II: Ports of Call

Vancouver.

We purchased our tour tickets from Cruise.com, who had better deals for internet purchases than buying directly from Holland-America Line (HAL). This does not make HAL too happy, because if we ask them for customer support, they will often curtly refer you to back to Cruise. com. But HAL did upgrade us to a better cabin, starboard and a little bit more amidship. Going north, you want a starboard cabin.

Alaska Air took us from SFO to Vancouver, where we were to board the m.v. “Statendam”. In the airport of Vancouver, myriad of people were relentlessly pouring out of the planes into the huge hall for Canadian Immigration and Customs. They had to wait in line. And judging from the blend of impatience, expectancy and fear on their faces, it looked as if they had been been transported to the antechamber to the Pearly Gates, not sure about their future accommodations. It was the Yukon Gold Rush all over again, except the people were not looking for gold, but willing to part with gold as part of the good life.

We found out we could have avoided a lot of hassle by attaching our Holland America cruise tags to our checked luggage before boarding our plane in SFO. In Vancouver our luggage would then bypass Customs and taken immediately by the HAL staff in a sealed container from the airport to the cruise ship. And we would then go through a separate entrance, presumably less crowded, into the promised land. As it was, we had to go through Immigration and Customs to retrieve our luggage and then take them to the HAL luggage counter. We were not the only ones. A substantial number of people were lugging their suitcases and travel bags sheepishly doing the same. But the staff of HAL was cool. In their red, high-school marching band uniforms they were everywhere to give information, assistance, encouragement, and solace, if necessary. Many of these were working part-time for the tourist season only.

For a prepaid fee of $17, the HAL bus took us to Canada Place, where the huge cruise lines boarding terminal was located. If we knew about the luggage tags, we could have taken the city bus from the airport to Canada place for Can$10 (senior rate)/person. Vancouver has made major investments to make the city an efficient cruise terminal, where they can and do process 1-4 cruise ships daily. At 1500 passengers per ship. that is as many as 6000 passengers/day. Processing was efficient but instead of proceeding to the ship we were told to wait in this huge waiting room.

left: Vancouver from the harbor.

Surprise. Well, not exactly. There had been an outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus and the associated gastroenteritis in a number of passengers during the previous cruise. Symptoms are diarrhea, accompanied by abdominal cramps, nausea, and sometimes even vomiting, especially in children. Recently these outbreaks seem to occur regularly in all cruise lines of the world. We had a similar outbreak on our cruise on the “Dawn Princess” to Mexico a few months ago. The crew was working madly to disinfect the ship and particularly those cabins, where the victims had been quarantined during their trip. If you get sick, you are quarantined to prevent the disease from spreading. You do get free medical care to encourage people from reporting problems when they occur. Boarding was supposed to start at noon, but we did not board until around 3 p.m. when the pangs of the missed lunch have subsided somewhat. Everybody looked cheerful because we knew we had 7 days to make up for this deficit in caloric intake.

Hygiene protocols were strict. Hands were disinfected before every meal and after each visit to a public restroom; the swimming pools were closed and in the buffet areas the passengers cannot serve themselves. Gloved crew members dished out the food, so it took more time. And people ended up with considerably more food than what they wanted or needed. But after a few disease-free days, the rules were relaxed. You can then scoop up too much food yourself; but at least it will be your own fault.

HAL has many cruise ships working the Alaska trade, and the “Statendam” is one of their smaller ships. The picture on the top of this page is of the harbor of Juneau, taken from the top of Mt. Roberts Tramway. The small ship at anchor in the middle of the picture is the “Statendam”. To the left, moored behind her, is her giant sister ship, the Noordam, almost twice as large. And going into the upper right hand corner in the picture is the Lynn Canal, actually a very deep fjord, leading to Skagway.

left: A rear deck of the mv “Statendam” in the rain in Vancouver harbor with another cruise ship in the background.

The “Statendam” of the Holland America Line has a maximum speed of 20.9 knots, a gross tonnage of 55,819 tons, and was 719 feet long and 111 feet wide. Five diesel generators produce 34.5 MW of power to light up the ship, give life to the casino slot machines, and power the huge food preparation complex and other minor items to make the passengers comfortable in this floating luxury hotel. Two motors of 12MW each were used for propulsion. Twenty percent of the potable water used is generated on the ship. On this trip she carried 1223 passengers and a staff of 575. Of the latter, some 350 are Indonesians, including the purser and the ship’s maitre d’. Most of the other officers, including the captain and his chief officer, were Dutch. Since we spoke both Indonesian and Dutch, we were happy with this arrangement. There is always English to fall back on. The ship could have carried more passengers, but many of the lower-priced inside cabins were empty. In our society, the rich have tax breaks and enjoy a rising stock market; the lower middle class is squished by rising living expenses and non-rising incomes. The upper tier cabins sell out quickly; nobody wants the cheapest cabins, because you have to keep up with the Joneses. This trend is seen in other cruise ships as well.

right: In the dining room of the “Statendam”

As for the ship, the staff tries to highlight the positives. The “Statendam” crew emphasizes their small ship as being more cozy and personal than the behemoths. But even though we were on a “small” ship, there is always place to sit in the public lounges, the watering holes, the theater, and in the library. Of course you often bump into the same people, but in a 7-day trip it is still effectively possible to avoid the bores, boors, misanthropes, and obnoxious fellow passengers. The layout is very much like the other cruise ships we have seen, but what I liked best was the location of the gym. It was right at the bow on one of the top decks. The treadmills face this large wrap-around glass wall. There is a panoramic view, 100 feet above the water, of where the ship is heading. Compare this to the QE II, where the gym was somewhere like 10 floors below in the deepest bowels of the ship. Stiff upper-lip crustacean management must have lived by the premise that it is uncivilized to sweat in public, --that is why they have sex in private-- so the exercise areas are away from areas where more proper and genteel activities are being pursued.

In the Explorer’s lounge of the “Statendam” we discovered a Rumanian string quartet playing popular and light classical music every evening. It sounded soothing, enjoyable, and high-brow until we found out that they had a very limited repertoire. Listening to “O Sole Mio” several times in one evening gets a bit on the nerves. There were never many people listening and the quartet really appreciated our applause. That was our good deed for the day.

The major shows were quite good and professionally presented, considering that this was a small ship. Also very good and very well attended was the show put up by the Indonesian crew. There you find out that your waiter has a really good voice and would have done quite well as the understudy of Placido in Don José in Carmen. The cruise director, the guy in charge of entertainment, David Martin, was superb. The food was good; better than what we had on the “Dawn Princess” and for an additional charge you can get even better food in the Pinnacle Grill. But we were happy, and we found out that they have a marvelous cheese plate for dessert. They also had a “Dessert Night Extravaganza” one evening, where the deck around the pool was covered with dozens of tables with a huge selection of desserts. Lots of passengers came by to load up their plates with all these scrumptious cholesterol and sugar loaded goodies as if they did not have a 5-course dinner just a few hours ago.

Dessert Night Extravaganza

The ship has a shopping arcade with a surprisingly large selection of merchandise for the not-too-discerning impulse shopper. It is amazing how many genuine Alaskan merchandise are now made in China or mayhap in Bangladesh. But wait till the last days of the cruise and most of the stuff pops out again, spread out in the aisles with huge discounts.

right: More dessert?

So the shop-a-holics dutifully load up again, even before they arrive at their destination. They can also go to their daily auction of paintings with a special sale on the last day. With free champagne one can bid on a genuine fake Rembrandt for the price of a Big Mac cheeseburger. Much less fattening and your neighbors at home will be green with envy.

Ketchikan.

The ports of call on this cruise were Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Seward. On our second cruise in 2015, they were Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria. The most obvious change in the intervening years is the explosive increase in the number of jewelry stores everywhere the cruise ships docks. The only way these enterprises can succeed is by offering “huge special discounts for cruise ships passengers”. Even then they are still doing very well, because the market is tremendous with their very low cost price stones.

The economy of Ketchikan, the first town on the cruise itinerary, used to be be based upon tourism and fishing, and the city claims to be the "Salmon Capital of the World”; one of many, I may add. Now jewelry stores are the main tourist attraction.

In 2007 the port wharves can only handle two cruise ships. We were the third cruise ship in port that day, so we struck out. We had to anchor in the middle of the harbor and tender in. That was a bother, because it takes a lot of extra time. The population of the city is around 8,000. The three cruise ships probably added another 4-5000 people to the city that day. Now, in 2015, the wharves can handle more ships at one time.

It always rains in Ketchikan. It has the heaviest average rainfall in North America and it is the 4th wettest spot on earth. Rainfall is not measured in inches, but in feet, averaging now around 12-13 feet a year. In 1949, it was almost 17 feet. In winter another 3 feet of snow comes down. We had rain gear and umbrellas at the ready, but the sun was shining brightly when we were there, eliciting gasps of disbelief from incredulous natives. It was surprising, but during our trip we had an unusually high number of days of sunshine.

From the tourist information office right on the wharf we obtained a schedule of the city bus, which took us to the Totem Bight State Historical Park, several miles away. In 2015 this is a small city and the 11-passenger bus, coming around every hour, was not really geared for tourist transport. The cruise lines strongly recommend the purchase of shore excursions ahead of time, and at the Park, there were several tour buses with cruise passengers. The fare for this shore excursion was, in 2007, I believe, $47. The fare for the city bus was $1/person, $0.50 for seniors, per trip. Entrance to the Park used to be free, but it is now, in 2018, $5/pp. A free interpretative brochure was available at the Park entrance. (They did ask for donations). It is clear why there is very little mention of the city buses. Imagine thousands of tourist descending on the city in a very short period of time all wanting to hop in the bus. The locals would have a fit.

In 2018, the city has a larger “silver” bus, with a capacity of some 40 passengers, coming around every half an hour. But the fares have increased to $2/pp, exact change required.

Totem Bight State Park.

In the early 1900’s, many Natives moved away from their village to communities where there was work, leaving their totem poles behind.

In 1938 the U.S. Forest Service started salvaging and reconstructing these large cedar monuments.

right: The Man Wearing a Bear Hat” is actually a grave marker. The man of the Bear Clan wears a wooden hat, surmounted by the head of a bear and decorated on the brim with painted whales. The hat is worn on important occasions.

Many older poles were repaired or duplicated and in this process, young artisans learned the art of totem pole carvings. In the park there are 14 major poles and a replica of a clan house with 4 smaller totem poles. The colors used on the poles were limited to a few natural pigments made from salmon eggs, hematite, and a few other minerals. Black is the primary color; red is for the secondary elements; and blue-green is used for tertiary highlighting. This park has a really nice and very instructive display of totem poles.

below: The Kadjuk Bird Pole

Contrary to what the European missionaries believed, totem poles were not worshipped; they were silent story tellers. The Natives did not have a written language. The poles depict an important event in the history of the tribe. It could be a mortuary pole, honoring a deceased family member, or it could pay homage to some monumental event. But in their righteous zeal to save these people from brimstone and eternal damnation, the missionaries ruthlessly destroyed many of these heathen images.

On the left is a copy of a Tlingit pole, named the Kadjuk Bird Pole. The Kadjuk bird sits on top of the pole and is not visible in the picture. But visible on the top is the figure of Raven, and on his chest is his wife, Fog Woman. Below her she holds the two salmon she had produced, the first in the world. The two large faces at the base are slaves of Raven.

There are several elements which recur in totem art. Some

are shown on the right. The most important is the Raven (top figure), distinguished by his long, straight beak. In many stories of the Tlingit and the Haida, the two major native groups in the area, the Raven plays the hero (or the trickster). He is capable of changing form at will and is considered a symbol of the Creator. He is also the hero who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the people. Then there is the Eagle (2nd figure), who looks like the raven in the carvings, but has a more curved beak. He signifies peace and friendship. The Beaver (3rd figure) occurs often in the carvings; he is recognized by his two large front teeth and his flat tail. The Bear (4th figure) and the Wolf also appear on the poles; they look similar, but the Wolf has sharp teeth and a more slender snout. Then there is the Killer Whale (lowest figure) , which is distinguished from the whale by the prominent, straight dorsal fin, and its sharp teeth. The Killer Whale is a symbol of strength.

right: Some elements in totem art.

The Tlingit and the Haida are the two major Native American tribes in South-East Alaska. These tribes are related to the Native American Indians in the lower States, such as the “Dené”. Each of these two tribes are divided into two matrilineal groups, the Raven and the Eagle moieties. You are either an Eagle or a Raven and you can only marry somebody from the opposite moiety. This prevents intermarriage. So if a father is a Raven, the mother is an Eagle, and all their children are Eagles.

There are, in addition, two more large Native American groups in Alaska. In the north and northwest there are the Eskimos. The Eskimos live close to the coast to harvest whales, seals, porpoises, etc., as their main source of food, clothing, and other necessities of life. In the interior of Alaska there are the Athabascans, who call themselves the “Dena”. The Athabascans appear to be more related to the Indians than to the Eskimos. They traditionally lived along the five major river ways; the Yukon, the Tanana, the Susitna, the Kuskokwim, and the Copper River. Now all tribes are more spread out because there are other sources to make a living.

Ketchikan Sights.

The bus took us to the library and the adjacent Tongas Historical Museum. The museum was rather interesting in a boring sort of way, displaying a lot of seemingly haphazard artifacts from the history of the region. Some years ago they must have had a Citywide Hootenanny and Attic-Cleaning Party with the proceeds finding their final destination in this museum. Half a block away was Creek Street, the tourist shopping center of the city, charmingly constructed along the banks of a deep creek. Tourists browse in the many gift shops for Alaskan souvenirs, most of them probably made in China or Bangladesh. In Alaska, in the areas where tourists go, every other building is a gift shop. If the stuff they sell were all made in Alaska, then about everybody in Alaska must be working 100 hours/week to produce that much junk.

left: Creek Street; tourist shopping center

But the biggest draw of Creek Street seems to be the old bordello house where an appropriately dressed enhanced-buxom lady leads and gives a titillating tour of the mansion. The entry fee was a measly $10/pp for a 20- minute visit. That is a good deal! Heck, a 100 years ago it was also $10 for a 20-minute visit.

In 2007 we did walk to the Totem Heritage Center, about 1/2 mile away, where they had saved a number of old decaying cedar totem poles in a controlled atmospheric environment. After Totem Bight State Park, this exhibit was not that attractive anymore. It may be a historically priceless and irreplaceable collection of 19th century artifacts, but they looked just like old, rotting logs to us. And for that they charged us an entry fee of $5 per person. We should probably have gone to the adjacent fish ladder and eagle center instead.

Juneau

We arrived in Juneau in the morning, after cruising past mountains with snow-capped peaks on both sides of the ship. To compensate for the poor berth in Ketchikan, we now had the best berth in town. As we exited the gangway, we were right on the Marine Waterfront Park, in the middle of the town.

Even though Juneau is the capital of Alaska, it still has a small-town feel. There is no road to the outside world and to get to Juneau you have to fly in or take a boat. In the summer the town is awash with tourists pouring in from cruise ships; in the quiet of the winter the Legislation is active with miners, loggers, and tour-operators coming there to lobby for their share of the wealth of the State. In the summer many people work as tour guides, gift shop personnel, or other higher-paying tourist-related jobs, and then go back and work in the Legislative Halls in the winter.

From Holland-America we had purchased a rather expensive photo safari tour led by Gastineau Guiding. We called the local tour operator to book a tour at the lower local price, but when they found out we were coming by cruise line, they tell us to book through the cruise line. There is conspiracy here. Neither party wished to kill the goose with the golden eggs.

Gastineau Guiding first took us in their small private bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. If you just wanted to go to the Glacier, you could just walk around the square where a lot of small tour operators will take you there for relatively little money. We hiked for about 1/2 mile into the woods and back and only had time to make pictures of the glacier from the distance. The guide, an expert photographer, gave pointers on how to make better pictures. He had to justify the high cost of the tour.

Her even gave away free batteries for your camera.

right: The Mendenhall Glacier

We then rushed to a small harbor where we boarded a small and fast boat to look for whales and other wildlife in the Lynn Canal. The Lynn Canal is not a Canal but at Juneau it is a wide, long and very deep fjord leading to Skagway. We saw several whales, including a mother and her calf. There were eagles and at a buoy there were several Stellar sea lions; 4 on the buoy and several trying to dislodge them and trying to get up on.

left: Stellar sea lions on a buoy in the Lynn Canal.

Was the 4-hour tour worth the $175. I am not sure. Everything is expensive in Alaska, especially those items related to tourism. They only have a few months of the year to fleece the tourist. If you have time and come in the off-season, things would be substantially cheaper. In May you could get a 4-star hotel room in Anchorage for $50 through Priceline. In June the price has shot up to $300/night, if a room was available.

1: Going to the Mendenhall Glacier,

in 2018 there were many tour buses at the cruise terminal offering round-trips to the Glacier for around $45/pp, which sounds expensive, because at the glacier the trails are well-marked and you can get a map from the Entrance booth at the Park Office. But all the bus operators charge about the same. There is collusion and nobody wants to kill the golden goose. Entrance fee to the park is $5/pp and is included in the tour price.

You can walk a bit into town and get a taxi for around $35 one way. The taxi driver will then ask whether you already have an entrance ticket. If you don’t have one, he will say he can sell you one to “avoid” the long line at the ticket office. Watch out. The taxi drivers can buy the tickets from the Park Service at $2-3 each, and they are allowed to resell them at a price of their own choosing !! anywhere between $5 and $17. If you look gullible, you will be charged $17/ticket. It is best just to offer them $5 per ticket and just step out of the taxi and buy the tickets at the ticket booth. The lines are really not that long.

2: The Alaska State Museum

We walked to the Alaska State Museum, the official repository of the State’s history. They claim to have some 27,000 artifacts. The story of the native Tlingits, who were here first, was well illustrated and documented. Then there was the story on gold. The Tlingit chief Kowee showed Joe Juneau and Richard Harris where they could find gold, and in 1898 there was this huge influx of miners looking for gold in the Yukon. The purchase of Alaska from the Russians for $7,200,000 was another major topic in the museum. Why that funny number? There was an operator who used to saw out ice blocks in the dead of winter, pack them in sawdust and export them to San Francisco for refrigeration purposes of the rich. He complained bitterly about the proposed deal, because he would lose his business, so they tacked an additional $200,000 on the original 7 million dollars for him. There are displays on oil and the Alaska pipeline. It was an interesting and quite instructive museum with a superb collection of Native artifacts from around the state.

3: The Mt Roberts Tramway

Half a block from our ship was the Mt Roberts Tramway, owned and operated by the Tlingits. For $25/person (2015) the tram will whisk you in six minutes from the tourist-clogged Franklin Street to the clear air and overwhelming views at 1760 feet above sea level. In 2018 the price has gone up to $34/pp. As usual, we had good weather. The walking paths around the Tramway complex were still covered with a thick layer of snow, with melting snow and large areas of mud in between, so we stayed inside. The auditorium showed a film on Tlingit culture. It was beautifully done and had received a number of awards. It was a low-key presentation, emphasizing the beauty of the land and the customs of the Tlingits, and accepting with grace the trials and tribulations inflicted upon them by Nature and by the US Government.

I would have liked it if the staff of Mt. Roberts Tramway were more aggressive in showing the wrongs inflicted on the Tlingits in the past. There was only passing mention of the ban on carving totem poles after the missionaries destroyed most of the existing specimens; the prohibition on speaking the “heathen” Tlingit language; and the forced removal of their children for “education” elsewhere. There was no mention of the incident when the explosive device in the tip of a whaling harpoon detonated and killed a Tlingit elder on Admiralty Island south of Juneau.

There were commercial whalers at that time operating on the island. The Tlingits asked for compensation for his death, but the whalers went to the U.S. Navy instead with stories of a full-scale revolt by the Tlingits. Without bothering to check the facts, the Navy sent a couple of warships to shoot and destroy the Tlingit village, killing many. That winter many more Tlingits died, because they lacked shelter from the cold. There was a young Tlingit at the auditorium to answer questions, but he either did not know or wanted to talk about this incident.

We visited Juneau again in July of 2015. It was not a small town anymore, rather a full-blown tourist port similar to what you encounter in the Caribbean. Our ship, the mv Amsterdam, was moored close to the lower station of the Mt Roberts Tramway, and the first thing you note is the profusion of jewelry stores. Right in front of the ships, there were 7 jewelry shops next to each other; within a few blocks of the pier, every third building is a jewelry store.

left: Stepping out of the ship, the first thing you see are seven jewelry stores in a row.

right: Tracy’s Crab Shack.

For lunch in 2015 we stopped at Tracey’s crab shack at the pier.

This was a rather nondescript establishment, and apparently highly recommended by every ship berthed close by. Because the place was full at lunch time.

left: A huge king crab leg taken at the right angle in the hands of 6-year old Athena

The king crag was excellent, but their prices are not cheap.

For an order of 1 large leg + 1 large claw of a Bering Sea Red King crab, weighing about 1-1.5 lbs, they charge $44.95+5% city tax. A side of steamed rice, about 8 ounces, $3.00 + tax. You get garlic rolls+ butter, but at that price, the rolls were stale.

4: Skagway.

From Juneau we sailed north up the Lynn Canal past Haines to Skagway, the end of the Canal, some 70 miles away. The Canal is actually a fjord, the longest in the North-American continent. Skagway is in a spectacular location, ringed by high, snow-capped mountains.

below: Broadway; the main drag of Skagway. Most of the tourists have left, when this picture was taken.

The town has two parallel streets, each about a mile long, One of them is Broadway, lined with cruise-ship oriented gift shops, restaurants, saloons, a “burlesque” show theater, and other places designed to effectively relieve money of the passing tourist. There is nothing much else in town. There was a small park, where many people were using their laptops. There was an internet cafe on the other side of the fence and the people were helping themselves to the free Wi-Fi signal. That was cheaper than going into the cafe and paying the hourly charges to operate your laptop there. The other free items in town are the free walking tours provided by the local tourist office.

The population of the city is around 800, but it has docking wharves for at least 5 cruise ships (+ the Alaska State ferry). During the day thousands of tourists walk the street, but in the evenings everything is deserted as the visitors go back to the comforts of their floating hotels. The tourist trade attracts a lot of summer workers; some of them live in a tent during this period, paying as much as $400/month just for the right to pitch their tent in a commercial park.

Skagway exploded into existence in the rush years of 1897 and 1898, because it was one of the two gateways to the rich gold fields in the Yukon. The other route was through Dye and the Chilkoot trail. Thousands and thousands of “stampeders” got off the boat at Seward to start their long trek for riches and dreams. Most of them were men, but there were a few women and even a few children. In Skagway there was little law and many crooks were there to remove as much money as possible from the visitors. Nothing has really changed since then. The most notorious of these outlaws was “Soapy Smith”, because he sold soap bars at a good price with the promise that a gold coin would be imbedded in some of them. He was also said to set up a telegraph office for suckers to wire money home. But the office did not have any telegraph lines. He was killed in a shootout with Frank Reid, a member of a vigilante group, who also died in the encounter. Frank Reid is remembered as the local hero and I believe Soapy Smith is now the patron saint of the city.

The first hurdle the “stampeders” had to conquer was White Pass, some 25 miles away and 2880 feet high. At the Canadian border at the other side of the pass, the Mounties required each prospector to take along one ton of supplies per person. If they could afford horses, they used them as pack animals to get their supplies over the pass. Thousands of the overloaded horses died, some of them actually committing suicide by walking off a cliff. Other stampeders had to carry the load on their back, making more than a dozen roundtrips to get their supplies over the pass. Once over the pass, there were still 500 miles to Dawson City in the Yukon. From the pass to Bennett was a relatively easy walk, and from there they would continue their trip to Dawson City by boat or raft after the ice had melted. And when they finally reached their destination, one year after they left home, they would find that all good land had been claimed and that big corporations had taken over. Of the estimated 100,000 who made the trek, only 30-40,000 made it to the gold fields. About 4,000 prospectors found gold, but only a few hundred became rich.

left: The White Pass and Yukon tourist train

In the afternoon we took the White Pass and Yukon Route train to White Pass and back, about 22 miles each way from Skagway. This extra-narrow gauge railroad (3’ between the tracks instead of the standard 3’8”) is an international Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, one of only twenty in the world. Railroad construction of this engineering feat started in May 1898 and the line to White Pass was completed in February 1899. The narrow track was chosen to be able to make tighter turns on the narrow tracks chiseled in the rocks. It has one of the steepest grades for a railroad.

right: Ptarmigans in winter plumage in the snow at White Pass

The train goes very close along steep granite slopes on one side and has drops of 500’ on the other side. The railroad goes all the way to Whitehorse in Canada. The equipment had fallen into disrepair but with the advent of tourism, the line has been restored with vintage-looking wagons and modern diesel-electric locomotives. But on Saturdays they still run a steam locomotive on this route. In high season the train makes several runs a day to accommodate the throngs of tourist wanting to follow the trail of the “stampeders” to White Pass in the comfort of a train compartment. The trip to the Pass was about 90 minutes, as compared to the days and weeks of grueling travel by the prospectors. Going up to White Pass, the best views are on the left side of the train, but on going back the passengers were requested to change seats with the passenger in the opposite seat. There are gorgeous views of mountains, faraway glaciers, deep gorges, waterfalls, tunnels, trestles and historical marker, especially because there was still a lot of snow on the ground and on the mountains

We had tried to buy tickets directly from the railroad, but they basically refused to sell them to us after they found out we were coming with a cruise ship. We had to go through the HAL Shore Excursion Department. When we were walking in Skagway, there was a travel agency offering tickets for this train ride at half price. On White Pass we saw ptarmigans, the state bird of Alaska. who can keep its body temperature at 104℉, even with an ambient temperature of -30℉. Their feathers are very effective insulators. They are white in winter, to blend with the snow, but their plumage turns brownish in the summer.

Glacier Bay National Park.

From Skagway we sailed south through the Lynn Canal, turned west into Icy Strait, and then we entered Glacier Bay. To protect the fragile eco-system, entrance to the Bay for cruise ships is limited. But we were allowed in, maybe because we were a “small” ship. On the day we were in the Bay we did not see any other cruise ship, even though there were 3 other cruise ships in Skagway when we were there.

At the entrance of the Park we picked up three Park Rangers and a Tlikit woman. Here there is a Visitor Center and the Park Headquarters, as well as the small town of Gustavus and an airport. The Rangers gave commentary on the interesting aspects of the Park. The Tlikit woman gave a presentation on the “Water Way of Life” of the Tlikit Community, their history and their customs as it relates to the waters around them. The Hoonah Tlingits have occupied Glacier Bay for centuries. The presentation was again low-key and rather sad with only little reference to the injustices to her tribe. It expressed longing for the old ways of life of hunting seals, salmon, mountain goat, deer, and other animals. This is not possible anymore, because the area is now a National Park. But the presentation ended with assurances that the tribe is doing its very best to cooperate within the current constraints, even though it would upset some of their customs. I just don’t believe they are aggressive enough. The meek will not inherit the earth.

At the end of the fjord, we stopped about half a mile away from the huge Margerie Glacier. The glacier foot is 1 mile wide at the mouth and 250-300’ high, and we were waiting for it to calve. It was overcast, but dry. The foot of this glacier was in the waters of the fjord. No luck and after 45 minutes the ship turned around and sailed away. Ten minutes later we heard the rumblings and the booms of the glacier calving. We did not go to the John Hopkins Glacier, because there were harbor seals bearing their young. We did sail by the Lamplugh Glacier, which was only a few hundred yards wide.

right: At the end of the fjord at Glacier Bay . The Lamplugh glacier is just to the left.

College Fjord.

It was a long way from Glacier Bay to College Fjord and it was already noon of the next day when we reached the entrance of College fjord. And it was 5 p.m. before we reached our destination.

Left: Face of the huge Margerie Glacier in College Fjord

Our good weather fairy took a day off and there were banks of fog and occasional cold rain. The icy conditions prevented the ship from coming closer than 1 mile from the face of the huge Harvard Glacier, whose feet were in the icy waters. To the right of this glacier was the equally large, but flatter Yale Glacier. To the left were the much smaller Bryn Mawr and Vassar Glaciers. That is why this place is called College Fjord. Some Ivy League graduate, probably a blue-nosed Harvard guy, bursting with pride and aristocratic self-assurance, must have named them for his old stomping grounds.

Tracy Arm

In 2015 the route took us to the narrow Tracy Arm with the Sawyer Glacier at the end, the melting snow of which feeds into the Arm.

right: The Sawyer Glacier at the end of Trace Arm.

It was cold and drizzling rain on the way there, but in front of the glacier the wind dies down, because of the protective mountain ranges around us.

Seward.

This place marked the end of the cruise portion of our tour. After breakfast we took the HAL shuttle through New Seward, a one-street town, to Old Seward, a four-street town. We were deposited at the Alaska Sea Life Center, which is somewhat like a much younger sister to the Monterey Aquarium. In this marine science facility the displays of Alaskan marine ecosystems are nicely done and quite educational. There were sea lions and several cute small harbor seals. And there was also a live video output from cameras mounted 35 miles south of Seward trained on a small rookery of live Stellar Sea Lions, an endangered species.

And there, for the first time, we saw our first live puffins.

left: A real-life horned puffin

We didn’t see any when we were in Iceland and in the Faroe Islands two years ago. You may of course remember how a female puffin is called. If you don’t, click here on puffin.tiff

For an extra fee, the visitor can go behind the scenes, get close to a giant Pacific octopus, feed the puffins, dissect a squid and learn about these slick invertebrates. For $100 you can get a personalized twilight tour, when nobody else is around beside you and the interpreter. This price includes a picnic style dinner among the marine animals.

right: Colorful anemones and rocks in the museum aquarium pools

We went back to the ship to officially disembark and a HAL bus drove us to the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. If you look at the map, you will see Anchorage connected to the sea by the Cook Inlet, a very large body of water. Just before the city this body of water has an arm going East, called the Turnagain (pronounced Turnigan) Arm or Inlet. This is a very wide river at high tide; at low tide there are small streams and lots of sand banks. The tides here rise and fall over a greater range than anywhere else in the USA, with a difference between extreme high and extreme low of more than 41 feet. If the tide comes in, a bore tide wall of water, up to 6’ high can roar up the Turnagain Arm. Some surfers actually ride this one single wave for as far as one mile. You miss this wave and you have to wait a long time for the next one.

But the sand you see is not just your regular river sand; it is glacial silt which is created by glaciers as they ponderously move downwards and move rocks which scrape on other rocks to form this silt. Glacial silt is very fine, even finer than talcum powder, with particles ranging in the 0.002 - 0.005 mm range, or about 20-50 times smaller than sand. When dry, it is a powder. If shaken in water, the particles are dispersed and take a long time to settle. This is why glacial streams are not blue, as seen in Travel Magazines, but murky and grey because of suspended silt.

The surface area of a particle increases quadratically with a decrease in size. Because they are so fine, silt has a huge surface area, and moist silt does not have any appreciable amount of air trapped between the particles. If you step on this wet, creamy silt, your foot(wear) “sticks” to the surface. This is due to the large surface area of the silt particles and because there is no air to break the created vacuum. You will slowly sink in the silt and become completely engulfed, because the silt is here very deep. This is obviously not healthy and if you are lucky, a 911 call will get you a specially trained team in time to get you out. The team uses long boards to walk on the silt and they have a special tool to pump air below your entrapped body parts to break the vacuum. The rescue is going to be expensive, but I suppose the alternative is less preferable. And the Turnagain Arm is deep, since it is actually a canyon.

From Seward to Girdwood (and then later to Anchorage) the drive goes along the Turnagain Arm. On the way we stopped at the Alaska Conservation Wildlife Center, where grizzly bears, black bears, elk, moose, musk oxen, bisons, caribou, porcupines, great horned owls, etc. live in huge enclosures on their 140 acre property. Their mission it to take orphaned, injured or ill wildlife and try to nurse them back to health. They also take animals that cannot anymore survive in the wild. This seems to be a standard stopping place for tour groups, as evidenced by the long lines in front of the toilets, as soon as a tour bus pulls in. There is an entrance fee for private parties, but tour groups get in for free with a request for a donation to keep the Center operational. The Center, a non-profit organization, does not receive Government funding and obtains its operating funds from admission fees, gift shop and snack bar sales, grants, and donations.

The Alyeska Resort.

Located 90 miles from Seward, the Alyeska Resort belongs to the best of Alaska. The French-Canadian style chateau, studded with dormers and turrets, manages to blends beautifully with the surroundings, an unspoiled mountain valley dotted with huge spruce trees. The cornerstone of the hotel bears a date and a name of a Chinese woman in Chinese characters. Inside the hotel, there is sumptuous cherry-wood and rich colors. The guest rooms are elegant and quite large. Ours looked out on the mountain and the lift. The hotel elevation is 2000’, which may not seem very much in California, but in Alaska the climate at this altitude is already quite alpine.

left: The Alyeska Resort from tram station.

To get to town and back, the hotel provides a shuttle, but we opted to walk the 1.2 mile trail to the town of Girdwood. At the outskirts was Jack Sprat, a very cozy and friendly looking restaurant, where we had our dinner. This is Alaska, and prices are not cheap, but the meals they served were large and very tasty. Service was friendly and fast. We actually had dinner here two nights in a row, because we liked the place.

We took the tram to the top, and at 2,300 feet, the station features an upscale restaurant and an overpriced cafeteria. It was still cool, but the views of the surrounding mountains. many of them still capped with snow, were gorgeous. In the summer you can purchase a tram-lunch combo for $25, $20 for seniors.

We were there on May 28, 2007, Memorial Day and at the top of the lift we found out that it was the last day of the skiing season. The ice was still in very good shape, even though only a few runs were open. But the ski shop was already closed for the season. At the lower elevation the snow cover had disappeared. The weather was marvelous and I really wanted very badly to ski, but I had to go all the way to downtown Girdwood to rent ski equipment, go back to the Alyeska tram and then return the stuff in Girdwood in the evening. Which would have taken a lot of time, since we did not have a car. A major attraction of skiing here is the low altitude. It is between 2000 and 2700’. where the air is much denser than at 6000-7000’ in the Sierras. This translates to much less huffing and puffing as you try to keep up on the slopes, something you gracefully have to accept as you grow older.

The hotel can be used as a base for many outdoor activities, but we opted to stay and enjoy the place. We did hike the trails in the woods in the back of the hotel. This is a good time of the year; there are still many patches of snow and the wildflowers are starting to bloom. The mosquitoes have started to come out, but they are still huge, slow, and stupid. Just wait a few more weeks, when the more streamlined and more intelligent versions will start to appear.

Portage Glacier and Anchorage.

Portage Glacier

To get to the Glacier, located in the Chugach Mountains, we had to take the 6 mile spur road off Highway 1 between Seward and Anchorage. The Begich Boggs National Parks Service Visitor Center at the glacier has very interesting video and stationary displays of glaciers, flora, and fauna, including a mounted 1-foot tall tongue-in-cheek mosquito. Yeah, everything is huge in Alaska.

But the Portage glacier is not anymore visible from the center. It had receded to the far end of the 800 feet deep lake and to give it a proper viewing we took the “Ptarmigan”, a double-decker tourist boat, which makes an hour-long tour to view the lake and the glacier. As glaciers go, this one is quite small. But it looked very nice, even though the wind-driven drizzling rain was cold and wet that day. And to its left, more modest and a bit further away, is the hanging Burns glacier. We had lunch at the Day Lodge, which was just a few hundred yards away from the Visitor Center; close enough to walk in fair weather, but obviously more challenging that day. We took the bus.

right: Face of the Portage Glacier.

We arrived in Anchorage that evening and were billeted in the Hilton Anchorage, right in the center of downtown, together with a flock of a few hundred other well-behaved HAL tour sheep. Room 803 looked out on a roof of the adjacent building, with the outlets of the main heating and air-conditioning fans for the whole building. The machines emitted a steady hum -Norma actually read somewhere to avoid these rooms- so we asked for another room and were given Room 264. We did not hear the machines in this room. Instead there was a high-pitched tone as if a police officer was futilely blowing his whistle trying to induce a couple of bank robbers to stop running away. Maintenance came by and determined that it was from the steam in the heating coils. There was nothing they could do except to offer us earplugs. We declined and opted for another room. Room 565 was OK; it looked out right on the huge public parking lots at the rim of downtown.

Downtown Anchorage was quite deserted in the evening, even though most of the gift shops were still open. All the sane locals were already home or in the bars for the evening and only lost tourists were walking the streets. A number of apparently homeless people were sauntering along, a few of them asking for handouts. We had dinner at the “Downtown Deli”, where the Clintons were said to had dinner there some years ago. But they were not there that evening, so we were the only guests. The food was OK and reasonably priced.

a: a female puffin is of course a muffin.

View of Juneau from the top of Mt. Roberts with the Lynn Canal in the background. In the middle, the small ship is the mv “Statendam”