DAY 11 - KETCHIKAN

Ketchikan, Alaska is the sixth most populous city in Alaska with a population of 8,192 😳

“Welcome To Alaska’s 1st City”…Ketchikan…

Since we didn’t book any tours what will we do?  Well, of course…search out a brewery.  After a hike up a fairly steep hill…EUREKA!  CTM in his “happy place!” 

What next?  Eat, of course!  Lucky me…SEAFOOD CHOWDER!  

Since we had not booked a tour in Ketchikan we were suffering from the DTs (De-Tours 😬).  We got on a waiting list for a short tour of the Totem Heritage Center.  Bingo!  Two seats left…we were in!  Totem poles are monuments created to represent and commemorate ancestry, histories, people, or events.  So…I KNOW I took several photos of the totem poles on our tour but there isn’t a single one in my photo library.  I think this is one of those  “do do do do do do do do” (creepy sound) moments.  There was something awe inspiring about the totem poles and I think the totem pole Gods wiped out every photo on my phone that I took so here is a stock photo I found…

We got back to the ship just in time for happy hour and toasted our last day on Alaskan soil.  Day 12 would be “at sea” and we would be cruising the inside passage on to Vancouver.  

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM. 

DAY 10 - JUNEAU

Boot camp reared it’s ugly head again.  We arrived in Juneau fairly early and had chosen a whale watching tour.  We decided to do this particular one because they guaranteed that we would see whales or they would give everyone on the boat $100 in cash.  Well, all I can say is they saved themselves $10K!  

And now for the grand finale… It is kind of long but worth the watch all the way to the end…

Next up were sea lions…

From what I have read they huddle to keep warm, find a mate, and just generally chill out with their friends on the rocks.  Wait…THEY ARE JUST HAVING A PARTY!! 💃🕺🏼🎼🎻

And…speaking of parties isn’t it time to now search out a brewery?  Bingo! 

We had a beer at Devil’s Club Brewing, had halibut tacos for lunch, and then CTM visited Alaska Brewing and Barnaby Brewing while I shopped…imagine that! 😬

Time to go…

And there you have it…Juneau…the capital of Alaska and the third largest city in Alaska with a population of 32,255!  The only way to get there is by boat, plane, or birth canal!  

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM. 

DAY 9 - SKAGWAY, ALASKA

We had been “at sea” now for two days but next stop would be Skagway.  Skagway, Alaska is home to the gold-rush-era buildings and is now part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.  First order of business was a ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad aka the White Pass & Yukon Route WHITE KNUCKLE & SWEATY PALMS Railroad 🚞 😬 It runs vintage locomotives past the famously steep (and I do mean famously steep) Chilkoot trail.  Wait…”vintage”…isn’t that a nice word for old and rickety?  Are the brakes good on this puppy because I am sure what goes up must come down 😳

I did manage to snap a few pics when I didn’t have my eyes squeezed shut and a death grip on CTM’s arm…

Is that our ship WAY down there?  Is it leaving? 

Is that where we are headed?  That train track hanging on the side of the mountain with the shear drop off?

Are we crossing that rickety trestle? 



The answer is “yes” because this is the front half of our train that rounded that 90 degree turn just before the rickety trestle.  And there’s a tunnel? 

Wait…does the guy driving this train know THIS trestle is MORE THAN RICKETY?  Are we plunging to our death in one minute? 

Thankfully they figured out they needed a new bridge over this steep gorge…

Does this mean we are crossing into Canada?  WAIT…we forgot our passports!  Are they going to drag us off the train, throw us in jail, and make us eat pure maple syrup on our pancakes for the rest of our lives? 🤔🥞

We made a loopety loop, exiting Canada, and headed back down the mountain so we could test out those vintage brakes.  

Geez…I was worried that if we ended up at the bottom of a gorge or got thrown in the slammer in Canada we might NEVER get to visit another craft brewery the rest of our lives…

This being the first time we had “disembarked” the ship…we were told you don’t simply “get off” the ship… we were able to get a nice view of our home away from home…

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 8 - CRUISING GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK

Glacier Bay National Park is west of Juneau in Southeast Alaska.  The park and preserve are reached by boat or plane only.  We were in luck!  We were on a boat!   Hey Pop, if we had Feeding Frenzy III back we could do this…

Glaciers here, glaciers there, glaciers glaciers everywhere! So many glaciers…so little time.  First up was the Reid Glacier…

Then came the Lamplugh Glacier…

Then the John’s Hopkins Glacier…. Larry missed the whole thing as he was busy checking his Facebook 😬😉

And last and certainly not least the Margerie Glacier…

Cheers to Margerie! 

EEK!  Margerie “calved” aka an iceberg broke off while we were there!  Time to go!  

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 7 - CRUISING THE HUBBARD GLACIER

We boarded the ship and unpacked our bags as our little cubby on the ship would be our home away from home for the next 7 days!  In other words BOOT CAMP WAS OVER for now.  It was going to be WONDERFUL!  We now could sleep, eat, and drink anytime we wanted anywhere on our ship…literally a floating city. 

We hurriedly unpacked and headed out for happy hour and a few snapshots.  A view from the stern on the Lido Deck on level 9…

And…the view from our balcony…

Day 7 would be “at sea” meaning we would not be docking anywhere.  We were going to cruise the Hubbard Glacier.  The Hubbard Glacier is famous for being North America’s largest tidewater glacier.  It is over 75 miles long and 7 miles wide.  It flows directly into Disenchantment Bay, which ultimately feeds into the North Pacific Ocean.  The glacier “calves” frequently meaning chunks of ice break off and fall into the ocean making it difficult for cruise ships to maneuver.  CALVES = ICEBERGS!! WAIT…WHAT????  Haven’t these people seen the movie Titanic?  All of that rushing water????  Maybe we should have gone to the lifeboat drill instead of drinking bloody mary’s!  

Let’s go to the Crow’s Nest and help the crew watch for icebergs while approaching the Hubbard…

“Oh, the weather outside was frightful…but the Hubbard was so delightful!”  The crew opened the bow of the ship for viewing the Hubbard.  It was BRUTAL out there…rain, wind, ice…

What do you say we grab an Alaskan Amber and head back to the room to warm up and continue viewing this puppy…

Once we were away from the rumble of the ship’s engines we could hear the rumble of the glacier moving.  It sounded like thunder off in the distance.  Very cool…in more ways than one!  

CTM informed me that John Wayne had a 136 foot yacht named the “Wild Goose” that he cruised to Alaska on to hunt. While on the “Wild Goose” he used to chip off pieces of glacial ice to chill his whiskey.  Hmmm….maybe we should figure out how to drive the Feeding Frenzy IV 5026 miles up here from Islamorada cause I sure could use some of that glacial ice about now 🥃😉

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 6…BOOT CAMP PART 3 :)

I guess on a “glass half full” note having your bags outside your room at 6:00 a.m. so when you arrive at the ship they will be sitting in your room wasn’t so bad after all.  At 8:00 we boarded our  “coach” (phew…this 9 hours included a bathroom) for the loooooong ride to Whittier.  Now, I know a few people that have that gift for gab but Dave, our “coach” driver and tour guide literally talked for a solid 9 hours on the trip from Denali to Whittier😳🤪 My family always used to kid about how I would know EVERYTHING about a stranger I met in no time flat.  Well, even though CTM and I were on the front seat of the bus (making it impossible to sleep so as not to insult Dave) and I still had to ask Dave a few questions to fill in the gaps we know EVERYTHING about Dave!  All kidding aside, he was extremely knowledgeable about Alaska even though he retired here only 17 years ago.  Wait…don’t most people retire down south where the sun shines most of the time and you don’t get several feet of snow in the winter and it isn’t dark 20 hours a day in the winter? 🤔. Even though we were on a “coach” Dave stopped for a couple of breaks and lunch on the way.  Again, the scenery was breathtaking.  Once we got south of Anchorage we ran along the Seward Highway, a narrow two lane road that literally ran along the edge and I mean EDGE of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.  So envision this…Dave telling one of his long winded stories while piloting the “coach” with one hand because he had to use his right hand to gesture and point to things to see while he was alternating crossing the center line with an oncoming gasoline tanker screaming toward us and weaving off the road with a huge icy body of water inches from the road on our right. In other words, CTM has scratch marks on his arm and if you ever have the pleasure of being a passenger on Dave’s “coach” in Alaska look for the indentions in the armrest of the seat immediately behind Dave! 😬😉

Not really any opportunity for photos from the “coach”.  Right before we reached Whittier we had to go through a 2 1/2 mile tunnel under the mountain.  It is a one lane tunnel and every 15 minutes they alternate traffic patterns…south bound vehicles, then south bound trains, then north bound vehicles, then north bound trains.  If you miss your window then you could have up to an hour wait.  We only had to wait about 15 minutes before it was our turn and Dave continued his narrative (surprise surprise) while we were waiting.  He told us it was built BEFORE the Great 1964 Alaskan Earthquake and survived quite nicely.   Wait…WHAT???  We survived the Seward Highway but now all I could think was, “Could there be another earthquake while we are passing through the tunnel?  Could there be cracks there that they don’t know about?  Could we be buried alive?”   

Phew… there was FINALLY light at the end of the tunnel…

Within 5 minutes we were clearing security and boarding the ship!  🛳💃🕺🏼🍻🍹. Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 5 - BOOT CAMP PART 2

Up at 5:30 and on the “bus” for our Tundra Tour at 7:00 🤪.  Wait…since we were going on a “bus” were there bathrooms in the Tundra?  The Tundra Tour was a guided trip into Denali National Park.  It was WELL worth the early rise as we were surrounded by amazing scenery the entire day.  We saw five bears…not just plain ole bears but GRIZZLY BEARS, skads of caribou, ground squirrels, Dall sheep, a wolf, and a host of other animals and birds.  Here are some pics…

The park rule is that the tour buses cannot let passengers off within 1/2 mile of a grizzly bear.  There was one instance when our tour bus driver told us all to hurry up and get back in the bus as a bear ambled down the hill toward us 😳.   We, thankfully, never go up close and personal with a grizzly but then again I didn’t get a very good pic of one either…

Interesting kind of “over the top” hairdo…. Guess the only way to duplicate this would be to stand in 40 knot winds and have the photographer NOT tell you to do something with your hair 😬

Or maybe I should wear a hat…



Oh, and here is that kind of “beachy” look….  And CTM trying to act like he doesn’t know who I am…

The moral to this story is look at the scenery…not the subjects! 

As if we hadn’t had enough CTM and I had booked a self-guided jeep tour of Denali National Park at 4:30 not knowing we were going to spend 6 hours on a bus touring the park earlier.  That being said, after a lot of “where are we going to go in this freaking jeep at 4:30” the answer became clear very fast!  Let’s drive to Healy (only a 15 minute drive) and go to the 49th State Brewing! Hurry up…let’s go! 

 After all, now that my stretch pants are on the top of my suitcase I can have another yummo bowl of that seafood chowder! 

Fresh halibut tacos for CTM…



Fresh salmon bowl for L & L…

And…a bonus…the actual prop from the movie “Into The Wild”, the true story of Christopher McCandless living in the Alaskan wilderness, was outside the 49th State Brewery…

Headed back south to the lodge for an early to bed as we were headed to Whittier to board the ship on Sunday and you know what that means…BOOT CAMP AGAIN!! Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM