Cruising Alaska 2008
In 2008 my dad would hit the milestone of 65. We knew we had to do something special for him, he had done a lot of camping, but aside from that and a few brief trips he hadn't been on a tropical holiday. We knew he wasn't a big fan of the heat and sand, so we surprised him and his long time girlfriend Jan with a one week Holland America cruise to Alaska, of course we were going too.
We got a wicked deal for 7 days of extravagant meals, ports of call in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, and a day of cruising the majestic Glacier Bay. We gave them their gift in early February, and then had to sit around and wait until May... The MS Veendam would be the first cruise ship to leave from Vancouver for Alaska this 2008 cruising season.
After a short taxi ride to downtown Vancouver, we arrived at the ship 5 hours early, and made sure we got that free buffet lunch. At 5:00 we did a lifeboat drill, then squeezed our way under the Lions Gate bridge and headed up the Inside passage between Vancouver Island and the Mainland.
The MS Veendam was big, luxurious, and seemed to have everything we could need; teak decks with lots of lounging chairs, tons of viewpoints and quiet seating areas, a large buffet area, a smaller poolside cafe, a coffee shop, a desert bar, a 2 level dining room, 24 hour room service, not to mention several pools and hot-tubs, a casino, a stage theater, a movie theater, and several bars and clubs. Did I mention all the food places, this was crazy, my recent weight loss was over.
Spread around the ship was over a million dollars worth of art, from paintings and sculptures, to historic artifacts and photos, wherever you walked you would find something interesting. Even the elevators were personalized, every day there was a new carpet in them... jokingly the host tells us that on deck 2 at midnight they would have the ceremonial changing of the carpets.
The room wasn't huge, but it was comfortable, with lots of drawers and closets, and lovely curtains that opened onto a blank wall. Our room steward mysteriously showed up 3 times a day to tidy up, make the bed, refresh our fruit basket, turn down the bed, and make sure we always had fresh ice.
I say mysterious because we actually only saw our room steward a couple times during the whole week. That's probably because we very rarely were in our room, the activities and views were too enticing to sit in the room and watch TV on the flat screen. They did have a couple movie channels, but at least this time 'Titanic' wasn't a featured movie like on our Caribbean cruise.
Every night when we came back to the room, our steward had created some little creature out of our towels, complete with googly eyes. Always nearby was a little card and 2 chocolates.
A good portion of our trip past Vancouver Island would occur at night, once we cleared Port Hardy and headed into open sea, the swells were a bit uncomfortable, and the morning was not a good one for my dad. The day ended up a beautiful one, we found a deck area at the very back of the boat on Deck 9, and sat in the sun on loungers watching the endless horizon float by, a couple shapes that were the Queen Charlottes drifted past. Our day at sea got us to the US border, and a swap of pilots, and ultimately led to a fancy dinner and a show, one of two formal nights.
The next morning the seas were calm as we wound our way through Alaska's Inside Passage, and my dad's skin colour had returned to it's less green normalcy. In a cloud of fog with a light drizzle, we arrived at our first stop in the early afternoon, the historic town of Juneau, Alaska.
Juneau
It is quite the sight as we work our way towards it's port, a big little city, nestled under the snow peaked Mount Juneau. On the other side of those mountains is the famous Mendenhall Glacier. The city was formed as a gold mining town in 1880 and has been the capital of Alaska since 1906. It was named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, yes just like the hockey player. Juneau is a unique city, it is only accessible by air and sea, with a highway that has a dead end on both ends.
Once the ship pulls into port it is time to explore. We had previously booked our excursions, my Dad and Jan were doing a rainforest walk, and Norine and I were booked to do a helicopter flight with several landings on different glaciers. Strangely there is no one with a sign that has our trip on it, and after asking, apparently it was cancelled due to foggy conditions. We would get the message about the cancellation when we returned to our room at the end of the day. Lucky for us there was another helicopter pilot that overheard us, he had room and could take us to a different glacier that wasn't foggy... and it was way cheaper. Woohoo!
If you haven't flown in a helicopter before, it is an incredible experience, you smoothly float up into the air, no accelerated takeoff, no stomach dropping accents or descents, and big bubble windows to look out of. Luck of the draw had me in the copilot seat on the way out to the glacier, with amazing views of our ship, and arctic lakes as we floated over the mountains.
Apparently there is two types of glaciers, retreating and advancing, with global warming the Taku Glacier is one of the few advancing glaciers, seems like a good place to land a helicopter. The one thing I will never forget is just how blue the ice is. Apparently the weight of the glacier condenses the ice so much that the only color spectrum not absorbed is blue... amazing to see in person.
Back in Juneau, there is some unique artwork to see. The first one is a huge mural depicting all of the native animals in a native art style. The second is a large fountain featuring a bronze statue of pelicans standing in front of the Federal Building. There are no Pelicans in the State of Alaska, apparently the eagle statue was delivered to Florida by mistake.
Our first stop in Alaska meant some quality time in the local stores, find some souvenirs. We had to check out the famous Red Dog Saloon, a gold-rush-era bar. The floor is soft with inches of sawdust, and the walls are covered in all kinds of unique memorabilia, money from all countries signed by the gold chasing hopefuls of years gone by. Old weapons are on display, including Wyatt Earp's gun that he checked with the Marshall in 1900, and forgot to pick up on his way to Nome.
After catching up with my Dad, we all take the Mt. Robson Tram to the peak above the town. We quickly go from a light drizzle to a snow covered mountain, record levels of snow.
Even from inside the building, the winter wonderland is visible, whether it's the surrounding mountains, or the snow that is piled up past the windows. The back deck of the restaurant was smashed to smithereens when the snow from the roof slid off onto it, I guess we'll stay off.
When we ventured outside, all we saw was snow, the trails were closed, and even the avalanche warning sign was inaccessible. Any hopes of seeing the lakes and surrounding sights were dashed, but we did get to see an interesting nature display, and some indian carvings.
During their Rainforest walk my Dad and Jan saw a Porcupine in a tree, I had no idea they climbed trees. I was a little envious of the wildlife they saw, when lo and behold there's one sitting in a tree, we had a perfect view of him or her on the tram ride back down the mountain.
Aside from the tram operator, we are the last ones on the mountain when we head back down to the ship. The Alaska Time Zone is one hour earlier than the Pacific Daylight Time, so between the time change and the northern travel, the sun doesn't set until 9:30, it stayed light until almost 11.
Skagway
After a night that included a gourmet dinner, and a chance to practice our newly learned Cha-Cha skills, we woke up in Skagway (Skagua: "the place where the north wind blows"). After gold was discovered in the Klondike region, Skagway became a hugely popular port town thought to be the most direct route into Canada's goldfields. In 1898 there was almost 10,000 people in Skagway. Today the 1200 people on our boat exceeds the towns population by almost 400.
When you get off the boat, the first thing you notice is the ship graffiti on the cliffs beside the port. Every time a ship makes it's maiden arrival in Skagway, the crew paints a billboard of their ship's name and insignia. There is some disgruntled crews sending a message to the captain. They paint their ship's sign at low tide, when the tide comes in, their ship's paintings are underwater. I'm not sure who was trying to send a message with the painted skull.
This morning was supposed to be another helicopter tour, taking us to a glacier where we would go dog-sledding. Once again our tour is cancelled due to the fog, this time they send us directly to a Mushers Camp instead, once again it's way cheaper and we'll get a refund... Woohoo!
It's a short drive to Dyea, a formerly booming gold rush town, abandoned after the White Pass train went to Skagway instead. At the end of a dirt road is a short walk into the Dog sled mushers camp... home to over 100 barking dogs of all types of colours. These are not the Huskies and Malamutes you see in the Disney movies, they are a combination of mixed breeds, designed for speed, strength, endurance, demeanor, and good eating habits. When races take over a week to complete, and deal with extreme conditions all these traits are more important than looks.
The dogs in this camp are just ending a short vacation after competing in Alaska's two biggest sporting events; February's 'Yukon Quest': a 1000 mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, and March's world famous 'Iditarod': a 1,161 mile race from Anchorage to Nome. Teams of 12-16 dogs will drag sleds weighing 250 pounds and a musher for anywhere from eight to fifteen days.
After a brief discussion and Q&A with one of the mushers that completed the 2008 Iditarod, we are taken to our sleds, where 14 dogs are on their leads and raring to go. We are the first group to go after their month long holiday, and I am shocked by their energy... they are barking like crazy and jumping in place wanting to run. As soon as the brake is released, the dogs are at full speed pulling us along the trail, slowing only as we come to a hilled section.
It's hard not to laugh at the 1 year old golden lab that is paired up with the lead dog, he's constantly wagging his tail, grabbing branches as he runs along the trail, and seems to be in play mode the entire time. Our musher tells us he is like that even after 8 hours of arctic sledding.
After completing our sled, the dogs have finally settled down, and take a break to drink some water and relax, the dogs that didn't get to go on the run are all staring with envy, and barking up a storm. The rest of our time here could be spent in the cabin drinking hot cocoa, or in the pen area with the dogs... we chose the dogs, a mix of overly friendly and overly shy personalities.
They are all just a little wary of us, most would come over once you crouched down and put out your hand, but some, including the beautiful Ketza would back up into the safety of their dog houses. Later we would find out the name tags hadn't been updated in a few years, maybe that's why Ketza didn't like me, I kept calling her by the wrong name... Doh!
The scenery between Dyea and Skagway on the way back into town is scenic to say the least. From the estuaries to lakes, we pass an abandoned teepee being used as a doghouse, and stop at a lookout where we can see the Kirmsee's Curios stopwatch painted on the cliffs above Skagway.
Skagway is my favourite of the Alaskan towns, it still has the gold-rush-era feel with it's historic buildings, and wooden boardwalks. The town is spotless, and we would learn that before the tourist season starts, the entire town has a clean-up party to celebrate cruise ship season.
Before we could look at any other shops, stopping at the Alaskan Fudge Company was a requirement that Norine and I couldn't refuse. Once that was out of the way we could explore the variety of souvenir shops that strangely all seem to have the same things, but only one of them has a stuffed head of the legendary 'Jackalope', aka antelabbit, aunt benny, or stagbunny.
The town is full of unique sights, from the 1898 Moore house and log cabin, to the driftwood building in the center of town, or an assortment of historic car parts and signs.
The White Pass and Yukon Route is a narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway with Whitehorse, the capital of Canada's Yukon. It was May of 1898 that the White Pass and Yukon Route began laying railroad tracks in Skagway, by the time it was completed in 1900 the gold rush was almost over. In 1900, Skagway was incorporated as the first city in the Alaska Territory.
We all meet back up and it's "all aboard" for Canada's Yukon territory. We head from the drizzling rain of Skagway, up, up and away to the snowy climate of White Pass.
The further we go, the deeper the snow gets, by the time we get to our destination just past the Canadian border, the snow is coming down, and everything is buried in a deep blanket. I am going snowblind from the brightness of White Pass, it appears that the ranger station is so buried in snow that all you can see is the sign on the roof... oh wait, it is.
Luckily the rotary snowplow and a crew had come before us to clear the tracks in their little Casey cars, or we wouldn't have made it. After we stopped on the Yukon side of the border, the Casey cars followed us back down to Skagway. Back through the icy tunnels that remind me of the abominable snowman's ice caves in the 6 million dollar man episodes.
From the White Pass Summit at 2,865 feet to Skagway at 0 feet, we travel back down the slopes. When we started we were the first car on the train, now we are the last, providing a great view of the trestle bridges, caves and Casey cars chasing us back to sea level.
Once we are back in town our first stop is the historic Red Onion Saloon. It was built in 1897, and served as a bar and a bordello. This friendly young lady was trying to convince us to come tour the brothel upstairs. Yes that building is leaning slightly to the left, as did their politicians.
While a traditional ragtime piano is played, I enjoy a Naughty Nelly Ale, and a Menage a Trois sandwich, everyone else skips the Strumpet and Harlot, choosing the Trollop sandwiches.
Sadly we had to leave this little gold rush town, and head back to our ship. After hitting a few more shops we walk back down the dock and get prepared to be spoiled with another gourmet meal, as our ship makes it's way to the frozen waters of Glacier Bay.
