Vancouver to Fairbanks Alaska Summer of 2010
Friday morning, July 30th, Angie picked us up and took us to the airport. We had breakfast as usual at the Tequileria Bar and then walked to the gate. Our flight was coming in from Washington DC and was late. One of the disembarking passengers included Claire McCaskill. We said Hi to her like she was an old friend. We landed in Seattle and had a great city view on the way in. The entire flight had been scenic with views of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana including snow-capped mountains. Once on the ground, we had to hurry to get to our gate on time. The airport was huge. We walked outside then to board a small jet that was to take us to Vancouver. This was another very scenic flight, great views of the islands all along the coast. We went through customs at the airport and as usual the agents seemed bored and asked the usual, "Why are you visiting Canada?"
We had a crazy cab driver that drove us to the beautiful Pan Pacific Hotel. What gorgeous views. From the hotel cafe, you could see seagulls, the bay, float planes, and Stanley Park. We had fish and chips on the patio, with our first British Columbian wine from Mission Hills. We were tired and after a few minutes of listening to the Barry Manilow look alike piano player in the inside bar, we went to bed.
Saturday, we were up early and ready to go. From our room, we could see that Vancouver is a hub of transportation. There was a RR depot and hundreds of container cars in all different colors. From a distance they looked like a Rubik's cubes. We could also see a heli-pad, boats, and the B.C. Ferry. We walked to Gastown, looking for breakfast and found lots of homeless folks everywhere. We ended up back across from our hotel, at the Fairmont. Our waitress was perky and very nice. She appeared to be Latin, Mexican or Spanish perhaps? I had buckwheat pancakes with CA maple syrup and Carol had the brioche French toast. The waitress brought us a purple energy drink made from pomegranate juice, honey, goji, and echinacea. I enjoyed it along with my soy milk.
We had a crazy cab driver that drove us to the beautiful Pan Pacific Hotel. What gorgeous views. From the hotel cafe, you could see seagulls, the bay, float planes, and Stanley Park. We had fish and chips on the patio, with our first British Columbian wine from Mission Hills. We were tired and after a few minutes of listening to the Barry Manilow look alike piano player in the inside bar, we went to bed.
Saturday, we were up early and ready to go. From our room, we could see that Vancouver is a hub of transportation. There was a RR depot and hundreds of container cars in all different colors. From a distance they looked like a Rubik's cubes. We could also see a heli-pad, boats, and the B.C. Ferry. We walked to Gastown, looking for breakfast and found lots of homeless folks everywhere. We ended up back across from our hotel, at the Fairmont. Our waitress was perky and very nice. She appeared to be Latin, Mexican or Spanish perhaps? I had buckwheat pancakes with CA maple syrup and Carol had the brioche French toast. The waitress brought us a purple energy drink made from pomegranate juice, honey, goji, and echinacea. I enjoyed it along with my soy milk.
We then bought tickets for a hop-on-hop off trolley and were off to explore the city. We realized that it was Vancouver Pride weekend when we saw rainbow flags everywhere on Davies Street. The neighborhood was very interesting, very multi-ethnic. We also went to Chinatown, full of lots of open-air markets, dried foods, herbs, hanging meat, shops, and hustle-bustle. We enjoyed some serenity at the Sun-Yat-Sen garden. We stopped at the B.C. liquor store to buy some box wine for the cruise and walked back to our hotel.
With the trolley tickets good for all day, our next adventure was a tour of Stanley Park. We saw many beautiful redwoods, their yacht club, a rowing club, and players clad in white on the cricket fields. Car traffic was heavy but there were also lots of folks biking and skating. From there, we went to English Bay where a big fireworks display was scheduled for later. We ate lunch at a place called Milestone and had pitas, roasted garlic flatbread, goat cheese rolled in poppy seeds, corn relish, guava salsa and a cranberry jam mix. We also had Kobe beef sliders with hot wasabi mustard dipping sauce. The chardonnay was from Robert Mondavi. It would have been fun to have stayed for the fireworks but we were still tired and decided to head back to the Pan Pacific.
There at the hotel, we ran into some kids from Montreal on the patio. We chatted with them about our hopes of traveling to Quebec in 2011. They told us that the drug laws were very loose in the B. C. as that seemed like an important fact to them. They were with their friends from Ireland who assured us that their country was much like the U.S. in terms of drug laws. The view from the hotel patio was quite impressive, there are really 4 different sets of Vancouver skylines and all could be seen. We enjoyed another glass of Mission Hills wine, this time a cabernet.
It was time for our first dinner and we anxiously awaited our dining companions who turned out to be two couples travelling together. Kanthi and Vajura are from Baltimore, originally from Sri Lanka. Kanthi is a doctor at Johns Hopkins and Vajura is an accountant. Tushara and Nihal live in Sri Lanka and met their friends for this trip. Maybe because we have so many friends from India, maybe because it turned out that Vajura worked in President Obama's campaign, or maybe just because, we ended up having a wonderful 8 PM dining experience each night. We felt lucky to have met them all.
Dinner the first night included blueberry soup (chilled soups turned out to be a favorite all week), Alaska crab legs, scallop ceviche, beef carpaccio, a cheese plate, and a caramel chocolate dessert. Danny was our wine steward and we had a Cline on this first night. After dinner, we went right back to our previous cruise routine and went to see the string quartet, which was four young ladies from Eastern Europe. One had a very dark gypsy look, another one, the leader was a bit nerdy and so sweet and seemed to enjoy the music so much. Carlos was our Aquavit server at the Martini Bar on the Ryndam.
Monday, we had a quick breakfast and then went to the work out room. I then left and went to do Tai Chi. I think that was a mistake as we were at sea and being up at the top of the ship, in the Crow's Nest, with my eyes closed, trying to balance just did not work out. From there, we did the kitchen tour. It was very impressive and clean. We even met the chef. We found out that the total service staff is 103. They go through 8,500 lbs. of meat and 2,575 lbs. of seafood. They use 2,850 lbs. of flour and 500 quarts of dairy. We saw them preparing an appetizer for lunch and so had our lunch in the dining room where we were seated with an interesting group, including an older couple from California. The discussion landed on a cure for MS as the older couple's daughter has the disease. There was Pablo, who was originally from Argentina. He and his wife are bio-medical researchers and live in San Francisco. She takes classes at Stanford and loves Harry Potter. There was also the couple from Alabama. She was nice but he was obnoxious.
It had been rainy but after lunch, we watched the clouds disappear and the sun come through with land on one side. We spent the afternoon at a wine tasting. We were paired about with an older lesbian couple from Sonoma, Helen and Ruth. They live near the Robert Mondavi winery. Helen was hilarious. They had just traveled to Australia and New Zealand, staying at Elderhostel’s along the way. Our Navigator’s choice pkg included, Toasted Head, Ravenswood Zin, 3 Blind Moose, a Malbec and Shiraz.
Dinner was in the Main Upper Dining Room, we had a view of the back of the ship, both sides.
The Master Chef Dinner was: Mushroom and duck mousse with asparagus en bouche., Cold smoked, pickled and chipotle hot-smoked salmon with lime avocado, tomato salsa, Golden baked brie in phyllo dough, Duck breast a l’Orange, served with Grand Marnier sauce, braised red cabbage, pea pods, carrots and potato, Grilled lamb chops with oregano and apple chutney, with butternut squash, Baked Alaska, an ice cream glacier under a blanket of meringue, with a warm brandy Bing cherry sauce. We finished the night with a long awaited 12 year old McAllen scotch.
On Sunday, we arrived in Seward very early. It was foggy with a glint of sun shining through. We were on the Lido having breakfast by 5:30 AM. We had bacon, sausage, French toast and potatoes. We had booked a shore excursion to go spend time at an Iditarod training camp. They picked us up and we got a bit of a view of the very beautiful Seward. Our driver was a very funny lady. Her husband has a year round job related to coal and he is building a cabin for them in his free time. We got to pet a few dogs of the many that were there. They had 85 dogs all chained to their dog shelter which was made of a plastic barrel to get them up off the ground by 2 feet. That comes out to 3 different teams. There were some puppies too that haven’t really joined a team yet. When they were hooking up the wagon, the dogs went nuts as they all seemed to be saying “Pick me, pick me”. What a sound-all that barking!!! Our guide, Tim is in training himself. Originally from Wisconsin , he came there to learn and in 2012, he will take a practice run on the Iditarod. The family that owns the place is the Seavy Family. Mitch Seavy won the Iditarod in 2004. We got to actually ride in a wagon pulled by the dogs as a training run. Our ride took us through some gorgeous scenery, along streams and brightly colored flowers. The lead dogs train to go about 8 miles per hour though if it were up to them, for a short distance they could go 30 miles per hour. The young dogs are learning to not work so hard but to work as part of the team. Most dogs live to 14 years; they are mixed breeds, not the Malamute that you picture at all. They were skinner with is a better body type for the race. Most of them work to the end but retire to just train the younger ones in training runs. They eat a lot of food-very high protein. salmon, hamburger, and Black Diamond dog food. At the end of the trip, we got to hold some puppies and take some great photos. After returning to the ship, we were able to eat lunch before meeting our tour group and boarding a bus heading for Anchorage. We were part of Tour 15b and there were 52 of us. Our leader was Jenna, who was cute as a button (no other way to describe her really). Right away we noticed there were 2 other lesbian couples on the tour and a guy couple as well. The scenery along the way was quite spectacular. We saw the Turnigan Arm and heard about the quick sand silt along the water. There is now a rescue system as a person could easily die if they try walking on this. The bus trip took about 2 hours and so it was not too late when we arrived in Anchorage . We walked down the street to eat dinner at Seafood joint called Phyllis’s. We ate outside and fortunately it was mostly covered as it started to rain. It was really the only rain we had seen since the first day of the cruise, which is unusual to say the least. We had the best salmon of the trip, finally something fresh from right here in Alaska . We had a Robert Mondavi merlot with the dinner.
Monday morning, we boarded the McKinley Explorer headed to Denali . On the McKinley Explorer, we were in the Chuitna car, seats 4a and 4b. Early on, we had to pass a crash site. A military C-10 had crashed, killing several soldiers some weeks back. It was still under investigation and we were instructed to not take photos. It was hard to look at and clearly upset our guide, Laura, who has to pass through it regularly. Laura was a great guide. She is an older lady with spiked short hair. She winters near her kids and drives up to Alaska to work the train each summer. The big perk is you are working for Princess cruise lines so you get big discounts. Our bartender was named Ryan and we ordered a mudslide and a mosquito. It was a beautiful day, a little rainy. We never saw much wildlife on the train but did see some trumpeter swans
Breakfast was on the train. Carol had the smoked salmon breakfast burrito and I had the frontier skillet which included Alaskan reindeer sausage. We were seated with a lovely couple from London Ontario. He is a retired doctor. We sat with the at lunch too, and I had more reindeer, chili this time. Carol had the seafood salad. We rode on a Princess car and ended up staying at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Our tour group was so big that there was no room at the McKinley chalets, the Holland America place. But this was just as nice. Right as we pulled into the lot, we finally saw a moose. After checking in, we ran back up but he was long gone. We settled in to our room, a nice king bed this time-Yay! We decided to go ahead and book a fishing trip at the front desk. We talked to a gal from Moldavia. We were to find that many eastern Europeans were working at Denali. She asked if we were sisters and we said no, partners. She said, of course, there is a saying that "People who are meant to be together, look alike."
Now that we were on land, we wanted to eat fresh Alaskan fish so we had dinner at King Salmon. It was crazy crowded with a group of about 40 from Taiwan. Actually part of our group was set up to do the Wilderness Tour with them the next day. We had a crab dip appetizer that was awesome. We ordered and then split, the salmon and the halibut. The wine was a Tillia malbec. Our waitress was amazing as it was so busy and loved talking fishing with us.
Tuesday morning, we boarded a converted school bus for the 6-8 hour Tundra Wilderness Tour. We were able to get seats with the other two lesbian couples, Georgina & Mary and Susan and Jodie. They were both from the Green Bay Wisconsin area. The guy couple also sat nearby. They are from Washington DC. Neil is actually a lawyer at the Treasury Department. Charles is his partner of 22 years and works at AHIP. We ended up seeing it all, the top of Mt. McKinley, bears, lots of caribou, wolves, Dall sheep, a hoary marmot, moose, prairie dogs, and golden eagles. We saw a mom trying to kick her young beat cub out as it was time for him to go his on way. At first, we thought it was two young cubs fighting but our driver pointed out that the mom-son thing was the most likely scenario. We also saw a bear chowing down on berries and Arctic potatoes. The marmot was really funny, perched right on top of a rock. The mountain was amazing, so now we part of the 10% club that actually sees the mountain peak. We saw it glowing in the early morning light and then later, got some great, clear camera shots. Our driver was Barry. He was knowledgeable and passionate about Denali. He was also a good driver which was good because the roads were scary at times. We snacked our lunch box they gave us on the bus but then grabbed some pizza back at the lodge to hold us. Dinner that night was a Black Diamond ATV adventure, with a salmon BBQ dinner stop mid-ride. The place was completely run by eastern European guys. We geared up in plastic pants and helmets for the ride. I kept having mechanical problems with my ATVs and at one point was separated from the group so I got to ride really fast. The guide was embarrassed that they had these problem machines and I ended on a really big, powerful one for a while.
Wednesday morning, we went on a fishing expedition with Denali Fly Fishing Guides. There is no salmon in this area because you are on the other side of the continental divide so our hope was to catch Arctic grayling. What a cast of characters were in our group. There was an old man from Indiana and a younger guy from Austin Texas that both were obsessed with talking about guns and shotting "stuff". There was some younger guys from Michigan that were ok. We drove to the base camp, just outside of Denali and geared up. We put on hip waders and yellow raincoats as it was drizzling a bit. They took us down to a remote site where we walked nearly a mile on the very spongy tundra to this gorgeous little stream. After a very brief fly fishing lessons, we were set up to start our casts. Carol caught a fish but it jumped off before I could photograph it. The movie, "Into the Wild" was actually filmed right where we were fishing.
We had dinner at the hotel as we were just to tired to go anywhere. We had halibut and sole with a Ravenswood wine. Jessica was our waitress and had grown up in the area, North Pole to be exact, so she gave us the real scoop on winter in a town that regularly sees 20 below zero. The range is Fairbanks is a record 99 degrees in the summer and 66 below zero in the winter. We will try to watch Ice Road Truckers and the Deadliest Catch when we return home. She said it was a place of rednecks and not a great place to be gay. She has gay friends and they stay within the University cultural community. It is full of macho guys who like Xtreme sports. But she said in the winter, the northern lights are truly spectacular.
During the trip, we heard about a bear shooting in Anchorage as it was trying to break in to someone's house. We heard of there being a polar bear on the football field during a HS game and that the kids have to fly to other towns to play. A record halibut was caught and we heard about the Tok flood that happened a couple years back.
We had dinner at the hotel and could hear the Italian Opera in the adjoining Italian restaurant. We opted for more B.C. type fare, ginger and dill cured salmon, potato rosti in white cream, Alaskan king crab gratin, and a Caesar salad. We were looking forward to enjoying more of the after-dinner music this night but the jazz piano player was not very good so we finished our Dalmore 12 year old Highland Scotch and called it a night.
Pan Pacific in Vancouver
Sunday morning we had a light breakfast in the hotel dining room, bagels and cream cheese topped with nice Bibb lettuce and hashbrowns on the side. From there we walked around and took photos of our ship which was already in port. We went down the RCMP store and before we knew it, the time to board our ship had arrived. Our big luggage was handled from the hotel and all we had was our carry-on and a brief visit back through customs. As second time Holland America cruisers, we are Mariners, and so could eat in the dining room instead of the Lido. We had their special Indonesian food, chicken leg, spicy beef and rice, a peanut sauce appetizer-me only, coconut milk soup, and for dessert rice budding with raisins and vanilla sauce. We had a nice Chilean chardonnay to go with it. Our cabin, an upgrade courtesy Altair, was awesome, it was A050.
Sunday morning we had a light breakfast in the hotel dining room, bagels and cream cheese topped with nice Bibb lettuce and hashbrowns on the side. From there we walked around and took photos of our ship which was already in port. We went down the RCMP store and before we knew it, the time to board our ship had arrived. Our big luggage was handled from the hotel and all we had was our carry-on and a brief visit back through customs. As second time Holland America cruisers, we are Mariners, and so could eat in the dining room instead of the Lido. We had their special Indonesian food, chicken leg, spicy beef and rice, a peanut sauce appetizer-me only, coconut milk soup, and for dessert rice budding with raisins and vanilla sauce. We had a nice Chilean chardonnay to go with it. Our cabin, an upgrade courtesy Altair, was awesome, it was A050.
Next, it was time for the lifeboat drill. Unlike our last cruise, the rain held off, and we didn't get soaked. We stopped by the duty-free liquor shop for a tasting and then met the LGBT group which was just two women from NY. One was heavyset and had on a rainbow belt. She and partner had been together for 30 years + and also married in Ontario. That group never ended up panning out, though we did see them again a few times. On our last trip, this was called the Friends of Dorothy so it is interesting that in less than 3 years, we gained such visibility on the programming list to just the LGBT meeting. We had our first Aquavit in the bar which is my Holland America favorite.
It was time for our first dinner and we anxiously awaited our dining companions who turned out to be two couples travelling together. Kanthi and Vajura are from Baltimore, originally from Sri Lanka. Kanthi is a doctor at Johns Hopkins and Vajura is an accountant. Tushara and Nihal live in Sri Lanka and met their friends for this trip. Maybe because we have so many friends from India, maybe because it turned out that Vajura worked in President Obama's campaign, or maybe just because, we ended up having a wonderful 8 PM dining experience each night. We felt lucky to have met them all.
Dinner the first night included blueberry soup (chilled soups turned out to be a favorite all week), Alaska crab legs, scallop ceviche, beef carpaccio, a cheese plate, and a caramel chocolate dessert. Danny was our wine steward and we had a Cline on this first night. After dinner, we went right back to our previous cruise routine and went to see the string quartet, which was four young ladies from Eastern Europe. One had a very dark gypsy look, another one, the leader was a bit nerdy and so sweet and seemed to enjoy the music so much. Carlos was our Aquavit server at the Martini Bar on the Ryndam.
Monday, we had a quick breakfast and then went to the work out room. I then left and went to do Tai Chi. I think that was a mistake as we were at sea and being up at the top of the ship, in the Crow's Nest, with my eyes closed, trying to balance just did not work out. From there, we did the kitchen tour. It was very impressive and clean. We even met the chef. We found out that the total service staff is 103. They go through 8,500 lbs. of meat and 2,575 lbs. of seafood. They use 2,850 lbs. of flour and 500 quarts of dairy. We saw them preparing an appetizer for lunch and so had our lunch in the dining room where we were seated with an interesting group, including an older couple from California. The discussion landed on a cure for MS as the older couple's daughter has the disease. There was Pablo, who was originally from Argentina. He and his wife are bio-medical researchers and live in San Francisco. She takes classes at Stanford and loves Harry Potter. There was also the couple from Alabama. She was nice but he was obnoxious.
It had been rainy but after lunch, we watched the clouds disappear and the sun come through with land on one side. We spent the afternoon at a wine tasting. We were paired about with an older lesbian couple from Sonoma, Helen and Ruth. They live near the Robert Mondavi winery. Helen was hilarious. They had just traveled to Australia and New Zealand, staying at Elderhostel’s along the way. Our Navigator’s choice pkg included, Toasted Head, Ravenswood Zin, 3 Blind Moose, a Malbec and Shiraz.
By the time, we went back to our room, we were now seeing land on both sides of the ship. We really enjoyed our verandah. We saw our first wildlife at sea, a Stellar Sea Lion that was swimming along side the ship. You could see its cute little head and whiskers. Then we saw the whales. In the background were the beautiful evergreen covered slopes, a few were even snow topped. It was formal night so dinner was special. We had quail, salmon, a fennel salad. The wine was Toasted Head chardonnay. And after dinner, we went to see the string quartet.
We were up early on Tuesday as we were docking in Ketchikan. We saw picturesque cabins on the port side and the town on the starboard. There were salmon hopping out of the water everywhere you looked and lots of fishing boats. We were not alone as another cruise ship was docked in town as well.
Our shore excursion in Ketchikan was the float plane. So we went to Tarquin Air for our adventure. The flight was amazing. We saw an eagle’s nest but no other wildlife. We saw the forest service cabins where folks can fly in and stay to fish. We landed in the punchbowl and got our on the floats for a photo opportunity. The trip took us over the Misty Fjords National Preserve which is 4 times the size of Rhode Island. The trees are mostly spruce and hemlock with 10% cedar. There is some clear cutting allowed though generally the park is protected. The clear cut areas do quickly renew themselves.
We were up early on Tuesday as we were docking in Ketchikan. We saw picturesque cabins on the port side and the town on the starboard. There were salmon hopping out of the water everywhere you looked and lots of fishing boats. We were not alone as another cruise ship was docked in town as well.
Our shore excursion in Ketchikan was the float plane. So we went to Tarquin Air for our adventure. The flight was amazing. We saw an eagle’s nest but no other wildlife. We saw the forest service cabins where folks can fly in and stay to fish. We landed in the punchbowl and got our on the floats for a photo opportunity. The trip took us over the Misty Fjords National Preserve which is 4 times the size of Rhode Island. The trees are mostly spruce and hemlock with 10% cedar. There is some clear cutting allowed though generally the park is protected. The clear cut areas do quickly renew themselves.
After the flight, we walked around town. We saw a group of teens smoking outside the sushi restaurant where we went to sample some very fresh salmon as Ketchikan is the salmon capital of the world. We also saw the string quartet gals at an internet café. We bought our jackets for the trip, a suggestion from cruise critic. We then retuned to the ship to have lunch on the Lido. We were able to snag a nice outside table on the port side and stayed as we left port to keep an eye out for more eagles. I chatted with a farmer from New Zeeland. Dinner was halibut, not salmon. But I did have the fisherman’s chowder as well. Dessert was apple and caramel for me. Carol had the custard pudding. Our dinner conversation was lively, after a day of adventure for all. We also talked of Sri Lanka, the beauty and the elephants. Our dinner mates promised me a carved elephant to go with my collection from India.
Wednesday-Day 6 of our vacation was started with a big breakfast, Belgian waffles with berries and fresh cream, bacon, and potatoes. We then headed out to go see some whales in our port town of Juneau. The bus driver was a hoot, she was 5’1” and from Utah. She showed us the house on the hill that she rented with her friends for $125 a month. We saw Douglas Island, right across the bay from Juneau, as we drove to our boat. We had an amazing day and our naturalist was almost speechless. The whales were doing an Alaska specific behavior called bubble net feeding. There were as many as 10-12 whales and they used their bubbles to circle the krill (like a herring) and then surge up to the surface, engulfing huge mouthfuls at a time. We saw the blows, the tails, it was an amazing trip. In addition to whales, we saw a number of stellar seals hanging out on the buoys. We saw a seal surface with a salmon hanging out of its mouth. We saw bald eagles flying overhead. It was all pretty cool stuff.
After whale watching, the bus took us see the Mendenhall Glacier. That was our first real glacier and to stand there at the visitor’s center with the ice so close was quite spectacular. The ice is blue-green and rapidly receding. Photographs show how dramatically it has been happening. There is much speculation as to the cause. As such, there were a number of recently calved icebergs in the water.
After returning, we had plenty of time to just walk around Juneau . We definitely wanted to take the Mt. Robert tramway to get a great city view. The tram was crowded but worth the trip. There were many cruise ships in port and we were happy to see that ours was one of the smaller ones. The smallest was West Tours , which only looked to have three decks. We finally got to learn a little native history as we watched a movie about the Tlingit people, learned a few words, and the totem pole symbolism was explained by our native guide. From there, we took we took advantage of the day and the view and did the one mile hike. Along the way, we saw a red squirrel, got a small taste of how annoying bugs could be in Alaska and enjoyed the beautiful views from high above the town.
We then walked back to town, took a peak in the Red Dog saloon which was very crowded, and decided to go back and eat lunch on the Lido deck. I finally tried the Alaskan summer ale. Carol has a Stella Artois and thus ended our beer indulging on the cruise. We heard the bartenders swapping stories from their homeland of the Philippines and enjoyed the 84 degree weather. Lunch was a really good burger and fries on the Lido .
Dinner that night included Asian style duck and London broil. There was a goat cheese quiche, a nice salad topped with candied pecans. The soup was a chilled apricot. Dessert was excellent, a flourless chocolate cake and the wine was a malbec with essences of chocolate and cherry.
Thursday morning, we had a hearty room service breakfast, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and eggs. The ship had docked in Skagway and we were then off to our photo tour day in Haines. While waiting for a pick-up, we met an artist, named Ann who was from Skagway . She told us about her gallery, her water colors, and the challenging conditions of living in Skagway or Haines in the winter. The ride to Haines was about 45 minutes on a ferry. Before boarding, we met our guide and the rest of our group. We were re-united with a family that had gone on the float plane trip with us. It included Bill and Bill, an older gentleman in a wheel chair and his daughter. There were 6 of them altogether and we crossed paths with them a number of times. No one let that wheel chair limit their trip in any way. They went with one guide and us and another couple from Denver, Colorado went with Tom Ganner. He is a retired teacher who lives part of the year in Death Valley, CA. He taught science, computer science, and Photoshop. He was an amazing teacher and what a great experience to see Alaska off the beaten path.
Thursday morning, we had a hearty room service breakfast, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and eggs. The ship had docked in Skagway and we were then off to our photo tour day in Haines. While waiting for a pick-up, we met an artist, named Ann who was from Skagway . She told us about her gallery, her water colors, and the challenging conditions of living in Skagway or Haines in the winter. The ride to Haines was about 45 minutes on a ferry. Before boarding, we met our guide and the rest of our group. We were re-united with a family that had gone on the float plane trip with us. It included Bill and Bill, an older gentleman in a wheel chair and his daughter. There were 6 of them altogether and we crossed paths with them a number of times. No one let that wheel chair limit their trip in any way. They went with one guide and us and another couple from Denver, Colorado went with Tom Ganner. He is a retired teacher who lives part of the year in Death Valley, CA. He taught science, computer science, and Photoshop. He was an amazing teacher and what a great experience to see Alaska off the beaten path.
It was the Guides' Choice Photography Tour. It was a perfect weather day, a little rainy but overcast which can make for goo photography. The temperature was in the mid sixties. On the ferry coming back, there was a Jewish woman travelling on a cruise trip with a family of 25 and a young skinny inter-racial couple. They had another big trip planned after Alaska. Dinner included lamb shanks, strawberry chilled soup, and a crab leg appetizer. We finished the evening with a 10 year old Laphroaig. This was probably the best scotch that I have ever had.
Friday we cruised through Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay was visited 200 years ago by George Vancouver who observed it to be a large open bay, blocked at its northern end by a giant wall of ice. Since then, it has slowly receded, uncovering a waterway 65 miles long containing many fjords and inlets. Today, we have the privilege of witnessing the calving of this massive glacier. U.S. Park rangers narrated the passage, starting at 8:30 AM. They joined us by motoring out in a small boat and climbing up a rope ladder. It was 50 degrees at the start of our journey and we were our heavy jackets as the ice made quite a chill to the air. We saw 2 brown bears feeding on a whale carcass. What a site. As the park ranger said, two of the biggest mammals (each one probably weight 1000 pounds) feeding on another of the biggest mammals in the world. We saw a pod of seals, sponges, birds, jelly fish, the blue haze that is common around glaciers and then lots of glaciers. We saw the Lamplugh, Mt. Cooper, Johns Hopkins inlet (ironic since our table mate works at Johns Hopkins), we turned into Jaw Point and the Tar Inlet. We saw the Grand Pacific Glacier and the Marguerie. And then to top it off, we saw more whales. We ended the journey with a swim in the pool overlooking Glacier Bay. Yes, it was heated! For dinner, we had lobster tails and steak, an excellent escargot appetizer, foie gras pate, scallops, an chilled apple soup and dessert was a chocolate mousse. The wine was Ravenswood.
Saturday, we finally had some free time. We made plans to take some photos with our tablemates. We had the Mariner’s brunch for lunch. It included a salmon and greens salad which was excellent. Wine was complimentary and we were seated at a table of 8. There was one couple from Muskegon Michigan and another who were into going on Dixieland jazz cruises. We had to start packing, but not to go home. We had to figure out what needed to travel with us and what we could do without until Fairbanks. We seemed to be in and out of sight of land all day.
Friday we cruised through Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay was visited 200 years ago by George Vancouver who observed it to be a large open bay, blocked at its northern end by a giant wall of ice. Since then, it has slowly receded, uncovering a waterway 65 miles long containing many fjords and inlets. Today, we have the privilege of witnessing the calving of this massive glacier. U.S. Park rangers narrated the passage, starting at 8:30 AM. They joined us by motoring out in a small boat and climbing up a rope ladder. It was 50 degrees at the start of our journey and we were our heavy jackets as the ice made quite a chill to the air. We saw 2 brown bears feeding on a whale carcass. What a site. As the park ranger said, two of the biggest mammals (each one probably weight 1000 pounds) feeding on another of the biggest mammals in the world. We saw a pod of seals, sponges, birds, jelly fish, the blue haze that is common around glaciers and then lots of glaciers. We saw the Lamplugh, Mt. Cooper, Johns Hopkins inlet (ironic since our table mate works at Johns Hopkins), we turned into Jaw Point and the Tar Inlet. We saw the Grand Pacific Glacier and the Marguerie. And then to top it off, we saw more whales. We ended the journey with a swim in the pool overlooking Glacier Bay. Yes, it was heated! For dinner, we had lobster tails and steak, an excellent escargot appetizer, foie gras pate, scallops, an chilled apple soup and dessert was a chocolate mousse. The wine was Ravenswood.
Saturday, we finally had some free time. We made plans to take some photos with our tablemates. We had the Mariner’s brunch for lunch. It included a salmon and greens salad which was excellent. Wine was complimentary and we were seated at a table of 8. There was one couple from Muskegon Michigan and another who were into going on Dixieland jazz cruises. We had to start packing, but not to go home. We had to figure out what needed to travel with us and what we could do without until Fairbanks. We seemed to be in and out of sight of land all day.
We were close to the Kenai Peninsula and in the evening, we went through the College Fjords. They were mostly tidewater glaciers. Columbia is the fastest retreating glacier. We saw Wellesley and then Harvard, which is actually advancing and so is a very big one. The Baltimore glacier feeds it. We found out the biggest earthquake in Alaska was centered right here and it caused a large tsunami. We saw the Smith glacier which has a big black stripe of debris in the center. It is worth noting, that there is no Princeton glacier. The trees in the area consisted of spruce and alder. We saw harbor seals on the chunks of ice that had broken off.
Dinner was in the Main Upper Dining Room, we had a view of the back of the ship, both sides.
The Master Chef Dinner was: Mushroom and duck mousse with asparagus en bouche., Cold smoked, pickled and chipotle hot-smoked salmon with lime avocado, tomato salsa, Golden baked brie in phyllo dough, Duck breast a l’Orange, served with Grand Marnier sauce, braised red cabbage, pea pods, carrots and potato, Grilled lamb chops with oregano and apple chutney, with butternut squash, Baked Alaska, an ice cream glacier under a blanket of meringue, with a warm brandy Bing cherry sauce. We finished the night with a long awaited 12 year old McAllen scotch.
On Sunday, we arrived in Seward very early. It was foggy with a glint of sun shining through. We were on the Lido having breakfast by 5:30 AM. We had bacon, sausage, French toast and potatoes. We had booked a shore excursion to go spend time at an Iditarod training camp. They picked us up and we got a bit of a view of the very beautiful Seward. Our driver was a very funny lady. Her husband has a year round job related to coal and he is building a cabin for them in his free time. We got to pet a few dogs of the many that were there. They had 85 dogs all chained to their dog shelter which was made of a plastic barrel to get them up off the ground by 2 feet. That comes out to 3 different teams. There were some puppies too that haven’t really joined a team yet. When they were hooking up the wagon, the dogs went nuts as they all seemed to be saying “Pick me, pick me”. What a sound-all that barking!!! Our guide, Tim is in training himself. Originally from Wisconsin , he came there to learn and in 2012, he will take a practice run on the Iditarod. The family that owns the place is the Seavy Family. Mitch Seavy won the Iditarod in 2004. We got to actually ride in a wagon pulled by the dogs as a training run. Our ride took us through some gorgeous scenery, along streams and brightly colored flowers. The lead dogs train to go about 8 miles per hour though if it were up to them, for a short distance they could go 30 miles per hour. The young dogs are learning to not work so hard but to work as part of the team. Most dogs live to 14 years; they are mixed breeds, not the Malamute that you picture at all. They were skinner with is a better body type for the race. Most of them work to the end but retire to just train the younger ones in training runs. They eat a lot of food-very high protein. salmon, hamburger, and Black Diamond dog food. At the end of the trip, we got to hold some puppies and take some great photos. After returning to the ship, we were able to eat lunch before meeting our tour group and boarding a bus heading for Anchorage. We were part of Tour 15b and there were 52 of us. Our leader was Jenna, who was cute as a button (no other way to describe her really). Right away we noticed there were 2 other lesbian couples on the tour and a guy couple as well. The scenery along the way was quite spectacular. We saw the Turnigan Arm and heard about the quick sand silt along the water. There is now a rescue system as a person could easily die if they try walking on this. The bus trip took about 2 hours and so it was not too late when we arrived in Anchorage . We walked down the street to eat dinner at Seafood joint called Phyllis’s. We ate outside and fortunately it was mostly covered as it started to rain. It was really the only rain we had seen since the first day of the cruise, which is unusual to say the least. We had the best salmon of the trip, finally something fresh from right here in Alaska . We had a Robert Mondavi merlot with the dinner.
Monday morning, we boarded the McKinley Explorer headed to Denali . On the McKinley Explorer, we were in the Chuitna car, seats 4a and 4b. Early on, we had to pass a crash site. A military C-10 had crashed, killing several soldiers some weeks back. It was still under investigation and we were instructed to not take photos. It was hard to look at and clearly upset our guide, Laura, who has to pass through it regularly. Laura was a great guide. She is an older lady with spiked short hair. She winters near her kids and drives up to Alaska to work the train each summer. The big perk is you are working for Princess cruise lines so you get big discounts. Our bartender was named Ryan and we ordered a mudslide and a mosquito. It was a beautiful day, a little rainy. We never saw much wildlife on the train but did see some trumpeter swans
Breakfast was on the train. Carol had the smoked salmon breakfast burrito and I had the frontier skillet which included Alaskan reindeer sausage. We were seated with a lovely couple from London Ontario. He is a retired doctor. We sat with the at lunch too, and I had more reindeer, chili this time. Carol had the seafood salad. We rode on a Princess car and ended up staying at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Our tour group was so big that there was no room at the McKinley chalets, the Holland America place. But this was just as nice. Right as we pulled into the lot, we finally saw a moose. After checking in, we ran back up but he was long gone. We settled in to our room, a nice king bed this time-Yay! We decided to go ahead and book a fishing trip at the front desk. We talked to a gal from Moldavia. We were to find that many eastern Europeans were working at Denali. She asked if we were sisters and we said no, partners. She said, of course, there is a saying that "People who are meant to be together, look alike."
Now that we were on land, we wanted to eat fresh Alaskan fish so we had dinner at King Salmon. It was crazy crowded with a group of about 40 from Taiwan. Actually part of our group was set up to do the Wilderness Tour with them the next day. We had a crab dip appetizer that was awesome. We ordered and then split, the salmon and the halibut. The wine was a Tillia malbec. Our waitress was amazing as it was so busy and loved talking fishing with us.
Tuesday morning, we boarded a converted school bus for the 6-8 hour Tundra Wilderness Tour. We were able to get seats with the other two lesbian couples, Georgina & Mary and Susan and Jodie. They were both from the Green Bay Wisconsin area. The guy couple also sat nearby. They are from Washington DC. Neil is actually a lawyer at the Treasury Department. Charles is his partner of 22 years and works at AHIP. We ended up seeing it all, the top of Mt. McKinley, bears, lots of caribou, wolves, Dall sheep, a hoary marmot, moose, prairie dogs, and golden eagles. We saw a mom trying to kick her young beat cub out as it was time for him to go his on way. At first, we thought it was two young cubs fighting but our driver pointed out that the mom-son thing was the most likely scenario. We also saw a bear chowing down on berries and Arctic potatoes. The marmot was really funny, perched right on top of a rock. The mountain was amazing, so now we part of the 10% club that actually sees the mountain peak. We saw it glowing in the early morning light and then later, got some great, clear camera shots. Our driver was Barry. He was knowledgeable and passionate about Denali. He was also a good driver which was good because the roads were scary at times. We snacked our lunch box they gave us on the bus but then grabbed some pizza back at the lodge to hold us. Dinner that night was a Black Diamond ATV adventure, with a salmon BBQ dinner stop mid-ride. The place was completely run by eastern European guys. We geared up in plastic pants and helmets for the ride. I kept having mechanical problems with my ATVs and at one point was separated from the group so I got to ride really fast. The guide was embarrassed that they had these problem machines and I ended on a really big, powerful one for a while.
Wednesday morning, we went on a fishing expedition with Denali Fly Fishing Guides. There is no salmon in this area because you are on the other side of the continental divide so our hope was to catch Arctic grayling. What a cast of characters were in our group. There was an old man from Indiana and a younger guy from Austin Texas that both were obsessed with talking about guns and shotting "stuff". There was some younger guys from Michigan that were ok. We drove to the base camp, just outside of Denali and geared up. We put on hip waders and yellow raincoats as it was drizzling a bit. They took us down to a remote site where we walked nearly a mile on the very spongy tundra to this gorgeous little stream. After a very brief fly fishing lessons, we were set up to start our casts. Carol caught a fish but it jumped off before I could photograph it. The movie, "Into the Wild" was actually filmed right where we were fishing.
We had noticed in the AM that the flags were at half mast and came to realize that former Alaskan senator, Ted Stevens had been killed in a plane crash. We had lunch back at the Salmon King for more of that Alaskan king crab dip and a crab burger. We also had crab macaroni and cheese. That afternoon, it was back on the McKinley Explorer headed for Fairbanks. This time, we were in the Nenana car, seats 4c and 4d. We had dinner on the train. I had the reindeer sausage macaroni and cheese even after what I had for lunch. Our guide was from Wasilla and knew the Palin family. She is going to college in Minnesota and has even studies in Oxford so no slouch. She talked about her job hunt and the impact of the trying economic times on kids in her age group. Our bartender was on the other end of the spectrum. Divorced from a native, she was from Kodiak and is now living in her truck. She had worked in some rough Alaskan places but can't be around smoke anymore and found the train a safe place. On the way we saw a super secret miliary base and Fairbanks University. At 10 PM that night, it was still light, like a summer afternoon.
Thursday, our last full day in Alaska , they had a lot planned for us. We were up early, ate at the buffet, and boarded a bus to take us to the Discovery paddle wheeler. We saw one of the locals land and take off in a float plane. One of the stops was an authentic Athabascan village. We saw a dog demonstration by Ava Lindner who will also be in the Iditarod in 2012 but unlike our earlier guide, her family owns a training camp and so will be racing for real After the Riverboat Discovery Tour, we saw Gold Dredge No. 8. And then we toured the El Dorado gold mine and panned for gold with Neil and Charles. There were some characters there, a man with a very long beard and his female partner who have panned for gold there for sometime and gave us a lesson.
Thursday, our last full day in Alaska , they had a lot planned for us. We were up early, ate at the buffet, and boarded a bus to take us to the Discovery paddle wheeler. We saw one of the locals land and take off in a float plane. One of the stops was an authentic Athabascan village. We saw a dog demonstration by Ava Lindner who will also be in the Iditarod in 2012 but unlike our earlier guide, her family owns a training camp and so will be racing for real After the Riverboat Discovery Tour, we saw Gold Dredge No. 8. And then we toured the El Dorado gold mine and panned for gold with Neil and Charles. There were some characters there, a man with a very long beard and his female partner who have panned for gold there for sometime and gave us a lesson.
We had dinner at the hotel as we were just to tired to go anywhere. We had halibut and sole with a Ravenswood wine. Jessica was our waitress and had grown up in the area, North Pole to be exact, so she gave us the real scoop on winter in a town that regularly sees 20 below zero. The range is Fairbanks is a record 99 degrees in the summer and 66 below zero in the winter. We will try to watch Ice Road Truckers and the Deadliest Catch when we return home. She said it was a place of rednecks and not a great place to be gay. She has gay friends and they stay within the University cultural community. It is full of macho guys who like Xtreme sports. But she said in the winter, the northern lights are truly spectacular.
During the trip, we heard about a bear shooting in Anchorage as it was trying to break in to someone's house. We heard of there being a polar bear on the football field during a HS game and that the kids have to fly to other towns to play. A record halibut was caught and we heard about the Tok flood that happened a couple years back.
Friday morning, we were up really early as our flight left at 6 AM heading first for Seattle and finally St. Louis. As we flew into Seattle , we were lucky enough to get another great city view as well as a completely clear view of Mt. Rainer . We went to the Africa Lounge for lunch at the Seattle airport. The next leg took us over more mountains in Montana . It was another beautiful flight.
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