As anyone who has ever cruised knows, every night you return to your room to find a new towel animal created by your cabin boy. At Thanksgiving time, I posted a picture of a towel turkey from my recent Holland America Westerdam cruise on my facebook. Lauren of Australia posted a towel elephant saying she trumped my towel turkey. So I want to know, does the towel elephant really trump the towel turkey? How about the hanging towel monkey from the Westerdam. Does it trump the towel elephant from somewhere in Australia?
You can still vote on this poll, it never closes!
Voting Instructions: Click yes or no, then click on the vote button. When it registers your vote it will show you the results.
If you are looking for towel animal instructions, please visit my towel animal folding blogs for directions on how to fold a towel turkey, a towel elephant, or a towel monkey. For an assortment of other animals see the towel animal page.
August, 2010. I finished my workweek and settled down at my computer. I had to check on any last minute adjustments to the scheduled time for meeting my sister and niece the next morning for our annual horse camping trip. There in my email inbox I found an email from John. He had left a couple days prior for a fishing trip in Alaska. A forward from SkyAuction.com. Book it, he said. Who can resist these prices? There it was, a 3 day sale on Caribbean cruises from Holland America, starting at $249 per person. I’ve wanted to do a Caribbean cruise for awhile, and on Holland America specifically ever since I read once in the Mariner Magazine they send to past guests that on Half Moon Cay, their private island, they have horseback riding that includes a swim in a warm ocean. I’ve taken my horses to a cold ocean, but there is not much swimming involved in that. They had five or six different cruise options. Eliminate everything that doesn’t stop at Half Moon Cay, and the ones over $400, and that left the Westerdam, Eastern Caribbean. I didn’t care where else it went or what boat it was, just give me Half Moon Cay.
What do you know, a new way to buy cheap cruises. And we do like things cheap, so I booked it. Or thought I did. The next morning I tried to leave for my camping trip. I got a phone call saying my credit card had been denied. How could that be? I had no balance on a card with a ridiculously high limit. So I had to delay leaving for my trip and investigate. Turned out that they had dropped the formerly sky-high limit to $1000. $20 less than the total price of the cruise once you add in the exorbitant fees and port taxes all cruises charge. (These taxes are the same regardless of the actual price paid for the room. For this trip, our taxes cost slightly more than the room.) They agreed to up the limit enough to pay for the cruise. After straightening out that mess, I was finally on my way for the camping trip.
The next week I applied for a new passport. One that expires in October just will not work for a cruise in November. I had to get that done in plenty of time to be sure I’d have it. I went to do the online cruise registration on Holland America’s website and did not get far before coming to the page that needed passport information. I remained stuck at that point until I got the new passport. While on Holland America’s website, I noticed they had us in the lowest possible room category. The drawback to booking this way, we did not get to choose our own room. I kind of figured we would go in whatever room doesn’t sell, but if we expect the worst than anything is an upgrade. Or perhaps we actually will have that room. I noticed only two in that category while glancing through the deck plans. The ones at the end of the hall closest to the showroom on the lowest deck with passenger rooms. Not the quiet sort of room I would choose, but conveniently located to get in and out of the shows quickly. There is less motion on the lower decks too. So far I have not had any motion sickness problems on cruise ships, but you never know.
New red bag compared to mondo bag and small bag
September 2010. We went on an American Safari Cruises / InnerSea Discoveries cruise to Alaska. I went to pack and remembered that I broke my big rolley bag last time I went to Australia. I have not needed it since so never replaced it. My small ones were too small, but John’s mondo bag that I borrowed for that trip is too big. I really needed to get a new bag before this cruise. I looked in the local stores, but they only had 5 piece sets. I just needed one bag. Perhaps I could find something online.
I went to the store looking for a new swimsuit for the hot tub
Cruise Pants
on the Alaska trip. (I did not find a swimsuit I liked, good thing I had an old one.) I found a new pair of cruise pants instead. What exactly are cruise pants? Anything with lots of secure pockets! Perfect for shore excursions. Who wants to carry a purse while dangling from a zip line or riding on a horse? Yet you can’t get on or off the boat without the ship’s card and there are often places to shop… Things like that are far too important for open pockets, hence the cruise pants with pockets that fasten securely. A good pair has enough room for a small camera, chapstick, a comb, all that sort of important stuff. I have no idea if said pants come anywhere close to being in style, but you know what? I don’t care! When you see grandmas, they never seem to wear anything remotely resembling the latest styles. Perhaps stylish grandmothers exist, but I have never seen one. So I always figured when I am a grandma, I no longer have to care. No kids around to embarrass by what I wear. Since I have
Panasonic Lumix Underwater Camera
no contact with anything having to do with the latest fashions in my daily life anyway, I wouldn’t know hot from not if it bit me. Point being, I am a grandma, I can wear what I want and not care what anyone else thinks. So I bought the cruise pants. These even have strings at the bottom that draw the legs up shorter. Probably intended to convert them to capris, but for me drawn up at their shortest they almost don’t drag the ground. I will have to do something about all that excess string though.
The passport came, so I went back to Holland America’s online
Netbook
check in. Got that done and moved on to the next page where they want flight info. Sigh, stuck again. We haven’t booked our flight yet. But while I was there I booked the horseback swimming shore excursion. That way we are sure to get it, I would be seriously disappointed if we waited to book until we got onboard and found out it was full.
I got my flu shot the other day. Cruise ships and airplanes have a lot of people packed into a small space. Nobody likes to get sick on vacation. Lots to do before a cruise.
October 2010. We finally got our flight booked. We’ll fly in the day of the cruise, and spend one night in Miami before flying home the day after. No more snags on the online registration, got that finished. Almost anyway, I just need to get more ink for my printer so I can print out the edocs and the luggage tags. I found an affordable wheeled bag at overstock.com. Cheap even. Slightly bigger than I wanted, but not the embarrassingly large mega-bag I took last cruise, so it’s all good.
The new bag arrived, it’s not too big after all. Its size seems just about right. I also got an underwater camera. Perfect for snorkeling. I got a netbook of my own too. Now I should have everything I need. Well except a new swimsuit, but the old ones will work.
November 2010: I still haven’t printed out those edocs yet. Good thing I didn’t do it too soon though. First the departure time changed, and then we got a room upgrade. Seems I figured correctly that Skyauction cruise sales fill the rooms nobody picks. Nobody will complain about an upgrade, and just about everybody about a downgrade. We got moved to a nice quiet deck with nothing but rooms above, below, and all around it. Still an inside room, but we can’t complain at the price we paid. Tomorrow I will put new ink in my printer and print out those edocs. I finally used up the last of the little bit of ink it had left.
We found someone to look after our animals and someone to take us to the airport. We even had somebody to pick us up in Fort Lauderdale. Nothing left to do but go on a cruise!
We enjoyed the card player cruise on Carnival Spirit so much, we decided to take another one the following year. Again we picked the Mexican Riviera for price and convenience, but there the similarity ended. We had a different ship, Holland America‘s Oosterdam, which went to completely different ports. We booked a bit late, and all the cheapest rooms were taken so for once we had a veranda.
December 2006, we flew into San Diego and took a cab to the cruise ship dock, hoping for early boarding. Alas, it was not to be as there had been some sort of illness on the previous cruise and the entire ship had to undergo extensive cleaning and sterilization. We did not have to wait long to drop off our luggage, check in, and have a seat in the ample waiting area. Which did not seem so ample as more and more people checked in, yet nobody could board the still-in-the-cleaning-process ship. Holland America did the best they could, opening up another room filled with folding chairs and serving snacks and beverages.
Finally the ship opened up to allow people on board. We explored the ship, which seemed quite nice, and having that veranda was definitely an advantage. I recommend that anyone who can talk themselves into spending the extra bit for a veranda do so. Having a veranda is so worth it, especially when visiting warm places. We also again carefully selected a quiet room with nothing but other rooms on not only that deck, but the ones above and below as well. The staff took extra precautions to keep germs under wraps, and nobody that I am aware of got sick on this cruise, so their efforts seem to have paid off.
We had the crow’s nest lounge for the poker room. A large room with awesome views. What a wonderful poker room, the rest of the guests who had not booked through card player must have been so jealous. They always had snacks and drinks available right there in the room so some people did not even leave for lunch. It did close for dinner and when at shore, or some may never have left. There was one drawback to having a nice room at the front of the boat near the top though. The higher you are and the farther from center, the more exaggerated the motion. And we were tailing a hurricane so not the calmest seas. It got to be a bit more than one of the dealers could take. There’s no faster way to shut down a poker game than to have the dealer vomit on the table. I’ve never seen an entire table of players jump up and back so quickly in unison before or since. The card player staff rapidly sent her to her room with instructions not to return until she felt better, and re-assigned the players to other tables, while closing and cleaning that one.
This trip John brought nice clothes, so we got to eat the lobster, and even posed for the formal pictures (but did not buy them.) They had poker tournaments as well as live games and I played in a ladies tournament that had all sorts of extra prizes in various hands as well as the main prizes for the winners.
We did not have any shore excursions planned in Mazatlan, so we just got off the ship to see what we could find. We found a very inexpensive bus tour that took us to see interesting geographic places with a lot of history, cliff divers, an open air market of local craftsman where I found some Christmas gifts to buy, a tour through an area of nice homes where some famous Americans keep houses, and to a shopping area with some touristy stores where I found a nice, yet cheap necklace in a jewelry store. There’s always something to do whether you pre-book anything or not. It’s often cheaper not, but if there is something you really want to do then I recommend pre-booking to ensure you get to do it because what you do if you just get off and do whatever is pretty random.
In Puerto Vallarta we booked a zipline tour through the ship. We could have booked this on our own, but it would have cost nearly as much and not included transportation. And had the added disadvantage that if you go off by yourself and don’t come back in time the ship will leave without you. Ship’s personnel took us to a waiting area where we were met by a driver from the zip-line place in a 4-wheel drive semi-open vehicle referred to as a jungle bus. Arriving at the zip line tour, it pulled in on a narrow dirt road and parked next to a small saddled burro. Must have belonged to one of the employees. Apparently it was accustomed to large loud vehicles rattling up and stopping withing a few feet of it, as it hardly gave us a glance.
Following our safety talk and how to instructions, we climbed a trail to our first platform. The runs from one tree to the next got longer , steeper, and faster as we went. They started us out easy so we could get used to it. We even got to swing across from one platform to another on a rope swing at one point. At the end we got to repel down a tree. We got a lot of exersise, but I definitely recommend zip lining to anyone who is in good physical condition, has some stamina, and is not afraid of heights.
In Cabo San Lucus we again did not book anything through the ship, but this time did not look for random whatever either. John already knew we could go parasailing from previous visits to Cabo. So we found a parasail boat among the many activities people hawked to passing tourists at the dock. In Cabo they have the sort of boats with a large winch where you take off and land right on the deck of the boat and never have to get wet. I have seen people in other places parasail and land on the water, I bet the way we did it was much easier. All the fun and none of the work, they hooked us up and sent us in the air and reeled us back down. The closest we will ever get to flying without sprouting wings. I totally recommend parasailing for anyone who wants an idea of what it feels like to fly.
As always, there is plenty to do at sea, endless food offerings, shows, classes, pools, and even internet access. Sitting on the veranda with a good book has its merits too. Since this was a poker cruise, we played a lot of poker too.
Day Nine: We woke up at the dock in Ketchikan. Everyone had raved so much about the coconut lime muffins, we got coconut muffins again. This time with chocolate chips, still all warm and melty.
Ketchikan Tour
After breakfast I took a little walk on the outside deck and saw the Norwegian Pearl tied up across the dock from us. Looking up at the much larger ship, I saw people on their balconies looking down, watching me watching them. Here we all are in Ketchikan. What a different cruise experience on American Safari Cruises or InnerSea Discoveries seeing wild Alaska versus the large ships touring the tourist ports. I’ve done and enjoyed both, they are just very different. Earlier in the cruise when someone mentioned going back to the real world after the cruise ended, Kevin said that nature is the real world, the rest is man made.
House Above a Tunnel
The former mayor of Ketchikan, a Tlingit native, met us at the dock for a walking tour of the town. We docked right next to the Aleutian Ballad, a former Deadliest Catch ship. Now it gives a Bearing Sea crab fisherman’s tour. John has done that tour and says it is one of the best.
I saw a lot more of the city this time than I did the last time I was in Ketchikan. That time the rain was dumping buckets. We made it about as far as the first gift shop before running back to the boat. This time our beautiful sunny weather continued. Our tour guide talked about an eagle statue. He explained the origins of the name of the town came from an Indian word describing the sound of an eagle’s wings when you get too close. At least I think that is what he said. I was not paying that much attention. I found a house above a tunnel through the rock quite distracting. I’ve only seen that once before, where I-90 goes through Mercer Island near Seattle.
Creek Street
We saw some totem poles and the original hospital and moved on to Creek Street. Once the red light district, it now houses gift shops. True to its name, the creek does run through. You can look over the railing and see all sorts of salmon acclimating to the fresh water for their final upstream journey.
After a bit of shopping time, we made our way to the visitor’s center. From there you could book pretty much any tour
Sea Creatures
Ketchikan has to offer, and they have a lot. Everything from horse drawn trolley or Duck rides (amphibious vehicle) to float plane rides for aerial tours over the Misty Fjords, or with other destinations in mind. They have a myriad of other choices to fit any budget.
We met our bus, and took a detour on the way to the airport to check out Snorkel Alaska owned by Fred Drake. My husband John did this tour on a previous visit and says it is awesome. They showed us a collection of critters usually spotted on the tour. They explained that you really won’t be cold as they have wetsuits and things to keep you warm. John tried the snorkeling on a previous visit and said that is true.
We got to the ferry just in time to drive on before it left for the island on which sits the Ketchikan Airport. The destination of the infamous bridge to nowhere that never got built. The plane took off from sunny Alaska and landed in rainy Seattle, sadly the end of a wonderful journey.
InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises have combined and are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.
Day eight: We woke up to another sunny day on our InnerSea Discoveries cruise. This time in the Misty Fjords National Monument. Other than a touch of early morning mist, Walker Cove where the boat anchored up for the night remained mist-free.
Kayak in the Morning Light
Some people went for an all day one-way paddle in kayaks. The early morning light made for some interesting photos with reflections of the brightly colored kayaks in the water. Safari Quest picked the long distance kayakers up later in the afternoon on the way out.
We followed them for a bit and saw all sorts of sea life clinging to the rock walls. The walls dropped just as steeply underwater as they rose above it. Lots of sunstars, starfish, seaweed, and some crabs. Amazing how those crabs can scuttle along on a near vertical wall without falling off.
Curious seals popped their heads out of the water nearby, swimming toward the kayaks for a closer look. A tiny cove led to a waterfall. It seemed to erupt from the ceiling of a tiny cave up close, but from a bit farther back it ran down the entire hill. Everyone paddled their kayaks in for a close look at the waterfall. One kayak got a bit too close. It’s a pretty cold shower under an Alaskan waterfall.
Kayaks at Waterfall
We paddled on, enjoying the scenery. A tree grew on a low ledge, not far above the water. About 30 feet up it ran into another ledge. From some angles the upper ledge looked like a ceiling, stopping the tree from further upward growth. From the other side, a kink in the trunk showed how the adaptable tree grew right around the ledge, resuming its upward climb above it. We paddled along for awhile enjoying the magic of nature in all her splendor. Eventually we parted ways with the group, heading back to the yacht while they paddled on.
For lunch we had clam chowder and do-it-yourself sandwiches. Dessert was orange poppy seed cake.
“It looks like a sandcastle,” I said.
“Oohh, it’s the mountains of Misty Fjords!” Donna exclaimed.
Tree in the Rock Wall
“Actually it is an octopus,” Mary (who works on the boat) said.
I stepped up where floor rises to the next level, 8 inches or so higher. “It does look like an octopus from here.”
“Don’t tell the pastry chef we didn’t know what it was,” Donna said.
The important thing is, it tasted good.
After lunch anchors away and off toward Punchbowl Cove, picking up the kayakers and anyone who went out for a last minute skiff ride along the way.
Punchbowl Cove
En route to Punchbowl cove, some people got off for a skiff tour, planning to rejoin Safari Quest there. Sitting in Punchbowl cove, waiting for the skiff to return we marveled at the near vertical granite walls towering above our heads, giving the cove its name. On our sunny cruise we could see the tops of all the walls. I sat in the bow of the boat and imagined what it might feel like on a misty day. With the cliff tops nowhere in sight the boat could feel no more significant than an ice cube floating in a giant punchbowl obscured by the rising fog of dry ice. Finally the skiff returned, its occupants cold, but happy as they had seen a bear. They saw an elephant seal too, which they nearly ran over assuming it was a log.
After dinner people shared their worst trip ever stories. Most involved lost luggage. Art took the cake with his tale of a cruise in a hurricane that destroyed all the ports so the ship had nowhere to go. The captain kept the boat afloat by hiding on the leeward side of islands. Not an easy task when that is subject to change at the whim of a wild wind. They fell right out of their chairs in the dining room, rolling until hitting something solid. Sleeping involved finding solid objects to sandwich themselves in between in order to stay in one place and not slide into things. To top it off, he needed badly to get off the ship to attend a funeral, though at that point everyone wanted off the ship regardless. Far from never wanting to cruise again, he eventually became a cruise writer and cruises frequently.
John had a pretty good tale too. Sitting at the airport in South America, a large group of military types with big guns announced they wanted to use his luggage to train their drug sniffing dog. Unable to refuse big guys with bigger guns, he watched as they inserted a large brick of contraband into his bag. He wondered if this was a set-up for his arrest. Soon another rough looking bunch came by with a dog that completely ignored him. The next group sadly removed the drugs. Now he was left to wonder if dogs back in the US would sniff him out for the residue of the drugs that had been there. And who would believe that wild tale if they did?
Not having any travel disasters of my own to share, I interjected with the only story I had. Sticking to the subject of airport dogs, I recalled the time in Australia when we all had to set our bags down for the fruit-sniffing beagle. The old lady next to me had an open topped shopping type bag. The dog dived in and dug away, searching frantically.
“I had an apple in there yesterday,” she said sheepishly.
Yes that was the best I could do. Pathetic, I know. Well I did have the one about canceling Christmas. We were supposed to go to Australia to visit our daughter for Christmas, but due to John’s work schedule we departed Christmas Eve. And arrived the day after. Yup, you lose a day on the way over. So in protest I bought no gifts, mailed no cards, did no baking or decorating, and you know what? Easiest Christmas ever, it was actually kind of a relief not to do all that what with all the traveling.
That evening we had a slideshow. Along with the official ship’s slides of the journey
Beached
taken by Kevin, we also each added some of our own. I was thrilled that people liked mine. I had been a bit nervous about that. They are all experienced professionals with fancy cameras. I am new at this with a little point and shoot digital and no giant telephoto lenses like everyone else has. I had some different sorts of shots though as most people like to get objects out of their pictures and I like to work them in for added interest when I can.
Un-Cruise Adventures is now the name of what used to be InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises.
Say yes to Yes Bay. Another day of freakishly good weather on our InnerSea Discoveries cruise in southeast Alaska. Batman, our fishing guide from Yes Bay Lodge, picked us up at our yacht in a 20 foot Olympic boat around 7:30am. Everyone else turned down the fishing charter in favor of hiking or kayaking. Batman had gear that works quite well, but was perfectly willing to let us try our tackle in this fishery.
coho caught on Yes Bay Lodge charter
“There’s two superheros in the boat today,” John said. “My fishing name is Spiderman.”
(This from running a boat by himself in Canada, with many rods hanging out the sides like spider legs.)
So if they are superheros, what does that make me, Lois Lane?
Moon Jellyfish at Neets Bay
Batman turned out to be the great sort of fishing guide who gears the trip to the client’s whim. We fished for coho on John’s new invention, the mini fat squid. This little squid proves quite effective in many fisheries with its glow stick light and UV pigment. After slamming several coho in quick succession, we decided to try to find out if a trolled stinger could catch fish. We put a half ounce white deep stingerwith UV hook tubing behind a 0/0 flasher and trolled it close to the downrigger ball. It did indeed get hits, so the answer to can you troll stingers is yes.
Bear Watching at Neets Bay Fish Hatchery
Young Black Bear
We stopped after we had four fish in the boat. That would be enough to feed everyone on the yacht. We had no need for more. Batman suggested a trip to the Neets Bay Fish Hatchery. Bears love the easy fishing in the salmon stream. Another boat from Yes Bay Lodge had just docked before we got there, so we threw them our lines. The water around the dock glowed with moon jellyfish undulating in the current like a luminous army of invading aliens. We got out of the boat and headed toward a trail. Bonus, a restroom! Had to stop there.
Window on the World
Batman said once at the hatchery he ran into bears right along the people trail. A mother and her cubs. The mama ran one bear off and stole its fish to feed to her cubs. She treed another bear. Nowhere near that much action on our visit. We did see a couple young black bears catching fish in a seagull laden stream. John took photos of bears. I took photos of little black specks. Amazing what a difference a telephoto lens makes. After they ate their fish the bears left, so we headed back to the boat. On the way we stopped for artsy photos. I could not resist the perfect frame.
Sea Lions
On the return trip to Yes Bay we stopped near a rocky point. We aimed our cameras at a group of sea lions sunning themselves on the rock. The males sat up and scratched themselves. They barked loudly and fought halfheartedly. The females ignored the males’ shenanigans and basked almost statue-like quietly soaking up the rare sunshine.
Flightseeing over Misty Fjords National Monument
After a lunch of curried chicken on rice back at the Safari Quest, we had a skiff ride back to Yes Bay Lodge. We boarded a Dehavilland Beaver floatplane from Pirate
Misty Fjords By Air
Airworks of Ketchikan. John volunteered to take the middle seat for our flightseeing tour of Misty Fjords National Monument because he flies over that sort of area often. Since I had a window he handed me one of his fancy cameras. New toy! I tried to take artsy shots where parts of the plane interacted with the scenery.
We had nice clear views of forests, lakes, waterways, and mountaintops. John even
Wing Over Water
saw some mountain goats. The pilot said many of the multitude of lakes we flew over had no names and remained untouched by humans. At times the ground beneath the plane changed from appearing practically under the pontoon to thousands of feet below in a split second.
“It’s nice to see where I’m going for a change,” the pilot said. “Usually we fly under the clouds between the mountains.”
They don’t call this area Misty Fjords National Monument for nothing. Normally the Misty Fjords truly are misty. Perhaps we did miss out on the mysteries of an eerie mist, but I ‘ll take the sun any day.
“I’ve been here 6 times and never seen the tops of the mountains before,” Ed complained. “You aren’t getting the real Alaska experience.”
What can I say, when you get lucky, you get lucky, and get lucky we did. You would think he would be happy to finally see those mountaintops. What a curmudgeon. There’s one in every crowd, never can please everyone. We had a nice view of Safari Quest far below as we returned to Yes Bay Lodge.
Polar Drop
Back at Safari Quest, the staff hung a rope swing from the boom normally used to raise and lower kayaks from storage on the top deck to the water. Kevin tested it out fully clothed. Several people (all wearing swimsuits) followed soon after. It looked like fun, but they did make a mad paddle from the splashdown to the boat. With my intense aversion to immersing myself in cold water, I had to settle with watching others jump while thinking it would be fun in warm water.
For dinner we had duck and some of the halibut John caught from a kayak. At dessert time the staff came out in costumes with 2 servings of dessert that had lighted candles. They placed those in front of John and I and sang happy anniversary. Somebody let the cat out of the bag on our impending anniversary later in the month. When we went up to our room we found a plate of grapes, two champagne glasses, and an ice bucket with a small bottle each of sparkling cider and champagne. Luxury in pursuit of adventure, the American Safari Crusies way.
The former sister lines InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises are now combined under the name Un-Cruise Adventures.
Day six: Following breakfast, we took a short walk across the dock in Wrangell and boarded a jet boat driven by Captain John Taylor from Summit Charters of the Stikine River Jet Boat Association. We were fortunate to have Brenda Schwartz-Yeager, a well-known local artist, for our guide. She also captains river boat charters. She entertained us with stories of her adventures as a 4th generation Wrangell Alaskan. As the jet boat cruised up the Stikine River we came past some float houses. At least they are supposed to be float houses, though all were high and dry, and the only occupied one sat at quite the angle on the sandbar.
Float House, High & Dry
She explained how only those few lucky long time residents like her who have a cabin grandfathered in in their family can have anything on the land there, but the river is state territory so they have float houses for moose hunting. She has a float house too, which can be moved from place to place (assuming it is actually floating at the time). One time they started to move it, then anchored up for the night as it is a slow process to tow a house up the river. During the night the river rose and the float house took off on its own. They had to put out an APB on it. Imagine calling around on the radio asking “Have you seen my house go by?” They did finally find it, and as it turned out the very cooperative house seemed impatient to get where it belonged as they found it quite close to where they planned to put it.
Bear Tracks on the Beach
We stopped on a wide sandy beach (the sand is actually glacial silt.) with a beached floathouse. This one at least came to rest in a flat spot. Everyone took their private hikes, ignoring the fact that in bear country safety is in numbers.
Bear hidiing in the trees: “I’m supposed to be the one who does THAT in the woods!”
We explored the area a bit and found bear, wolf, moose, and wolverine tracks on the beach. We did not find any bear, wolves, moose, or wolverines. Captain John spotted a mountain goat up on a mountain. It pretty much looked like a white speck. Normally these tours go far enough upriver to see a glacier, but the water was quite low so we headed back. I’d trade low water for all the sunshine we’ve had any day though.
Chief Shake’s House
After lunch back at the yacht, we walked over to Chief Shakes house where local native Americans and part native americans, mostly of Tlingit ancestory shared their personal histories , the stories of how they got their native names, and what the designs on the backs of the blankets they wore meant. They did some singing, dancing, and storytelling. Outside they had a little display the children had made of how they gathered native foods. They offered up a bowl of dried black seaweed for tasting. John liked it, but I thought it tasted exactly the way seaweed smells.
That afternoon for the first time, I did not miss out on the cookies. Fresh baked chocolate chip. Mmmm. Rumor has it yesterday’s were coconut.
Dinner choices included sockeye salmon or prime rib. The boat got underway for Yes Bay, and did not stop until roughly 3am. Safari Quest does not normally run overnight, but the Wilderness Discoverer and Wilderness Adventurer that will actually run the InnerSea Discoveries cruises will be equipped to do so.
InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.
Day five: Another day of Alaskan cloud failure (or what the rest of us call sunshine.) The crew of the Safari Quest had the anchor up and the boat underway before breakfast, which included the best muffins ever, coconut lime. These warm, fresh from the oven homemade muffins tasted so good they were one of the highlights of the cruise.
Icebergs Up Close in LeConte Fjord
Following breakfast, we boarded the skiffs for a tour of LeConte Fjord, included on the InnerSea Discoveries Eastern Coves itinerary. We passed towering icebergs grounded on the terminal moraine of LeConte glacier. The face of the glacier itself lay 11 miles distant down the winding windy fjord in waters teeming with icebergs and bergy bits, so we stayed near the entrance of the fjord getting up close and personal with the ice bergs there. The other group ventured farther into the fjord, but cold wind and clusters of icebergs blocked them from progressing very far.
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All the nearby icebergs looked white, while some in the distance glowed with a beautiful blue iridescence. Pursuit of the blue icebergs seemed as futile as finding white ice on Baird Glacier. The deep blue ones always stayed distant. Once we got close they were all white, or at best light blue. The color is all about the purity and density of the ice and the way light refracts from it, so getting close changes how we see the light in the berg and thus the color we perceive.
My favorite berg had several caves. One cave tunneled all the way to the other side. We could look through it and see water lapping against the far edge. Some icebergs had large overhangs clinging precariously overhead. One had a big boulder of ice that seemed to sit unattached on top of it. Popcorn-like crackles broke the silent stillness as air pockets burst in the melting ice. Kevin broke a bit off a passing iceberg and handed it around so we all had a chilly taste of glacial ice, water in its purest form. After close examination of a big berg with a large overhang, we moved down the way 100 yards or so. Kevin stopped the skiff, opened his backpack and began to pull out mugs. He filled them with steamy hot chocolate and offered to add peppermint schnapps. Everyone had just started sipping cocoa so rich it tasted almost like drinking a candy bar when all of the sudden we heard a loud crack and a crashing splash.
“That was the overhang we were just looking at,” Kevin said.
Sure enough on the way back the overhang had vanished and new bergy bits appeared floating next to that berg as if by magic. Heading back to the yacht, I sat near the bow and (as if I couldn’t see this for myself) John called out “Watch out Lois we are heading straight for an iceberg!”
Noticing he gave no warning to Pokin, who sat a hair closer to the front than me, but apparently could see said looming iceberg for herself, I replied “I don’t know, I was going to stand up and do the Titanic thing.”
“When Kate Winslet sailed with us she actually did stand up in the bow and spread her arms and even sang the same song she sang in the movie,” Kevin interjected.
Back at the ship, they served us BLT&C (bacon, lettuce, tomato & chicken) sandwiches and soup for lunch while the boat got underway and headed for Ideal Cove. I had to pull the tomato slices out of mine though, anything more than little diced pieces is just way too much tomato for me.
Hiking the Ideal Cove Trail
Once we anchored up in Ideal Cove, almost everyone set out for a hike. John decided to go kayak fishing by himself instead. In the skiff, on the way to the trail Kevin mentioned that some of the crew had come up with Indian type nicknames for themselves, and he needed one.
Boardwalk through the Muskeg
“How about High on Nature,” I suggested. I thought it fit because he’s the only one I’ve ever met who could get so excited about the underside of a blueberry bush or the pattern of water on mud. And I thought I was easily amused. I did not get the feeling he wanted to use it though.
“It sure is beautiful out here,” someone said. “I’ll be sad to have to go back to the real world.”
“This is the real world,” Kevin said. “All this was here before anything man made. Nature is what the real world is all about.”
“It’s like a mirage,” somebody mentioned.
“Mirage,” I said. “Isn’t that a hotel in Vegas?” Followed by silence. Wrong thing to say I guess. Las Vegas is so far removed from wild remote Alaska it could be on another planet.
Ideal Cove Trail
After a fairly short hike on a forest service boardwalk trail, with much stopping for various people to take photos, we came to a bridge with a view of a beaver dam where the Ideal Cove Trail hooked up with the Three Lakes Trail. The short hike group decided that this would be the place to turn back. I wanted a longer hike than that, so with a bit of apprehension that the long hike may turn out to be too long, I set off with the rest. We hiked through the muskeg, or Alaskan peat bogs, where we saw natural bonsai trees, dwarfed by their living conditions in the peat bog rather than human manipulation. A crow loudly scolded us from the top of a grove of tall trees. We didn’t need a translator to know that his cawing meant get out of my forest you trespassers.
“How do you suppose they got the boards here to make this trail?” Someone asked, followed by much speculation.
“It would be a lot of work to pack all these boards in.”
Scenery on Ideal Cove Hike
“Maybe they dropped them by helicopter.”
However the boards got there, it is amazing that someone built boardwalk trails in the middle of nowhere. They must get some maintenance as well, or there would be a lot more broken and submerged boards than there are. Through the peat bogs, there are places where some will have boards 2 to 3 high and others do not. A few either have a bit of water running across or squish down into the bog when stepped on and get water over the top. Probably the next candidates for stacking one board higher. Some boards even have fish net stapled over them for traction.
Sleeping on the dock
After awhile we came upon a dock in a lake. The dock had a picnic table, with a small pair of socks on it and a blue t-shirt underneath. A rowboat with one oar sat in the water, tied to the dock. It seemed like a good place for a rest, so everyone sat down either at the table or on the dock. Those on the dock soon lay down for a nap. We lay quietly in the silent stillness of the place until Nellie woke up to the buzzing sound of dragonfly porn taking place on her leg. I had tried earlier to take a picture of a dragonfly, but it left whenever I turned the camera on, only to return as soon as I turned it off. By this time I had given up on dragonfly photos and joined the nappers, but with all the good flat spots already taken I found a comfortable board on the part slanted to the water’s edge like a boat
Three Lakes Trail
launch. This did puzzle me a bit as any boat light enough to be carried a considerable distance down a narrow winding board trail with many ups and downs could probably just be dropped straight off the dock into the water.
We hiked awhile longer until the trail ended on a logging road. After hiking up the road a bit, we came to another trail and back into the woods we went. I noticed that even when I did not stop to take pictures there seemed to always be an ever-widening gap between me and whoever was ahead of me. Any looking around widened the gap further. Beats me how they can go that fast on a narrow boardwalk and see anything at all other than the boards under their feet.
Bridge at the Beaver Dam
Eventually we came to the beaver dam and the bridge, and back to the beach. Kevin called the boat for a skiff to come pick us up. A voice on the radio said that John went out alone in the kayak and they had heard him blow a whistle. They sent the skiff to investigate. I don’t think the others heard because they seemed a bit surprised when the skiff did not come our way. The radio mentioned the whistle blowing for a second time. I hoped nothing bad had happened. After a few minutes of needless worry, the skiff reached him and the radio said he had caught a fish. The other skiff set out in his direction and somebody mumbled something about how many skiffs does it take for a fish. I thought he would surely be Mr. Unpopular that night as people complained about the wait cutting into hot tub and cocktail time. It turned out the first skiff left with no supplies and he needed a float to bring his monster fish in.
Finally one skiff came our way. John’s skiff got to the boat first (it must have towed the
John’s Halibut
kayak as he was there as well.) All grumblings were forgotten as people who had never seen a halibut before marveled over his 60-pound fish, caught on a 3 1/2 oz pearl green Point Wilson dart. Dinner that night was already in the works, so we had halibut tacos for lunch the next day with plenty left over for another meal.
Anchors away and off toward Wrangle. As we passed near Petersberg during dinner, many people abandoned their king crab for their ipads and internet phones and that all-important internet access.
We hadn’t seen many other boats before, but there they passed quite frequently. We had fun playing “What’s that Cruise Ship.” One member of our party could identify them all, even the state ferry.
InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari cruises are now both under the name Un-Cruise Adventures.
waterfall viewed from above on bridge over Cascade Creek
Day four: We woke up to another beautiful sunny day. We couldn’t have had better weather if we ordered it up special. What a bonus on a trip where we expected nothing but rain. Following another tasty breakfast buffet, we had two hike options to chose from on the Cascade Creek Trail, the rather ambitious hike or the waterfall hike. We took the old fogie option. I mean the waterfall hike. We saw lots of hemlock and some sitka spruce trees. Some clinging precariously to the side of the rock. In this area of southeast Alaska, everything starts out as rock. The lichens gain a foothold, making way for moss, which eventually eats into the rock enough for small plants to gain a foothold (or should I say roothold?) and finally trees. Even sandy seeming areas are glacial silt, ground from ……(what else)….rocks! We passed some moose scat on the boardwalk, and saw some flattened skunk cabbage where they had bedded down, but did not see any moose. No bears either.
photographing waterfall
We hiked to the waterfall, where everyone took some lovely pictures, then hiked across a bridge and on to a veiwpoint at the river. The trail from there went up a steep rock which the ambitious group had climbed earlier, but this group all said time to stop. While they milled around taking pictures of the river I climbed the rock. Just had to do it. Of course once you go up you have to come back down, but even the down was not as bad as it looked.
On the return trip the rest bypassed the waterfall without so much as a glance, but we lingered a bit while John asked me to go stand up near it for photos. So while I stood there taking a cold shower in the waterfall mist, the battery in his camera died.
We had time to paddle around Thomas Bay in the kayak before the ambitious group returned. During our lunch of turkey wraps and hot caramel apple crisp ala mode, the boat moved on toward Scenery Cove for the afternoon hike on Baird Glacier.
The terminal moraine(or farthest point the glacier ever was) is now well under water, but there is a rather shallow bay going a distance between there and where
baby tree on Baird Glacier moraine
the moraine is on dry land. The glacial river had spots deep enough to edge the skiff up to for a dry landing. The moraine has lots of round rocks, and boulders, ground off the mountain and rubbed smooth from eons of glacial movement. As the glacier retreats, new forest develops in its wake. The moraine was full of soft spongy moss, the starts of bushes, and even a few
“Are we there yet?”
infant trees. We could hear either wind blowing through the glacier, or the meltwater river roaring by. Probably a mixture of both. As we hiked farther inland, we found a moonscape of pyramidal formations in the silt. Several people had fun jumping around in jello-like mud patches. I kept my feet dry as I had chosen to wear my hiking boots that day rather than the trusty Alaskan tennis shoes. Bad choice. Later I did hear complaints of cold feet from people who had fun in the mud and ended up walking on ice with wet shoes.
John did not realize the first icy spot we crossed was actually ice until he went down,
silt castle
dunking a large expensive telephoto camera lens into muddy wet silt. The ice and snow looked the same as the silt on the surface. He cleaned his lens the best he could and put it in the backpack, useless at least for this excursion. Back at the boat he found much to his great relief that he had only broken a filter on the end.
Formations around us got taller and icier until we realized we were indeed on the glacier. All that silt mixed in the ice
Bigger Silt Castle
made it rather hard to tell where moraine ends and glacier begins. Off we went in pursuit of clean white ice. At first it loomed in the distance. After hiking awhile we could see the white ice over the next rise. Well maybe the next one. OK, the one after that. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the ice where we stood was the white ice we saw from several rises back. Hmm, take off the sunglasses and it does look somewhat white. Baird is a very dirty glacier, at least when you hike in from the sea. The hills got taller and the crevasses longer and deeper, and still the white ice always seemed to loom up ahead
ice in the mud
or maybe where we had already been. We turned back when we reached an uncrossable crevasse. We took a bit different route on the return trip. When we came to a slick steep spot, Kevin, our expedition leader reached out, offering a helping hand to each person as they crossed. Most of them took it.
“I’m good,” I said. “I have my trusty walking stick.” Promptly, I fell. Lesson learned, next time take the pro-offered
white snow at last (sort of)
hand. You look a lot stupider falling down than accepting help. I guess that makes John and I the klutzes of the group, nobody else fell, though some did opt to take the steep downs at a seat-slide.
Somehow I ended up at the back of the line. Perhaps because I walk slow. Anyway, we got to a large area of the squishy mud. It seemed to support the first person to walk on it (so long as they refrained from jumping up and down.) With each succeeding person, the mud got squishier and squishier, each one sinking in deeper than the last. So I found my own route and stepped where they didn’t. I managed to keep my shoes dry until we got to a crossing
Sleeping on the mossy moraine
where the only way to avoid the really deep boot-sucking mud was to step where everyone else did. Sigh, no choice now, I followed. And sunk down deep enough to get wet, muddy shoes. At least we were on the way back and I would not have to spend the entire glacier walk that way. In fact at that point I am not sure if we were even still on the glacier.
Back on the moraine we found the other group of hikers sprawled out on the moss like kindergarteners at nap time. Our group was supposed to be the long hike and theirs the short, but they seemed to have gotten farther into the glacier by taking a different route. They did do it faster though, so technically I suppose they were still the short hike.
“Try lying on this moss with us,” they said. “It’s wonderful.”
John on paddle board
So we stopped laughing at them and joined in for a comfy snooze. The moss did feel something like a mattress. We rose only when our guide came back from the beach claiming we must leave because the skiff had arrived to take us back to the yacht. One guy said he did not want to get up and to come back for him tomorrow. Odds are he would not have enjoyed the cold windy glacial night alone in the middle of nowhere without so much as a garbage bag to keep him dry in the night mist if they had really let him stay there. On the way out, somebody spotted our wildlife for the day, harlequin ducks.
John’s polar bear swim
After we got back to the ship, John gave the stand-up paddle board a try, then decided to dive off the stern for a quick polar bear swim followed by a sprint for the hot tub. Having a huge aversion to immersing myself in glacial water, I skipped the swim and went straight for the hot tub.
That night an erie green light appeared in the sky above the mountains on the
horizon. If watched for a bit, the light would radiate and grow before shrinking back to its original glow, only to project skyward once again. The northern lights at last, one of the things I really wanted to see. John said it would take setting the camera up on a tripod for a long exposure to get a picture of them, which he did not do, but Kevin and Abby did.
Abi’s northern lights, courtesy of Inside the Travel Lab
InnerSea Discoveries and its sister line American Safari cruises are now known under one name: Un-Cruise Adventures.
Day three: In September of 2010, we went on a wilderness adventure with American Safari Cruises, testing the itinerary for InnerSea Discoveries, which begins its inaugural season in 2011. We began the third day of our journey, which is actually the second day of the cruise, in Windham Bay, Alaska. After a tasty buffet breakfast, the crew handed out rubber boots to all the guests.
Alaskan Tennis Shoes
“These are Alaskan tennis shoes,” they said. We heard that again from locals we met all through our Alaskan adventure.
These boots are soft and flexible and very comfy. Much nicer than the barn boots I have at home. Great to wear anywhere Alaskans go, on boats, hiking in the woods, I even saw people wear them in town when we stopped in Wrangle.
me paddling kayak
The energetic (translation: young) group set out for a 5 mile paddle up to the head of the inlet. The not so energetic went for a skiff ride in an inflatable boat. We decided to try out a kayak on our own and did neither. I had never used a kayak before, but I did win some rowboat races growing up. We paddled down the shoreline a bit, past a stream where many seagulls feasting on post-spawning salmon dotted the landscape in white. We headed for a point of land that always looked just a short distance away, yet never seemed to get any closer.
rockfish on Point Wilson Dart
We gave up trying to reach it and stopped. We dropped a line with a 3 ½ oz green pearl Point Wilson Dart. No matter where we are, or what swims beneath the surface, John loves to go fishing. Minutes later the rod tip dipped down. I got out my camera while John reeled in the line. Closer and closer to the boat it came, revealing a small rockfish, which we let go. After catching and releasing a couple more rockfish we paddled across the bay toward a tiny island covered in evergreen trees.
Four furry brown heads popped up from the water whuffing loudly in an angry sounding way.
Sea Lions
Sea lion #1: “What is that?”
Sea lion #2 “Let’s go see.”
John (rather smugly) “They’re coming right over to where we are.”
Me (having never before been in the vicinity of large beasts in such a small boat) “Can they tip us over?”
John “No.”
Sea lion #3 (Heading toward the kayak) “Do you think it’s hungry?”
Sea lion #4 “I wonder what it eats?”
Sea lion #1 “US!”
Four brown heads popped back out of the water, noisily snorting and puffing. They dived back under and zipped off, resurfacing in the distance.
Unlike the sea lions, a group of seals on a rock nearby completely ignored us. They seemed intent only on basking in the rare southeast Alaskan sun.
We stopped and dropped a line down to the bottom, using the same dart fishing lure as before.
Cluster of rock fish near the bottom:”What is that?”
“It sure looks tasty.”
“Mine, mine, mine, mine,” (ala the seagulls in Finding Nemo.)
“Oh, yeah, it’s mine……..Yiiieeeeee”
“Hey where did Fred go?”
“He got that thing and took off in a big hurry.”
“He never shares.”
Back at the surface, Fred Rockfish blinks at his first sighting of sun and sky. Once removed from the hook, he races to the bottom, debating over whether to warn the others or wait for them to bite the hook so he can have a good laugh.
Being the fastest sinking jig on the market, the candlefish dart reached the bottom before Fred did. Still looking for Fred, the other rockfish missed it and a small unknown stickleback sneaked in, grabbing the hook for its own quick ride to the surface. Point Wilson Darts catch everything.
seal splashing in the distance
Over at the seal rock, the fast rising tide quickly immersed their sunning area. The bright red kayak stealthily approached in hopes of photos. Too late, nothing left above the surface but heads. We should have come sooner before the water covered their rock. An eagle flew overhead and the seals spooked, splashing off into deeper water while the eagle’s shadow passed over their submerged rock. Like many furry spotted ping-pong balls, they bounced back to the rock as quickly as the eagle faded into the distance.
We paddled back to the Safari Quest, the silence of the watery wilderness broken only by the occasional call of a bird or voice from the ship carrying across the glassy bay. As much as it felt like it took forever paddling out, it seemed like no time at all on the way back. We hitched the kayak to the stern and climbed on the yacht, marveling at the weather. Michelle said it has never rained when she visits Alaska. So perhaps it was her last minute addition to our group that changed the weather rather than my lack of a sun hat.
We joined a group for a skiff ride to the beach and a hike on Marce’s trail. Marce herself, captain of the Wilderness Discoverer came along with the group. The odor of decaying fish invaded our nostrils, ever stronger the closer we came to shore. We walked along a beach populated only by seabirds and the occasional pink salmon swimming near the shoreline in search of its spawning stream. Dead and rotting salmon littered the banks of the stream. A few live ones still swam in the creek. Nature in action, nutrients for the ecosystem as well as scavenging birds and animals. All along the banks of the stream, we had to be careful not to step on slippery slimy spawned out salmon. How do they get so far from the water? How squishy that rock feels under my foot. Oops, not a rock. Thank goodness for those Alaskan tennis shoes!
King of the Stump
We followed a game trail where we could find one and bushwhacked where we couldn’t, always on the lookout for bears (which we did not find) and boot-sucking mud (which we did.) I found I could avoid the boot-sucking mud by walking mainly on roots, or at least green mossy areas tested for solidity with a poke of my walking stick. A rainforest is a very wet place even in the sun. We took a true wilderness hike with no man-made trails. Often we had to double back and seek a different path, always climbing over, ducking under, or squeezing through trees and brush. We came across some bushes dripping with sweet ripe blueberries.
“Release your inner bear,” Marce advised, munching happily.
Back on the beach as we awaited the skiff for the return trip, Nitakuwa, first mate of
spouting whale
the Safari Quest, told us everything we never wanted to know about the life cycle of barnacles. Starting with the fact that they are hermaphrodites. They possess the longest male organs proportionally to their size of anything in the animal kingdom. As they sit there on that rock, they can invade a neighbor some distance away. The larvae swim with the plankton, easily recognizable by their fan of legs. Barnacles are a crustacean, related to lobsters (though no doubt not nearly as tasty.) The larvae have a cement gland on their heads and swim with one chance of finding a good rock to stick it to where they will spend the rest of their life standing on their head. Perhaps that is why some prefer the bottom of a boat or whale. Those that appear upside down are actually rightside up. Such is the random life of a barnacle.
We returned to the ship to the delicious aroma of cooking food and a tasty lunch of pasta and brownies. As the boat got underway, we slipped into the steamy hot tub, the warmth enveloping our bodies as the jets massaged our feet and backs. What a view from the top deck of the ship. We could see the distance clearly, but not anything close to the ship from down inside the hot tub. Whales will poke their heads up now and then to look around, which is called spy hopping. From the hot tub,we did the same, looking over the side for whales while we cruised through Frederick Sound where humpbacks often hang out. Once we spotted whales, our inner photographers just didn’t let us stay there and watch. We all had to jump out dripping all over and grab our cameras. I had a bit of lens envy as all those folks with long lenses clicked away and I looked sadly at my little point-and-shoot while no whales came within its range. There’s a lot of photos on this cruise, but all do-it-yourself shots rather than the posed photos they take to try and sell you on the large cruise ships.
whale tail
A mother humpback dived deep below the surface, leaving her calf above on its own. The (not so) little one popped its head out as if in a spy hop, then thunderously slapped the surface. It repeated this behavior the whole time it was alone. The calf splashed and jumped about joyfully when mama whale returned with a blow of her spout.
The day ended with a dinner of prawns and berry tart and anchorage in Thomas Bay.
InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises combined and are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.
Cruise Stories 