Salad Is Slaughter

The original plan was to stop in College Fjord, but the weather was too foggy so the Sun Princess headed toward Glacier Bay National Park, our next stop on the trip. It was still a bit foggy when we got there, but the weather cleared enough so that we could make our way into the park. They parked the boat near the Margerie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier and we sat and watched ice melt for about 30 minutes. It’s far more impressive than it sounds. The glacier towers above the ship and stretches for at least a quarter mile. We saw some calving (ice breaking off and falling into the water) and I’m hoping that my camera caught some chunks splashing into the bay. Glaciers are really cool and I could sit and watch them for hours.

Our next stop was Skagway Alaska. We had a helicopter trip scheduled that would land us on top of two glaciers so we could walk around on top of them, but unfortunately the weather was too bad and it was cancelled. We didn’t care too much for it because the town is basically alternating jewelry stores and tee shirt shops. There is the brothel museum, but I thought 5 dollars for 15 minutes was kind of excessive.

After Skagway we headed to the state capital Juneau. Juneau is one of the nicer places we stopped on the trip even though it rains a lot. We went out on a whale watching tour and saw several hump back whales as well as bald eagles and sea lions. It was a pretty good tour, but not nearly as good as the one we had taken earlier in Kenai National Park. It turns out that we didn’t really need to go on this tour to see whales; when we sailed out of Juneau I stood on our balcony and saw at least 10 whales heading north. As we moved south it seemed like we saw more and more bald eagles in the trees.

Our next stop was Ketchikan, Alaska, one of the rainiest places on earth. We had a tour scheduled where they flew us in a float plane to a place where we could watch bears fishing for salmon. We saw hundreds of salmon, but the whole time we were there we saw exactly zero bears. That was a disappointment, but at least we got to take off and land on the water.

The final two days were spent to get us to Vancouver so we could catch our flight home. The weather cleared so we got to see some really nice scenery as we passed British Columbia.

Overall the cruise was okay, but I don’t know if I would recommend Princess cruises. The dining room food was decent, but over rated. The chef was pretty good, but certainly not in the elite class. The buffet was fair, at best. We didn’t like that there were smokers all around us – we would sit on our balcony and be driven off by the smell of tobacco. It also seemed like they were always trying to sell you something, which was pretty annoying.

I’d cruise again, but I’d like to try a different cruise line. Janet is still undecided about ever going back out. We would like to return to Alaska, but do it on our own. Maybe fly to the north, then rent a car and stop to see what we wanted to see for as long as we wanted. My favorite stop on the trip was at Kenai, but I would like a longer trek into Denali.

Our dogs were really happy to see us when we returned.

White water rafting at Denali was great.  We got to the rafting place about 7:30 AM.  The weather was pretty clear and the water was about 34 degrees.  They put us in dry suits and by the time we got done we looked like astronauts.  The river had mostly class 3 rapids - not really too rough but fun, and one class 4 called Train Wreck.  We hit that one just right and got buried in water.  We also got some really good pictures.

Later, we took the train down to the Mt. McKinnley lodge.  While on the train we saw Mt. McKinnley, and that’s pretty rare.  At the lodge we didn’t see it at all, and that’s the norm. 

The next day we took a bus down to Kenai.  When we arrived we took a walk down to the river and saw dozens of salmon swimming up river.  The next day we took a whale watching trip, and we had orca’s jumping next to the boat.  We were told that is pretty rare.  We also saw hundreds of birds, sea lions, otters, and so on.  We also spent 30 minutes next to a glacier.  That was pretty impressive.

Today we’re on the ship, and just left College Fjiord.  The weather had been pretty good, but smokey.  Right now it’s foggy.  It rained really hard last night which delayed our departure, but we’re on the water now.  I’d go into more detail, but internet connection on the boat is pretty pricey — 35 cents per minute.

More later.

We took a 5 hour bus tour through Denali National Park yesterday.  We did see some Dall sheep and some carabou.  No bears or moose, though.  The bus driver reminded us of “10 second Tom” from the movie 50 First Dates.  He was kind of annoying.  Overall the tour was pretty good, especially when we got away from the others and could walk around on our own.  Parts of the tour I could have skipped, like the woman in the cabin who thought it was 1935, and the bus drivers songs, stories, and sermon.

Today it’s off to go white water rafting, then we climb on a train and a bus for Mt. McKinley — which we won’t be able to see because of all the clouds and smoke from the fires.  This state sure is smokey.

We took off for our Alaska trip on Tuesday morning about 10.  First stop was Seattle to change planes, and grab some lunch.  They have a really nice airport there, with a little mall area with all kinds of shops and restaurants.  Waiting in the Seattle airport is still kind of a chore, but it isn’t horrible.  We thought our next leg was direct to Fairbanks, Alaska but it turns out that we had to stop in Anchorage first.

It’s a long flight from Seattle to Anchorage, about 5 hours.  And it was cloudy most of the way.  We got kind of lucky as we approached Anchorage and got a break in the clouds so we could see mountains, glaciers, and the glacier-carved valleys.  It was an incredible view. 

Our final flight leg was up to Fairbanks, and all we saw the whole way was smoke.  You kind of get the impression that half the state is on fire, but that’s not really the case.  We got some dinner — some great Alaskan king crab and a wasabi halibut salad, and called it a night.  By the time we hit the sack it was about 10:30 and still light out.  Reading about Alaska being the land of the  midnight sun, and actually experiencing it are two different things.

For breakfast we had reindeer sausage.  It was pretty good, and that day’s selection was the reindeer Dancer.  Wednesday morning we took a bus trip through downtown Fairbanks (it’s pretty small) then took a trip to the trans Alaska oil pipeline.  That was a pretty cool site.  Then it was off to the El Dorado gold mine for a tour on their train, then learning to pan for gold.  We got enough to put in a necklace for Janet.  Wednesday afternoon we took a paddlewheel boat trip down the river to see the sites — a sled dog training area and a native village.  We finally figured out what Lisa’s daddy must have been:  a sled dog.  Those things make the same kinds of noise when they want to go that Lisa does when she wants to go for a walk.  A couple of the dogs kind of looked like Lisa, too.  The paddlewheel boat had 4 decks and was pretty crowded.  The number of people on this tour was kind of a down side.

Today we boarded a train and went from Fairbanks to Denali.  We ate on the train (today’s reindeer was Rudolf).  On the way we saw a moose and her two babies (that’s supposed to be pretty rare to see them near the train), and a mountain sheep.  We’re getting ready to hop on a tour bus for a four or five hour tour of Denali National Park.  We’re hoping to see more moose, and maybe some bear.  Tomorrow we’re going white water rafting, then it’s off to Mt. McKinley.

We only rented three movies last weekend, and one of those we had seen before but we wanted to see it again before watching the sequel.  We also saw the original version of a movie that was redone last year, so I’ll include that as well.

Meet the Parents  B+  We’d seen this one but rented it again.  Ben Stiller meets his fiancé’s parents for the first time, and while trying to impress the girl’s ex-CIA father, manages to screw up everything he tries.  Owen Wilson was great in this movie.

Meet the Fockers  B  There were some subtle jokes that we would have missed had we not recently seen Meet the Parents.  The movie is basically the Radical Right meets the Loony Left.  It’s entertaining, but the joke starts to wear a bit thin at times.

Are We There Yet  C+  Formula family film about a guy (Ice Cube) driving his would-be girlfriend’s kids from Portland to Vancouver.  It’s not a bad movie, just predictable.  There was a nice cameo by Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura from the original Star Trek).

The Lady Killers  B-  This is the original version staring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.  In 2004 the Coen brothers remade this movie with Tom Hanks.  The original was pretty good if a bit tedious at times.  The remake was a lot better.

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