Skagway

The following morning May 14th we were in Skagway where 100% of the economy is based on tourism. The normal population is about 900 in the winter but goes up to 4000 in the summer to serve the 1million tourists. This was the jump off point for the great gold rush of 1896. In fact, the gold rush did not happen in Skagway and not even in Alaska, it happened in the Dawson city in the Yukon which is a Canadian Territory. But Skagway was the the jump off point for those prospectors heading inland with their hopes and mining gear. At that time the city of Skagway grew to 10,000 people and the population of Dawson rose to 40,000. Both cities now have around 1000 persons living there year around.

We had organized to join a local travel agency tour to go from Skagway up through the White pass to the Yukon. We found our driver on the pier and loaded up with 10 others in a nice little bus. We had a great driver and guide who had been doing this tour for many years. Again, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We drove through Skagway which is literally a one street town with a saloon, a museum brothel and a library and headed east on the White pass highway. It was a beautiful drive. This road connects Skagway Alaska and Dawson City Yukon, heart of the Klondike. Beginning at Skagway, the road climbs for 14 miles/22.5 km to the 3,292 foot/1003 m summit near the Alaska/Canada border. Between Skagway and the border the road roughly parallels the old White Pass Trail, an alternate to the Chilkoot Trail which ultimately proved more popular as it was the shorter of the two climbs. The only population center along the 114 miles/183 km of connecting routes between Skagway and Whitehorse is the small community of Carcross. The road passes the US custom house and goes through the Tormented Valley. The Canada US border is somewhere in Tormented Valley but the winters in this huge glacier formed valley of over 10 miles long is so bad that the boarder stations are actually placed at both ends of the valley. We stopped at various places to admire the scenery. There is a bridge on this road which is only attached at one end. The other end sits unattached on a platform allowing it swing with the earth movements. It is over a huge crevice so that crossing for the first time is a little tense. There are so many strong earth quakes in this area that this bridge solution allows the bridge to sway and give and has withstood the test of time. We stopped in the Carcross Desert, which is the smallest desert in the world, had lunch at some tourist camp and headed back down the road to Skagway. On the way, we saw some mountain goats and mountain sheep on the hills which were still partially snow covered.

The drive is unique and well worthwhile. One can do part of the way on a train which runs along the same route but the train does not allow as much flexibility to stop along the way.

We returned to our ship early and had a few hours to rest before heading off to our next destination, Hubbard Glacier. The trip down from Skagway was breath taking as it was at sunset and the mountains took on a pink coloring from the reflections. Alaska is uniquely beautiful and one has to be there to really get the full impression. Around about 10pm I was sitting on our balcony watching the beautiful scenery go by when I noticed that we were going around in a circle. On the public address system, they had been paging some women for over an hour. I found out the next day that the lady was elderly and had not heard the page. They found her and we continued on our way.

Juneau

The next morning we arrived in Juneau which is also reached by a narrow Fjord which ends at Juneau. Both Juneau, the capital of Alaska and Ketchican have no road connection to the outside world and can only be reached by air or sea. Airplanes are constantly landing and departing these planes from land and more often from the water. 20% of Alaskans fly planes which apparently does not mean they all have licences...

Juneau is a town of 30,000 people which is built between towering mountains and the water. It is not a very pretty place. We headed out to visit the Mendenhall Glacier which is about 10 miles from Juneau. On can almost walk up to this glacier. I took a walk up to the Mendenhall Falls which took me across an expanse of sandy beach on which there were bear footprints everywhere. Luckily none were out when I was there as bears are really not a friendly animal, despite our culture of Teddy bears and Whinney the pooh... Bear kill. Bears have bad dispositions. Even playing dead will not ensure that you will not end up being dead. The story is told that if you see a bear chasing you and you climb a tree with the bear coming up with you, it is a black or American bear. If the bear grabs the tree you are in and uproots it, you are dealing with a grizzlie bear. If you start to run and find that there are no trees, you have got a polar bear on your tail. Either way, you are probably toast. While in Juneau we saw a mother and 4 cubs on a hill right in front of our ship and just behind a T-Shirt shop. They were grazing hapily and hundreds of tourists were staring at them.

On our day in Juneau, our travel companion Nancy Fiske could not join us. The day before she had reported to sick bay with an upset stomach. Ship doctors do not like stomach problems on ships as they are very contagious. He told Nancy to stay in her cabin for 24 hours. Less than 12 hours later, in Juneau, Madame tried to come ashore with us to go to the glacier. When she swiped her ID card, lights went on and she was told she could not go ashore and was ordered back to her cabin. Harry and Nancy were not happy but the system worked.

That evening we left for Skagway. To get to Skagway, we need to go back down south on the Gastineau Channel before heading north to Skagway as the channel ends in Juneau.

Ketchican

On May 11th, we awoke at sea off the west coast of Vancouver Island heading north to Alaska. (Sound like a song...) The sea was quiet and the sun was shining. As a matter of fact, during the 10 days of our trip, it rained only 1 day and we were at sea that day. We were told repeatedly that this was unusually good weather for a trip to Alaska.

We decided to have our breakfast in our room as room service on the ship is free, except for a small tip one gives to the person who delivers the food. That morning I went to the gym to get some exercise. I find this important on a ship where one tends to eat more because it is always there. My routine is never to use the elevators on a ship so that I get to climb and go down some 20 floors on any given day. Tough the first few days, but it gets easier with exercise. The day at sea was relaxing and we spent it partly in our cabin reading and partly in the main forward lounge where the view is always spectacular.

We met the Fiske's for dinner which was formal that evening. This means that one needs to put on a tie. Our 6 pm sitting was a good time as it allowed a long evening. Waiting for the 8 pm sitting can be tough for may people. We did not try any 3 or 4 of the specialty restaurants as one has to pay for dinner there and the food comes from the same kitchen. It is just an other way for the ship companies to increase revenues and in fact cost passenger double what they charge as food is already paid for in the ticket costs.

The next morning, the sun came up at around 5am so I was able to see our approach into Ketchican which is along a beautiful fjord not much wider than 30 yards. The water is deep but on that morning is was mirror clear. We pulled into the new cruise ship pier and within 15 minutes of our arrival 3 other cruise ships arrived. Thus between crew and passengers, the population of Ketchican which is 7000 had just doubled in about 30 minutes!

Ketchican used to live off logging, pulp and fish canning. The pulp industry has disappeared and salmon canning is done by one modern cannery which operates only 2 months a year. Thus tourism is the main industry now. Ketchican is also known as the town which would have got the "Bridge to nowhere" which was being pushed by the Alaska senators. The bridge would have been longer than the golden gate bridge and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. It would have gone from the town of Ketchican to a small island on which 50 people live and where the Ketchican "International" Airport is now. The airport is called International as it has a flight once a week to British Colombia in Canada. The airport is currently served by a ferry which takes about 350,000 cars across to the airport per year compared to 43 million across the Golden Gate bridge. This bridge would have cost US$398 million. Luckily, this project was thrown out by congress.

We had booked a tour through the ship to take a 4.5 hour boat trip down to Misty Fjiord National Monument located some 40 miles east of Ketchican. We boarded our fast boat just across from the pier at which our ship was tied up. This boat can travel at 30 knots which is superfast. The trip out was beautiful as one traveled through calm water with mountains rising right out of the water. The scenery in Alaska is certainly more impressive than anything we had seen and far more beautiful than any pictures show. It is also a place where one sees more wildlife than anywhere in the world outside of Africa. During this trip we saw many types of fish and water birds, bears, moutain sheep and goats.

The trip to the Misty Fjiord took about 90 minutes. We then stayed in the fjord for 30 minutes before heading back to Ketchican. This trip was worth the money we paid. When got back to town we still had time to visit the many shops catering to tourists. I found one which was selling authentic, made in Alaska native art. I was fascinated to see the beautiful pieces this store had which were made out of Walrus tusk ivory. The walrus ivory is worked on in two small islands off Nome and certainly rivals any ivory work I have seen in my travels. I got Brigitte a piece as a souvenir of our trip. It is expensive but beautiful.

That evening we headed out of Ketchican north towards Juneau, our next stop. We passed the Ketchican airport, sorry International airport where the terminal is about 200 below the level of the runway. This means departing planes have to go up a steep incline to get to the one runway of the airport which does not seem very busy. Who knows, a US$400 million bridge could have made all the difference?

Preparations for our trip to Alaska

In early 2011, we heard that our former neighbors in Oakton Nancy and Harry Fiske had decided to give each other a boat trip. When we heard about it, we suggested that the go to Alaska with us. The Fiskes had been our next door neighbors for 20 years until we left for Europe in 1993. Our kids grew up together and we even invested in our first pony with them when our kids started to ride. We have stayed in touch with them through all these years. Harry retired from the US Navy as a two star admiral. He had not been back to sea since he had retired.

You can see the pictures we all took on this trip at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/AlaskaMay2011?feat=directlink


After doing some research, we found a 10 day trip in Alaska our of Seattle on the Infinity of the Celebrity Cruise line. It is a 100, 000 ton ship able to take 2000 passengers. Most Alaska trips are only 7 days so the longer trip caught our interest. At the time of booking this trip, Brigitte was not able to walk very much so we decided to get a wheel chair adapted cabin just in case she would need to use it to get around. We then contacted a former colleague and friend, Erna Turner who was still an active travel agent. Erna made our bookings for the flight out, the hotel we would need on day before embarking and the actual cruise tickets. Given Brigitte's health situation, I took out travel insurance as the cost of the trip came to a substantial amount. Luckily we did not need to claim under the travel insurance.

On May 19th we flew to Seattle and checked into a very nice little hotel called Inn at the Harbor Steps. It was just down the road from Pike Market and across the street from the Seattle Art Museum. Interestingly, the Art Museum has a huge iron sculpture (60 feet in size) called "The Hammering Man". This same statue stood in front of my office in Frankfurt Germany in the Messe-Turm. It made me feel at home.

That evening we had a very nice fish dinner at a restaurant near the hotel and we turned in early after a fairly long day.

The next morning, we headed down to the pier 67 to board the ship. We arrived at the pier and were sent to stand in line to check in our bags. There were hundreds of passengers and only one X-Ray machine. Actually, there were two machines but only one was being used so it took quite some time to get the bags checked. We were then directed to stand in an other line to check ourselves into the ship. The line was obviously trying to save money by not hiring enough people at the check in counters. The result was that the check in took almost 3 hours. This was the worst check-in I have ever seen in my years of cruising. It was hard on people like Brigitte and Harry who are physically challenged and certainly soured many passengers who had never cruised before.

We finally made it to our cabins. Luckily Brigitte was walking well so we had not need a wheel chair. The cabin was a bit bigger than other cabins as it was wheel-chair prepared. This meant a few feet more of cabin and a larger bathroom. We had decided that since we were going to see the scenery of Alaska we would splurge and get cabins with balconies. This is a great asset although the cold weather meant that it was not used as much as one would use a balcony in tropical weather. Still with the big sliding doors, the view from inside the cabin was far better than any cabin we had had in the past. After having settled the cabin, we went exploring our new home. This is a large ship with 11 decks so there are a lot of things to see and places to go. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria and then prepared for departure. The weather was sunny and warm. Even Mount Rainier came out in the distance behind Seattle. We slipped away up the Puget Sound at 5pm. It was a magnificent sight with land on both sides all the way up the Puget Sound.

You can see a map of Puget Sound and the Juan de Fuca as well as all the places we visited at:
http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1C1_____enUS412US412&q=Seattle+map&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x5490102c93e83355:0x102565466944d59a,Seattle,+WA&gl=us&ei=FMThTaS4I8TFgAeko_nFBg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ8gEwAA

By left holding down your left mouse button you can move the map to all the places we visit and that I will mention in this blog as we go along. By using your mouse wheel, you can zoom into any place you want to look at more closely.

As we headed west in the Juan de Fuca strait, it was time to head for the dining room. We had booked for the first sitting at 6 PM and we had a lovely table for 4 at a window. Our waiter Michael was from the Philipines and his assistant was from Indonesia. One really has to thank all these people who work on these ships as their low wages allow the cruise lines to keep the passage fees at levels which are still very reasonable. These people who crew on these ships are breadwinners for their families back home to whom they send most of their salary. It is a lonely life for them, as they are away from their families for long periods but they do it cheerfully.

The food turned out to be fair but nothing particular. We had trouble with long waits until we were served and on some evenings we were served food we turned away. We did complain with the result that the maitre of the restaurant came around often to make sure we were happy.

After dinner, we walked a bit around the ship which was heading west in the strait to take route going up the west coast of Vancouver Island with Ketchican as our first port of call.