A Two-Full-Day-Run from Durango (without any issues!) was accomplished a few days ago and we are now firmly ensconced at our Winter Pad here in Brenham. Work has already begun on the chores that need to be addressed, mostly having to do with the lawn and a lawnmower that’s definitely on the fritz.
Picking the times during the day to accomplish everything is the key to survival down here. But you know how it is…… you want run around like crazy and try to get everything done all at the same time but that is akin to manslaughter, so dial it back a bit we will.
Next on our Agenda are the All-Important Flurry of Doctor’s Visits, already arranged, just awaiting our arrival. The first order of business was to visit Dee my “Opens at 6AM Lowes Pro Desk” friend. She said that she expected to see us soon as, just like you, she follows along on this Blog. Dee is doing nicely and I will tell her you all said Hi!
Lastly, just a few nice pics from Durango, that you may view here:
First up is Ling-Ling, who rarely poses for portraits so I could not resist this one!
You just can’t beat a strategically placed Red House with a dynamite background. This was on our way to Weminuche Wood-Fire Grill up by the Vallecito Reservoir. Getting up there is half the fun as the drive is nothing short of spectacular as witnessed by the next few photos.
This was taken through the windshield. It’s good to be the passenger on these types of excursions as one’s head can swivel 360 degrees and you don’t have to pay attention to the road!
Throw in some low-angle light and a few shadows and the scene just come alive!
And lastly, this is the view from outside on the Weminuche’s deck where we had our dinner. It is looking north, and further up into the San Juans.
Well, that’s it for now, it was quite the Travel Year…… Vietnam and Cambodia, then the Baltics….. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, next up was the Northern Adventure, Iceland, Svalbard, and Norway, followed quickly by Alaska. We are glad that you were aboard with us, but we need to advise you that this year was an anomaly that probably won’t repeat itself any time soon! But…… in about six months we should all find ourselves on an African Safari…… so check those passports and make sure that they’re up to date!
This was on our way into Montana on I-90. It is nothing special as it is an example of just a regular, Ho-Hum sort of view that does not even get the little red dots alongside of the road on the map that indicate a “Scenic” road……. not because it’s not scenic, but because all of the roads would get little red dots if this was indicative of the criteria!
North Dakota is right next door to Montana so in we went! Our destination was Seeley Lake, a quiet little spot about an hour or so northeast of Missoula which, in turn, is in the western quarter of Montana. For those of you who have accompanied us on this trip before, you are familiar with our circumstances here, but for all you newbies, we come here to visit with my partners from The Chatterbox, Phillis and Steve. They live right on the runway here in a hanger/apartment sort of building which is very convenient if you have a penchant for airplanes (which would be an understatement here!)
Steve and Phillis’s place on the left and their son and daughter-in-law, Matt and Ali’s place in the middle.
In any event, Montana needs no more support in the âReasons to Visitâ category, as this place lives up to its moniker, Big Sky Country and then some! It seems that the moment that you cross the border from a neighboring state the sky in front of you automatically transforms itself into something even more grand than that of the place that you left and thatâs saying something as the Dakotas, Idaho, and Wyoming, have visages that are incredibly grand in their own right! But something does change and weâll just leave it at that!
This is just another, regular, drive by, scene from a random roadside.
We have our own dedicated RV Site here courtesy of Steve and Phillis, complete with full hook-ups! And it comes with a full view of the runway and about 15 billion deer who do their darndest to scare the wits out of the pilots that fly in and out of here. The S.O.P. of the airport is to kind of âbuzzâ the field first and scare any potential ârunnerâs intoâ away so that on the next pass you can touch down and taxi without having worry about Bambi and her kin.
And our spot on the left!
                       Our goal here was to visit with Phillis and Steve as we donât get to spend a lot of time with them because they winter in Santa Fe and summer up here. While we’re here, they always manage to keep us busy with tons of great experiences in the area and Iâll try and show you a few of our âoutingsâ from the past week.
Please enjoy some photos from Big Sky Country!
We went waaaaay back into the mountains and forests on an Expedition, with Tim and Deb, friends of theirs who also live on the airport. Those transporters are like mini Hum-vees and have all the comforts, heat and A/C, and are allowed to be driven on the road. They can traverse almost any terrain.
Destinationof our Excursion. This is Marshall Lake, a glacial lake as clear as it could be! It sits at 4750′ of elevation, is about 85 acres in size, and about 60′ deep.
The forests are magnificent!
We spent a lot of time just sitting by it as the weather was PERFECT! You can camp almost anywhere around here as it is State Land administered by their Departments of Forestry, etc.
A Mourning Cloak butterfly and a California Tortoiseshell butterfly(who obviously is vacationing here also!)
This is a grove of Larch. Larch (or Tamarack) are deciduous conifers which means that they lose their needles in the fall, just like the rest of the leafy trees. But they are, in fact, conifers! And big ones at that! They can top out at 200′ tall and up to six feet in diameter which puts them firmly in the size category of Douglas Firs and the like. But they can grow as much as four feet a year!
This is Gus. No, not Paula, the tree behind her! Gus is the largest Larch in the world and has impressive specifications to prove it. He is 153′ tall, 53′ in circumference, and over 7′ in diameter!
Here he is in all his glory! He totally resembles a Giant Sequoia, maybe even a Redwood, but their only connection is that they are all conifers.
A Red Tail Hawk This was a Drive-By photo! He flew down and perched for a second, then took off and that’s when he had his pic taken!
A view across the valley while on our 4-wheel excursion.
On our way to Bozeman for lunch and some shopping on their really cool main street. Left to right, Phillis, Paula, and Ali. The little passengers, Mia and Blair are in the seats in front of them. They are veteran travelers even at their early ages!
The view from Steve and Phillis’s Citation II as we come into Bozeman.
Just one of the furry fuzzballs that you’d expect in a National Park in North Dakota!
The young man lost both his wife and mother on the same dayâŚ. February 14th, 1884, just two days after welcoming his newborn daughter into the world. Grieved beyond understanding, he retreated to the only place that he knew would help him heal and grow stronger at the same timeâŚ. the badlands of North Dakota.
Two (one of them furry) ordinary visitors to the same.Note cloudy morning skies…. wait ’til the afternoon!
I do believe that the guardrail afforded us with a certain level of protection (and we were still in the car!) Besides, he was more interested in munching the grasses growing there!
Did you ever wonder why some people can face adversity, fall down, and then rise again even greater than before? Usually that reason can be found in some early childhood traits, followed by significant happenings in their lives that defined them furtherâŚ. those defining moments did not defeat them, it made them better.
In this case, we are talking about Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President serving from 1901 to 1909. This was a transitional “cross-over” time in our history when the West still retained its rugged character. Cowboys were still hard at work on the ranches, the era of the trail-roaming outlaw was drawing to a close, and vast pockets of the West were still undeveloped wilderness.
And you thought we were going to talk about the Theodore Roosevelt National Park……. well, we areâŚ. all in good time! But this is the stuff that helps make traveling so fascinating! Itâs all well and good to come to these great places and see the wonders that they embody, but sometimes you just have to ask why? The why of the Grand Canyon is obvious, but the why of a national park named for a good guy out of our past? Not so obvious. We all know that good olâ T.R. was an outdoorsman and was really the first BIG DEAL to advocate for conservation and some federal protection for places like Yosemite. In fact, it was only nine years after his Presidency that the National Park Service was officially established because T.R. had already named 5 National Parks, 18 National Monuments and about 150 National Forests!
But again, why T.R. and why here?
Long before he met John Muir, and long before he walked the paths in Yosemite Valley, Teddy R. lived in the badlands of North Dakota. He had two ranches here, on the banks of the Little Missouri River and it was here that he sought that aforementioned refuge in the beginning of his public life that helped him both recuperate, and further develop his plans for NYC, N.Y. State, and eventually the entire United States of America.
Kinda like a mini-Grand Canyon!
Soon after his death in 1916 folks started looking around the area for a suitable spot for a possible National Park. Sixteen years later the Roosevelt Recreation Area was established and as I often say (using a borrowed phrase from somebody!)âŚ.. the rest is history!
This was taken from the car, just ‘regular’ scenery out here!
Part of the original ‘grasslands’ area, untouched by a plow
Today the Theodore Roosevelt National Park includes over 70,000 acres spread between three main sections, all of them are tucked in the far southwestern corner of North Dakota. TRNP ranks just about in the middle of our 63 National Parks for annual visitors, surprisingly (I thought) it outranks both Mesa Verde and Carlsbad Caverns in this department.
This kind of scene was so ubiquitous as to almost make it Ho-Hum in a grand sort of way!
The one ‘constant’ thread that wove its way through the three areas is the Little Missouri River.
                       The scenery is an understated glorious as most of this is âbadlandsâ, a term that goes way back to our native American friends, and echoed by some French explorers and trappers, and then by more recent cowboy-type personas. The interesting part of this is that these folks all came up with their own names and descriptions of the area that when translated mean basically the same thing!
But for todayâs traveler are they really bad?
No!
In fact, they are quite grand! Gorgeous colors that popout of the strata laid down over millions of years of this area being the bottom a huge Cretaceous seaâŚ. no more dinosaurs, but plenty of Current Critters such as, the American Bison, Pronghorn, Big Horn Sheep, Feral Horses, 14 bazillion Prairie Dogs (!), coyotes, badgers, and lots of other little guys round out the list. (and we havenât even touched the birds or reptiles!)
Prairie Dog #786,238,012
Mule Deer!
“I am the King of my domain…..”
“You lookin’ at me?”
In the two main Units, the North and the South, there are two central drives with plenty of turnouts so that you can pull over and get closer or strategically view some really great stuff. The South Unit is definitely larger, but the North Unit has a bit more dramatic landscape. If youâre going all the way to North Dakota donât skimp, take in all of it! The cute little town of Medora anchors the South Unit and has just what youâd expect from an old western town near a National ParkâŚ.. restaurants masked as saloons, quaint little shops, outdoor adventures, and plenty of campsites for the likes of us.
What would one order way out here??? Yup! a Bison Burger!
So go aheadâŚ.. head out on Interstate 94, pull off at Exit 27 in North Dakota, and visit Teddyâs old stompinâ grounds. Check out his Library and get a sense of what made this great American leave such a lasting legacy!
Long considered one of our classier Presidents. TR wore Brooks Brothers apparel exclusively, including his uniform for when he formed the Rough Riders!
No…. I did not take this photo, but I wanted to show you what this place has in store for us if Teddy can make the weather behave while we’re here!
I still donât know how he finds us but just the other night we heard a knock on the motorhome door and when we opened it Willy Nelson indicated that he wanted to come aboard. Willy is always welcome around our campfire so in he came. Settinâ down on the couch he looked up at us, grinned that patented smile of his and said (or sang) just four wordsâŚ. âOn the Road AgainââŚâŚ..
                       After that, he excused himself and vanished into the darkness across Yetter’s Diner parking lot. We knew then that it was time to pull up anchor, remove the wheel chocks, and hitch up the horses (to mix a few metaphors!)
We now find ourselves in a small, dusty campground in southwestern North Dakota after four days of an Idyllic Interstate Itinerary that (except for a brief encounter with Chicago) was devoid of any traffic or weather issues! Hence the idyllic modifier in the previous sentence!
                       Our immediate goal is a stop at Theodore RooseveltNational Park whilst on our way to Seeley Lake, Montana. TRNP is one of the least visited Parks in the system, but at the same time, one of the more magnificent. Or so weâve been told. Our first foray into the Park should be in a few hours when the sun comes up. ButâŚ.. itâs quite cloudy here now so those early morning sunlit photo-ops will be unfortunately nonexistent. As a result, our immediate goal will be to keep our eyes peeled for the multitudes of critters that inhabit these parts!
           Hopefully the next Post will be chock-full of some kind of photo evidence of our visit here!
One of the interesting things about all of these Alaskan towns that weâve visited over the last few days is that even though they may cover a large geographic area as far as a political entity goes, they are, in fact, quite tiny when it comes to the âcivilized/settled/urban(?) area goes.
When driving around all one needs to do in order to get to the wilderness is to go rightâŚ.overâŚ.there! A few streets up any road will lead you to all of the bears, eagles, salmon, mountains, and incredible scenery that you may ask for. The âcityâ part is a relatively tiny enclave clinging to some rocky hills on the coast.
Ketchikan is no different. Our last Port of the voyage was visited yesterday under the unusually blue, cloudless sky which was just fine with us! Our outing was arranged by Paula and consisted of a local tour guide (Hanna) who was recommended to us by Sherry and Harold who had done this exact voyage just a few weeks ago. We were warned that the local B.S.A. (Bear Sighting Area) does not always bear đbears! Time of year, salmon runs, tides, and moods of these fuzzy guys all play into whether or not one will avail themselves to us.
The nine of us joined the already busy area and we wormed our way to the front of the viewing area that bordered a large tidal marsh. Scanning the area we sawâŚ.. nothing. We waited patiently as Hanna pointed out the wildlife had a schedule of their own and âdidnât give a dead salmonâ if they were viewed or not.
I think that they do have a schedule and they rotate the responsibilities between themselves as literally from out of nowhere (actually right beneath us as we were on elevated knob type hill) this guy comes ambling out and strolled over to the river, snagged a salmon, looked back at us as if to say, âSatisfied?â and then laid down and devoured his mid-morning snack.
Munchies over, we proceeded down the coast which resembles Down East Maine (and that is a compliment!) to a nice roadside waterfall.
Itâs crazy how many Cruise Ships can jam the harbors of these little towns and how it does not seem to inundate the local streets with all of us. Donât get me wrong, itâs crowded, but I think that most of the passengers take advantage of the outback type tours and get themselves out of town.
This is Rainbow Falls
This is us at Rainbow Falls
Hannah was prepared with several plans as we made our way back into town depending on whether Creek Street was crowded or not. Creek Street is as quaint and cute as can possibly be and its roots are literally buried in the creek. Way back in the day, back when the miners and the âvisionariesâ came to town, they built these buildings right on the Creek and then extended them out into the creek utilizing a cribbing system for their foundations. They built cribs of lumbar and then filled them with rocks which made them quite sturdy. But the real genesis of Creek Street is not so innocent. It was born out of a local ordinance that banished the brothels to the eastside of the creek, out to the âIndian Townâ side the area. Today there is a Dollyâs House museum located in Dolly Arthurs old house where she lived from 1919 until 1973. Dolly had a questionable business if you catch my drift. Now Creek Street is chock full of artsy stores that sit side by side with tchotchke stores, the combination of which keeps everyone happy.
This is Creek Street. Rather aptly named, isn’t it?
The only place on the planet that has authentic totem poles is this area of the Pacific Northwest from about Washington State, and up and into the panhandle of Alaska.
Some several hundred-year-old examples of significant Totem Poles
An Eagle and an Orca. There is no rhyme or reason to what the artist may create. These poles are used for funeral, and for shaming among other things.
Classic
The indigenous folks that live here, the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian are the only ones that utilize this way of commemoration and communication. These carved cedar trees are not in any way worshipped, they are strictly used as family crests, storytelling figures, honor ancestors, or a way of passing on oral traditions. We visited the very fine Totem Heritage Center where they not only help preserve the poles themselves but also the tradition of teaching their carving.
Here you can see how individual families have used their families’ totems for their homes.
We stopped along the way and sampled some smoked salmon that had been cured in brown sugar among other things.
All those little black things are salmon. They are waiting for their chance to swim upstream.….. First, they have to get past the waterfall (next pic)
This guy is valiantly trying to get past this torrent.
Or, if he had just glanced to his right and followed the printed underwater instructions, he would have increased his chances by about a gazillionby using this ‘Fish Ladder”!
Thanks for making this trip with us!
Not sure where the next one will be, but I’m sure there will be some Terrestrial Motorhome Adventures along the way!
Juneau is only accessible by air, water, rail, dogsled, etc.
Juneau is forty to eighty miles away from three of its closest neighbors, the bustling metropolises of Gustavus, Haines, and Skagway.
Juneau is located where it is only because of some gold mines from back in the day.
The End
No! Not really!
We stopped at Juneau and wished that we had longer to visit as it does look like a cool place to spend some time. Our goal for the day was the Mendenhall Glacier, one of the only domestic glaciers that are accessible by road. The roads that donât go anywhere else. Go figure.
Itâs a biggie, and it and the surrounding area is part of the Tongass National Forest which at 16.7 million square acres (26,000 square miles) is the largest National Forest, we have and is larger than ten US states including (obviously) New Jersey which would fit almost four time over inside this Forest!
It is a Temperate Rain Forest, but we canât attest to that because we are experiencing a crazy stretch of good weather (if you are a Touron, bad weather if you are a duck!) Please forgive the next set of photos as I’m trying to nail down the correct way to expose dimly lit scenes with obvious highlights! These all show the incredible insides of a temperate rain forest.
No, these are not Maple leaves, they belong to the Parsnip family and are twice the size of your hand!
The salmon are running upstreamâŚ.. weâve all seen photos of those âfish laddersâ by the dams and other pics of bears wading out to wait for a meal to just jump into their mouths, but how many of us have gazed down into a crystal-clear, glacial-fed stream and see crazy-red salmon spawning? (Please note that I was able to jam three hyphenated words into that last sentence!)
We did, and now you will too!
That’s a Ritz-Carlton ship in front (BIG bucks!), and the newest Princess ship, the Sun Princess back to the left. Rounding out the trio is the Nieuw Ampsterdam, one of Holand-America’s finest.
There are as many seaplanes around here as there are eagles!
And lastly, (speaking of eagles) a juvenile Bald Eagle. These guys are so numerous around here that they are called Alaskan Chickens. Now, during the Salmon Spawning Season (which can be translated into the Eagle and Bear Eating Season), there were so many that they just looked like pigeons on a sidewalk!
A Humpback Whale. The crew can identify just about anything out here. Our goal was of course, to try and get something a little closer, but still, it’s a Whale Sighting!
Now, that’s a little better!
The goal of any Wildlife and Scenic Cruise is to actually see some wildlife. We rely on the expertise of the crew to be able to know where the critters like to be at any given time and then spy indicators of said wildlife.
After that, placing oneself strategically on the vessel is crucial, especially a somewhat overloaded one. Our boat held 153 passengers, and it was full. It was safe, we were not overloaded when it came to safety, just when it came to âRail-Estateâ.
My guess is that if you put one person at every available rail position, there may have been room for maybe half. Everyone else is either still inside (with large, tinted windows) or standing several deep craning to look over, and between, the heads of others. Definitely not ideal for photography!
As we stood on the pier we could see that this was going to be an issue, so a âPlan of Aggressionâ was well, planned. The rest of our group was to place themselves in places that when the doors opened (after the safety briefing) to the very few outside positions, they would jump up and push their way through the throngs of  âRail Hoggersâ and jettison any unlucky person that got in their way. A kind of ‘Orca Bait’ as it were.
Luckily, none of that was needed because I was able to secure a spot near the door that ensured me that coveted rail position! Not only that, but it was the first one directly after the superstructure ended and the deck began, complete with a seat! This enabled me to keep this spot while we were winging our way over the waves on our way to the hunting grounds and not freeze to death as that superstructure protected me from the wind!
                    Finally, some humpbacks were spotted, their spumes of exhaled vapor gave their positions away and the Captain reacted appropriately, swinging the boat into position for everyone to see these big guys!
On the Port side.
You know what they say about the best laid plansâŚ..
My Ultimate Spot was on the Starboard side.
Oh well.
I stood over there listening to the loudspeaker spewing out descriptions and positions of a nice pod of humpbacks and the accompanying shouts of wonderment and glee from the lucky whale-sighters that had no plan before but landed their own coveted spot. I said to myself, âBe patient, the captain will swing the boat around for the Starboard side to get a look.â
Nada.
Everyone was cramming as close as they could to get to the Port side that we looked like the Statue of Liberty sightseeing boats heeled over as far as they can go without capsizing. Why would he even attempt to swing the boat around for the one guy still on the Starboard rail?
Oh well.
Iâll just keep taking seagull photos.
Then I felt a tap on my shoulder, it was Paula saying. âMatt said youcan have his spot on the rail.â I looked over and he was right there, the only thing in front of him was the water, so I ambled over and he caught my eye and indicated it was time to put Plan B into effect. Two seconds later I found myself on the rail with Giant Mammals cavorting in front of me!
Get ready!!!! You will now see for yourself!
Here we go! Right in front of me!
The series begins…..
The big question….. will he or won’t he?
Yes!!!
The iconic “Tail Shot”!
Ta-Da!!!
I’m sure that you all remember the 1956 movie Moby Dick starring Richard Basehart and Gregory Peck (Directed by John Huston and written by him and Ray Bradbury!) Remember the scene that has Moby Dick coming straight at the Pequod and you can see the water draining off his back? Get ready!
Man the lifeboats!
And even if we had not seen anything, there’s always this kind of scenery to admire!
But….. we did see stuff!
Check out the shore! That’s a Coastal Brown Bear! They are the same as Grizzlies except for their locations…. Grizzlies live inland and by now you’ve guessed it, these guys live on the Coast. I think that the Grizzlies just have a better agent and marketing department! (Check out the next one’s courtesy of my Canon R5 MarkII and a 400 mm telephoto lens!)
They are siblings, about three years old (or so we were told)
Snack time! Note the apparent difference in their coats. Grizzly/Brown Bears come in several shades that can become especially pretty when in the sunlight…. see example #1 above.
By now we’re on our way back to the dock but our ever-vigilant crew spies some tell-tale really high dorsal fins in the distance! This can only mean one thing……. Orcas!
Luckily no one fell overboard in their exuberance to see these guys!
I’ll leave you with a lonely fishing boat on their way out.
(And Otters and Whales…… no fair just scrolling to the end!)
I knew this would capture your attention! Yes, otters are residents of these here parts and are not afraid of the big, bad ships. Believe it or not, no one threw food overboard as this is obviously strictly forbidden, can hurt the little guys, and you can be thrown into the hooscow….. way up here!
One of the main reasons that folks come on this Alaska Cruise is to see the Glaciers. We sailed into Glacier Bay yesterday morning like we owned it. Well, as a matter of fact, we kind of did, at least for the day.
Can you see anyone else? I can’t!
Glacier Bay is part of our incomparable National Park System and as such, gets benefit from the Protective Powers of that organization. So, in order to limit the impact of too many peeps peeping at the giant ice rivers (and colliding in front of the glaciers trying to get closer and closer, and then the Captains get in a fight and before you know it the passengers are jumping over the railings and boarding each otherâs ships armed with swords and cutlasses in an attempt to secure the best possible viewing spotâŚ..)
Iâm sure that you can see how messy that could get!
In order to prevent that from happening only two ships are allowed in Glacier Bay at the same time, or day. Princess Cruises along with Holland America helped establish the Ranger Programs here way back in the â60âs, before Glacier was elevated from a National Monument to a National Park. Even today these âsister cruise linesâ are recognized as âHistorical Partnersâ with the Park Service and receive priority.
That was evident yesterday as we were the only ship in sight except maybe a small sailboat or two. These coveted Glacier Reservations must be made well in advance as there are a few more Lines able to enter Glacier Bay and they are Cunard, Viking, Seabourn, and NCL. On top of that, Princess must have put a reservation in for incredible weather, as you will see from the attached pics, was on a scale from 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest) a solid 15! đ We know how good it was because the four NPS Rangers that came aboard for seminars and running commentary over the PA system, could not stop raving about how great it was compared to the regular weather.
Glacier Bay National Park is the 6th largest National Park spreading out over 3.2 million acres! The top 6 are dominated by the National Parks in Alaska, only Death Valey N.P. slides in at #5.
So, without further commentary from me, we present just a tiny slice of the vastness of Glacier Bay in the giant Glacier Bay National Park!
On our way in
I could not get over the Mountains!
Wait! Is that a whale???!! Yes! It must be a Megaptera novaeangliae!!! (A Humpback Whale) Guess what its scientific name means….. Correct! “Big-Winged New Englander!” I knew you guys were on top of this stuff!
Ahh-ooga!!!…. Ahh-ooga!!! Dive! Dive! Dive!
“Level at periscope depth Mr. Humphrey”
Every turn brought new incredible scenery
Yes… a dirty glacier…. the Lamplugh Glacier Some glaciers pick up more dirt and debris as they slide towards the sea, and some others get more dust and dirt blown their way depending on their location. And then some have surrounding hills avalanche down on them. Lots can happen over the hundreds of years it takes to make their journeys.
Eventually, the Main Attraction, the Margerie Glacier. But how in tarnation can we get a good look at it with the Hordes invading and ‘hoarding’ the rails? I know! We’ll be patiently waiting on the other side where no one is! And the Captain has to turn around and…… “VoilĂ !” We’ll have the rail!
See!
Much betterer!
Tah-Dah!
This is Frank
He and his family exude cuteness overload!
Here is Frank with his wife, Mabel.
Check out this biggie coming down to the left, the Johns Hopkins Glacier.
Better
Finally on our way back out, but not until we get a glimpse of another one, the Carroll Glacier, of the 1000-plus Glaciers up here!
Now that all the rigmarole is behind us…… itâs time to sail!
Embarkation took about 6.37 minutes, and we were on the ship, ready to find where all the food is kept! It was a good thing that most of us had some experience with this particular class of vessel so straightaway we headed for Deck 16, the epicurean mecca for any and all sorts of eatables.
After sampling a few items whilst sitting on the aft deck, we promptly did the next obvious thing and that was to get ready for dinner! We elected to stay up there and âgrazeâ as there was way too much variety to pass up and it was easy for us to find room for the nine of us. The Dining Room will be for a later day.
The next two days are what is called âScenic Cruisingâ which sometimes means just a Day at Sea (which for Cruise Lines means no Port Fees and other such expenses) so days at sea tend to be built into itineraries not only for the fact that the ship needs to move between ports, but for over-all profitability.
                               ButâŚâŚ THIS IS SCENIC CRUISING!!!!
The Coastal Range that lines the shore of the Alaskan Panhandle is just incredible! Paula had done this cruise back in â06 and is our âGuideâ. She knew enough to book us on the Port side as we were sailing Southward and that side is the one that faces the landâŚ.. and this coastal range, which is named……. the Coast Mountains.
Câmon you guys! Youâve got really cool names up hereâŚ. Denali, Ketchikan, Skagway, SitkaâŚ.. and all you can come up with is the Coast Mountains???!! For a mountain range that rivals some the biggies? AnywayâŚ. this range is the highest (and still climbing) coastal range on the planet. Mt. St. Elias tops out at over 18,000 feet and it starts at sea-level! For reference, Mt. Everest starts at about 17,000 feet of elevation (base camp) and climbs another 12,000 feet from there. Which makes Mt. St. Elias quite the climb in its own right!
I could go on and explain why it is so high, but I did promise a minimum of Plate Tectonics Lessons on this trip in order to get you all to come along! But, just keep thinking PlateSubduction and youâll all be just fine đ
So now comes the Moment of Unveiling as all thatâs left to do is show you all some photos. Some will be in B&W as they just render better that way. It all has to do with Blue Haze and how difficult it is to make things visible when the most common color in the skies gets in the way of the scenery! I hope you agree!
Hey! Ansel Adams did his best work in B&W!
The gorgeous Mount Saint Elias!
Love the cloud layers
Coming closer into shore, we’re headed for that white patch on the right…. the Hubbard Glacier! The Hubbard Glacier is named for Gardiner Hubbard one of the founders and the first President of the National Geographic Society.
Here we are just tad closer
The Hubbard in B&W
Iceberg!
Little boat…. big mountains
Mount Saint Elias again in dramatic fashion!
The things you can see with a telephoto lens….. Danny, Maddie, and Matt are at the other end of the ship, same deck as us.
Also……aCritter Spot! Some whales were also seen and of course they were on the starboard side…. we’re on the port side đ
This is what the previous photo looked like from our balcony (and using my 400mm lens!) Shows what a good many-megapixel camera and some cropping can do!
After dinner and the show….. around 9pm, the next two also
An almost sunset….. still too much time before it would go down and I got sleepy…. Good Night!
This is a moose. He is big. He is resting. He doesn’t give two hoots if we are here or not.
In just a few minutes they will cast off the mooring lines, and the Discovery Princess will slowly make her way out of the Whittier Arm.
I believe that I informed you that another outing was in the offing and here we are! If I didnât inform you then you are probably doubly mad at me because youâve missed the boat! (or ship, but I wonât get into all of that just now!)
Anyway, we almost did not make it at all!
All of us waiting for the Bus to Adventure! Danny, Paula, Matt, Madison, Aubrey, Anne, April, and Brian
The BackstoryâŚâŚ most of you know about some of my Traveling Stories from the past. (Please see in the Archives, back in January of 2020, go to: Is This Any Way To Run An Airline from January 3rd of that year and have some fun reading it đ
More and more it is becoming apparent that getting to your destination a day ahead of time is not enough to ensure that you will not be left on the dock waving at your former ship as she chugs out of the harbor. I am recommending getting to wherever it is that you would like to be at least a week ahead of time to mitigate any apprehension with the stress of traveling. Either that or a copious amount of Xanax, either one works well!
Our departure on Friday last from Newark was scheduled for a time of day that would have been fine if anyone was concerned about late-day thunderstorms interfering with departure. We arrived at the airport around 1 PM for a 3PM departure and all went well, check-in, security, stops at the restrooms, etcâŚâŚâŚ.
                               Until we received the announcement that our incoming plane (from Portugal) was having âissuesâ and would arrive a little late. This necessitated a Gate Change. No prob, we had time so off we went. Well, I guess that the âissuesâ were a little more severe than anyone had anticipated because that delay grew to the point where another Gate Change was slapped into effect. We thought that we were safe (Ha!) until the United App went “Ding”, informing us of yet a third Gate Change and this one was in Moscow or so it felt like by the time we hoofed it down (and I mean DOWN) to the absolutely last gate on a different concourse which was down a flight of stairs to an area that resembled a holding cell. With 225 anxious peeps jammed in.
We waited.
And waited.
                                          We felt a little better when our almost all-female crew (there was one token male Flight Attendant) showed up as that indicated that were, in fact, in the correct spot for what we were doingâŚâŚ. waiting.
The Crew waited too.
Finally, we were informed that our aircraft was being transferred from the gate where it had come into (?) Yes, I know, why were we not at that Gate? Donât know the answer to that one but we felt a little better again as the Cleaning Squad arrived with their Tools of Implementation and marched like a small army (or maybe a Special Forces Team would be a better description) up the ramp and disappeared into the subterranean maw of what we hoped was a jetway (or cosmic wormhole) as by now we didnât care as long as it led to our A.O.C. (Aircraft Of Choice). The lateness of this flight luckily did not affect anyone with a âconnectionâ as it was a direct flight to Anchorage, and no one goes there to get a âconnectionâ unless it’s with a bush pilot and their float plane and theyâd just wait anyway.
This is a photo of the coastal range of mountains on a cloudy day. It was best served up in Black and White. It’s main purpose is to give you something to look at during the somewhat long(ish) narrative. Now back to the story.
So, now letâs go back a few paragraphs where I mentioned the late afternoon weather potentialities that can occur at this time of year with copious amounts of humidity and heat building exponentially until they grow into a meteorological term know as a B.O.B. or Behemoth of Badness.
Timing is everything when it comes to these situations and BOB is an expert at inflicting his fury on unsuspecting, weary, travelers that have, up to this point, done everything in their power to get to their destination, except just fly out that âweek earlyâ that I mentioned in the beginning. BOB was having a particularly bad day as he shut the airport down and the term that weâve now all heard ad nauseum, the proverbial âGround Stopâ was inflicted on any and all aircraft outbound or inbound!
Now itâs time for another shoe to drop. (I think this is the third one) By regulation Airline crew members, both on the Flight Deck and in the Cabin, are only allowed to work just so may hours in a row, or days in a row, and after that they âtime outâ in aviation parlance and have to exit their position. If all had gone nicely our Captain would have had a few hours left over by the time we arrived in Anchorage but having two+ hours eaten up with that initial wait and now an additional two+ devoured by BOBâŚâŚ. Iâm sure you can see where this is going. Plus, after sitting around just being lazy and being stuck in âneutralâ as it were, our flying baby needed to be fed at least somewhere before we arrived in Anchorage. Our Captain was very resourceful and along with Headquarters (Chicago) she devised a plan that would get us most of the way there. But we were not playing horseshoes or hand grenades so âalmostâ was not good enough. San Francisco was our new destination where we would get an entire new crew and put some sips of fuel into our babyâs belly.
Please adjust your arrival times accordingly.
Not the one in San Francisco, the one in Anchorage.
We sat on the tarmac and shook like rocks in a washing machine as BOB made his way across the metropolitan area. We watched him on radar, and it was a really good thing that the Airport had been shut down because not only did we encounter that deep red color, but we parleyed around with that purple that is rarely seen. As BOB moved through, we moved into position for takeoff because we were that close to being airborne before BOB slammed his fist down!
Finally, off to the city where you can find Tony Bennetâs heart.
And you may be thinking that this is where we start to see some progress? Nope! Because we sat for so long on the ground after we left the Gate, not only did our crew âTime Outâ but our hot food did also. We were in First Class which meant that we entitled to a nice hot meal including a linen topped tray and real shiny silver ware! ButâŚâŚ after two hours they are not allowed to serve it because there is no way for them to hold it at a temp high enough to ensure that baddies donât infect the vittles and it needs to be tossed.
We got Snack Boxes.
By now Iâve lost count of how many shoes have âdroppedâ so get out your calculators because weâre not done yet! The Plan agreed upon by the Bosses in Chicago and an unknown person in San Fran was to have us de-plane, get a cleaning crew in to tidy up the joint, switch out our crew and let our home in the skies guzzle her much needed nourishment. Up to the ramp we taxi, the jetway extends, makes contact, the door opens,,,,, and nothing.
I was in seat 1C which means that Iâm on the aisle and the first one standing there. A âFront Rowâ witness to the ânegotiationsâ that were about to take place.
The lady at the Gate said., “NO DEPLANE”
No one had informed her.
Our stalwart Captain was having none of that. She insisted that this was Plan A, negotiated hours ago while were sitting with BOB and the furthered as were winging our way westward.
Gate Lady: “NO DEPLANE”
Captain gets on her phone and connects with Chicago trying to find out where it derailed and how to fix it. âCanât we just get these folks off and let them stay in the Gate Area to at least stretch their legs?â
Gate Lady: “NO DEPLANE”
The problem was not the deplaning but the new re-planing as at that point the local scanners were not programmed to have us re-scan our boarding passes and there would be no way to know if Boris and Natasha had offed some other passengers and surreptitiously taken their place. Ok, valid point?
By now our Captain (who was tall but weighed in at maybe 135) was ready to ram through the 49âers defensive line and lead a charge of grumpy passengers to the End Zone. Remember, weâve been at this Gate for an extended piece of time already (never mind on the plane itself!) and what is the first thing that all passengers do upon hearing those engines wind downâŚ.. yup, unbuckle and stand up to jam the aisle, waiting to deplane.
More phone negotiations were had and then a cry of âCharge!â was heard and the Gate Lady gave way and out of the aircraft we poured like insects exiting a nest that had just been bug bombed!
Upon entering a relatively quiet San Francisco airport (itâs pretty late by now) we spied not only our new Flight Deck Duo but all of the Cabin Crew also! Now, these folks are the âstand-by crewâ that are in all major airports hoping that they donât get called! But there they were with genuinely happy faces to greet us. I have to say that United handled all of these issues very nicely. I felt that they worked with the cards that were dealt to them the best that they could. No one could have dealt with BOB in any other way so they just worked from there.
We landed in Anchorage at 3:45 AM just about nine hours late. At any time, this fiasco could have turned even worse, and it all could have ended up on the fish house floor with the rest of the entrails. But it seemed to me that someone put their âthinking capsâ (remember Romper Room?!) on and surmised that a planeload of tourons were not going to Anchorage just to visit, but that most of them had a cruise to catch and those boats donât wait! So, a little extra effort was injected to make sure that we all got to our destination in time to catch the boat, even if we only got about three hours of sleep!
But, we did finally get our hot meal, even if it was at 1 AM! Yum! Chicken ala Something as an early morning snack may not be ideal, but the cheese, bread, and dessert were just fine!
I could say that we were now ready for our Adventure to begin but I think that youâd have to agree that it had stated already way back when our first Gate Change was announced!
The cute little B&B that Paula had arranged for all of us to stay at before our next day’s adventure began,
Paula had arranged for us to get transfers to Whittier (the Cruise Port) that included some nifty stops along the way which made the usual hour-and-a-half drive stretch to about four hours of exploring and site-seeing.
And the sites were quite the sight!
We stopped at a Rescue Center for arctic-type animals that needed some rehab before being re-introduced to their natural homes. Apparently about 1000 moose get hit by vehicles a year, just to name one of the instances. They are in very large enclosures, similar to that Polar Park that we visited in Norway a few weeks ago.
This is where that Moose Photo really should have been inserted!
So, I’ll show another one, slightly different đ
“You lookin’ at me?”
The Portage Glacier front and center!
And Portage Lake
We stopped at a glacier and a very pretty glacier lake before we entered the Tunnel. This experience is quite unique as this tunnel serves both trains and vehicles, but only one kind at a time and only one way at a time so you can see how timing here is of the essence! It was constructed around 2000 and before that the only way to access Whittier was by rail (around the mountains) ship, or air.
Inside the 2.5-mile tunnel to Whittier. Those are the railroad tracks we are driving over.
Back in the day, Whittier was a secret base in WWII and the buildings in Whittier are from shortly after that time. In the â50âs the base was expanded, and the giant barracks building is still in use as the place where (almost) all of the 270 residents of Whittier live in apartments that were retroâd into that building. Oh, and the Town Hall, Police, and school are also in there!
Whittier. All of it. Uptown, downtown, and midtown. And that’s the All-Purpose Building in the background.
Our Ship, the Discovery Princess is of the same class as the Majestic, which weâd been on for the 51-day Around South America Cruise and the Regal which weâve been on twice before, so the layout is almost identical which makes finding our way around much easier!
I know exactly where the Chocolate Snacks can be found at any time of the day or night!
