May 17 — White Pass/Gold Rush

Skagway, AK

After an early manicure, I left the ship for a walk around Skagway, pop. 1,191. This area was originally inhabited by the Tlingit. One explanation of the name says it is derived from skagua, meaning “place where the north wind blows.” 

When gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896, it set off a gold rush. Boatloads of miners began arriving in Skagway to make the difficult trek inland to the Yukon. By 1898, Skagway was the largest city in Alaska.

These days, boatloads of tourists arrive in Skagway to soak up the Gold Rush history and ride the White Pass & Yukon Route railway. On the day we arrived, there were four ships in port, bringing the population up above 10,000 for the day.

The downtown area is included in a historic preservation district. The building facades maintain their gold rush era appearance, if not their use.

The Golden North Hotel is said to be haunted. I once spent the night there.

The Arctic Brotherhood Hall

The National Park Service maintains the Moore Homestead as a museum. It’s worth a walk-through to see how the well-to-do lived in those days.

Elinor Dusenbury composed the music that would become “Alaska’s Flag Song” on this very piano.

This building was first used by McCabe College, from 1899-1901. It was a U.S. Courthouse, Marshall’s Office, and jail from 1901-1956. Since 1961 it has served as City Hall and the Skagway Museum.

The Rushin’ Tailor is a fabulous fabric shop in tiny Skagway, I always make sure to stop there. You never know what you will find!

The White Pass Railroad uses vintage engines and passenger cars to bring tourists up to the Canadian border on the narrow-gauge railway built in the Gold Rush days.

The Koningsdam and the Crown Princess dwarf the Alaska State Ferry. Can you even see it?

It was a crisp, sunny day, and we managed to walk 10 km. By the time we got back to our ship, we were looking forward to dinner at Bistro sur la Mer. It was great — until the Perfume Ladies showed up. We could smell them before we saw them; two old ladies, drenched in old-lady perfume. Of course they were given seats right behind me. OMG. 

After dinner we got to see a solo show by that gifted young soprano, Alea Vernon. We found out she is only 21. Oh, my. She has so much talent.

Finally, we headed up to the conservatory on the top deck to watch the sail-away. It’s not dark yet at 10 pm. We watched flocks of some kind of seabirds making furrows in the water as they landed. So much beauty!💜

May 16 — Glacier Bay

No events or activities were scheduled during our 10-hour visit to Glacier Bay National Park. Some Park Rangers came out to our ship in a small boat and climbed a short rope ladder to board the ship.

The rangers quickly got to work. They presented a program in the theater, set up a Junior Ranger program for kids, and provided live commentary from the bridge for 4 hours. Ranger Steve was the lead ranger, and he did an awesome job talking about glaciers, pointing out wildlife, and throwing facts at us faster than I could absorb them all.

Some folks from Alaska Geographic also came on board with the Park Rangers and set up a little gift shop.

Marble Island

We slowly sailed past Marble island, where I was able to see (and hear) dozens of sea lions.

The broad valley once inhabited by the Tlingit of Hoonah now lies under the waters of Glacier Bay, but you can imagine how it nestled in between the mountains.

Today, interesting icebergs occupy the valley.

A number of glaciers are hunkered down at the ends of the inlets that merge to form Glacier Bay. We spent most of the day visiting these remote glaciers. Captain Tuvo sailed as close as he safely could to see these icy giants. Then he slowly turned the ship in circles so people could see everything from their own balconies, from the open decks, or from some of the indoor spaces that offered excellent views.

Margerie Glacier

Mountain Goats and Lamplugh Glacier

Johns Hopkins Glacier

Fun Fact

What is “a glacial pace”?

Margerie Glacier moves about 6 feet per day. (Other glaciers move at different speeds.)

What a day! Our time in Glacier Bay passed so quickly. It was such a privilege to be able to visit this wild place.

May 15 — White Thunder

May 15, 2022

Yakutat Bay, Alaska

On the left, you can see the splash made by a chunk of Hubbard Glacier that has just calved off.

After spending some time with Knitters and Knatters, I joined Ken and we attended a presentation on Alaska Native Culture. 

Here is a picture of the progress I have made on my sashiko project. In case you are wondering if I will ever finish it, the answer is “Yes, I am not Penelope.” It may seem like I undo part of it every night, but I am just slow, and I only undo parts when I don’t like how they look (which is more often than I would like to admit).

The presentation on Alaska Native Culture was very good. The presenter, Rachel Moreno, is a Tlingit, from present-day Hoonah. She told us about her clan’s history in Glacier Bay. In 1680 her people were living in a verdant valley with a glacier at the far end of it. By 1750 the Little Ice Age had caused the glacier to spread rapidly all the way down the valley and into Icy Strait, covering the site of the Tlingit village and gouging out Glacier Bay. The glacier then began to melt back, and by 1879, when John Muir visited the area, the glacier had retreated more than 40 miles. Glacier Bay filled in with water as the glacier retreated.

When the glacier began advancing during the Little Ice Age, Rachel’s ancestors were forced to leave their valley and they resettled in Hoonah around 1750. Today, Hoonah (pop 931) operates a small cruise ship port at Icy Strait Point, the site of a former cannery. The people of Hoonah seem to be working hard to preserve their language and culture, as well as their knowledge about their land and resources.

But Glacier Bay will be our destination tomorrow. This afternoon we visited magnificent Hubbard Glacier, near Yakutat. Mark-Your-Naturalist was on board to provide color commentary as we approached this massive glacier. We had beautiful weather and favorable conditions for getting close to the glacier.

Mark-Your-Naturalist provided tidbits of information from time to time. Hubbard’s face is more than six miles wide and is up to 400 feet tall in places. Out of 10,000 glaciers in Alaska, Hubbard is one of only six that is currently advancing.

As we got closer Mark spoke about the sounds made by an actively calving glacier. He pointed out that sound travels about 1,000 feet per second, so when we see a large chunk falling off, we will not hear the noise instantaneously. The noise will be a low rumble, not a splash. Hubbard made crashing and grinding sounds frequently. It groaned and creaked and popped. Mark said the Native Alaskans called the glaciers “White Thunder.”

Some Icebergs

Remember that a large part of each of these icebergs lies below the waterline.

Blue Ice

These are some of my favorite pictures of the glacier, all taken by Ken. Sometimes fresh water (from melted ice) will pool on top of the salt water because it is lighter. Fresh water will reflect the scenery, salt water will not. Look at the last photo in this series for a good example.

Panorama

Goodbye, mighty glacier! I will let Hubbard speak for herself in these panoramic shots. I’m sure the glacier identifies as she/her.

It’s hard to show the size and scale of the glacier. We were awestruck. We’ve been here before, but it made even more of an impression this time, perhaps because it was such a beautiful, sunny day. Our aft balcony was worth every penny.

After a mental readjustment, we went to dinner and then the evening show, Encore. A gifted young soprano performed the lead, and it was a perfect finish to a spectacular day.

May 14 — Whither

May 14, 2022

“Mountains are the beginning and end of all natural scenery.” – John Ruskin

We emerged from the tunnel and there she was — the 3600-passenger Majestic Princess. She dwarfed the glacier tour boat that was docked nearby. But the Majestic herself was DWARFED by the glorious mountains of Whittier and Passage Canal. (Spoiler alert: it’s not a canal.) The sun was out and everything sparkled - the water, the mountains, the snow, and even the sky.

We drove right up to the baggage drop-off and quickly got rid of our bags. Ken and I said goodbye and thanks for the ride to Libby, and walked over to the terminal. Before we knew it, we were boarding the ship that would be our home for the next two weeks.

We spent the afternoon unpacking and settling in. We learned that there will are 2,047 passengers sailing with us. A lot of empty cabins. It’s still early in the season.

As usual, I forgot to take pictures of our cabin in its pristine condition. But here’s a picture of our sitting area, with a bit of our balcony in the background. You can also see the hors d’oeuvres that were just delivered.

We tried out the Chinese specialty restaurant for dinner. It’s called Harmony. You get to pick a 5-course dinner from a number of options. Courses 1 and 2 (appetizer and soup) were excellent. Both of our main courses were so-so at best. The fried rice (course 4) was tasty - good, but not excellent. The dessert (course 5) was also good, but not excellent. 

After dinner we saw a comedian named AJ Jamal. He was mostly okay, but I didn’t like his notions about “whipping”/spanking kids. The audience was very sparse. 

Here is the view from our aft balcony as we sailed away from Whittier around 8:30 pm. You can see almost all of Whittier (pop. 255) here. Most of the residents of Whittier live in the large building in the center of the photo.

As we sailed out of Passage Canal and through Prince William Sound, we were stunned by the beauty of our wild and wonderful Alaska. No matter how many times we see it, it never loses its magic.