Alaska, the final frontier! This is also one of Jeff’s bucket list places. You know me, I don’t like cold. Everyone I know that has gone to Alaska has just raved about how beautiful it is, so I’m game!
We flew from OKC to Denver then on to Seattle. Spent the night close by the airport and then caught the cruise bus from the airport terminal to Vancouver. It was a lot cheaper than flying into Vancouver and staying overnight there. Plus, it was nice to let someone else drive and just sit back and watch the scenery.
I guess because we were on a bus that was taking us directly to the cruise terminal, we managed to sail through Customs. There were probably a thousand cars lined up but buses got their own lane and we were the second one. We walked through Customs, showed passports, answered a question or two, went to the bathroom and then got back on the bus. Easy Peasy!
We were in Vancouver in 2018 so it was nice to be able to pick out familiar sites when we passed them.
When we arrived at the cruise terminal we had to collect our luggage and go through the check-in process. There were FIVE cruise ships loading this day (we were told to expect delays) but the remarkable thing was we got on board our ship faster than we normally do in Galveston. On this trip we were on the Holland Westerdam.
We sailed on time and spent the first day transiting the inland passage. Our day 2 stop was in Ketchikan. Yes, call us crazy, but our excursion here was to snorkel. This was my first experience in a wet suit. Read my lips …. NEVER AGAIN! I know it has to be tight but 1) I thought it was going to choke me and 2) it made you super buoyant. The water temperature was 54 degrees so I’m glad I had it on. A wet suit does NOT keep you dry! It allows a thin layer of water to collect between your skin and the suit. Your body “warms” this water. It was like swimming in your own sweat. Everything is covered with the exception of your face which is exposed to the water. We had on the suit, booties, gloves and a hood. It was NOT a pretty picture! Plus, long hair is not very compatible with neoprene.
We were taken on a bus to the entry point and had about 6 guides with us. There were about a dozen and half of us ranging in age from 80 to 14. Then the water entry was not easy. It was a walk in but the “beach” was incredibly rocky and we had to wind our way down a rocky path to get to the water and then traverse across some big boulders into the water. Once in the water we saw a lot of jelly fish and sea cucumbers. There were starfish everywhere (they were big!) and a very few small (more like tiny) fish. We were in the water about an hour (we spent more time than that getting outfitted in our gear and instructed on how to put it on). When we got back to the bus and unzipped our wet suits the water just gushed out!
In the end, how many people can say that they snorkeled in Alaska? US!! Plus, we bought the t-shirt to prove it! In hindsight this was the best excursion we did in Alaska.
Our next stop was the capital of Alaska, Juneau. We took a long excursion here. First we were driven about 20 minutes to a pier where we boarded a smaller boat and spent the next couple of hours whale watching. The boats are supposed to stay 100 yards away from the whales. Our boat captain did that but we saw a bunch that did not. As a result, I don’t have any whale pictures to share but we did spend close to half an hour watching a mother humpback with her teenage offspring breaching and slapping their tails close to shore. We saw some sea lions (did get a picture of that but it isn’t very clear) and we saw quite a few glaciers. We returned to the pier, got back on the bus and went to the Mendenhall glacier park. They only gave us an hour here and it was a good, hard 25 minute hike to get as close to the glacier as we could get. We hustled to the end of the trail, took a couple of pictures, hustled back to the bus and then returned to the ship.
Our next stop was Skagway. Here we were horseback riding. (Can you tell that I let Jeff pick the excursions?) Our excursion wasn’t until the afternoon so we left the ship early and walked into town (about 15 minutes away). It was a cute little town and we were here on 4th of July. They were getting setup to have a parade so we joined all the locals plus all the other ship passengers that were in town and watched. We found a place to sit at the beginning of the parade route, watched the parade go by and then looked through a couple of shops and walked the downtown before returning to the ship.
We had lunch on board and then found our transportation to the ranch. There were about a dozen of us and as you can imagine this wasn’t an excursion worth writing home about. The horses were all rescues and the girls that were working there were from the continental US and spending their summer working here.
We didn’t really see anything more exciting than the back end of the horse in front of us. They were having a lot of wild fires and the air was heavy with haze. We saw no wild life, other then the horses 🙂 and nothing really worth taking a picture of although the ride to/from the stables (on the bus) was scenic.
Our next “stop” wasn’t really a stop … we “cruised” through Glacier Bay. This was some of the most beautiful scenery that we saw on the trip but because of the wildfires it was still incredibly hazy. We did see some chunks of ice in the water, more than a couple of glaciers and a few seals.
The next morning we arrived in Seward, disembarked from the ship and got on a motor coach for a long day’s drive to Denali park. The ride was very scenic and we had one short stop for a picture opportunity where you could see Mount Denali in the distance. In hindsight, this would be the only time we could see Denali so I’m lucky to have a few pictures and be part of the 30% club!
The people on our bus were divided up between 3 different lodges. We, unfortunately, were put into the one that was located as far from town as possible and on the top of a very steep hill. They did have food service but I refused to be a captive audience and pay $25 for a hamburger or $50+ for a fancy entree. So we made do with the snacks we had on hand.
We were here for two nights and had 3 excursions. We actually had an excursion for the night we arrived because it stays light forever in the summertime. We went four wheeling … yippee! Actually, Jeff went four-wheeling and I passengered. Eh … ate a lot of dirt, got tossed around, and picked up some rocks (that is supposed to be Jade) in a dry riverbed.
The next morning we were going white water rafting. I was looking forward to this. We were suited up in dry suits for this excursion. Different from wet suits, these are supposed to keep you from getting wet. Once again, not my best look! Plus they make you wear these funky helmets. We ended up getting stuck in the gear boat so we didn’t even get to paddle, just hold on. It was okay … I can say I’ve done it but I won’t do it again if I don’t get to participate.
We were taken back to our lodge, changed clothes, ate lunch and then we were picked up for our last excursion which was a bus tour of Denali Park. The only way you can gain access to the park is on a bus tour or public bus as they limit the number of people in the park daily and personal vehicles are limited even more (although with the gravel roads, I wouldn’t want my vehicle on those roads). This trip was a 4 hour ride into the park, turn around and a 4 hour ride back out on the same road. There were about 4 potty stops along the way. We saw a couple of caribou, a magpie, a bunny, some caribou and one bear who was so far off in the distance that the only reason we knew it was a bear was because the bus driver had a camera on board and could zoom in, note: we saw NO EAGLES or MOOSE inside the park. We did see maybe three eagles on various excursions but the way people that had been to Alaska talked, they were everywhere … not so for us.
The next morning we were taken to the train depot and boarded our passenger train for an all day trip to Anchorage. As is typical of trains, we followed water most of the way. We saw some beautiful scenery, ate a very nice lunch and were entertained by our train car steward. We could walk between the cars and get to the caboose which afforded the best “windowless” views.
Once in Anchorage, we collected our luggage and took an UBER to the airport and caught a flight back to Seattle for the next leg of our adventure.
Coming up next …. Washington!