Katie's News

Day 1

It was one of those frustrating travel days - with so many people, planes, and places to go nowadays things are bound to get "f-up" every once in a while. Bingo - we hit the jackpot - 1st was the 7 am plane did not show up the previous night- we ended up having to reschedule all our flights and because of an uncertain departure time we had to hang around in the Brunswick airport with only vending machine offerings. (At 6 am we offered two stranded FLETC forest rangers a ride to the nearest Waffle House for breakfast - we were back by 7. Interesting conversations and I got bacon. We finally left BQK around 11 pm. 2nd we no longer had a nice non-stop flight and we LOST 6 hours of free time to explore Vancouver. The final frustration was watching thru the planes window - the baggage handler pushing Gail's teal suitcase aside many times to load the smaller bags on to the plane then drive away with the bag still on his cart ..... hopefully it will arrive in time to be loaded onto the boat. Suitcase arrived at 2:30 am. I slept thru the delivery.

Day 2

Food was so expensive at the hotel ( cereal was 8 dollars ) that we decided to walk around outside to see if we could find some affordable fare. After a couple of blocks we found a Tim Hortons for yummy 99 cent donuts and hot beverages.

Those metal plates on the ropes are to prevent "small 4 footed visitors" from boarding

Our pre-boarding cattle waiting area

A barge that held the Zaandam's recycling. Very Organized!

We decided to forgo the bus ride down to the docks and walk. Great idea - it was a cool, sunny day and all down hill. Our only problem was we had not asked where we should go to check in. After wandering around for a while we finally found a nice man that let us butt in line so that we could check in. We got our key which had a different room number than what we had put on our luggage- you can probably predict what happened later. We were told we were upgraded. It was just right down the hall. It ended up being a nice upgrade when we figured out the old room had an outside wall hiding the view. They are all tiny on our floor, but the view helps a little, but no luggage in our new room..... After some initial panic, Gail finally got Heri to transfer our luggage. A couple of hours later Heri unlocked our door to drop off someone else's luggage .....

We explored the ship, ate lunch, toured the spa, had our lifeboat drill and had a nice dinner with a fantastic view. Thanks Ann, for getting us the front window table. P.S. We were talking to our breakfast Canadian table mates and they use travelwithalan.com and it sounded like they paid half what we paid - might be worth a check.

Day 3

At sea today - not like you can't see land-sea, but up a river-type sea. It is cloudy and blustery out on the deck. It reminds me of St Simon's winters. After a breakfast in the dining room, Gail and I explored the ship.

After eating our snacks, we are going to listen to a healthy eating lecture in the spa ( sort of like a drunk going to an AA meeting with a drink )

The lecture obviously had no effect on us because we both chose an additive loaded taco for our lunch. It was still good. Gail did her own things after lunch and I went to the spa and had a lovely sweat in the sauna and a nap on their heated stone recliner.

We had a yummy dinner with a sunny (finally) view and went to see the entertainment of comedian Derek Camron. We set our clocks back another hour and set our heads on our pillows. Alaska Tomorrow!

Day 4
The population of Ketchikan is about 8000 people, with tourism starting in the late spring to early fall. We were told that on some days the population doubles. We were lucky to hit it on a day with only one other ship - the Emerald Princess. It makes our ship look puny. They have 3800 passengers compared to our 1527 passengers and 597 crew. We were told that sometimes there are 4 ships at a time. For the town shop owners this is their "harvest time" to collect the tourist dollar crop. The "farmers" must have been expecting a bumper crop because the were so many diamond and other jewelry stores. ( no diamonds are mined in North America ) This ended up being the norm at all the Alaskan ports.

We got off the ship with no plans to do any tours. We were ecstatic that our phones could finally be taken out of airplane mode and our cellular worked so that we could catch up with texts, messages and Facebook.

After we got our communications caught up, we changed our mind about a tour and sweet talked a lady into 2 for 1 deal on a 2 hour trolley tour. We saw a salmon ladder, Totem poles, eagles and salmon spawning.

This is the actual man-made ladder for the salmon

Our first eagle sighting

Totem Poles

Back on board for a free lunch on the Lido deck where I had a yummy Portobello mushroom sandwich. We both went back off the ship - me for a little more shopping and Gail for more free cellular service, while enjoying the nice Alaskan sun. Gail ended up getting a little sunburned ..... in Alaska ...who would have thought.....
There was a very long line to get back on the ship, but we all made it back before the required time. We entertained ourselves onboard by watching the ship leave port. Boy are there lots of float planes in Alaska. It was interesting to watch them take off and land.

Seaplane Parking lot

We joined a trivia contest in the Crows Nest and after dinner we joined the Naturalist on deck to watch some far away whale spouts and a couple of flukes.

Day 5
Alaska's capital, Juneau, has a population of 33,000.
The was a long wait for breakfast to be served but I got my bacon this time. We got off the boat earlier than needed so I could do some shopping while Gail dealt with family things.

We had pre-purchased a 6 hour tour that included sites and facts about Juneau, a boat ride for whale watching with lunch, and a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier National Park. After about a 40 bus ride, we transferred to a boat. Another sunny day and pretty boat ride to the restaurant on an island. When I was in my teens I had decided that I didn't like Salmon. I guess my taste has changed because I have decided that I now like salmon.

Definitely not a beach for sunning but the water was really clear.

After lunch we were able to have multiple sightings of whales, a fin slap, and seals.

Last stop was the Glacier Bay National Park

Day 6
Skagway has a year round population of 900, which doubles during the summer. With the tour boats it can reach 10,000. There were 3 ships today - Disney, Princess, and us. The town had steep walled mountains right by the ships' slips. Most of the rocks were covered with graffiti. The seamen put up "we were here" type of signs.

Today was our big Helicopter ride to the glacier. It was wonderful but they weighed you before they took off. Embarrassing! The flight was smooth and not scary at all. We landed on the glacier. We had been given special ice walking covers to put over our shoes so that we could walk on the glacier ( I definitely need a pair for Zac and Katrina's Vermont winters). I drank the glacier water - besides being bone-chillingly cold it actually tasted wonderful. Walking on it was way more stable that you would expect. It was more like walking on really course sandpaper. The ice is very sharp and granular. The holes and crevices that had opened up were very deep with clear water and the ice walls were a wonderful color of blue. As I edit this blog, I have decided that this was my most favorite part of the whole trip.

Spent an hour in the spa, warming up in the steam room and on their heated stone recliner. I felt great afterward. Since we hadn't used up all our port time, we walked into town and looked around. We saw salmon spawning - they were at the end of their life -with lots of white marks on their backs and fins.

Building covered with 10,000 pieces of driftwood

Back on the ship we joined happy hour in the Crow's Nest. I had two margaritas. Gail said I talked too much and got too loud and needed hearing aides - guess I have to stick with the diet cokes. Dinner was good, but I ate too much and now my tummy hurts. We went to this evening's entertainment, which was a very talented magician.

Day 7
Sunrise in Alaska -as we traveled to our glacier sightings

It was like a Glacier Drive by - but we were still close enough to be in awe of the magnitude of both the structures.

John Hopkins Glacier, a 12 mile glacier, was seen from a distance so no evident caving.

We got fairly close to the Mergerie Glacier which is 21 miles from beginning to terminus. We were able to see pieces break off and hear lots of caving sounds. The sounds were like a lightening strike or cannon fire. There were a couple of big chunks that broke off and actually caused a large wave off to the side. This glacier has been retreating (as in losing) 6 feet a day. It was very interesting to be able to witness this happening.

We were not patient enough to get a video - but there was a pretty good one online that was very similar to what we saw.
Example of Margerie Glacier Caving - Not our video

Delicious Dutch pea soup was offered for a 10:30 snack. It was so good and filling we only had chips and salsa for lunch. Unfortunately our semi-healthy lunch was cancelled by the fancy dinner we had that night. Lobster and Filet Mignon with baked Alaska for desert. After dinner we played a trivia game, which we won! Victory was because Gail knew that a kidney was the first successful transplant and the couple that sat with us knew that a "moment" was officially measured as 90 seconds. Later we went to the 80's rock singing and dancing show.

Day 8 at sea
We spent a lot of time watching the navigator on TV - we are really far from home.
We packed, then joined the "Mariners Brunch" where we got a little "thank you speech" from the captain and a free drink coaster. In the afternoon, Gail did another wine tasting, I did another steam room and then we both went to the crows nest for happy hour where I caught my alcohol level up with Gail's. We had our last supper then early bed.

Our Canadian table mates

Day 9
Landed in Seward and got on the bus. It was another beautiful day.

We rode and rode on the bus ......10 hours later we arrived at the land version of the Holland America outside of the Denali National Park. Both Princess lines and Holland America own and run large Denali Park "Resorts".

The place is so large they provide bus service to the different parts of the resort.

Day 10
Tundra Wilderness Tour. For some crazy reason they had us scheduled at different times - Gail at 5:50 am and me at 8:30am. We went to the excursion desk to straighten it out but all we could manage was to switch our times. I really didn't mind the early time and I was hoping more of the animals were early risers also. The early time was a lucky time to see Mt Denali, but the distance and the sun reflecting off the snow made it hard for my iPhone to capture it. Look at the white blob - that is it!

We saw bears and cubs, ptarmigans (Alaskan state bird), 2 moose, a lynx, caribou, and Dall's sheep.

Moose

Ptarmigan

Caribou

The rest - you will just have to take my word for it -- they were too quick for my picture taking reflexes.

Only mishap of the day was when I left my iPhone in one of the NPS primative toilet facilities. I had to confess to the ranger that I was an idiot and explain where I had left my phone -- some sweet angel on our bus had found it and turned it in.

Day 11
This was our souvenir shopping, packing and chilling day.

Day 12
Heading back to the real world. The first leg was the train ride to Anchorage.

Great Reindeer chili for lunch!

Day 13
Caught the 11:53 pm red eye to Chicago then Albany then MY SON and Katrina's Wedding in Salem NY! Great trip - Thanks to Ann Owens, our travel agent, Gail, my travel buddy, and Holland America.

I seemed to have stuffed a few too many adventures into April. Last year Paula got this great idea of staying in the Hike Inn, which is located in the middle of the woods (as in no roads) very close to the beginning of the AT. (AT is what the 'with it' people call the Appalachian Trail). The AT starts at Springer Mountain GA and ends in Maine. Generally people start in the south and head north. They estimate that 50% of the people don't make it out of Georgia. I can see why... We saw both examples at the Inn -- a lady that we found sleeping in the lobby definitely won't make it and a young couple that definitely will ! The couple that will make it are doing it for a cause- https://adventuresoncanvas.com/events/ - If you are interested you can follow her blog as they progress. "Follow My Journey" link on the bottom of the page.

The Hike Inn is so popular that Paula had to make the reservation a year in advance. Even though it is only a 5 mile hike in to the Hike Inn, the majority of us had been worried that we were not in good enough shape. Remember most of us live at sea level and except for a couple of high bridges we lack any hills.

Mimi won the "always be prepared" award. She and her husband, Tom, practiced mulitple times on the Jekyll Island bridge. Mimi was so strong on the hike - she was able to be our "Sherpa Momma" in that she carried SOMEONE's pack for a large part of the hike up. (No - Not mine)

As part of the hiking group, we all had out specific jobs -
Paula could find a song to sing about ANY subject, Judy told many of her hilarious "Judy stories", Gale motivated and encouraged, Margie secretly pushed us up the tough hills. Kate read the information and/or made up legends about landmarks along the way and I found logs for us to sit on...... It takes a team.

Kate told an Indian "Legend" here (definitely fake news)

We left St Simons on Thursday and stayed in Amicalola Falls Lodge that night. The lodge is located at the top of the falls. It was a beautiful but chilly and very windy day.

We left the Lodge Friday morning with the addition of Gale and Kate. It was another cold and windy day but on a warming trend.

Most of us had packs 15 lbs or less (except for Kate -22 lbs) and we wore lots of layers. One of the signs said that the 5 miles would take us about 3 hours ..... It took us 6.

Lots of steep hills, roots, and rocks to navigate around and over.

We arrived at the Hike in around 3 pm. Unloaded the packs and explored the area.

One of the Inn's volunteers gave us a tour of the establishment. Very environmentally friendly. Lots of worms, solar panels, and gardens.

Toilets were very interesting - not flushable - but very breezy.

We spent the next couple of nights just enjoying the area and taking small hikes.

Gale and Mimi actually made the 9 mile round trip to the real beginning of the AT. WOW ! Kate and I took much less impressive 2 mile hike to see if we could find some birds. Since the Hike Inn was a device free area, they had a fully stocked game room filled with puzzles and board games. Shhhh - our cell phones still worked - we just looked at them very sparingly and privately. It was also an alcohol free area - BUT AGAIN sparingly and privately.

A drum woke us up so we could watch the beautiful sunrises

The food was family style. When they rang the bell, the food was on the table and you better get there quick. Price included breakfast at 8am and dinner at 6pm. You could buy a bagged lunch for 8 dollars extra (it was worth it - we actually bought extras to take back to the Lodge Sunday night to substitute for the lodge's way overpriced school cafeteria food that we had on Thursday night.)

After dinners they had a speaker -- we sat thru the 1st night's speaker -- but we cut class for the 2nd night. (He broke all the PowerPoint Presentation rules)

After a wonderful Sunday morning breakfast - we left to hike back out. Easier and a little faster and much warmer.