Seward to Anchorage, August 12

Up at o-dark thirty to get off the ship. We had a several hour bus ride from Seward to Anchorage through some mighty spectacular scenery consisting mainly of the Kenai mountain range on one side and the Chugash range on the other.

About a quarter of the way along on the two lane highway everything came to a halt for almost an hour. A very large van or small bus had caught fire and burned completely to its chassis. Rumor said that no one was hurt and the occupants all got out safely. No word on why it burned, but it was a total crispy, well, actually melted, critter when we finally got past it.

Our next adventure was a pit stop (with real pits) alongside the road which happened to be in Chugash National Park. Several of the passengers complained loudly about those facilities. So a bit farther on, our driver made another stop at a small shopping center which included a shop called "Great Alaskan Tourist Trap." I just love truth in advertising! Connie and I did not go in there. My goal of not buying a single souvenir or other non-consumable item on this trip has been accomplished.

After a stop at the airport and one at a downtown Hospitality Center where we had to wait for a shuttle, we finally gaveup on the shuttleand took a taxi to our hotel, By that time we were really hungry, but the hotel restaurant was closed until 5:00 p.m. I think I have missed more meals on this one week trip due to travel schedules than on almost any other trip I can remember! Meanwhile, the Westmark Notel's de or andm condition are about as dreary and tired as the Zaandam's.

Tomorrow morning will begin far too early as we have a 5;44 a.m. flight which means we have to put our luggage out at 3:30 a.m. And be downstairs for the shuttle at 3:50 a.m. Then we don't get to DC until about 6:30 p.m. where a car and driver should be waiting to take us home. I think the only meal on the schedule is breakfast out of Anchorage...see above comment re missed meals. I do believe that you do better crossing the Atlantic than the US.

It was good to see all my cousins again. It was really to be traveling with Connie again. I had two really great tours in Juneau and Skagway. On the whole, a good trip. Bye until next time.

At sea, August 11

Overnight was smooth sailing with only occasional gentle ocean motion. Yesterday this Captain (they had changed Captains on us in Juneau as the first one's stint was up) said that we should be averaging a tad over 12 knots en route to Seward, and so far that appears to be what he and his crew are doing.

This morning was the usual required disembarkation talk to which one person from each cabin is supposed to go. They don't tell you that it's also on tv in your cabin which is where I watched it.

All five of us had been invited to the returning passengers' luncheon. Afterward, I hung out with Jim and Marcy before heading back to the cabin to begin packing. Packing day always comes too early, but on a 7-day cruise, it's obscenely early.

Glacier Bay, August 10

Occasional brief glimpses of sun today, but mostly overcast and about 48 degrees at mid-morning. However, since we are in the bay (fjord), we are protected from wind on all sides by the Fairweather Mountains which is the highest coastal range of mountains in the world. We are cruising very slowly, hardly making a ripple. I haven't seen any glaciers calving yet, but there are certainly plenty of glaciers and small floes in the water.

Evidently, if I had been up and out on deck (and on the correct side for once) at 5:00 a.m., there were sightings of a humpback whale then of some wolves on the beach and at least one bear on the mountainside. But then, if I had been out there, probably no one would have seen anything. Of course, it is extremely unlikely for me to be up at that hour.

(Later) For most of the day I stayed in the warmth and comfort of our cabin with the tv turned on to the forward facing ship's camera which was also the channel with the National Park Ranger's commentary on what we were seeing. We were going slow enough that whenever anything of interest came along, I had time to grab my camera and nip out on deck to see it ... at least the stationary stuff like mountains and glaciers. That's another advantage of a cabin near a set of doors out onto a promenade deck over a cabin with a balcony, equal access to either port or starboard. The glacier here is either the Reid Glacier or the Lamplugh Glacier, although I'm pretty sure it is the latter. There were some people from a camp on the beach to one side of the glacier kayaking along the face of it. That's quite dangerous in case the glacier calves because the resulting wave can be tremendous. The Ranger said they recommend that small craft stay at least a quarter of a mile away.

The most photogenic of the several glaciers we visited was the Margerie Glacier that you see here. It is about 250 feet above the water and beween 50 and 100 feet below the water. The largest was the Grand Pacific Glacier right next to the Margerie, however it flows through an area of softer rock so picks up more rocks and dirt and just looks like a huge pile of rocks by the time it reaches the water. Both of these glaciers are up the Tarr Inlet off the main part of Glacier Bay. We sailed very slowly up the inlet to the top where the glaciers are, then the ship turned slowly around in a circle using only its side thrusters. Of course the silly glacier waited to do its calving until I was on the other side of the ship, and that is over so quickly that I couldn't get there. After our allotted time there, we moved slowly away to make room for a Princess ship.

By early evening, we were back out of Glacier Bay and even out of the Inside Passage. We headed out into the open ocean of the Gulf of Alaska en route to Seward. Tomorrow will be spent at sea which should provide the first and only motion that will feel like we are on a ship since the whole point of the Inside Passage is that those waters are protected and calm. The Captain says it should be a pretty smooth crossing to Seward with only 6 or 7 foot swells. We'll see.

Skagway, August 9

There was actually some sunshine outside this morning! We were docked at Skagway which is a tiny town approximately 10 blocks long by 4 blocks wide currently hosting three cruise ships including ourselves, a Princess ship and a Disney ship. Skagway has only about 800 full time residents plus lots more in the summer cruise season. Last year the high school senior class had a record number of graduates ... 15. There is one grocery store, and most people go to White Horse, Yukon Territory several hours' drive away for movies, restaurants and the nearest WalMart.

This afternoon I took a train tour up to the top of White Pass which was one of two routes (the other is the Chilkoot Trail which is even steeper) followed by the Gold Rush Stampeders who had to each get 2,000 pounds of provisions (supposedly a year's worth) up to the top before they were allowed to go on to the Klondike gold fields. This pass is 2,865 feet above the sea level at Skagway. The Gold Rush began in 1897, and work on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad began in 1898. Using picks, shovels, 450 tons of black powder, and muscle power, the thing was accomplished in 2 years, 2 months and 2 days at a cost of $10 million and 35 lives out of the more than 35,000 men who worked on the project, some for only a day, some for longer. The steel cantilevered bridge shown here was then considered to be an engineering tour de force, but is no longer in use. The train now operates strictly as a tourist attraction, it is privately owned and hauls some 400,000 people to the top of the pass each year between May and September as the cruise ships arrive.

Anyway, the train trip was most spectacular. The train picked us up pretty close to the ship's dock, and there was even a special car with an electric lift for those of us with wheels. The weather was partly cloudy but didn't really rain on us, and the low clouds made the mountains more mysterious. The scenery is quite similar to the Norwegian fjords but with some of the surrounding mountains being taller. Lots of sheer cliffs and long waterfalls. Today there were many kinds of wildflowers in bloom along the tracks. One difference is the kinds of forest trees here, especially the Sitka Spruce and the Subalpine Firs which are very tall and unique looking.

My disappointment with this Holland America ship continues. For several days now I have noticed extremely slow service in the dining rooms. I don't know if this is because we are doing "Anytime Dining" instead of a definite sitting, or whether they are just running short staffed to save money. I am beginning to think that HAL is just milking the 7-day Alaska cash cow of neophyte cruisers for all it's worth. I do know that, out of the1,200 or 1,400 passengers, there are so few "Four Star Mariners" that the Captain's reception for them fits into one of the smaller lounges. (Note to self: think twice before booking another of the short, popular HAL cruises in the future.)

Juneau, August 8

Jim, Marcy, Matthew and I went on a whale watching tour this morning. Yes, I know my reputation for seeing whales is lousy, but this tour operator guarantees that you will see whales or they will give you $100, so I figured neither I nor the other tourists could lose too badly if my presence kept the wildlife away.

So, the weather was Juneau normal which means rain and/or very low clouds clinging to the mountains for almost the whole tour. Fortunately, the excursion boat had two levels of enclosed deck plus an open one, however, rain outsdie and fog inside on the windows didn't help my photography skills any.

And we did indeed see whales...a lot of humpback whales. Plus most of the sightings were even on my side of the boat! There were at least 5 or 6 whales playing around in this one area with at least as many whale watching boats drifting around watching them. According to our guide/naturalist, it is pretty unusual to see that many humpbacks in one area at the same time. We even saw one breach (although all I got on camera was a blurry view of the resulting splash as you can see) which the guide says only happens once or twice a month.

Then we saw some Stellar sea lions hauled out on a buoy where there was only room for about three of these huge animals. Shortly after that we came upon a pod of transient (as opposed to local) orcas attempting to kill a sea lion. They play with their prey until it is exhausted before killing and eating it. The sea lion looked like a goner, but the orcas played with it a little too long, and eventually, it got into shallower water, and the killer whales gave up and moved on. The last we saw of the sea lion, it was sitting up, partially out of the water, but there was no way to tell how badly it might have been wounded or whether it would survive. It was definitely a front row seat for a segment of a Nature tv special! The guide said they only see orcas maybe a couple of times a month, and she had never seen a pod hunting before, and she's been doing whale tours for over 5 years...she was so excited as to be almost speechless.

After I got back to the ship, I grabbed some lunch and Connie and I had a nice, comfortable, quiet afternoon up in the Crow's Nest at the front of the ship. There were 3 other ships in port, but they were docked behind us so we could ignore them and speculate about the gorgeous ocean-going yacht docked ahead of us. Also, Connie saw a bald eagle being summarily chased by a seagull!

Dinner this evening for all 5 of us was at the fancy Pinnacle Grill to celebrate Matthew's 21st birthday. It was a lovely dinner, beautifully served, and Jim had chosen some exquisite wines to go with it. The Pinnacle Grill folks presented Matthew with a cake, and the lady maitre d' kissed him on both cheeks which embarrassed him no end. It was almost a three hour dinner which is guaranteed to stiffen up the knees of probably all of us except Matthew!

Ketchikan, August 7

It's always nice to have the ship almost to yourself in a port where most everybody gets off and you don't. We had a nice lateish breakfast, then I spent some time in a comfy chair watching the unending procession of small seaplanes taking off as you can see here. Most were probably sightseeing flights, but some headed off in other directions and were probably scheduled flights to other areas.

There are two other ships in port with us: the Star Princess and Silversea's Silver Dawn. None of the three is too gigantic, but together there are enough tourists to completely clutter up the waterfront.

After lunch with Jim, Marcy and Matthew, I took a few photos of the town/city from the ship. You can tell instantly that it is a cruise port. The main difference between the port area here and some Caribbean island is the sign that says "Welcome to Ketchikan." Well...and the low grey cloud cover sitting on the mountains which is a standard feature of a port in the farther northern areas.

This afternoon Connie and I both splurged on haircuts and pedicures in the spa on board. Of course neither one of us looked like ourselves until we could get back to our cabin and reorganize things by taking our own brushes to the hairdos. But it was a nice indulgence and a pleasant way to spend much of the afternoon.

The cruise director on my last cruise signed off every announcement by warbling "toodle-oo for now" which rapidly got irksome. The cruise director on this one signs off with "see you out and about." That is marginally better, but mostly because he doesn't warble.

As usual, everybody on board has been seeing whales except me. So far my record for being on the wrong side of the ship when a whale is spotted is intact.

Inside Passage, August 6

A nice calm day at sea. We slept late, grabbed a little breakfast, then eventually grabbed a little lunch. At various times we ran into Jim or Marcy. We had missed most of the close-in part of the Inside Passage in the morning, but through the afternoon and evening there were still enough islands farther out to keep the seas really smooth. Connie saw a pod of orcas. I, of course, did not. I have warned everyone that if they want to see whales, seals, dolphins, porpoises, otters or anything else that swims in the sea, they should go to the opposite side of the ship from where I happen to be. I never see anything of the sort as I am always on the wrong side. Pfui.

Jim and I met for a drink in the late afternoon. I had my ritual Myers rum and coke in honor of all my past and present cruising friends. Since I had a small sandwich for lunch, that one drink just about did me in.

We had an early dinner at Caneletto's which is the Italian Specialty restaurant along with Jim, Marcy and Matthew. It was a fine dinner with massive amounts of really superior garlic bread. Connie and I haven't had garlic bread that good since the summer of 1986 when we drove all the vampires out of Delaware with our own garlic butter recipe (those of you who were there will remember it well).

I must say, though, that I am disappointed in Holland America for the first time. The Zaandam is in really dire need of a major, major refit. She is only about 12 years old, but is tired and even grimy. Table tops warped and coming loose in the Lido restaurant. Wall papers and veneers coming loose elsewhere. Really grubby windows everywhere on public decks. Dirty corners in the public restrooms. Dated and tired upholstery and carpets. And, at least so far, the service personnel seems rather dispirited...not that the service is bad, but it hasn't been particularly cheerful as I've come to expect on the Prinsendam. And I am not the only one who has noticed these things, but I do certainly plan to be one of the ones who tell HAL about it.

Seattle & Vancouver, August 4 - 5

We had a lovely visit with my Handsfield cousins on Saturday. The photo shows me and my first cousins. Of course the one on the far right is, appropriately enough, my first cousin once removed...from the left we are Jim, me, Hunter and Matthew with Jim's wife, Marcy, taking the photo. We are on Hunter and Patricia's deck with the sun setting over Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula in the background.

Sunday we were up sort of early to get back to the airport to find the Holland America folks and their bus up to Vancouver. As with most travel, it was "hurry up and wait." We finally took off on the bus about 11:30 a.m. Our driver was a real character and chatted almost non-stop with those of us in the front few rows. We got to see the Blue Angels on the tarmac as we drove past Boeing Field. They were prepping for an air show at 1:00 p.m.

We got to the Canadian border crossing at 2:00 p.m. All 28 of us passengers sat there on the bus holding our filled-out entry cards and passports while our driver went inside to find out whether we all had to get off and present ourselves and/or luggage in person. Three minutes later the driver came back, started the bus and we drove away! He said he had never had that simple a border crossing before! They asked him 2 or 3 questions, looked at his own driving license and passport card, and waved him on. They probably figured that it wasn't worth the time to go through us all with a fine-tooth comb when we were obviously not going to spend any money in their country. Or maybe they had already met their quota of hassling travelers for that day.

We did finally arrive, starving, at Canada Place in Vancouver which is the cruise termInal. We got to our cabin a little after 3:00 p.m. Our luggage arrived just before the compulsory emergency drill at 4:15 p.m. Nowadays that drill is truly compulsory, and anyone who refuses to participate is summarily put off the ship before it sails. Our captain announced that both the lifeboat stations and the gangway were on deck three and anyone could take their pick (this was evidently after someone in one of the fancy suites complained about having to turn up for the drill). This announcement was met by general huzzahs by those of us already standing at our muster stations.

Since we hadn't eaten since early morning, we opted for dinner as soon as the dining room opened. As we ate, we watched the gorgeous scenery of islands nearby and snowy mountains in the distance as the sun began to sink in the west. In some ways it was very like the Norwegian fjord scenery i saw in June, but the mountains are rather newer , bigger and sharper. We were back in the cabin around 7:00 p.m., and unpacked and fully settled in by mid-evening.

(By the way, on this trip, "we" with no qualifier will almost always mean Connie and me. I'll let you know when " we" includes Jim, Marcy, and/or Matthew Handsfield.)

Seattle, August 3

Gack! The problem with living in a second-tier airport's vicinity is having to get up so blinking early for a 6:00 a.m. flight to get to somewhere that has flights to where you actually want to go. However, one benefit of a smaller airport is a kindlier and very professional team of TSA agents even though they were being incredibly detailed about every step of their process. I guess things do even out.

The flight from Charlottesville to Atlanta was full. It has been a blessedly long time since I had 6 or 7 children between the ages of 0 and 6 seated in my immediate vicinity on an airplane. I was amazed that they were all extremely quiet and well behaved. I cannot say the same for the small dog in one woman's carry-on which barked about every 3 minutes. The flight from Atlanta to Seattle was also full and one of the bumpiest I've been on in quite a while. Otherwise all went smoothly.

Well, there's always the general chaos in a big airport associated with getting your luggage then finding where to get a shuttle bus to your hotel, but who's counting that. The hotel (Doubletree by Hilton at Seattle's airport) is very nice where we have a large room. Since we had been up since about midnight Seattle time, the first thing on the agenda was to lie down flat for a while. Second was to get some lunch. Third was to lie down flat again.