass is half empty half full half empty half full question.  Or not, I'm sure there is a very good reason for the waving statue.  I'll go back and read the plaque so I can clear this important matter up. 

If I didn't have 6 more states to see in my quest to see all 50 states.  And if my friends weren't so good at matrimony and procreating that require me to visit other locations, I'd add this Alaskan Cruise back to the top of my travel list and do it all over again....tomorrow.  P.s.  I had a good time.

Alaskan Cruise Post 6: Ketchikan, Alaska

We arrived in Ketchikan on Sunday morning and took a tour of the city.  We were a few weeks too early for the salmon run, but we saw the river they would be swimming up.  It would have been interesting to see this river filled with the salmon (they hop up the falls, and even the stairs built on the left hand side).  On the otherhand, after salmon lay their eggs, they all die, so apparently the towns smells like dead fish for this same time period.  As if fish didn't smell bad enough....

Ketchikan also has a huge collection of carved totem poles...a lot of those poles are in parks and various areas of town with really great flowers and pops of color.

We drove past quite a few totem poles, and later walked around the old part of town near Creek Street and saw some up close and personal.

I'm just adding the below picture because I love churches, and I love taking pictures of steeples even more than light houses. 

This is the area of the town near the port of call. 

One portion is called Creek Street, and some of the original shops and saloons were housed along this area (also next to the salmon run).

Our tour took us all over the town, but it was one of those duck tours that also goes out into the water (they have these in quite a few cities all over the country.

From the water we were in the pathway of quite a few float planes taking off, so bizarre to see. 

We cruised the harbor areas where fishermen were unloading their catch, and were happy to come out for a photo op.  I don't know what kind of salmons these are, but they were huge.

Thre were also four bald eagles I saw swooping around these fishing grounds, including the below bald eagle who hasn't grown into it's white head (it takes 5 years to develope that).  This guy/gal was knawng on some fish in the harbor.

The tour only lasted a little over an hour, so we spent the remainder of our time seeking out some of the totem poles (so cliche, but very necessary), and we were also able to find some fun souvenirs.  I had read this was one of the best/most affordable shopping areas for Alaskan art.  My Mom and I actually used The Alaska Cruise Handbook quite a bit on the ship.  It's a very detailed book written by a guy who fished these waters, and later toured the inner passage for years.  He gave detailed descriptions on the land we were passing, history behind the cities, and tips on what to see, where to go, and what to do in each city.  His advice was spot on and a lot more narrative than typical travel guides.  We had purchased this prior to the trip, but they also sold it on our boat.  All this to say, it was a good buy.

Ketchikan was our last stop in Alaska, but I'm keeping the book because this won't by my last Alaskan stop if I can help it.  :O)  Next....and last up, our last port-Victoria, Canada.

Alaskan Cruise Post 5: Juneau, Alaska

Saturday dawned, and it was time to explore Alaska's capital city, Juneau.  You can't arrive unless you come by boat or plane, or you are a wild animal and can traverse unpaved land. Many people arrived before me and helped create the 'need' for little saloons like the below Red Dog Saloon.  It's said that Juneau is a great drinking town with a fishing problem.  I didn't do either, but the story is believable.  It is much more populated than Skagway, the whole 'Alaska's government resides here' thing probably has to do with it, but it still was charming, and colorful, both literally and figuratively.

I made a list of 101 things I wanted to do over the next few decades, and one of those things was to go whale watching (I've always been terrified of whales...long story I'll pay a psychologist to listen to someday). According to all the books, this was the place to do it. Mom and I took an excursion out to one of the bays in the area and loaded on the below boat.

One of the first humpback whales we saw had a baby in tow.  The baby breached and let us get a good look at it. 

There was lots of spouts spraying water during the 3 hour trip.

The baby is doing some fin slapping and the Mom is spouting in the picture below.

We saw two sets of humpbacks and their calves, and several other whales swimming around the bay waiting on the salmon to spawn.

This gives a good perspective into the size of the whales with the boats behind.  This is just the hump back portion, it's about three times larger than this.  The back fins alone are 15-18 feet, and the whales span 50+ feet in length. 

We also saw some other marine mammals fighting over the prime location of buoy seats.

...and eagles soaring and diving for fish.

We passed the Mendenhall Glacier (another excursion I'd want to try next time), and great scenery along the shores of the bay.  There was a naturalist on board this boat as well who shared info about the wildlife, and helped spot wildlife in the water and along the shore.  We had seen a lot of these animals on the cruise ship, but this got us much closer, and allowed us the opportunity to stop and just enjoy the show.

 I have to share this one little story because it's so sweet.  Apparently Killer Whales are really social animals.  They travel in large groups with the females as the matriarchs.  Mama whale's kids will travel with them, and her daughters will have children that travel with them etc etc etc.  Researchers can tell the different families apart because they all have distinct songs.  The songs change over time, but when the change, they change at the same time amongst the whole family.  All whales can be told apart through their back fins.  There aren't two that are alike in markings, coloring, shape etc.  Photographers can share photos and match and track whales through photographs of the diving fins.  There was this baby whale they found alone in Alaska when it should have been with it's family in HI.  It was nestling up to a ferry each night, and doing poorly.  By listening to it's song, and examining it, the researchers figured out who it's mother was and what pod she traveled with, and figured out something must have happened to her.  They decided to keep the whale in a tank in the ocean (trying to not communicate with it too much so it wouldn't form attachments to it's caretakers).  They nursed it back to health, and then months later, when they knew it's family would be swimming by (they swam by the same general time/place each year) they placed it in the ocean to meet up with it's family.  When they saw it again, it had attached itself to one of the males in the family.  A year later, it came back by and it was swimming with one of it's older sisters.  It swims by every year now (starting in 2002), and they always pin a sign on their tower, 'Welcome, Springer' (the nickname they gave it).  I'm a sucker for a cute baby story.  I can't say that I want to get any closer to a whale, but it was really great to see them by a boat, and the baby helped eleviate some of those fears. 

After the whale excursion, Mom and I did a little more shopping until hopping on board and headed back down  the inner passage to our third port...

Alaskan Cruise Post 4: Skagway, Alaska

We arrived in Skagway on the morning of our third day at sea (Friday).  I love this little clapboard town nestled under a large range of mountains (which pretty much describes all of the coast line).  If I were moving to Alaska, this would be my first destination.  Population 800 and a few probably would be a little bit of a shock, 15 teachers in the entire town might cause a few work condition difficulties, but it's nice to dream.  It's gorgeous.  One thing I was surprised to see all over Alaska were colorful flowers, including wild Irises. 

There is one main row of shops, with a few sprouting off the sides to streets that house residential buildings, and the famous Yukon Railway that climbs up into the mountain for the men who game to join the gold rush.

The town itself is pretty colorful with wooden side walks and little stops along the way like the Red Onion, which was, once upon a time a really popular bordello for those gold rushers.  I skipped that on this trip, and we took advantage of our only day of sunshine and shopped.  I wasn't sure what to wear, but when the sun is out, it's too warm for a coat, and I was grateful for the decision to dress in layers and to be able to get down to capris and a tshirt. 

We also enjoyed one excursion in the morning (again, probably one of my favorite parts of the who trip) up to a mountain (the ride up was beautiful and adventurous), and at the top....a dog camp.  There were several drivers, but this was ours, and he was so sweet.  I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home.  He is up here for the summer working, and has 40 dogs of his own he's training, and runs in the winter in the various races, such as the Iditerod. 

There was no snow, so our sled was this little contraption. 

Sure enough, the dogs were yipping as soon as they heard the big 4 wheel drive truck headed up to the top of the mountain where they live....well, all but one. 

The dogs pulled us through a really pretty woodlined path, and our guide shared some of his stories in regards to his career choice. 

After our ride, we rode back to the bottom where there were more guides sharing some ofthe stories from the trail, and information about the in depth what, hows, wheres, and whys.  And then...there were puppies.  Alaskan Huskies.  I want 16 of these!  Love this picture of my Mom and the puppy I haven't yet been able to steal.

There were also retired dogs laying around the camp, including this guy who had a perch on a bench letting whoever who wandered by love on  him a little.  We all had a little love to give. 

Dear Skagway, Please consider hiring a 16th teachers.  I think we could be good friends.  Sincerely, Christy