Today started with a Rookie error! We had been advised that the ships clocks would go forward one hour at 2am on the night before we arrived in Ketchikan. We set our alarm early as we had an early shore tour booking – we’d get up at 6am and so we ordered room service breakfast for 6.30am. We woke to the alarm ( in the dark) and blearily climbed out of bed and dressed. It was exciting to see Ketchikan out the window waiting for us… then I suddenly thought and said to Neil “Gee I hope our clocks DID adjust?… he checked the clock on the ships phone screen… to discover we were up and dressed at 5.10 am!! Our phones had not adjusted as we have to keep them on Airplane Mode on the ship (To avoid exhorbitant “Cellular at Sea” charges) So we had PLENTY of time before our bfreakfast was due to arrive – I coudn’t wait that long so called room service for some coffee to pep us up for the day.
After our breakfast we headed down to the Gangway for our first step on Alaskan soil, and the achievement of a dream – we have now set foot in every one of the 50 united States! We were very excited!
Our “Shore Tour” for the day was a short walk to the arena on the port to watch the’Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show”, the show represents southeast Alaska’s rich logging history and comes to life with thrilling displays of strength and agility. World champion wood-chop athletes wearing spiked boots & hard hats compete in 12 athletic events that utilize seven-pound axes, six-foot razor sharp saws, tree climbing gaffs, and souped up chainsaws. And a lot of corny humour! It was a blast and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
After the show we wandered up to Creek Street, which is built along the shores of Ketchikan Creek. It was built over the water because it was simply too difficult to blast away the rocky hills surrounding the creek. Creek Street was the town’s original bordello hub, once home to more than two dozen houses of ill repute, is a lot tamer these days. The brightly painted wooden buildings now house shops and galleries, as well as Dolly’s House, a museum that recounts the neighborhood’s colorful past. One thing we had not expected was to see the huge swarms of salmon thronging the creek – we are here during the Salmon spawn season, when the salmon swim upstream to spawn, lay their eggs and die. There is a “Slamon Walk” along the edge of the creek and we walked the length of it just gobsmacked at the number of salmon in the stream. We also saw a Sea Lion, placidly swimming in the middle of the stream , chasing the salmon and gorging on a feast.
We walked up to the end of the Salmon walk and stopped briefly at the Saxman Totem display to see one of the local ( and magnificant) Totem poles before heading back down to shore to finally get a good look at the Nieuw Amsterdam from the outside.
I did a little souenir shopping in one of the multitude of shops along the waterfront catering to cruise passengers ( It’s absolutely amazing how many jewellery shops there are!) and then we decided to go back on board to grab some lunch – more of those tasty breadrolls.
After lunch we had decided to mark the big day of our Big 50 States achievement with a couple of special photos. Neil had planned ahead and had arranged to hae some special T-shits printed for us with a record of all our “tours” that it took us to get to the Big 50. Of course we had a flag and “50” balloons and had some fun playing up to the camera. Silly but fun! Neil also surprised me with a gift – he has been giving me sterlins silver charms of every state for my “50 States” bracelet. Each on is engraved with the date that we have first visited the state and he had planned ahead. I have my Alaska charm!
At that point I had a bit of a glitch…or at least my heart did. I suddenly started having heart palpitations, a very fast heart beat. This has happened very occasionally ever since I was a young woman, they usually pass in less than a minute but sometimes go on for a long time. They really do feel uncomfortable, and this time I had my Apple iWatch to check (which wasn’t particularly reassuring, my heart rate was over 200 beats per min and it’s usually somewhere in the 70’s to 90s !) Neil was also feeling VERY tired as he’s been struggling to sleep so we decided to have a quiet afternoon, he napped and I Googled remedies for palpitations… one eventually worked and after 3 1/2 hours I felt normal again thank goodness!
So after a quiet afternoon we went off to the Dining room for dinner fairly early, had another delicious meal before heading down to BB Kings Blues Club to enjoy some of the fun of the Orange Party. Inspired by Dutch King’s Day celebrations, Holland America’s Orange Party is a festive gathering for one evening on each cruise where everyone is encouraged to wear a splash of orange, and specialty cocktails etc. The entertainment started in the club with a game called “Dance through the Ages” . Audience members were invited to perform or guess the dances that flashed up on the screen, they did everything from the Macarena to the Charleston to the Moonwalk, it was a hoot watching some of the dodgy attempts. I sampled a special Orange Gin & Tonic which was a very powerful drop. When the games were over we decided to call it quits and head to bed. Tomorrow we’re in Juneau!
Juneau
A more relaxed start to our day today as the ship didn’t dock in Juneau until 10am. We woke as we were crusing along the inlet and chose to go down to the Main Dining room for breakfast. It was busy but we enjoyed our “Full English”. As we cruised in to the dock we could see the other cruise ships that were there ahead of us.
At 11.30ish we went down to the Gangway to join our busload of travellers heading 20 mins north of the city to see Mendenhall Glacier. One of the accessible glaciers in North America, it is just 13 miles from downtown Juneau and is considered a must-see destination for many visitors to Juneau. A half-mile wide, with ice up to 1,800 feet deep, it’s little wonder this is Juneau’s most popular destination. Our bus driver, Jeff, gave us a guided commentary about the sites of Juneau as we drove through. Juneau is Alaska’s capital city so he made sure to point out the State Capitol building, and dryly told us that it has been voted the least attractive capitol on the country!
As we approached the glacier we could see why it is so popular, like all glaciers it takes our breath away to see the enormous river of ice. He dropped us near the visitor center and Neil and I headed straight off on the Nugget Falls trail, it’s a relatively short hike around the edge of the lake to the base of the very pretty Nugget Falls. From the far tip of the lakeside beach you can see both the glacier and the falls.
Before heading back to the bus we watched an interesting video about the Glacier and saw the exhibits in the visitor center. There was also time to walk a short way down the steep creek trail where we could see Sockeye salmon fighting their way upstream to spawn.
When the bus dropped us back at the dock we went for a little wander through the town. Juneau is not particularly attractive but it does have a nice boardwalk along the waterfront. We didn’t join the queu of people waiting to spend a crazy amount of money of Alaskan King Crab at Tracy King’s Crab Shack, It’s famous for its huge red king crab legs straight out of the Bering Sea that you can order by the bucket. But the buckets are anything from US$220 to $400 a bucket!! I’m just not that keen on crab!
We did watch some of the float planes taking off, not far from the little blue building where Alaska Airways was born.
It was after three when we walked back onto the ship and we hadnt had lunch, so we tried out the Hot Dogs at the ships Diner, called the Dive In – the dogs were delicious!
I’d really been looking forward to our dinner tonight. I’d booked us a table at “Tamarind” , one of the ships specialty restaurants that is referred to as a Pan Asian restaurant. First we enjoyed a drink in the lovely quiet Tamarind Bar, perched up on Deck 11 at the top of the ship. Then we had a simply delicious meal, the best so far.
Our last stop for the night was Billboard Onboard, the music venue that features “duelling” pianist/singers. They worked their way through three sets, The 60’s, The 80’s and Requests. We really enjoyed the first two sets but the requests were a mixed bunch so we called it a night. On to Skagway tomorrow and an opportunity to get out on the road…
Skagway
We set the alarm early again this morning, there was a car waiting for us! I had organised for a local rental car company to deliver a car to the dock for us to use for the day. We had already docked when we pulled back the curtains and the first thing we saw was the results of a huge landslide that had hit the “Railroad dock” hillside last year. The railroad dock can take 2 ships and regularly does throughout the season. After the landslide it was only considered safe to dock one ship there which caused lots of problems at the end of the cruising season. Several cruises had to drop Skagway from their itinerary altogether. After some temporary mitigation works the dock is back to taking 2 ships but they have to run tenders and buses to those ships rather than just let people walk on the way they used to. We were very glad that Holland America doesn’t use those docks! When we left the ship we found our car in the carpark waiting with Neil’s name in the window. We were on the road in no time!
We’d been looking forward to the drive up from Skagway,the Klondike Highway through White Pass is described as very scenic. Things didn’t go quite to plan initially, firstly we were stuck behind a series of tour buses taking people up the highway and then, once we’d passed them, we were held up behind a very slow gas tanker truck! However as we climbed we also realise that the White Pass was going to be VERY white….we were engulfed in thick fog and couldn’t see a thing. It was raining slightly too, so we decided to drive straight past the first series of lookouts and hopr for better weather on our return. After about 20 miles we reached the Canadian border, a friendly Canadin customs oficer looked at our passports, asked where we were going, when we planned to come back and when the ship was leaving. Then wished us a good day. Shortly after the border the fog started to lift – and we finally started to see the scenery.
Our first stop was the Yukon Suspension Bridge. The suspension bridge is a 200-foot long pedestrian bridge that traverses over the Tutshi River Canyon. Standing on the bridge, directly over the middle of the Tutshi River, if you can ignore the drop to the rushing rinver below you there are some great views to some beautiful mountains looking in either direction. They had a number of historical displays and a popular cafe.
We carried on up the road passing by beautiful lakes and massive peaks until we reached the Welcome to the Yukon sign… had to stop for a picture of course!. Then we arrived in the tiny town of Carcross. Carcross is the terminus of the White Pass & Yukon Railway. Carcross was originally called “Caribou Crossing” because of the large number of woodland caribou that migrated through the region. The White Pass & Yukon Route Railway was built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, a narrow gauge railroad it is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and a very popular shore excursion or cruise ship passengers in Skagway. We wandered around the little town, looking at the oldest store before heading further.
A few miles up the road from Carcross is the Carcross Desert – it’s a bit of a misnomer as it is not a true desert. More than 10,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, a glacial lake known as Watson Lake existed in place of the dunes. When temperatures warmed, and the glaciers that fed Watson Lake disappeared, so did the lake. All that was left behind was sand and silt, which remains the foundation for Carcross “desert” today. Shortly betond the desrt we arrived at Emerald Lake. From the reports I’d read I’ll admit I’d expected it to be a bit MORE emerald but it was definite’ly green around the edges. The colour comes from light reflecting off white deposits of a mixture of clay and calcium carbonate at the bottom of the shallow water.
We did go a little further up the road. I had thought we might go on to Whitehorse which is considered the capital of the Yukon territory but the scenery beyond the lake wasn’t all that exciting and we decided that we werent all that interested in making the extra 90 minute return trip to Whitehorse. With the weater clear we were keen to make the most of it and head back down to the White Pass to see the things we’d been unable to see on the way up.
The sun ws shining and the many lakes and mountains were very beautiful. After we crossed the border back into the USA ( the US immigrations lady asked what ship we were on, checked her screen and waved us through) we stopped at the Welcome to Alaska sign.
Back in the town we parked the car and strolled around the streets. As with all the ports there were many souvenir stores and many cruise passengers shopping. The town is quite picturesque, with many colourful Victorian style buildings. One particularly unusual one was the Information Center which is housed in the old Arctic Brotherhood building. Thousands of sticks and pieces of driftwood cover the facade. Giant letters spelling out the initials “AB” . The Arctic Brotherhood was a fraternal organization that formed in 1899 and adorned its local hall with over 8,800 bits of wood. The club’s symbol, a gold pan and gold nuggets, can be seen at the tip of the facade, and the date marks the overhang above the door. The club was formed by a group of gold prospectors who arrived in Skagway from the City of Seattle ocean steamer, to set off for the Klondike gold fields seeking fortune.
Neil has been a little deprived of local craft beers while on the ship so we decided to drop in at the Skagway Brewing Company. On arrival things were a bit dark inside and there seemd to be some confusion – then we learned the whole town had lost power ( not an unusual event, apparently!) so they could serve us but only if we had cash to pay for it. Luckily we did! We each chose a flight of their top sellers. I enjoyed the Spruce Tip Blonde Ale and the Boom Town Brown but the IPA and Amber I was happy to pass to Neil, they tasted way to hoppy for me! Fortunately the power came on not long after we’d been served and a cheer went up from the staff and guests!
After that we were happy to head back on board for a drink and another late lunch, in the Dive In Diner again. This time we were disappointed with the order ( only dud meal so far) We were both keen to try the burgers and after a long wait Neil went to check on our order – theyd clearly lost it so they grabbed one of the “sitting waiting” ready made ones for me, and threw together something for Neils cicken burger. His was cold and mine was just soggy and awful – it had been sitiing under heat lamps for hours I think. At least the Pina Colada was good!
We finished the night with dinner in the Dining Room again, a bit later at 7.30 pm. We found the Dining Room to be so much busier than our previous nights and we were seated at a table that felt a little like Pitt Street, the waiters came rushing past and many guests passing by as well. Not as relaxed as our previous meals but the food was excellent as usual.
