The Last Few Days of this Journey

If you get these posts in your email and you would like to see the last post with pictures, go to aquietsojourn.blogspot.com.

The ferry ride, Ketchikan, AK to Bellingham, WA was an uninterrupted 39 hours on the boat. A few of the friends we made on the ferry:

• Allison is a college professor in Alberta. She was a high school Rotary exchange student to Brazil and was hosting her elderly Brazilian "mother" on an Alaskan trip. Mom didn't speak English but we found them both delightful.
• Diane and Trey took a cruise to Anchorage and the ferry back to Washington. They were great conversationalists and always knew what was going on where.
• We met a handsome Catalonian who was in favor of independence. He spoke little English and our French, Spanish, and Catalonian was rusty enough there were no heated political discussions, at least not about that!
• Chris bikes around the world. He has done "furthest distances" such as southern California to north eastern Maine. He is now doing "lowest to highest", such as Death Valley onto the Alaska Canadian Highway to Mt. Denali, which he climbed. He also designs things including props for magicians. His website: cycleforheart.org

Here is Anna visiting with Chris and Diane. Pam is in red on the left.

This last leg on the ferry was perhaps the most relaxing. It was a long way with no stops to check cell phones or use the computer. All one needed to do was eat, sleep, visit, knit, and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

When we arrived in Bellingham, north of Seattle, Anna and I went to San Juan Island for a couple nights to celebrate our shared birthday. We visited an alpaca farm (yes, I bought more yarn!), a sculpture garden, and ended the day at a lavender farm, which had wonderful chocolate chip lavender ice cream.

Next, I visited Susan, who grew up in my home. It was nice to see her again and see her home, share a bit of her life, and walk the Bellevue Botanical Gardens with a very cool Japanese style home, now coffee shop and office space. The last night, I rejoined Pam at our mutual friends, Deborah and Carl; a perfect end to a very special month.

The travelers:

Someone said, "Alaska is miles and miles of miles and miles." They are pretty beautiful miles!

Rescues, Juneau, and Sitka

A couple days ago, a crew member became ill. The crew lowered one of the small rescue boats on the ship. They boated the sick one into the closest town where a plane had agreed to delay take-off for our sick person.

Saturday, our ship heard a distress call, lowered the rescue boat and we sat still in the water while our crew towed the distressed boat in near a town where a town boat came out took over. I got a picture of our guys, in the rescue boat, being hoisted up and back on the 7^th deck.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

We arrived in Auke Bay again and drove our rental car directly to the Mendenhall Glacier. The moose we heard had been hanging out there swam across the lake two days before so we missed him but Nicki, one of the local bears, was hanging out. We were there a couple of hours and she slept on a ledge, and walked along the beach and on the human trail. Rangers followed, kept a watchful eye, and mostly insisted the humans remain quiet and still as Nicki had the right-or-way.

There was also a porcupine in a tree above the path.

We walked to the base of a waterfall and fairly close to the glacier. It was awesome. 

There is another longer trail leading to where one could walk into an ice cave that is part of this glacier but it caved in a few weeks ago. We didn’t go there. If you want to see pictures of what it looked like, go to davidlienemann.com and click on The Last Frontier.

We visited The Shrine of St. Terese. In addition to a little chapel, there were a lot of bald eagles flying around.

We stayed at the Silverbow, a boutique hotel in Juneau, recommended by Sydney. We loved our hostess, Jill, and her quirky modern/traditional taste and the yummy breakfast and the hot chocolate and cookies.

Monday, we took the Taku Lodge trip, our big splurge of the trip, and also recommended by Sydney. We rode a float plane over multiple glaciers up to a 1920s hunting cabin on the Taku River. The Taku Glacier is one of the few in North America that is advancing. We had wood fired, grilled salmon, hiked around the grounds, and rode the plane back to Juneau.

I went to the state museum. The local peoples were among the few North American native peoples who lived a life of plenty. They had abundant sources of food and a relatively temperate climate so they had plenty of time to engage in the arts. The baskets are so fine and beautiful. The clothing, paddles, homes, also so beautiful! And the little kid clothes were so cute!

I then toured the state capitol building, stepped into the tiny octagonal Russian Orthodox church and the gin distillery, walked by David and Sydney’s old house, and ate the cauliflower taco David recommended. It was a lovely, sometimes drizzly day.

Tuesday, we were on the ferry by 3:30 am, stopped in Sitka where we joined a Roads Scholar group (the old Elderhostel bunch) for a tour of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral and admired amazing local art in little Sitka galleries. Sitka was the old Russian capital.

This morning, Wednesday, we were up at 2:40 am on bad advice but by 4 am we were moving through a very narrow strait with red lights blinking in the fog on the left and green ones on the right. It was a little magical, maybe not up to the hype, and we slept in late this morning.

We are docked in Ketchikan for a few hours, our last stop and wireless opportunity until Friday in Bellingham, WA. I am so glad I have lived a frugal life so as to be able to do this trip, and so glad I gave up a bit of my cheapness to pay for it.

Auke Bay and Ketchikan

Auke Bay is about 10 miles down the road from Juneau. We docked there for 3-4 hours Wednesday. I walked about 1.6 miles to Auke Bay, and the Liquor/Grocery store to buy a mug so I can eat my yogurt and drink tea on the ferry without paying for it. This store had a lot of liquor, candy bars, chips, and no mugs.

So I walked back a ways to the Gonzo Café with the “Ninjas Only” sign above the door and bought a mug and vanilla ice cream and walked back to the ship.

Thursday at noon we arrived in Ketchikan. Our AirB&B host picked us up at the ferry, gave us a quick tour of the town, and delivered us to our tiny apartment in an older apartment building. Our apartment overlooked a vertical stream of salmon swimming up and seagulls on the rocks eating the dead ones.

One of our host’s friends, a cab driver, drove us to Totem Bight State Park and Potlatch Park. We saw and learned about totem poles, 

tribal houses, and tribal community houses.

When trees fall in this rain forest, their root system comes up in a flat disc because the soil is so thin on the rock.

The beach is lichen-covered rocks, very beautiful.

We walked around Ketchikan. There is a lot of vertical. What we saw was pretty touristy – jewelry stores and fudge stores and art galleries and great food and a knit shop!!!

Most interesting to me was how eager I was to get back on the boat. I like sleeping on the boat and I like walking around the entire ship on the deck, getting my steps in while observing whales and sea lions and otters and mountains and islands and sky and water. I find it delightful to sit in the front and look out and knit. I told the story today of my grandmother taking my brother to Scottsbluff on the train and upon return he said that he wanted to be a train passenger when he grew up. I’m thinking about becoming a boat passenger when I grow up.