The End of Our Great Adventure: Part 5

Written by Nicki Sooter Wilcoxson



Orca Pod Near Crab Ship







Eagle looking for food. Note
the wing span






Photos taken by Vince Migliaccio
off the Sea Crab Fishermen's
Tour

Humpback Whale




Kim, Vince, and Cole
on the Sea Crab Tour









Wow, What a catch!!! Crab legs for dinner.

Following a very long day yesterday, Sunday, June 21, Jim and I returned home 8 days after leaving for our trip to Alaska. In my last post I talked about our trip to Juneau and about seeing my whales which was a big thrill for me. When we got back to the ship, ate, and worked a bit on the computer, we decided to fore go the planned excursion that we had planned for Friday which was to be another look at the misty fjords and glaciers. Our ship would be in port in Ketchikan and I really wanted to spend time exploring the village; taking the excursion would leave us with little time to spend there. In the meantime, we found another excursion for Kim, Vince, Cole, and friend Kelly to participate in. It was billed a Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's Tour. To make it short, we totally misread and misunderstand what would take place, but we thought it was definitely something Cole would enjoy doing, and the rest of us not so much. Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes not so good decisions. The decision that Jim and I made not to go was a BAD decision. Everyone came back raving about the excursion. They saw pods of 8-10 Orca whales close by that really put on a show, a humpback whale that swam to the ship, and flocks of bald eagles drawn to the ship by raw fish the kids got to throw out to them. Several other species of wildlife were nearby, too. The kids and the adults loved it. Boo Hoo for us and we will know better next time.





The Eagle makes the catch.










An Orca breeches the water.

Waking up to Ketchikan outside our windows was awesome, too. (actually we didn't get there until 2:00 P.M.) Ketchikan is really one of those quaint villages built into a mountain side with rivers and streams running through the neighborhoods. The houses are painted bright colors and despite being old and for the most part a bit dilapidated the atmosphere is reminiscent of the old times of miners, adventurers, and fishermen, so picturesque that you want to capture every scene on film. Lots of shops are all around the docking area. Ketchikan is also the home of a lot of totem poles and a nearby native village that has worked to retrieve totem poles from all around Alaska in order to preserve them in one place. I have always been somewhat fascinated by totem poles so for a couple of hours Jim and I walked around Ketchikan in a light rain (bless our waterproof jackets and hoods) admiring the wonderful flowers, inhaling the woodsy, piney smells, and staring in awe at the rivers and streams running behind the homes as part of the landscape. We even saw a water ladder for salmon to assist them in their quest to get to their spawning grounds. By the way there is an obvious warfare going on between the fish farm hatcheries and the wildlife natural spawning of the salmon. Everyone is urged to avoid the farms and buy wild for better taste and so on. I don't know all of the issues. We found ourselves in a totem pole museum and saw totem poles from the 18Th century--very, very, old worn and weathered. We also learned about chum or gift giving and how it related to the status of the native families. I wish we had been able to go out to the native village for more, but the stay in Ketchikan was one of the shortest ports of call. We ended up in a cafe on the top floor of an old building, eating fish and chips (halibut) one more time--Oh so yummy. So despite having missed out on the wildlife excursion, we still had a good, relaxed, time and soaked up some of the Ketchikan culture.

Saturday was an at sea day when we sailed from Ketchikan to Vancouver through the very narrow Strait at Georgia past Vancouver Island. Wonderful mountains filled with pine trees, a few homes, fish boats, cruise ships, and even a whirlpool. A great deal of this was during the night. Victoria is on the tip of the island and very near Seattle. In my opinion, it would be a place that bears more investigating. Most of our day was spent packing to disembark, attending festivities planned by the ship's staff, and visiting. Sunday morning, disembarkation was meticulously planned and went smoothly. No, they wouldn't let us take our stewards home with us. They told us now we would have cook our own meals, clean our own houses, make our own beds, and no more room service. Several women even offered to leave their husbands behind on the ship in exchange for a steward. Most of all I will miss the view outside my bedroom window and I can't imagine wanting an inside room with no window.

The worst part of the day was getting through the Vancouver airport which is an international airport. Showing, passports several times, doing declarations for both Canada and the U.S., waiting in long security lines, and meeting the most arrogant, horse's rear of a Canadian Security Officer who searched my carry on bag with a fine toothed comb and a contemptible attitude really ruined a bit of my day. I am all for security and very patient, but this man was not a nice man. It was only a 4 hour flight home to DFW and then to Amarillo after a couple of hours layover.

Last Thoughts:

Coming home was/is a bitter sweet experience. I am so glad I got to go on this "bucket list" event. It all far exceeded my expectations and it was wonderful to share the time with family, too. Alaska transcends any attempt that I make to describe what we saw and did. It is the kind of place that no matter where you look, no matter what direction, you see the most beautiful bit of nature that you can ever imagine seeing--mountains, oceans, stream, rivers, glaciers, volcanoes, wildlife, gulches, canyons, and people who are beautiful inside and out, people who love their land and have to put up with so much inconvenience to live there, but do it anyway. Alaska is the kind of place that makes you want to take pictures of everything you see-wildlife, mountains, clouds, glaciers, ice chunks, people, shops, cars, trains, lakes, flowers, trees, food, and oceans. I think there is a fear that if you don't record it all you won't be able to make anyone understand what you have seen or done. There is also a fear that you will forget it yourself and won't be able to hold it in your minds eye forever. I know my son-in-law who was our designated photographer took between 400-500 photos (I intend to share them ALL with you) LOL. The danger that lies in trying to take too many photos of everything is that you will be so busy taking pictures you will forget to "live" in the moment.

The other side of the bitter/sweet is that despite the beauty, the fun and all the rest, I am glad to be home. I am so glad that I took a cruise--my first and maybe my only. I have tried to make a good/not so good list of taking a cruise, but I haven't articulated it yet. I loved Alaska and the idea that in all likelihood, I won't be going there again, makes me very sad. Hopefully there will be many other adventures to be explored and shared in our lifetime. We are happy we had this one and we have the photos to prove it!
Really Dorkie person enjoying the Napkin Dance performed by the Dining Staff at the end of the cruise.

Most photos were taken by Vince Migliaccio. Thanks, Vince

Our Great Adventure Continues: Part 4:

Written by Nicki Sooter Wilcoxson

A view of Juneau

Today, Thursday, June 18, was the best day we have had so far! We woke up to find the ship anchored at the docks in Juneau. What a wonderful sight! Quaint, picturesque houses set to the backdrop of gorgeous mountains and trees were so wonderful to see.

Our excursion for the day was a Whale Watching & Wildlife Quest that included a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. Learning about glaciers and actually being in such close proximity to one was a wonderful experience.

However, the icing on the cake was a boat trip from Juneau and the Auke Bay into the Lynn Canal. The focus of the entire trip was to find Alaskan Wildlife in its natural habitat. It was so exhilarating to see the sea lions, bald eagles, Dall’s porpoise, and best of all MY whale (several really) made appearances to show off and play a bit. Actually they were busy making feeding dives for food.

I was thrilled to have finally seen “real” ocean living humpback whales including a mother and her calf. It was so much fun! There was at least as much excitement as one would expect at the OU/UT football game!!! The quest ended with a trip to the Orca Point Lodge for a dinner of smoked halibut.(photo at left)

We enjoyed Juneau and the bit of shopping we had time for. As I mentioned above the town is beautifully quaint and because it is the almost totally un-accessible capitol of Alaska it was the most updated/modern city after Anchorage and Fairbanks. There was even a Wal-Mart there! Our bus driver told us that there are only 3 ways to get to Juneau—airplane, boat, or birth. No, Gov. Palin does not live there at all despite its being the capitol.

We will be making more memories tomorrow (Friday). I look forward to sharing.

Nicki

Our Great Adventure Part 3: Haines, Alaska

Written by Nicki Wilcoxson

The flowers in Haines were beautiful as they were everywhere we went in Alaska!

This morning, Wednesday, June 16, we awakened to find our ship in port at Haines, Alaska. As we peered out at Haines from our ship’s windows we were quite amazed at how tiny the community appeared. Later we learned that Haines has a population of about 1500 people. Most of their jobs are related to tourism. One young woman who drives a shuttle, getting tourists from the ship around the town to a variety of small museums including one displaying the history of hammers, told us that her husband operates a helicopter business and they have a skiing service in the winter. During the winter they leave Alaska and travel wherever they like, skiing and enjoying life. By the way she didn’t charge for her shuttle service, but accepted tips in a jar. So far we have found the people of Alaska to be very friendly and helpful to us. When they find out we are from Texas, they enjoy teasing us about various t-shirts for sale here in Alaska poking fun at the size of Texas in comparison to Alaska. The more we explore the area the more we are amazed at the differences in the life styles of Alaska and Texas. Haines along with most other Alaskan towns is so isolated. Food, clothing and so many of the items we take for granted are very hard to come by, arriving only weekly or monthly from far away via boats across the ocean.(No Wal-Mart nearby) Often water or air is the only means for getting to stores or medical services.( very few roads and highways) Even buying via the Internet is slow both because of poor service and extended wait time for purchases to find their way into the isolated parts of Alaska. One man told us today that the children in Haines play sports, but usually spend 18 or more hours traveling by boat to get to the games. Sometimes we just need to talk to our far away fellow citizens to have our eyes opened to what it means to live in the United States somewhere besides Texas or most of the rest of the lower 48.

We have found our new calling in Haines!

Today was also the day for our first excursion off ship. Our trip was to Skagway about 20 miles from Haines. While Haines is off the main routes for most cruise ships, Skagway boasted at least 4 huge cruise ships in the harbor. Unlike the sleepy laid back streets of Haines, the streets of Skagway were crowded with tourists, tour busses, restaurants, cars and all the rest. We were taken by a ferry across to Skagway where we were loaded on a tour bus and taken to a “lovely” little place called Liarsville where we receive a humorous re-enactment of the Alaskan gold rush and then we were given the opportunity to pan for gold. Cole loved it and treasures the little flakes of “gold” that he sifted out of his pan. From there we were taken several miles to the top of White Pass Summit, and then we boarded the White Pass and Yukon Railroad for a fascinating and awesomely beautiful trip back down to Skagway. The trip was full of the history of the building of the railroad back in the days of the gold rush in an effort to get supplies in and out for the gold miners. Sadly, we also learned about the hundreds of horses and mules who were killed, starved, or worked to death all because of man's greed. (Did I mention how cold it was?)

It is a story of tragedy and success in accomplishing such an impossible task. But for us today, our senses were totally overwhelmed with the beauty, the smells of the trees, the sound of the streams of water rushing over the rocks, and the overwhelming knowledge of what had occurred so long ago in that very place. By the way were in Canada for part of our trip so we got to show off our passports! After 5 ½ to 6 hours were ferried back to Haines and our waiting ship. I do highly recommend riding the White Pass Yukon Railroad if you have a change. I am just sorry I didn’t get to explore Skagway more, but we did eat lunch at a great place called the Skagway Fish Company. Awesome Halibut fish and chips!!!

When we wake up tomorrow we will be in Juneau and off to another excursion that promises me that I will finally see MY whale which hasn’t happened yet so I am cautiously hopeful!

As a side note we are very grateful for our warm clothes and the layers we are wearing as it is extremely chilly when the wind is blowing. Jennifer, my Uggs didn’t get to come with me this trip. Maybe next time??

If you visit Haines, Alaska, be sure to look for this
Totem dedicatd to our grandson, Cole! LOL