Victoria–Final post for this trip.

We stayed on the ship rather than visit Victoria. None of the shore excursions appealed and it’s not like we’ve never visited Victoria. Anyway we stayed on the ship. We have our luggage all packed and will place it in the hallway when we go to bed. We’ll be able to pick it up on the dock and won’t need to cart it through the ship and boarding area. We have reservations on the 11:00 train so we have lots of time to get to the station. This morning when we came through the Strait of Juan DeFuca it was foggy again so again no photos of the Olympics, 

The Olympic Mountains are gorgeous even in haze and under clouds.

The Grand Princess was at the Victoria cruise ship dock when we arrived. She carries over 3000 guests, nearly double our ship.

Victoria from the harbor.

M.V. Coho, the ferry that runs from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria. We’ve ridden that boat many times.

Tom

At Sea

We’re on our way between Sitka yesterday and Victoria tomorrow. Out of sight of land so nothing to watch even. On the other hand it’s about the warmest weather we’ve seen since we left Seattle so it was pleasant to sit out on our veranda in the sunshine with a book. There is a small library aboard and we’ve been getting books from it to read. Carol has read more than I as I’ve got my photos to play with so while I fuss with my pictures she reads. I’ll include some photos of the library today.

Mural on library wall

Part of the fiction section

Not just books

Quiet time

Tom

Sitka

We took the shuttle into town and just puttered around there. We visited the old Russian Orthodox church, visited some shops and galleries and took some photos all in all a  very satisfactory day. It was marred a bit because I had forgotten to reset my camera after taking photos of our last towel creation. Whoever tends our room in the evening leaves a towel sculpture. We’ve gotten a seal and an elephant and a rabbit and others. The past few I’ve photographed and to get the white of the towel I need to dial in some positive exposure offset. Last evening I neglected to put it back and didn't notice until I’d taken 10 photos or so. Some I retook and some others I rescued in Photoshop but I did lose three or so completely.

Folded towel elephant

Sitka harbor – My favorite photo of the day.

Downtown Sitka – Many of these shops are normal stores.

Interior – Russian Orthodox Church

We finally saw a whale from our veranda

Tom

Hubbard Glacier

We got to the glacier around 2:00. As he did at Sawyer Glacier the captain first turned the port side of the ship to the glacier and after 20 minutes or so turned it so the starboard side faced the glacier. Our cabin is on the starboard side so we get the second turn. While we were turned away I took the camera up to the lido deck where there is open deck at the stern of the ship. I was glad that I did. As it happened, when he turned our side to the glacier the clouds dropped nearly tp the surface to where it became problematic to see the glacier at all. We didn’t even bother to sit out on our veranda to watch. As an aside, the Hubbard glacier is something of an anomaly . In warmer climate it advances rather than retreats. The warmer weather brings heavier snows to the snowfields that feed it.

Cruising

Waterfall

Glacier

Glacier – 2

Tom

Kodiak

More school busses. At least these had more leg room than the ones at Homer. We took a 50 min narrated tour. The driver narrator was a former teacher and was born and raised here in Kodiak so was able to give us a native’s view of the city. She stopped at two scenic points for photo ops. We discussed taking the shuttle back into town. We could have visited the Baranov Museum and photographed the Russian Orthodox church here.

Downtown Kodiak and small boat harbor

Waterfront Park

Outbound

Kodiak container port. Everything on the island arrives by air or by boat.

Tom

Homer

Homer is another port that is only visited by this particular cruise. Unlike Anchorage, the only bus leasing service that can provide multiple busses is the local school bus service. Lots of bright yellow busses down on the deep water port today. Carol and I rode the Hop - on, hop - off bus. It makes 4 stops in town. We got off at three of them. We visited two art galleries and walked on one of the local beaches. We also rode the shuttle to the end of the spit. It seems like there has been a lot of development on the spit since we were here 10 years ago.

Shuttle busses

Bald Eagle

Bishop’s Beach

Shops on the spit

Tom

Anchorage

This is the only cruise that stops at Anchorage. All of the other cruise lines stop at Seward or Whittier, the other two deep water ports. All of the other Holland America cruises stop at Seward. Every two weeks this trip stops at Anchorage. It is the only one. We chose to take a train trip down through the Kenai to Grandview. The trip started out along Tournagain Arm. Then  a side trip over to Whittier and back to the main line. There were two nearly identical tours. One of them got off the train and took a hike to a glacier. The other stayed on the train for the ride to  Grandview. Then we picked up the group that had done the hike and another group that had done a white water raft trip. Busses brought us all back to the ship.

Anchorage is a real city. Nearly 50% of all Alaskans live here or nearby.

View across Tournagain Arm rendered in B/W

Miles Glacier (?)

Alayna Falls – Named by a young lady employed by Alaska Railroad. She was captivated by these falls and when she learned that they had no formal name she went through the process to name them after herself.

At Sea

Not much to say today. We went to the show tonight. It was the professional entertainers and they were doing a presentation called “Dance”  We were a bit disappointed. Not much in the way of scenery. It was pretty much foggy all day. In the late evening it cleared up a bit and I got two or three decent photos along the coastline West of Glacier Bay. I also got a shot of the pilot boat that brought the pilot out to bring us into Anchorage.

Our tours director Thought that this might be La Palousse Glacier.

Alaska coastline at dusk

Bringing the pilot aboard

Tom

Icy Strait Point

Icy Strait Point is the site of a  salmon canning operation which was founded in 1912 so has been an important part of the community for over 100 years. The cannery shut down in 1953 and the site was used for maintenance and support of the fishing fleet. In 1990 the site was purchased by the local Indians and the cruise dock was developed. The old cannery buildings have been largely made over into shops and restaurants though one area contains an exhibit of the old machinery that shows the salmon canning process. In the Indian village we saw a completed totem pole that will be installed in Glacier Bay National Monument later this month that tells the history of the Tlingit people. Three carvers worked 7 months to create it.

Welcome to Icy Strait Point and Hoonah

Museum and gift shop would be more accurate.

One of the old cannery buildings.

Retired

A native American craftsman describes the completed totem pole.

Tom

Juneau

We hadn’t signed up for a tour on the ship so we got off and there were a whole line of tour agents vying for our attention. We chose a bus tour through Juneau and then a drive out to Mendenhall glacier. And Forest Service Visitor Center. Our bus driver was a retired school teacher (25 yrs) from Texas and had the drawl to authentic it. She was a real kick. Told us several amusing anecdotes of life in Juneau including the bear that wandered into a local liquor shop; knocked over several bottles and got himself totally drunk licking it all up.

Welcome to Juneau

Tour ship shopping area.

One of the stops on our tour overlooked the harbor so I got a photo of our ship.

Mendenhall Glacier.

Piano Man – Red Dog Bar & Grill – Old Town Juneau

Tracy Arm

Day - 3  Scenic cruise on Tracy Arm.
And scenic it was. Tracy Arm ends at Sawyer Glacier and today we were able to go all the way in to the glacier. This is a pretty big ship and there isn’t a whole lot of room up in front of the glacier. Carol talked to a lady who had taken this cruise twice before and this is the first time she’s seen the glacier. On our way in the cloud cover was a few hundred feet so visibility was really pretty good. On  our was out the clouds dropped lower and for a while it was virtually foggy out. It was a nice day. For much of it we sat on our veranda and watched the world go by. When we’re sitting in the chairs back by the door it’s quite comfortable but when I was out by the rail taking photos it wasn’t quite so pleasant.

Tracy Arm ends at Sawyer Glacier so on our way in we passed a lot of float ice calved off from the glacier.

Along Tracy Arm

First Sight of the glacier

Sawyer Glacier

Ketchikan

Today was our best one to date. We booked an excursion out of Ketchikan; a boat trip into the Misty Fjords National Monument and wilderness area. It was 5 hours from when we left the dock until we tied back up and got off. It was quite cloudy when we left but it mostly cleared up and when we well into the National Monument it was really quite sunny. Lots of marvelous photos. The commercial salmon season starts tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM so we saw several fishing boats that were anchored in their favorite fishing spot and already to start tomorrow at 5:00.

Ketchikan bills itself as “Alaska’s 1st city” meaning the first city that most of the cruises stop at.

New Eddystone Rock, one of the landmarks in Misty Fjords National Monument.

Once he weather cleared the scenery was spectacular.

A fishing boat sets out for Salmon season.

Tom