Alaska, Part 2

After our 6 day land tour, we boarded the Celebrity ship, Millenium in the port of Seward, Alaska.  We learned that there was a big earthquake in Seward in 1964 and tsunami. They rebuilt the port and lots of cruise ships were there.  Our room on the ship was very comfortable, food was excellent (we ate at the buffet most of the time), but as an introvert with social anxiety I was not interested in the drinking and gambling.  I did enjoy the shows and walking around in the ports.  The photos above show Juneau (which is only accessible by ship or plane, not road).

Our next stop after Juneau was Skagway and we learned about the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890's. I enjoyed the museum and the video at the visitor center.  I bought Jack London's book and reread it. It was more meaningful now that I had seen this place. I had read these books over 50 years ago and did not really remember them (Call of the Wild, White Fang).

The mountains all around these places are beautiful as is the rest of Alaska that we did get to see. Crows and ravens are very noisy. Lovely flowers in gardens. We watched a fun show in the theater on the ship with great dancers and singers, disco music. I miss dancing and hope eventually I will be able to do that again.

We stopped at Icy Strait Point and walked into the village, Hoonah. We watched carvers working on a totem pole. It takes them 6 months to carve the images using only hand tools. They only make poles that are commissioned.  I met and talked to a couple of other artists too.  I liked the car sticker with the "I'm not lost, I'm exploring."   That's how I've felt since we moved west and there is so much more to see.

We toured a canning museum (fish canning). I saw some crabs and starfish in the shallow water.  They looked pretty much the same as the ones I used to see in the east.  I couldn't imagine living here in the winter with hardly any sunlight and temps 20 below.  The houses and school looked nice and well taken care of.

Our last port was Ketchikan. We walked around and enjoyed another museum and more totem poles.
We learned the story of the "Married Men's Trail" which apparently went up the hill to the brothels and was a quick route to run out of the brothel if there was a problem.  We did not go into the brothel museum.  The next day on the ship was the last one and then we arrived at Vancouver.  We had a four hour bus ride to Seattle to catch our plane, then back to Idaho.  Vancouver looked interesting and I hope we get to go there for a tour in the future.