For those of you checking in for updates, be sure you scroll down. I’m adding the posts I wrote up while on the cruise and the few I am writing from memory now, but in order to keep them in the correct order, I am back-dating them, which means they don’t always appear at the top of the page. Please be sure to check lower down on the page to make sure you have read all the good stuff. Photos and videos are being added as I get everything uploaded.

Our wildlife tally, including our Seattle/ Mt. Rainier adventure is as follows:
Deer: adult in Seattle, fauns in Alaska
Bears: 3 black (2 babies, 1 mama), 1 brown (I only saw the back end of it, Mom and Dad missed it.  See Icy Strait post).
Banana slugs: ewww
Whales: 1 pod of Humpbacks, including at least one calf, many times, (see video). No Orcas
Bald Eagles: Too many to count, including 2 playing “tag.”
Marmots: 4. Either fighting or breeding. Or both
Mountain Goats: 2, way the heck up on top of a cliff
Harbor Seals: Just faces peaking out of the water while we were kayaking, but it still counts!
Salmon: One GIANT King Salmon jumping out of the deep water, tons in rivers (and on the dinner table)
Puffins: Hundreds of both Horned and Tufted Puffins
Other assorted birds: by the thousands (Mom can fill you in on the other kinds)
Sea Otters: 2 while on our boat tour.  One catching food, the other appeared to be napping.
Sea lions: 2 groups, laying out on the rocks in the rain, making funny sea lion noises.
Octopus: One one on the fisherman on the dock at Icy Strait had caught one while halibut fishing.
Jellyfish: Not just for Caribbean vacations anymore.

Family, remind me if I missed any!

Exciting things to come, including whales, bears, glaciers, and (on a sadder note) our two heroic EMTs aiding accident victims on the bus from Seward to anchorage.

We have successfully arrived in Seward, our last port of Call. We are going on one final excursion to kenai national park with a boat ride along the fijord. We then bus to anchorage and fly to Seattle at midnight. Then salt lake, Kansas city and Columbia. I will post the belated blogs at our next wifi spot!

Another early morning. In order to disembark the ship successfully, we woke up at 6am. Our bags had disappeared from the hallway outside of our stateroom, hopefully whisked off to the dock where we would pick them up later in the day. Bleary eyed, we made our way up to the buffet room, helped ourselves to one last wonderful buffet breakfast, complete with made-to-order omelets, smoked Alaska salmon with capers and cream cheese, crunchy hash browns and tasty pastries. Really, it was the coffee we were looking forward to the most.

We returned to our stateroom one last time, brushed our teeth and threw the last of our belongings into our carry on bags. Then we headed up to yet another bar, the Colony Club, to wait for our colored number, Gray 4, to be called.

Once our number was called, we walked through the ship, off the gangplank and onto land. We were off the ship for good! We claimed our luggage, and followed a guide through to our bus for the day. After we deposited our luggage in a rental truck, which would be locked up for the duration of the day, we boarded the bus with a VERY enthusiastic native Alaskan bus driver who was overjoyed to tell us all about the history of Alaska and Seward, in a very loud, very irritating voice, considering how early we had gotten off the boat. She told us about the devastating earthquake of 1964, which destroyed 90% of Seward’s industry, a loss from which they have never recovered. Out in the water surrounding the city, there are still ruins of their old piers, railroad tracks and warehouses that fell into the sea after 5 minutes of earth rumbling.

Our bus driver left us in “downtown” Seward, yet another city with basically a single main drag. We explored a little, finding a lovely coffee shop with free wi-fi, and a cool store with kitchy souvenirs. I bought a great red hooded sweatshirt with a logo of the Alaska Beer we had been drinking in every port, brewed in Juneau. I think it will be funny to wear a sweatshirt that says “Alaska Summer” in the winter in Florida. Mom bought a puffin Christmas ornament too, since she was still hoping to see puffins.

After 2 hours in downtown Seward, our bus driver returned to collect us and take us down to the small boat harbor, where our afternoon’s entertainment was waiting. We boarded the Star of the Northwest, a smaller ship that holds just over 200 people for a bout tour that would take us into the waters surrounding Seward, including the coast line of the Kenai Fjords National Park. The ship had a National Park ranger on board, and she was even conducting a junior ranger program, much to the delight of Martha and Sam, who had gotten Junior Ranger badges at both Klondike parks and Mount Rainier in Seattle. A 4th badge was even enough to keep Martha’s mind off of the rocking ship!

Part of the cruise package included lunch on the ship, and boy were we surprised at how good it was. It was an all you can eat buffet of silver salmon and beef tenderloin, as well as salad, black bean pilaf and desserts. The beef had this amazing cranberry-horseradish sauce that I will now spend months trying to recreate. The consensus among all of us was, best meal we had eaten on the whole trip. As hard as the chefs on the Radiance of the Seas had worked, the cook in the galley of the Star of the Northwest blew them all out of the water.

The captain of the ship had noticed Dad’s Hampshire College hat as we boarded the ship and mentioned that he spent his winters in Hartford, CT. He invited Dad to come up and see him in the wheel house once we got off the dock and into the open waters. It didn’t take us long to realize that the captain’s wheel house had the best view, as well as protection from the cold, wind and rain. Dad told the captain that Mom had spent the entire week looking for puffins and he guaranteed both Mom and Dad that she would see some on this trip. Sure enough we rounded a corner in one cove and there were hundreds of them, Horned Puffins and Tufted Puffins, frantically trying to remain aloft. The captain mentioned he thought they looked like football with wings, and he wasn’t far wrong. Every single one of them looked surprised they were airborn and especially anxious to find solid ground again. Mom was in heaven. We also saw 2 sea otters, 2 herds of sea lions on the rocks, and way up in the hills, 2 mountain goats, eating their fill of mountain side greens. Crazy! The weather was cold, wet and rainy, but we had a blast anyway. What a great final excursion!

6am. No really. We arrived at Glacier Bay at the crack of dawn. We crawled out of bed, into our layers and layers of clothes because it was FREEZING and windy outside. But we were 350 yards from the glacier. The giant, blue wall of ice, a huge dynamic wall of ice, snow and compacted history, surging its way to the sea, carving out the landscape and creating a new set of geological features underneath its enormous bulk.

Captain Claus said it was the closest he had ever been to the glacier. We could see the dirty, muddy, brown river gushing out from under the glacier and into the bay, wearing away the landscape underneath, carving out features that we see in the land surrounding us today.

I was amazed at how dynamic the glacier was. As we stood, we could hear cracks and groans and the ever present rush of water. Huge chunks of ice would fall off and splash into the water, reminding everyone watching that this giant wall of ice was actually a huge river of ice, slowly working its way forward, down the mountain and into the sea. The water surrounding our ship was dark and muddy, saturated with silt and dirt from distant mountains, carried down from the tops over hundreds of years, only to be washed away from the face of the glacier in the matter of minutes. It was breathtaking, only in slow motion. Just watch this video I took on my camera:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25899512@N04/3761308258/

Martha had been feeling sea sick all night, even skipping dinner due to a queasy stomach. Luckily Sam felt it necessary to drag her outside in her appropriate penguin pajama pants in order to see this once in a lifetime site. They were alerted to the fact that we had arrived at the glacier by our much beloved Captain Claus.

I suppose now is the time to explain a little about Captain Claus, the captain of Radiance of the Seas throughout our journey. It is important for you to know that we never actually met the man, we just listened to his long, verbose messages delivered to the ship via the loudspeaker. Captain Claus had a wonderful accent, a combination of the Queen’s English, Norwegian accent and South African twang. It is hard to describe precisely, but imagine a combination of slurred Ws and Vs, with very precisely accented Ts an Cs. Captain Claus would always begin his announcements with “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Captain Claus, from the bridge.” By day 3, we began to ask each other, where else would the captain be? When Martha was feeling a little under the weather, Sam and I would distract her by imitating the captain’s accent and making announcments from anywhere BUT the bridge. Our favorites included messages from the captain’s quarters (This is Captain Claus, from my room. Anyone want to have a pillow fight?) and from the spa (This is Captain Claus, just buzzing in to say AHHHHH).

It was fairly immature, but very fun, and meant in the spirit of absolute respect. We all found the captain to be an upstanding, respectable, professional guy. We were scheduled to remain in Glacier Bay from 6am to 10am, but a fog began to roll in around 7:30, so Captain Claus made an announcement throughout the ship (from the bridge of course) that we would be leaving early, so the other cruise ship behind us might have the opportunity to enjoy the glacier in the same way that we had.

After our up close and personal encounter with the wall of blue ice, we spent the rest of the day cruising across a fairly open stretch of water on our way to our last port of Seward. This meant somewhat rough seas, at least enough to really affect Martha. We kept her drugged up with motion sickness meds, and tried to keep her occupied as much as possible. We ended up in our favorite bar on the ship, (because every area is a bar), the Schooner Bar, decorated with an old school nautical theme, complete with darkly stained wood, ropes, and model ships. We played a round of trivia and tied with two other groups for first place. We ended up winning a set of Royal Caribbean highlighters, complete with a carabineer clip, so you can attach them to a zipper or backpack. Of course, as a graduate student, I was WAY more excited about the clippy-highlighters then anyone else, and the entire group promptly handed over their prizes to the nerd.

We stuck around the bar to play what we thought was Name that Show Tune, a game we were sure we would dominate, but it turned out to be Name that Movie Tune. We pretty much held our own, but were beat out by a group that got all but one of the tunes.

Dad and I also played a few rounds on the self-leveling pool tables, which was a complete mind-blowing experience. The table surface always remained level, no matter which way the ship rocked and swayed, which meant the balls would always remain in place. Looking down on the table from the top, it appeared that the table was completely still. However, in order to achieve this affect, an internal gyroscope would shift the body of the table. From the side of the room, the pool table would be shifting and swaying, sometimes as much as 20 or 30 degrees. So, while trying to shoot pool, you would be looking at a ball, sitting absolutely still, while the table you are leaning against is shifting up and down, and the ground beneath your feet is rocking and rolling. Below is a video of this type of table on another Royal Caribbean ship, so you can get an idea of what this looks like. It has to be experienced to fully understand just how strange it is.

http://www.snotr.com/video/2058

After that, we played a round of Bingo for the grand prize of $4,500. Martha was one ball away from winning the game, with a 50-50 chance of winning with the final ball called. It was unbearably tense, but the girl three rows down ended up taking home the grand prize.

After our devastatingly close Bingo loss, we finished packing our bags, which had to be left in the hallway before midnight on our last night. Then, we headed to dinner and shared stories and photos with our dining companions. Emails were exchanged, photos taken and a lovely dinner shared. Sigh, another lovely day spent on the ship! Tomorrow, we will disembark in Seward and say goodbye to the Radiance of the Seas, Captain Claus and our new friends!

The first thing you need to understand about Icy Strait is, it doesn’t really exist. It isn’t on any map you can find, and isn’t the actual name of the town.  Icy Strait is the name of the body of water the cruise ship passed through on the way to a tiny harbor off the coast of Hoonah, Alaska, a town of about 2000 people, only about 800 of whom live there year round.  The ship drops anchor off the coast and sends in tender ships (I think that is what they are called) to shuttle you ashore.  There is exactly one street, with a few shops, a crab shack, a restaurant, a waiting lounge for cruise passengers, and a highway leading up the coast.

Icy Strait exists because the cruise ships, specifically Royal Caribbean, needed another port for their 7-day and 14-day Alaskan cruises.  The cruise line has been investing in the port for a few years now, including the addition of the “worlds longest zip line” which basically looks like a one person chair lift with no breaks coming down the side of the mountain.  (After doing exactly one zip line course, I deemed this one LAME).  In short, this is a tourist’s dream stop, full of tchotchkies, souvenier shot glasses and kitchy tee-shirts.  Anyone looking for any kind of authentic Alaskan experience . . . this is not your stop.

The morning started out with a bang.  Mom and I, per our routine, had gotten up and gone to the ship’s gym at 7:30am.  Mom was participating in a vitality stretch program, while I was running on the treadmill.  As I stepped off the treadmill and onto the ship’s balcony to cool off after a 30 minute run, I noticed some movement in the water a few yards off of the ships starboard side.  All of a sudden, a whale spouted, then dove under the water.  As I watched, an entire pod of whales made their way up the side of the ship and into the cove ahead of us.  I ran inside in to catch my mom and grab my camera, but unfortunately Mom missed them.

As a family, we signed up for the woodland hike and bear seeking.  This included a 45 minute bus ride up away from the coast line and into the interior of the Hoonah woodlands.  We arrived at the site, where there was a very well maintained set of boardwalks through a peat moss bog, up to a river, chock full of running salmon and lined with berry bushes.  This island has one of the densest populations of brown bears, at least 1 bear per 2.4 persons.   The site we were at is well known for bear spotting.

Alas, we walked through the bog, and no bears.  We waited quietly at the first overlook platform for 10 minutes, and no bears.  We waited, a little less quietly, at the second platform for 10 minutes.  We saw two Bald Eagles fly through the sky, seem to collide, tangle together, then fall from the sky in a crazy end-over-end spiral.  As Martha put it, for the sake of our younger readers, “Look, the eagles are playing tag!”  As cool as that was, still no bears.  We got to the third platform and waited.  And waited.  Spawning salmon were leaping out of the river, it started to drizzle a little bit and still, no bears.  Finally, our guide (who didn’t seem to know much about wildlife other than what was on her cheat sheet) said it was time to head back to the buses.  She quietly reminded some of the other guests, that no, bear sightings were not gurananteed because, they are wild animals after all.  We walked past a few piles of bear scat and a couple of bear holes (they dig up the roots of the tastiest plants and eat them from the bottom.)  Then we got back to the bus, boarded the bus and sat down, a little dejected.  A nice walk in the woods, but no bears.

Our bus driver was talking to us a little bit about procedure and heading back into town, when a woman at the start of the bus started screaming, “Bear! Bear! Bear!”  She sounded so panicked that the bus driver ducked, then ran as if he were going to close the door to the bus.  According to Martha and Sam, who were on the same side of the bus as the screaming woman, a bear had ambled onto the road, and was staring at the bus, curious.  After a few seconds, it turned and trundled across the road, and I, on the other side of the bus, caught the butt-end of the bear disappearing into the foliage.  Unfortunately, Mom and Dad, who were in the very back of the bus, didn’t get a chance to see it at all.

So the bus ride back into town was a mix of excitement (one the right side of the bus) and bitter disappointment (on the left side of the bus.)  We got back, made a quick souvenir shop and proceeded to the only restaurant on the main drag for our now standard beer, as well as a few cups of really excellent seafood chowder.  We were enjoying our food and beer while wallowing in the sadness of no bears, when I started to notice a congregation of people on the cruise ship balconies across the water.  Considering we had been docked in port for over 7 hours, it seemed strange that this many people would venture out into the drizzling, 58 degree weather.  Then, the crowd on the ship, as a group, moved further down the ship, a few of them running, and in the distance, I could hear the faint sound of Captain Claus on the loudspeaker.  So I turned to the family and said, “I think something is going on outside.”

So we picked up our plastic cups (no open container laws in Icy Strait), walked outdoors and down to the end of the pier.  And there were whales.  A whole pod of whales, making their way up and down the coast, doing what Captain Claus called “cooperative bubble net feeding.”  They would all dive under the water and swim around in a circle, then together, come up through the center of the circle with all of their mouths wide open.  It was tough to catch on film, because they would surface all of a sudden, dozens of yards from where they had been moments before, then be gone in a matter of seconds.  They swam between us and the side of the ship.  The ship couldn’t have been more than 500 yards from the end of the pier, so the whales had to be less that 200 yards from us.  It was incredible. 

We got back on the ship, pretty much blown away.  Our tablemates were pretty impressed with our videos, and had awesome stories of their own to share.  For a port that didn’t exist a few years ago, we had quite a thrilling day, even without paying for the zip line.

Our next stop was Skagway, an old boom town from the 1889 Gold Rush into Alaska.  The town has only ever existed for tourists: first for Stampeeders heading north to the gold fields in Dawson, 600 miles away, now for cruise ships coming up the coast.   There is even an advertisement for a local antiques and curios shop painted on the mountain rocks that opened to “mine the miners” and still thrives today.

The main drag of Skagway, Broadway, features shops and restaurants with fronts restored to their historic Gold Rush appearance.  It feels a little like being in a Western film, with boardwalks on either side of the street instead of sidewalks and false fronts on the buildings.  The only things missing were saloon doors and tumbleweeds- the locals told us they occasionally get bears in the streets instead of John Wayne or other pistol shooting duelers.  We arrived on yet another picture perfect morning, with a bit of Alaska fog but patches of blue sky.  It was even warm (in the 60s)!

We went to the Klondike Gold Rush National Park in Skagway, the sister park to the one in Seattle.  While the Seattle park focused a lot on how Stampeders headed out from the Lower 45 (the number of states at the time of the Gold Rush), the museum and park in Alaska focused more on the trek from Skagway and Dyea into the actual gold fields far to the North.  It painted a clear picture about the war between the launching cities of Skagway and Dyea to bring in the most people (and their money), a battle that was won by Skagway for two reasons.  The first is the White Pass Railway, which was completed AFTER the gold rush was over, but became the most efficient way for miners to bring their gold OUT of Dawson, and the second is because a devastating avalanche killed a number of Stampeders leaving Dyea to head north, 2 weeks before the train broke ground.  Today, Dyea, about 12 miles from Skagway is nothing but ruins and forest.

We took the free ranger tour of the town, which included a stop at the homestead of the founder of Skagway, Captain William Moore, who built his home and a mill 12 years before gold was discovered, on a hunch that this spot might be important if there was any kind of valuables in the interior of the Alaska territory.

Dad and I hiked the mile and a half out of town to see the Gold Rush Cemetery, including the grave of Jefferson “Soappy” Smith, the gangster who ran Skagway for awhile, and Frank Ried, the vigilante who killed Smith in a shoot out and died from his own wounds 10 days later.  Soppy and his gang were grifters and con men, and ran scams on the incoming gold rushers, such as offering to send telegrams home to their families in the Lower 45 for $10, even though the telegram wires only went 100 feet from the office.  As you might imagine, Soappy’s grave has a small stone on it, while Ried has a towering obelisk and the inscription “He died for the pride of Skagway.”

We kept up our tradition of stopping for a beer in every port, this time drinking in the local Skagway brewery.  We also bought our first round of Alaska fudge, called Inside Passage- dark chocolate fudge with tubes of peanut butter pushed through the center.  Super duper awesome.

We went to see a comedian on the ship that night, and he was outstandingly hysterical.  One of our favorite lines went something like this:

“Ooh, Alaska.  Everyone thinks they are going to come to Alaska and rough it.  They say ‘I’m going to go to Alaska and wrestle bears.  I’m going to get to Alaska and catch salmon with my teeth.  Then they get here and it is like ‘mmm fudge.’”  We thought he was hilarious, mostly because he was right.

Today we docked in Juneau, Alaska’s state capitol. The only way to access Juneau is by boat or plane, since it backs up against two mountains. Mom and I made use of the excellent workout facilities this morning, like every morning thus far, including taking a “Fabulous abs” class. Ouch. It was fun to run on the tread mill and watch the port of Juneau come closer and closer out the window. The captain proceeded to turn the ship 180 degrees and then parallel park our MASSIVE ship. Hats off to him!

Martha, Sam, Dad and I had signed up for the Glacier View Sea Kayaking tour at 10. We took a bus ride with a native guide, Fred, who told us about the local art work, and some local history as we drove a bit north of the city. We came around the corner and there was the Mendenhall glacier across the bay! It was amazing. Our kayaking guides said it was the best view they had seen in weeks. It was big and blue and looked a little like a giant ice S carved into the mountain valley.

We got geared up and into our kayaks and out onto the water. We headed out into the water at a good clip. All of a sudden, off to our right popped a head. It was a harbor seal!!! Add that to our wild life tally. The skies were clear, there was a light breeze and just a little bit of fog coming down from the tops of the mountain. A wonderful day. We headed out into the center of the channel, admiring the consistent seal heads popping out of the water and the abundance of bald eagles flying in the sky.

Our guide had filled us in on the history of Juneau and the Glacier and it was time to head in. Dad and I, together in a 2 person kayak, wanted to skirt closer to the shore in the hopes of seeing more seal heads, which the guide didn’t seem to mind, since we were pretty self sufficient. As we headed in, all of a sudden, the wind started to pick up. Then the surf got crazy. Then the clouds rolled in. All of a sudden, it was raining and the wind was blowing us all backwards faster than we could paddle forward. I got splashed with salt water in the face and couldn’t see for a few minutes. Things got a little harry out there, but luckily we all managed to pilot to shore. (The emergency motorboat had to haul in three less powerful 2-person kayaks!). When we got to shore, the guides told us that as we had been out in the water, a small craft advisory had been issued, and all other trips out today have been cancelled. Yikes!

We wandered a little through Juneau, getting an upclose view of the capitol. Both of our bus drivers to and from the kayaking site pointed out the Governor’s mansion. One of them, Fred, told us that her new name from the locals is “Sarah Bailin’” because she is bailing out on the state. The other bus driver told us to look for U-Hauls in the driveway. Seems she isn’t super popular up here at the moment.

In case you were worried, Mom did not come kayaking with us. She did, however, spend some time in the spa, getting a facial and a foot massage. Clearly, this was the less dangerous course of action to follow.
We finally found some free wi-fi here in a local bar in Juneau. All we had to do is buy a drink! We will try to find a similar set up in the next port, Skagway, but they have been few and far between. I will keep writing up blogs and will post them (and photos I hope) as soon as I can!

Today we docked in Ketchikan, Alaska, our first port of call on the cruise. Martha, Sam and I took our first excursion up into the rain forest (the second largest in the world after the Amazon) and did the Bear Creek Zip Line course. The course lived up to its name, because as we waited on the tree platform for the second zip line, 80 feet up in the tree canopy, Martha and I happened to notice some movement in a nearby tree.

Something big and brown. Bears. Baby Bears. 2 of them, climbing and eating. They were tiny, smaller then my dog back home. Of course, once we realized we were within spitting distance of two very small bear cubs, we immediately began to look around for the Mama Bear. Unfortunately, my turn to zip across the cable came before Mama emerged, but Martha got to see the baby bears climb back down and meet up with Mama on the ground.

We also had a chance to walk though Ketchikan after our zip line tour, to see the Salmon ladder up the river. We could see dozens of salmon, waiting in the water for their turn up the ladder, though none seemed to have the immediate urge to jump while we stood there. We also saw banana slugs the size of a foot and bald eagles.

After we got back to the ship, everyone but me headed to the Beatles coverband show (I needed a nap.) When the show let out, before dinner, Mom caught sight of our first whale tale! The whale watching has begun in earnest.
Our wildlife tally includes:
Deer: a few
Bears: 3 (2 babies, 1 mama)
Banana slugs: ewww
Whales: 1 tale
Bald Eagles: Too many to count
Marmots: 4. Either fighting or breeding. Or both.

Dinner was outstanding once again. Mom was talked into buying a copy of the cruise line cookbook, on the condition that the executive chef and our head waiter sign it. We also had the most amazing chocolate dessert. Mom ordered an Irish coffee to drink with it, but ended up with a drink that was way more Irish than coffee, if you catch my drift. Another lovely day on the cruise!