Life After Our First Mission: Trip To Alaska

Sailing away from Seattle

The Happy Travelers

I’m running late again this week. This is the August twelfth blog, though I’m writing it on August the nineteenth because the window of opportunity to write the blog between arriving home from Alaska and leaving for Black butte was too short.

Norma and I have experienced several cruises; however, Bo, Teresa and Quentin have not. We have anticipated, with excitement, sharing this trip with them. We have been to Alaska enough times to know what to expect by way of weather; it was cool, wet and cloudy but we were prepared. We had warm jackets, fleece, hats and umbrellas.

This is the only time I’m going to mention the food. We tried to eat in the Dinning room for lunch and dinner and stay away from the buffet as much as possible. Did it work? No, but we did succeed more than half the time. The dinning room food was above average.

We liked the Dinning Room

Sunday evening and Monday we were at sea in continual fog. We spent the time getting acquainted with the various part of the ship.

Tuesday morning was foggy. As we got closer to Tracy Arm and the glaciers, the fog lifted a bit and gave us some hope the sun would shine and allow us to get close to the glacier. As we passed more and more icebergs the sky became lighter and lighter. By the time we arrived at our destination it was almost sunny. Though the sun didn’t shine through the clouds until we were several miles away from the glacier on our way to Juneau, we did have a good view of the glacier.

Glacier At Tracy Arm

Wednesday was spent in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Quentin and I planned to hike the West Glacier Trail, while the others took the bus to the Mendenhal glacier; however, when we checked in at the visitors center, we were told the West Glacier Trail was very dangerous, because of the amount of rainfall this summer causing mud and slick rocks down to the ice caves. We were advised not to make the hike. As a result Bo, Teresa and Quentin went on a whale watching tour (Norma and I had done that before so we stayed in town). The whale watching tour was a huge success. They came very close to Orcas and Humpbacks. In fact, one humpback swam under their boat.

Close to The Whales

On Thursday we were tendered into Sitka. Sitka is the most beautiful Alaskan city I have seen. We wandered the streets and hiked out to the National Park where we followed the trail of totem poles. Sitka has an onion-domed church, a Russian cemetery and other remnants of Russia. Though it rained off and on, the sun did come out for a while.

In Ketchikan we wandered the streets, then rode a bus up the mountain a bit. We got off the bus at the park in front of the fish hatchery. We started walking down toward town and followed the fish ladders for a while. It is approaching spawning season so there are a lot of dead salmon in the rivers and along the banks. We stopped at a spot on the river where there had been a bear sighting fifteen minutes earlier. We waited, but he didn’t show himself again. We continued down the hill along the river to Creek Street. Creek Street is a restored street on pilings with historical shops on either side. Teresa did some shopping then we all returned to the ship.

Sitka

Saturday evening we docked at Victoria B.C. for a couple of hours. We only enjoyed the city lights from the ship.

We got off the ship on Sunday morning and drove directly to Portland. Bo drove through Olympia and Quentin drove the rest of the way. He has his drivers permit and will get his drivers license in October. This was the most time we have ever spent with Quentin. He is becoming a man at six feet plus. We feel he had some experiences to remember us by.

We spent the rest of the day getting ready to go with Kitta, Peter and Case to Black butte.