Funny how it's so much faster to get home than going out. Of course, not stopping saves a lot of time! We spent almost two days at sea. I did finally get a colorful sunrise outside my balcony, and I took full advantage of it! Bruce said I missed those few seconds with the most color, but a girl's gotta do more than take pictures sometimes!
I also found a sport on this sports oriented ship that I could do in spite of my health issues! One of the performers put on a juggling class!! I got up to two balls! Look at that form! Catching with my face!
And you would know that the one time I left the stateroom without my camera, there would be whales close enough to get good shots of! They were humpbacks, and there were a couple of nice heads up and several lovely tale flukes. No big breaches, but still. And what did my phone focus on? The debris on the window! As far as I know, there is no manual focus on the phone to override it!
While eating lunch, we turned into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, signalling our return to the Washington area. I recognized Cape Flattery, but still, no camera. When I went back down to the room, I went out on the balcony and got some shots of the traffic line in the shipping channel which makes the Strait easily identifiable! Our balcony was on the opposite side of the ship from Cape Flattery.
After several stops in the channel, waiting our turn to move, we finally pulled into Victoria, British Columbia. The ship was only staying in port for a few short hours, and we're slow walkers. While my foot was feeling better, it still hurt, too. So we decided to eat supper on board and stay on the ship for this port. We can catch one of the ferries and stay however long we want anytime we choose. The view off the balcony was beautiful, and I spent the evening trying to get decent pictures of birds in flight. I need to keep working on that.
Unfortunately, the Southern Resident orcas didn't come by to say, "Hello," while we were in the Strait or the Sound so we could see them. But, maybe I'll see them later. The ship was docking in Seattle by daylight. We skipped the porter's assistance and just rolled our bags off the boat to the van that was waiting to take us to our car. My foot? Almost feeling good. By the time I'm writing this, I am back down to baseline pain level. I'm going to use this trip as evidence that I don't need to take the walking boot or my walker with me on the next one.
I'm home now getting ready for the doozy - the epic trip. Next month, I'll be heading to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, starting a trek down to Ushuaia/Tierra del Fuego and a cruise to Antarctica, then back up the Pacific side, flying home from Ecuador after visiting some friends down there. And I just upgraded to a balcony for the Antarctica cruise! See ya' later!
Back in August, Skagway suffered a few landslides. I mean, it is still part of the Tongass National Forest, a temperate rain forest, and very steep. The land is destined to slide sometimes. It just so happened that these slides happened at the cruise piers, making them unsafe.
Many cruises cut Skagway calls out of their schedules, several of them rerouting to other ports, like Sitka. Ours did not. We tied up to the dock, but to get to land, we "tendered" to shore, meaning that we all got into lifeboats that took us around to the marina next door where we disembarked on their dock.
Before leaving, I had booked an excursion to the Yukon Territory to go dog mushing. While in Juneau, I got an email that it had been cancelled. So, with tears in my eyes (lol), I decided to take the train ride instead. I hopped on my "tender" and headed to the open portion of the Skagway pier. The slide area was obvious, and it is deemed to still be active.
Also, in case anyone was wondering, those lifeboats are roomy! There was nothing on the pier. No souvenier shops. There was one little kiosk selling tours, but the only other thing there was bus/tour stops for picking up/dropping off and the White Pass and Yukon Territories train depot. On the far end, heading toward town, there was a restaurant. That was it.
So, I got in the line to board the train. I scored a nice bench by myself. Bruce had worn himself out between Ketchikan and Juneau. He loves a good train ride, but just wasn't up to three days in a row. This is why we don't tend to do organized tours. We need those rest days. My foot certainly could have used a day off, for sure, but I have this problem with FOMO, and my meds and physical therapy modalities were still holding out and I was still capable of walking, even if it hurt.
My day was made when they announced we could go out on the platform! Of course, that meant that I couldn't hear the historical commentary that was being given, but views unobstructed by windows?! My kinda view! So, once we got past the Skagway city limits, out I went. I propped myself in one corner and didn't move much. I was able to support myself on the platform rail with my side leaning mostly on the outide of the train car, mostly using my sore foot just as a balancing aid. As we climbed, we entered the clouds, and the fog got dense. The fog got so dense at times that the water dripped down, sometimes in drops and sometimes in streams. At one point, my whole arm got soaked. But, my sweater blocked the water from getting on the camera. I did wish I had brought the rain gear with me, but she stood up to it. I also had to go back in to get my gloves, which I believe will work great in Antartica, even though they were cheapies we got from Ollie's in Mississippi. When the ride was over, and I put the camera back in my bag, the condensation made me also think she could have used a lens heater. I don't have one of those because my Antarctica guide said we didn't need one for there. I hope he's right because the camera was useless until that condensation cleared, which it thankfully did. Here are a few pix I was able to snap on the train ride that came out.
See how steep that drop off is? That drop got closer to the track in many places!
The Skagway River is waaaay down there!
The front of the train going over the tressle bridge and into the tunnel
A better look at the tressle bridge and tunnel
Remnants of the old steel cantilever bridge fading off in the fog. This bridge was used until 1969.
Apparently, I put more weight on my right foot than I thought. By the time we got back to Skagway and I had to walk back inside the train, it was throbbing. Therefore, I decided against the 5-minute walk to town or even walking around town after catching a shuttle, and I just went back to the boat. We're at sea for a while, so I can give it some time to rest.
We were supposed to spend the morning doing a drive by to see the Dawes Glacier. In fact, the name of the cruise is the Dawes Glacier cruise. Buuuut, when we got on the boat, we were given an itinerary change. Apparently, the Dawes Glacier recently calved pretty significantly, and our captain didn't feel that he could safely navigate the ship close enough to give us a good view. We were dissapointed to not see that glacier, but happy that we didn't have to worry about a Titanic moment! The trip from Ketchikan to Juneau was supposed to take the night and half the next dayand wind through the inside passage, up Endicott Arm to the Dawes Glacier and back down Endicott Arm into the inside passage. Instead, we sailed the inside passage mostly overnight and pulled into Juneau somewhere around 9:30 a.m. instead of 3:00 in the afternoon.
Since we missed the Dawes Glacier, I took that opportunity to see the Mendenhall Glacier. Bruce said he was still tired, so he stayed on the boat. I got off and caught a shuttle to the US Forest Service's Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. I took my tripod and my new graduated neutral density filter and spent considerable time playing with my camera settings, using the new filters, figuring out (again) how to attach the new filters, playing with the timer, etc. As I was packing up, a couple asked if I could take their picture with their iPhone, so I took a few shots for them to choose from. They thanked me and said they were so happy to have a professional photographer take their picture! I had to correct them, letting them know that photography is my retirement hobby that I'm just learning. But, they appeared to be happy with their pictures, and I was happy with mine, so win-win! I've decided I don't like the blurry, flat water that is tending to be popular right now and prefer to have the realistic water and shaky reflection instead of the smooth water for the smoother reflection. It just looks too fake to me. The ND filter did keep the late morning sun from burning out the top of the glacier, though, and that was awesome!
After spending the morning at the glacier, I went back to the ship for lunch with Bruce. Our afternoon excursion was panning for gold. Our guide picked us up from the docks and drove us out to the Jualpa Mine Camp.on Gold Creek in the Last Chnce Basin. I was expecting a wooden sluice, playing around in the water until you found the metal that was planted there, kind of like the gem sluicing at fairs. Instead, he put us in the creek with pans.
Of course, we didn't scrape the bottom of the creek. We got pans that already had dirt and rocks in them, obviously seeded with gold. We did work those pans in water from Gold Creek, though. Once we carefully got rid of most of the rocks and dirt, we took our pans to the table so we could use an eyedropper to suck out our gold.
Of ourse, we were both afraid we'd lose gold if we let too much of the dirt flow out! We came home with two small vials with a tiny amount of plasser gold and more dirt than we should have left!
Neither the shuttle driver nor our gold panning guide gave much of a tour of downtown. They did point out the capital building and the governor's mansion, but I didn't get pictures of them. Being late in the season, much of the tourist part was closed down. After hanging out at the glacier and being on my feet for gold panning, my foot was really sore, so I really didn't feel like walking through town. So we just went back to the ship. It was only a little over an hour before the gangway was scheduled to go up anyway. Next stop, Skagway!
We didn't get the wake-up call, but apparently my phone caught up to ship time, and my alarm was accurate.
I'd been ignoring the pain in my foot for a day or so. I didn't bring the CAM walking boot or my walker because I just don't want to have to keep taking them on vacation with me. I mean, I spent all summer doing physical therapy, learning to use other modalities (like TENS unit, self-accupressure, etc) to try to be able to function every day and with little to no need for a walker or a walking boot. By the time we got to Ketchikan, it was starting to hurt pretty bad, but I was determined. I had been standing on the balcony doing my physical therapy, taking my new set of meds (a combo of anti-convulsants and anti-inflamatories), and using the pressure techniques I had learned this summer. I was in pain, but I was still functional without having to use bulky, awkward assistive devices.
We disembarked early and checked into our first excursion, a duck boat tour of the harbor and city. I had never been on a duck boat before, so I didn't know what to expect. We drove through town and heard a lot of the history in a sardonically humorous sort of way. Then we went out to the Tongass Narrows with entry from Bar Harbor marina. It was a nice little float around, and we did see a nesting pair of bald eagles.
It was a pleasant excursion, but I think I'll pass on doing another one. I'd always rather go out farther. I did get a little purple duck to go with Duck Holiday (from Dodge City, KS) and my Deming Devil Duck (from my high school reunion). I'm going to have to come up with a name for him, but for now, he's the third in my duck collection I seem to be accidentally accumulating.
We had some time between the end of our duck excursion and our wildlife excursion, so we walked around town a bit. I got the iconic "First City" sign before heading over to Creek Street.
Loved the no smoking sign in the bathroom of the visitors center!
Eventually, we made our way to Creek Street. Creek Street is a street with no solid ground underneath. It is a boardwalk on stilts with buildings built on the boardwalk (and sometimes their own stilts). It sits over Ketchikan Creek and was the former home of the red light district. Dolly's House is the yellow house on the right. Dolly was the most famous "sporting woman" in Ketchikan and lived in the house until her death in 1975. It's a museum now.
We walked around Creek Street and checked out some of the shops. I always like to sample new jams and similar, so we picked up a small bottle of chokecherry birch syrup from Sam McGee's gift shop. I put it on my waffles this morning, and it was delicious. I had never heard of birch syrup, but it sems to rival the taste of maple syrup. When we go back, I think I'll have to get some more, this time plain birch syrup so I can make a fair comparison.
People are not the only ones who like Ketchikan Creek. Ketchikan Creek is one of the natural spawning locations of salmon. One of our tour guides called it the "end of the line" for the salmon. You could see (and smell) the dead salmon on the banks of many of the creeks and you could look at the water that was black with all the salmon swimming upstream. And where there are salmon, there are harbor seals! I'm not sure whether these guys were hungry or just playing with this slow-moving salmon, but they were interesting to watch!
Harbor seals were all over the creek!
After Creek Street, we went back to the pier to catch our next excursion. This one was another city tour, a wildlife viewing, and Saxman Village. The city tour portion stopped at mostly the same sites as the duck tour did. Our guide was very opinionated and a nice guy. He talked about history and current politics, including relaying how he was called out of order twice at the city council meeting about buying a new ladder truck. Apparently, the council believed the fire chief instead of him, and they got the fire truck he doesn't think they need! He was a nice guy, though, and we learned a lot about the history of the city and the meanings of the various totem pieces.
One of the unique things about Ketchikan is their "stair streets". They seriously have huge stairway/boardwalks throughout town that have street names. Entire neighborhoods that don't have roads for driving. You park at the foot of the stairs and climb to your neighborhood, taking the connecting stair streets as you need!
Obviously, these neighborhoods aren't for me! We stopped by a salmon ladder,
and drove by the AVG child care center (I just thought it was funny. The street sign said A.V.G. insteead of just avg),
before heading out for some wildlife viewing at what I think was Herring Cove. We stopped in a little spot to a creek that comes up from Herring Bay (or whatever bay we were at). You could see the salmon swimming upstream, but the sun was too bright to really get any decent pictures of them. As soon as we got out of the van, I spotted a juvenile eagle perched regally on a tree. The sun had him backlit, so I walked around to get some decent shots.
After a few shots, far fewer than I wanted, our guide chastised me for leaving the group. He did it very nicely and just mentioned that everybody should stay together, so I behaved myself and came back. Thankfully, I did get a couple of good shots of him. There was also an adult flying around. I think I need to upgrade my camera so I can get a telephoto lens, but my little mirrorless bridge camera did a decent job catching a clean-ish picture in flight. And I'm learning a bit about that shutter speed thing, too.
As our guide was finishing up his spiel, a little black bear came sauntering out from the direction of the bay, following the salmon. He had no interest in us, and I had a very difficult time finding a picture that showed any part of his face, even though I took TONS of them!
I started the video as he seemed to be ready to pounce, and I was right on it!
Our guide let us stay until the bear headed into the grass to lay down and eat his catch.
We then headed to Saxman Village. Saxman Village is a native town where the native ways are practiced. There are totems, a carving room, and a lodge. Our guide donned his native headdress for his clan and his talking stick for this portion, and he described the meanings of the various parts of the totem and some things about how they are carved and the history of the area. When some people from a different tour asked to take their picture with him, we thought we were going to have to talk to him about leaving the group (LOL)! But he made his way back to us, and we headed back to town.
My foot was killing me, but it was an amazing day. We only had minutes to spare to get back to the ship, and I was wondering if we might need to take advantage of the guarantee of a flight to our next port of call, but we made it!
So, during the height of the COVID pandemic, they were basically GIVING cruises away. I snagged us a balcony on royal Carribean for a 7-day cruise to Alaska with a drive-by to see the Dawes Glacier. I'm not a huge fan of cruises these days because I like to spend more time at the ports of call than just the few hours the boat stops, but sometimes it's the thing to do. I'm also a cheapskate, so when I cruise, it's usually an inside cabin stateroom. This cruise is, in fact, my first balcony room. I'll don't intend to ever go back to that inside cabin! I could hang out on the balcony in my night clothes! I could hang out on the balcony and go to the bathroom without worrying about whether I was going to lose my chair! I could lay in bed and look out at the ocean! I could bring my camera and tripod out on the balcony and play with settings on my camera without worrying about anybody tripping over me or my stuff! I could even get "balcony blankets" from our wonderful stateroom attendant, Vineet! Unfortunately, I won't always get a balcony stateroom for less than the price of an indoor cabin, but I have now had the taste of the good life, and I'll only go back kicking and screaming! Even on cold days, naps on the balcony were so much better than naps inside!
We did take some time to explore the boat. We were on the Ovation of the Sea, which is known as the "sports boat". Lucky us! I considered the Flow Rider to see if I could potentially learn to surf. I watched a couple of kids do the boogie board. Decided I might have tried it if I wasn't headed to my big trip to Antarctica. Some of those kids slammed into the back of that area so hard, I decided not to try it this time. Maybe some other time. I talked to them about trying the I Fly activity. They strongly suggested against it because of the rod and pins in my left shoulder (and other health issues, but that was the biggie). They said they would let me, but I would have to sign a special waiver, not just the usual one. Bumper cars? Not with my back! Rock wall climbing? As bad as my balance is? Not likely. So, I did the walking track and took pictures of the panda bears on the side.
Aren't they adorable!?
So, I spent some time on the balcony playing with settings on the camera, learning how to use the ship's app, and other similar things.
Whales off in the far distance. These shots are zoomed all the way in. With binoculars, we could just make out the gray/silver colorings and length that made us think about humpbacks. They are known to be migrating from Alaska now and pass through the sound. They're also significantly bigger than gray or minke whales that are also migrating. Wish they were closer, but it is what it is. The spouts are kind of clear, though.
Here is a sampling of the shots I took playing with the camera. Of course, I'm also playing with my new photo software. Of course, being in the open waters, the scenery wasn't terribly varied. Just the difference in time and clouds.
Because ship time and land time are potentially different and we have an early excursion, I ordered a wake up call. First stop, Ketchikan!
