Victoria

Empress Hotel

Our last port was Victoria, British Columbia, my first visit to Canada. Victoria is a beautiful city, flowers blooming everywhere! We spent our day walking around town seeing the sights.

British Columbia Legislature

The biggest landmarks were the Empress Hotel, where they still serve high tea and the British Columbia Legislature building. Both were right on the harbor and quite impressive.

And then of course, off to dinner.  Pubs everywhere here, so that seemed like the thing to do. We ate at Bard & Banker Scottish Pub, very good!  And because we were in Canada we trekked off to find Tim Horton's to get donuts!

Interesting street entertainment here in Victoria, this was definitely our favorite! Not what Darth Vader playing the violin signifies, but we left him the rest of our Canadian coins on our way by. I wonder if he knows the theme to Star Wars.

My favorite thing in Victoria was the houseboat village on Fisherman's Wharf. After sleeping on a ship for a week I've decided the only way to sleep is with the ocean rocking you.  Now we just need to move to a houseboat!

Victoria Sunset

At Sea - again...

A day at sea from Skagway to Victoria, these are the days we worried about, would we be bored? Of course we had to play shuffleboard, we were on a cruise after all!  We were just awful, but Chuck managed to win.  It wasn't my fault that every time I took a shot the ship listed!

Then we decided to go to the theater where they were going to play Deal or No Deal.  We decided to buy a card and play along and Chuck got chosen to play! The top prize was $1,000, and of course that was the first case he chose! He ended up winning $213, which more than covered our shipboard expenses!

And then eat, eat, eat. Thank goodness for all the walking and hikes when we were in port to work off all the food! To end our final day at sea we ate more, of course, and had dinner at Cagney's Steakhouse, one of the on board restaurants. Delicious filet paid for with our Deal or No Deal winnings!

Skagway

Skagway

The northernmost port on our trip is Skagway. This town is incredible, a gold rush town with a population of only 900.  Over 2,000 people move here to work in the summer to support the 1 million visitors they get from cruises.

White Pass Railway

We started our day on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, built during the gold rush in the late 1800s and climbs 3,000 feet to White Pass and the Canadian border. You could stand outside between the cars as we made our way to the pass.



Canada!

Once to the Canadian border it began snowing, seems appropriate! It was a great trip, the views were beautiful and the history of the area during the gold rush is fascinating.  Once we returned to Skagway we were ready for lunch, went to the Skagway Brewing Company for a delicious salmon sandwich!


Lower Dewey Lake

After lunch we decided to hike to Lower Dewey Lake above town.  A mile straight up and then we arrived at the lake. Absolutely gorgeous and not a person in site, had the whole lake to ourselves! A tough hike but completely worth it.

Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glacier

Tracy Arm Fjord

After leaving Juneau we cruised up the Tracy Arm Fjord, a narrow passage with 3,000 foot granite cliffs on each side. It's really amazing with icebergs everywhere. The fjord was formed by a glacier and you can really see the effect of the glacier on the granite.


Sawyer Glacier

At the end of the fjord is Sawyer Glacier.  Although there was too much ice for us to get very close we still had an amazing view.

We were lucky to see sea lions relaxing on one of the icebergs, this was one of the smaller icebergs, so you get an idea of how big the ice was.

Juneau

Juneau

Next port, Juneau! The biggest city we went to, although it looks pretty quiet in this photo. We arrived at 7am and offboarded before the crowds descended and got a chance to look over the city before we caught a bus that took us to Mendenhall Glacier, about 12 miles away.

Mendenhall Glacier

Our first glacier, and it is overwhelming and beautiful! We took a short hike from the visitors center to Nugget Falls and to get closer to the glacier. The icebergs in the lake were enormous and so pretty as the float down to the river. Again we were very lucky with the weather, there was not a cloud in the sky which made the glacier extra blue.  The photo does not do justice to the beautiful color of the ice.

Nugget Falls

Next to the glacier was Nugget Falls, which flows from Nugget Glacier and falls 377 feet.  You can get an idea of the size from the people in the photo.  And yes, the water in the lake is very cold!  We did not see any bears, although there was a sighting the day before. We did see their tracks in the soft land by the lake.  And we saw some mountain goats lazing in the sun on the side of the mountain.

Ketchikan

Ketchikan

Our first port was Ketchikan,  known as the “Salmon Capital of the World”. Now it seems like the jewelry capital.  Evidently people cruise solely to buy jewelry.  They even had seminars in where to shop...we had other things in mind, we're in Alaska for heaven's sake, let's see some nature and culture!

Creek Street

So we left the area near the cruise docks, which is all jewelry and souvenir shops, and headed up hill. Creek Street is a street of little houses that were all brothels until 1957. I guess the fishermen needed to fill their spare time. It's all jewelry and souvenir shops now, but very quaint.

Ketchikan Creek

Past Creek Street is Married Man's Trail, where men could escape up the mountain if there were raids on the brothels, so we decided to hike up the trail.

View from Cape Fox Lodge

At the top of the trail is the Cape Fox Lodge with amazing views of the town, and our ship. A little trek to get up there, lots of stairs, but worth the view!

 

We also saw quite a few Totem Poles, carved by the natives of the area. We were very lucky with the weather, being in the Tongass Rainforest and one of the rainiest towns it didn't rain a drop and wasn't too cold.









We finished our visit to Ketchikan with lunch at the Alaska Fish House, where I had the freshest halibut fish & chips I have ever had and Chuck had salmon tacos, amazing for someone who doesn't like fish.  The food was incredible!

At Sea

Our first day was cruising the Inside Passage towards Ketchikan.  We had a balcony room, which was wonderful, we could sit outside and watch the world go by. Even though it wasn't too cold, about 55 degrees, the wind from sailing made it chilly. To our surprise the ship only moves at about 25mph at its fastest.

One thing we didn't know about cruises was the obsession with cleanliness. Every time you enter a restaurant they spray your hands with sanitizer,  "washy-washy". This crew member was very enthusiastic about washy-washy, had a song and dance she did while she worked at the entrance to the Garden Café buffet.   

We had the day to fill and spent a lot of it exploring the ship. One of  our favorite spots when it was too cold to be outside was the Spinnaker Lounge on the 13th deck above the bridge with great views of the sea.

We also got a chance to go to the bridge viewing area. We never did see Captain Lars on the bridge, but enjoyed his announcements, where he always sounded like he just woke up.

We also ate A LOT! There is food everywhere, something is always open to have a meal or snack.  Thank goodness the ship was large, I wore a pedometer and on our sea day we walked 3 miles and went to work out to offset all we ate.

Alaska Cruise - Seattle Departure

Seattle from the Norwegian Jewel

We are off to Alaska! We have always wanted to go, and a cruise seemed the best way to see Alaska.  Even though there is some trepidation about going on a cruise, the prices are so low due to all the issues on cruises lately we decided this was the time to go.

We leave from Seattle on a cloudy day, overwhelmed by the size of the ship. 14 stories, over 2,000 passengers and 10 restaurants. The port was packed with people, I was worried we would find the ship to be crowded everywhere. They took our luggage to be delivered to the stateroom in the afternoon and off to lunch at the buffet and see the ship. Great views of Seattle while we waited to set sail!

Space Needle

Turns out that the ship is so big it doesn't feel crowded, even with all the people. Excited to get going, first port Ketchikan, Alaska!

Here's where we are headed.