Around the World with Marsha & Joel

We docked in Ketchikan about 7 am. It’s surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, the largest in the US at 17 million acres. It’s coastline is 11,000 miles, about half that of north America. The Tongass (named after the Tongass clan of the Tlingit indians) is the world’s largest temperate rain forest – although it’s covered by ice and snow over half the year. It “boasts” 250 inches of rainfall a year!

Marsha and I had to hurry out of town to get to our arranged kayak trip out to Eagle Island, while Linda and Josh checked out the fish ladders, the Totem Heritage Center and the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center.

The kayaking was spectacular even though we were “surprised” by a hard rain shower (our guide said would probably not happen). Well, we were soaked, but satisfied.

We saw dramatically hued starfish (orange and purple) clinging to the rocks at low tide —

A pair bald eagle fledglings fresh out of the nest, and both their parents soaring majestically over head.

Isn’t it a little late for the hat and skirt Marsha? We were already soaked.

We headed back to town to see if we would see salmon jumping the tiered ladder, and maybe a bear doing some lunch (one was there at breakfast as a local showed us on his camera).

The salmon were there by the thousands, but they were already at the spawning grounds. We missed the show…and the bears.

As close as we got to a jumping fish.

We ate lunch on the ship and headed back out to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, run by the National Forest Service. Great exhibits about the ecology, economy and residents of the local area.

Oh to have more time (as usual)-we did turn the clock back one hour more today! The ship had to leave mid-afternoon for our next port-of-call, Juneau.

[You’d think it would be a nice quiet cruise on to Juneau, but the ship won’t let you settle in with nearly 50 program offerings! Here are the few we took advantage of:

Ketchikan Wine & Cheese Sail Away Party

Foodie Fight: Culinary Trivia (Marsha & I came in second)

Sip & Savor (everyday) with a special bruschetta and wine

Delicious dinner of course

Showtime in the ship’s theater (tonight Mike Robinson, hysterical comedian/ventriloquist)

That’s all we could handle on a late afternoon and evening.

Vancouver is a great city. Unfortunately, we booked our hotel too late and wound up on the outskirts. Fortunately, it was a 25 minute Sky Train ride to the heart of downtown and the waterfront…giving us an opportunity to get a good overview of the entire layout. It is now on our list of cities to visit with lots more time to explore.

Since we didn’t have to be on the ship until mid-afternoon, we visited the Vancouver Gallery of Art, the city’s exceptional art museum. Two contemporary exhibits were really special and thought provoking.

Canadian artist and author, Doug Coupland (hadn’t heard of him before) boldly incorporates everyday material into contemporary iconography. “Growing up Utopian” (above) uses legos. His “Secret Handshake” gave us a whole new understanding of what and who is Canada.

Marsha checks out Coupland’s site specific sculpture, “Gum Head”. Yes, that is chewed gum that viewers are encouraged to affix. Can’t love everything an artist does.

There was also an evocative sound installation by Janet Cardiff.

A Thai festival was set up on the grounds of the museum with food and art and exhibitions, all contributing to the melting-pot, Pacific-rim feel of Vancouver.

After and art-walk of parts of the city it was time to leave Canada and board our ship bound for Alaska. Of course we had to clear immigration, customs and security as we boarded. Good thing we remembered our passports. It went very smoothly.

Here’s a selfie with Linda and Josh, our special friends and oft-time travel companions. In common, our first ocean-going cruise. We probably looked more like crew than passengers. But we quickly got our sea-legs with the enormous buffet lunch they had for our arrival. After all, dinner was a long couple of hours away. Our state rooms (cabins) were much more comfortable then expected with a queen bed, separate sitting area and unencumbered window views on the starboard (like my nautical banter?) side.

The Statendam, our Holland America ship was relatively small (1,200 passengers, 600 crew) and much more “manageable” than we had imagined. The Dutch operations staff and Indonesian and Filipino crew were outstanding. After our mandatory safety drill…

…Marsha settled in with a “let’s get underway” margarita.

We were on our way with a day and night of sailing in the north Pacific toward the Gulf of Alaska.

Talk about a camp for adults — the ship had endless activities to choose from while sailing. Linda spent early mornings walking the 1/4 mile “walk-around” deck. I spent the first two mornings at the fully-equipped gym, before I fell into my sloth-mode for the rest of the trip. We took tours of the ship (to avoid getting lost later…which did happen anyway), and a tour of the enormous kitchen – a logistical marvel. Keeping in the theme we went to one of many to come cooking demonstrations. This one, preparing salmon (surprise, surprise). Then a Q&A with the captain, chief engineer and hotel director, several documentary films about Alaska. Then a beautifully prepared dinner.

Off to bed to be welcomed by our first port, Ketchikan in the early morning.

Drove from Anchorage to Talkeetna today thinking we would be like 60% of the people going to Denali — and not see Mt. McKinley. It started drizzling, then raining while becoming more and more overcast. Arrived at our hotel, had a pleasant dinner in town and returned about 9 pm wondering why people where pulled over on the side of the road. We looked around and saw what they were looking at. This….

…in all her 20,000+ feet of sheer splendor, the tallest mountain in North America. Shrouded above and below with clouds, but peeking out between. Another breathtaking view on this spectacular trip.

Time and WiFi won’t allow a continuing journal, but we promise we will do the blow by blow as soon as we get home on Sunday. We think it will be worth the wait.