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.

Alaska Trip

 מַה-גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְהוָה; מְאֹד, עָמְקוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ.

We returned from a 13 day trip to Alaska. I am having a hard time deciding which photos to display. The first 6 days were land tour, the last 7 on cruise ship.  I definitely preferred the land part. I probably will not go on a cruise again.  I did like the small harbor type boat we took in the Kenai Fjords. That's where I saw this family of orcas. The Hebrew verse is from Psalm 92, verse 6. When I attended the Sabbath morning prayers, that is what I thought about this trip. English translation: "How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep."

Our first view of mountains on our way from Anchorage to Denali National Park.  This is a view through the bus window.

We enjoyed our visit to the Alaskan sled dogs, learned about how they are raised and how they race in the Iditarod. We got to play with the puppies too.  These sled dogs are not the same as the Siberian Huskies which are also used in Alaska during the winter and are much bigger and heavier.  They are bred for stamina, not pretty colors.

This was one of the stops on the tour of Denali National Park. The park is huge and we only saw a little bit on our 8 hour bus tour.  We did see a grizzly mom and her cubs, a moose, some small ground squirrels and birds. The highlight was when we were almost out of the park and had to stop for a lone caribou that was taking her time walking along the road. I didn't get a photo of that one through the bus window.

We took the train from Denali to Talkeetna. Saw more beautiful scenery along the way. I learned new words "Taiga" and "Braided Rivers". Taiga is the Russian word for the boreal forest.  The braided rivers were interesting and had gravel islands from the glacial silt.  We had seen beautiful lakes in Alberta years ago with green and blue colors from the glacial silt there.  The rivers we saw on this trip were a different shade of green, not as bright.  We did not actually get to see Denali mountain since it was behind clouds.  We did see the base of it though.

We visited a conservation area. The animals have some kind of injury and once they are healthy, they are released back into the wild. I watched a staff member bottle feed an orphan musk ox. He drank the milk very quickly. They feed the baby every 4 hours.

We had a harbor boat tour of the Kenai Fjords. According to the guides, these are tidewater glaciers and are not shrinking. (I'm not sure of that, but they certainly were big). This is the area where I saw the orcas. It was really beautiful there.  I have more photos from the cruise part of the trip, but I have to select which ones to pick out. I'll do that later this month.

I bought some large canvases a couple of months ago. Now I have to decide which scene to paint.  We saw so many beautiful mountains, it is a hard decision.