Alaska Cruise/Trip Aug 30 to Sep 9, 2017
- Aug 30, 2017
- 10 min read
So this trip is on Princess Cruises, the name of the ship: Island Princess. We had to fly from our home state up to Seattle Washington then to Vancouver.
Aug 30,
We traveled the night before our hotle room had amazing view. The last one to the right is the plane we flew in on.
Aug 31,
We planed this trip spur of the moment. It was so nice to get up with out the stress of traveling that day and then over to where the Princess Cruises Line Buses pick you up.
Transportation:
The bus ride over was the way to go make sure you cheek to see if transport to and from the air port is part of your package. For us we only did the one way trip. If not look in to the Uber driver (download app) some times it is faster and cost less but that depends on location and if they have them where you are at. Don't rent a car you will be paying for it to just seat in the parking lot costing you $$$.
In Our Cabin:
After you get off the bus you have to go through lines for checking in and they keep the pass going so much so that you feel rushed. In our case they had none of our info on hand when we paid for the trip and it might have been because we did that two days before the trip was set to go. {If i have not said it before we are last moment. But I love it that way never knowing what places you will see.} we put our only bags in our cabin and went to sigh up for shore excursion's. heheheh
Safty Drill:
The safty drill just incase of ship emergency. All ways nice to "Be Prepared" then not to be. For this trip I can proudly say I went to the gym. Thats right our meet point was in the gym.my husband does not look thrilled that I tock a photo. heheh After that is was anchors away.
Then it was push back and off we go...
Ketchikan Sep 1
Our First port of call was Ketchikan. Our first excursion was later in the day so we got to walked around the town to take in the beauty.
Did You Know: Ketchikan is the best places in Alaska to see and get authentic totem poles. Totem poles tell the history of the native clan or village.
The name "Ketchikan" is believed to come from the Tlinit word "Kitschk-Hin" meaning" thundering wing of an eagle
Dolly’s House
I did not take a photo of the building and I wish I could add more than one photos per section Going on this tour was like going back in time. I do not recomend for young children but so worth going for adults. *Admission $5. http://tourketchikan.com/listing/dollys-house/
"Found along the famous Creek Street Boardwalk, Dolly's House is filled with antiques, old photographs, secret caches, and a video history of Creek Street most famous madam, Dolly Arthur. Come relive that exciting era of the 1900s to the 1950s."
It was amazing to walk on the board walk from shop to shop and you look over and down and you see the sea lions swimming around either playing or catching the salmon that are going up the creek to spawn. I could have stayed and watch them all day. But it is time for our excursion.
Our excursion:
Animal Planet Exclusive Bear Country and Wildlife Expedition
Price on the ship was $219.95 for Adult and $169.95 for Child per-person.
But please look this up for we paid throw the cruse ship. www.alaskarainforest.com
1-907-225-5503
Did You Know: Dont feel bad if someone tells you you're the " low man on the totem pole". Often, the most important figure can be found at the base, not on top, as many believe.
We had amazing time and their was other places in Ketchikan we wanted to see but will have to wait for next time....
Juneau Sep 2
So again we had lots of time before our excursion so we found out their was a gold mining museam called Last Chance Mining. We had alot of fun winning it on panning for gold. The admission is $5. address 1001 Basin Road Juneau, AK 99801-1038 phone number 907-586-5338.
By the time we got done we had to run back to the peer for the meeting point for our excursion. I very highly recommend going to the last chance mining museum.
Did You Know: The Jualpa Mining Camp was also known as the Last Chance Basin Camp. The campus was the site of one of the largest gold finds in the Juneau mining district. It was established between 1910 and 1913 and operated until 1944. It produced more than $80 million worth of gold. When this closed down the main building which is 84 feet and the compressor stayed and was turned in to the Last Chance Mining Museum.
Did You Know: Juneau is the only U.S Capital accessible only by boat or plane.
Our excursion:
Dog Sledding on the Mendenhall Glacier.
I can not begane to tell you how amazing this was it is a once in a live time experience adventure of a lifetime.
907-983-2886 http://www.akdogtour.com
Look at webpage under reservations fill out to get pricing ours was base on the cruise line.
Did You Know: The Mendenhall Glacier is nicknamed “the drive-up glacier” it’s only 14 miles from the city center. Mendenhall Glacier flows 12 miles from its source and has a half-mile-wide face. It formed during the “little ice age”, which began about 3,000 years ago, the glacier is fed from an ice field high above Juneau.
Our Helo Ride up to the Mendenhall Glacier
leaving Base camp we are on slid behind the driver so I got to stand like she is.
Times laps behind the dog's front of the slid.
After our adventure we had a quick bit to eat at Tracy's King Crab Shack. We did not want to wast the opportunity to have king crab legs. Where better to eat then in Alaska. yum yum
Did You Know:Juneau is the only U.S Capital accessible only by boat or plane.
I so wish we had more time in this town. So much to see with so little time. Juneau has the most spectacular wildlife veiwing opportunities in the world. The Inside Passage region is known to attract humpback whales during the summer. About 60 humpbacks come to Juneau so many tour operators offer a guaranteed sighting. With the breathtaking surroundings with nearly 300 bird species, including 10,000 bald eagles. The best place in Juneau to see birds is to visit Mendenhall Wildlife Refuge. Get a guided tour through Glacier Gardens for the opportunity to learn about the local flora and fauna. Thereis so much to see and do that it is mind blowing….
Skagway Sep3
Got in early and was going to look around the town more then we could did in Juneau.
Did You Know: In 1898 at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, The White Pass & Yukon Route Railway was built. it tock 26 months for this narrow gauge railroad to blasted through the rugged costal mountains to create "The Railway Built Of Gold".
Did You Know: is the Birthplace of the Klondike gold
rush. Gold was discovered in Skagway in 1896. At this time Skagway was no more than a lawless jumble of tents.
Did You Know: In Skagway's heyday this rough and tumble frontier port boasted more than 80 bars- including The Red Onion Saloon, which is Skagway's most infamous brothel.
Five Types of Salmon
Chum = Thumb. Like pink, chum is fished in high numbers and is lower in fat than other varieties; when it spawns in intertidal waters, it doesn’t need to build up energy to swim upstream. Its roe, however, is the most valued of the five varieties, because of its size and flavor. After being strained and separated, the eggs make particularly good ikura— the fat, bright-orange pearls familiar in sushi rolls.
Sockeye = pointing finger With a deep, natural color, sockeye is lower in fat but still high overall, allowing the flavor to better come through. Many salmon lovers, including me, consider this the best salmon-eating experience.
King = middle finger The lushest fresh salmon, king is the highest in fat and usually the most expensive, prized for its silken, melting texture, which is almost like smoked salmon.
Coho (silver) = ring finger A comer, according to Bill Webber and Thea Thomas, independent Cordovan fishermen. It’s already prized by sport fishermen for its fight, and soon, the Cordovans hope, by diners for its mild but distinctive flavor. The most widely available autumn fresh salmon.
Pink = Pinkie. So delicate and pale that Thomas compares it to sole—which she does not mean as a compliment. She recalls a tasting for food writers at which many rated pink the highest. “How could they?” she asks. The likely answer: “A lot of these people had never had salmon in their life.”
Salmon swimming up the river to spawn.
Catching a Salmon with my bare hands.
Did You Know: The name of Skagway was not the original name. The Tlingit people indigenous to the area originally named it Skagua (schkag-wah) and most spelled it "Skaguay". In 1899 the post office changed it to Skagway. Over the corse of time before the post office steeped in it was spelled Cququq, Schkague, Shkagway, Schkawai and Skagwa. The name has many definitions, popularly it is thought to mean "windy place".
Our excursion:
Grizzly Falls Zip-lining
Alaska X North of Wild / Alaska Excursions
907-983-4444
Trying to go down upside down
Me trying to do the Irish gig down the line. would love to really learn how to Irish dancing
Glacier Bay Sep 4
Oh My God where to try to start to discribe Glacier Bay.....
To hear the thunderous crack of an iceberg as it calves into the icy blue waters of the bay. It reaches down in to your soul and takes root.
~The best time to see the humpback whales is in the lower portion. But you can see sea otter, harbor seals, bald eagles, Puffins if you are lucky and have binoculars you can see rare sighting of brown bear, moose and mountain goat.
Transfers of the park rangers
Durning this part of the tip you do not get off the ship. When entering Glacier Bay National Park a small boat comes up and transfers the park rangers on to the cruse ship. The ship cruises is always at a slow speed. The slower the better for any big waves are bad for all of the glaciers in the park.
Did You Know: The sunlight that reflects off this rock flour is what gives the lakestheir spectacular turquoiseblue or green colour.
Ried Glacier
How old is the ice at the face of the glaciers? Glaciers flow forward about 3 - 6 feet each day. Depending on the length of the glacier and the steepness of the valley it flows through, the ice at the front of the glacier is anywhere between 200 and 75 years old.
How old are the glaciers in the park? Glacier Bay has experienced at least 4 glacial periods. The last, the Little Ice age, began about 4,000 years ago. The glaciers that still exist in the park today are remnants of that glacial period.
Passage down John Hopkins Inlet
The cruis ship could not go down this inlet for safety due to the fog. If we went down we could have seen Lamplugh, Hoonah, Gilman and Johns Hopkins Glacier.
Why are the glaciers advancing and retreating? There is no simple answer. If a glacier has a steady source of snow turning to ice in the mountains, a good lens of water on which to slide along the bedrock, enough gravity and momentum in downhill movement, a good moraine of rock and rubble at the front to insulate it from water erosion and cold enough temperatures year-around, a glacier will advance. If it loses enough of these, it will retreat.
Map of the Glacer's
this is a 3-D map the park rangers brought on the ship
Silt/Rockflower
The silt is created when rocks underneath the surface of the ice are grinding from the movement of the glacier. The rock flour is very light and stays suspended in the lakewater for a long time. The sunlight that reflects off this rock flour is what gives the lakestheir spectacular turquoiseblue or green colour.
The turquoise lakes you will see are colored by glacial silt suspended in the water. Glaciers scrape bedrock into fine, round particles of rock or clay which are then carried away by tides or rivers.
Very finely ground particles of rock, silt, or clay created by a glacier when its rock-filled ice scrapes over bedrock and which flow out from beneath a glacier in the meltwater.
Tari Inlet passage way up to Margerie & G.P Glacier
How high is the face of Margerie Glacier?
The Margerie Glacier is about one mile wide, with an ice face that is about 250 feet high above the waterline, and a base about 100 feet below sea level.
Margerie Glacier-our first glimpse
~When we where on the cruise the park ranger said the Margerie glaciers advances forward about 5 feet per day. That means calve usually occurs a few times an hour... Calving is when a portion of the ice falls off the glacier and you hear the thunderous crack. We had a very good calving four times but it was also raining so more active.
Margerie & Grand Pacific Glacier
Of all the common questions the ranger gets is why is the Grand Pacific glacier so dirty. With Avalanches, rock slides, tributary glaciers and the scouring of the valley have caused an accumulatoin of dirt and rock.
If you can't open when click please copy and past their is a lot of amazing eye opening info on glacier's in the park.
College Fjord Sep5 & Whittier Sep6
Due to the constent rain and fog we did not see anything at College Fjord and this part of the trip was rough water and my motion sickness kicked in so I just sleep from the dramamine.
We got in to Whittier before we where scheduled too. The rain and wind was so strong the captain made the call not to let anyone off the ship. The next morning it was time to leave by bus to Anchorage.
Anchorage/Denali Sep 7-10
I slept the whole bus ride. When we got to the air port we went over to the rent a car and then head over to our hotel. When all was done we went on a walk then had early dinner. The next morning we meet up with a old friend from our high school days. Then the long drive up to Denali National park. I was so tiered I tock a long nape then it was time to find dinner. We meet Rose and her husband Craig that night. we had amazing dinner with new friends.
Denali/Anchorage Sep 8-10
Black Diamond Resort Company
Cover wagon ride W/ Backcountry dinner $89. per person www.blackdiamondtourco.com 907-683-4653
Dinner was a lot of fun then we went out to see if we can see any Aurora Borealis aka northern lights. sadly we did not but gives us something to look forward to next time.
Last day head back to fly home
We where told that this river was so muddy that nanna fish can serve in it but I think it is because of the Glacier that feeds it Nenana Glacier approximately 100 mil south of Fairbanks.
Educational info I never learn in school
McKinley Park and Matanuska- Susitna
Sep10
Flying home Amazing trip so sad it came to a end.... for now will go back some day. Until then.
Thank you Hope you Enjoyed and gives you the desire to get out and see the bueaty...
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