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.

Yakutak

Friday, September 15, 2017

Our first ferry stop was in Yakutak, about 20 hours after departing Whittier. These little towns along the coast are between the mountains and the Gulf of Alaska. They are widely spaced and a little decrepit. There are only two ways in and out – a boat or a plane. This picture is from the ferry coming into Yakutsk.

Anna, Pam, and I went for a walk. There was a ferry stop, a walk through the woods to a tiny park with a small gauge antique railroad display, and a school. A tall, gangly girl came out from volleyball practice whistling Zip Pa Dee Doo Dah. We asked her how to find the town. She sent us down another road through the woods. We walked past an occasional house, one of which was the police station and court, one was a church, and all looked a little worse for the wear.

The grocery store was a series of rooms with wood floors. They had a good selection of fruits and vegetables and a good selection of Asian food. One aisle had a sign that read, “Pet Food/Mayonnaise”. That aisle also had 20 pound bags of Thai Jasmine Rice. We bought an ice cream bar and walked back on ship, which was beautiful in the sunset.

Also, I got a very cute text picture when we were in Yakutak.