Month: August 2012

Mile 3767 – Seattle, Washington.  Hectic morning, disembarking from the cruise, bringing my father and stepmother to the Vancouver airport so they could fly back to LA, driving back to the cruise terminal once again to pick up our remaining luggage.  Then on to Seattle.

Cruise is winding down.  Again beautiful weather, walk around the ship and eat a lot.

Some of you know I am not a “cruise person”.  I went on this trip because there are not many other ways you can see Alaska’s Inside Passage and Glacier Bay (which for me is still the most spectacular place I have ever seen on Earth) and because I wanted to do this with my father and stepmother.

It was a tremendous trip and I am glad I went, but it did not change my mind about cruise culture.  Some fellow cruisers act like spoiled two-year olds when something does not go their way and then turn on the staff with an “I payed for this” attitude.  The mostly Indonesian staff on this Dutch ship was courteous and eternally cheerful in spite of taking abuse from customers and management alike.  From talking to some of them, they put in 10 to 11 hours days 7 days a week.  However, cruise economics also forces them to be pushy, for example when serving drinks during happy hour, which is not always appropriate.  The irony does not escape me:  After all these years, the liberal progressive Dutch still found a way to colonize a small part of Indonesia.  Cruise culture does not bring out the best in people.

Ho hum, another beautiful, crystal clear day.  We walked around town, had some lunch, and visited a local park and Creek Street, site of the old brothels, now an upscale Rockport, Massachusetts-like place, but definitely Alaska-style.

Our cruise ship sailed into Glacier Bay National Park (not to be confused with Glacier National Park, which has virtually no glaciers left).  We had perfect weather, which happens rarely in Glacier Bay. You are lucky if you just have a cloudy day without fog or rain.

We visited the Margerie Glacier at the end of the Tarr Inlet.  Glacier Bay, nicknamed Thunder Bay for the sound of falling ice, offers the most impressive scenery I have ever seen anywhere.  250 feet high glacial walls calve into tidal water.  Because visibility was excellent our ship also briefly sailed to the entrance of the Johns Hopkins Inlet, not on the standard itinerary.  At the far end of this inlet is the majestic Johns Hopkins Glacier which comes off the St Elias Mountains, which frame this sea-level inlet with ten-thousand foot slopes.  The Johns Hopkins Glacier is an anomaly in that it is advancing, not retreating.  Near the source of the glacier is Mount Fairweather, at 15,300 feet higher than any mountain in the continental US and even more impressive because it stands between the Pacific Coast and Glacier Bay, rising from sea-level.  Mount Fairweather was named by Captain Cook who saw it on a fair day.  The park ranger said the joke is that that was the last time the mountain was ever seen.  But is was clearly visible today with its big white dome.

Oh yes, forgot a few details … We saw a bear family spending a day at the beach, countless seals, many birds, some sea otters and a pod of humpback whales breaching in the distance.

My first trip to Glacier Bay, thirty years ago with my Dutch friend Gerard, we sailed all the way into the Johns Hopkins Inlet on a small excursion boat.  Very few people get to go there now because of the iceflows and because the park service closes it most of the summer to protect the harbor seals who raise their young on the ice.  The weather was not as brilliant back in 1982, but visibility was good enough.  Near the glacier the tour captain cut the engines.  I then became aware of the deafening silence that hung over the place.  There was a high overcast that obscured the mountain tops.  The walls of the inlet and the glacier disappeared into the cloud ceiling, as if forming a giant cathedral.  We were surrounded by seals and their young on iceflows but they did not make a sound.  For a moment it seemed every one and everything was quiet out of respect for this majestic place.  Then the glacier started to put on a show.  At one point a whole ice wall came crashing down, with a thunderous roar and the waves tossed our small boat back and forth.

[Photograph © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]

Spent the day in Skagway.  We took a historical train ride up the White Pass, site of the ’98 Gold Rush where thousands marched up with dreams of riches, but where confronted by brutal weather and Canadian authorities who required every one had at least one ton of supplies with them (which they had to carry up the pass).

When we got up in the  morning there was dense fog and rain, typical Inside Passage weather.  We were afraid we might have to give up on Juneau where we would arrive at 1 PM.  However, upon our arrival the rain stopped and sky cleared to a brilliant blue.  The weather stayed that way for the remaining six days of the cruise.  P.J. and I took a tram ride on Mt. Roberts and then hiked up a little further.  Gorgeous views everywhere. Pictures coming.

Eating, walking, eating, walking, eating, walking.  We sailed all day long.  Weather was mostly cloudy, but no rain and little wind.  P.J. and I established different daily patterns.  She stayed up late to go see shows and participate in ship activities; I got up early to enjoy coffee on the deck and walk around in the fresh air.