Ketchikan

I woke up Thursday morning and knew

by the noises that we were docking.

I slid open our glass door to see what

Ketchikan looked like and heard a loud splash.

My first thought was that someone had thrown

something overboard - a big NO-NO!

But when I stepped out on the deck

I heard more splashes.

It took me a few minutes to wake up and

realize that the salmon were jumping -

but it's hard to get a good picture of them.

When I saw this:

I thought that Ketchikan must be really small -

but the town was on the other side of the ship.

However, I enjoyed watching the fishing and tour

boats come and go.

And it was neat to watch the water planes

(or whatever they're called)

landing and taking off.

We wandered over to the town side of the boat

and Ketchikan is a small fishing/tourist town

but kinda quaint.

We were only going to be docked for the morning

so we headed out to see the town.

We took a tour on one of these horse drawn trolleys.

One of those 'quaint' things about the town were

these 'street' stairs. These are considered actual

streets and if you live on one you have

to park and walk the rest of the way -

just think about moving furniture or carting

toddlers and groceries - especially

in this town that has record rainfalls.

Ketchikan is also known for it's numerous

totem poles. I had always thought totem poles

were a religious symbol but they are really stories.

People also give totem poles as special birthday

or anniversary presents, for special honors, and

they even have some if you've been dishonorable.

This creek is one of the main salmon ladders.

They said that when they are at the top of the season

a small person can walk across this creek

without getting their feet wet.

Another totem pole.

Ready to get back on board.

Later in the day as we were headed towards Victoria.

Glacier Bay

We said goodbye to Skagway around 7:30 pm

and enjoyed the view until it was too dark to see much.

Around 6 am we picked up the required

National Park Rangers that

would give us direction and commentary

throughout our stay in Glacier Bay.

Below is the glacier that our boat was allowed to

stop and visit for an extended period of time -

probably about an hour.

We were on the Starboard side so our 1st view

doesn't look like much - but that dirty ice

looking stuff to the bottom left is part of the glacier.

To better understand it's size - there are 2 men walking around

on the shore just to the right of the glacier

and there are 5 tents on the far right side of the picture.

After about half an hour the boat turned

and we had this view of the glacier.

We sat there and waited to see if we would

get to see it calving. Steve thought it was like

watching ice melt - isn't he funny.

We did see some parts fall and it was amazing

at the 'crashing' noise such a little bit would make.

And we often heard loud crashes within

the glacier that we couldn't see.

We cruised by several other glaciers as we

wandered through the bay.

On our way out of the bay we started

seeing a lot more wildlife.

We saw a humpback whale crest

but I was too much in awe to snap a picture.

But we saw lots and lots of whales (orca and humpback)

sea lions, sea otters, and eagles.

The rangers got on and off the boat by climbing

down a ladder to this smaller boat.

The end of the day brought some beautiful horizons

and we continued to see whales for quite awhile.

Day 5 - Skagway, Alaska

We awoke Tuesday morning to the sounds of

men shouting and motors grinding as

we docked into the Skagway port.

One of the many other cruise ships that

followed the same route as us

was coming in behind us.

We had a gorgeous cool and sunny day.

The town was about 1/4 mile from the dock

but we really enjoyed the view before we

even left the boat.

Skagway was a railroad town and port of call

back in the day of rail travel and the rail trips

were the main attraction here.

It sounded like a neat tour up to the

Klondike Highway and the

Yukon Suspension Bridge.

But it was an all day trip and that suspension bridge

thing made Steve a little nervous.

We had some time before our tour so we walked into town

and enjoyed the view along the way.

Skagway is a little town -

only 800 when the cruise ship season is over.

They have one school from Kg - 12th grade

with 9 teachers and 76 students.

The Red Onion Saloon is known for

its 'spoiled doves' historical reputation.

Our first tour took us on a scenic drive up over the town.

The mountain here was Harding Mt. and they said

it was named after President Harding who was the only

U.S President to visit Skagway.

He complained constantly of being cold and then

promptly returned home and died of pneumonia -

at least that's what they said.

We did see an airplane arrive at their 'airport'.

The tour then took us to a museum - a very good one actually.

They had a lot of artifacts from the miners and

we could have spent more time there.

We also went to a Sculpture Garden - this was the only

sculpture I found interesting but they had enlarged photos

with a miner's notes about their lives -

it looked like an awful life.

They said only a small percent actually made

and KEPT their earnings of gold -

some guy named Nordstrum was one of them.

Most was spent on prostitutes, staying alive

or swindled away from them.

The tour we took of the Red Onion was led by this 'madame'

The was NOT Steve's favorite tour - he didn't like her silliness.

The history she told though was pretty sad -

some of it downright criminal which was

a large problem Skagway had.

Here in St. Louis we have our Jesse James

there they have Soapy Smith.

We enjoyed Skagway for it's scenery

but it's not a place I'd want to live.

Day 4 - Juneau, Alaska

I woke up at 6AM Monday morning

to do some whale watching.

There were some but not as many this morning.

They were probably sleeping in I guess.

We arrived in Juneau in wet drizzly weather.

But in Alaska rain doesn't stop any activities

except maybe helicopter rides.

Our first shore excursion was a tour of the town

where they took us down "THE" highway to

"THE" bridge and over to Douglas Island

to a lookout where we could see

Juneau from across the way.

Then we returned to town

where we went up this tram to take a hike.

We saw several eagles

but this is the only one I got a picture of -

probably because he was caged.

He had an injured eye and they

couldn't let him go free

for his own safety.

The hike was fun - although wet and muddy.

Our guide was often tramping into the

woods to bring us back various berries to try.

This 'other' cruise ship is actually

anchored in the middle of the water.

Their passengers had to be ferried

back and forth to the ship.

Another view of our tram ride.

This is the only bear we actually saw. :)

But we were always on the lookout.

Later that afternoon we took another

shore excursion to

Mendenhall Glacier.

It's hard to realize the size of the glacier.

I know it doesn't look so big but

besides the people in the middle of the picture,

there are people standing just

to the right of the glacier

that are difficult to pick out.

This is the lichen that grows as the glacier recedes.

It fertilizes the ground.

The flower is poisonous but I've forgotten it's name.

Also at the glacier there was a trail which

we only had time to go

a short way on or get left by the bus.

There was a mother and baby bear in the area

coming down to the water for dinner

(the stream was full of salmon)

but we never caught sight of them.