Geo: 59.4583, -135.314For our third morning in a row, we next docked at Skagway, which was our furthest point north within the Inside Passage. Skagway is tiny – less than 700 year-round residents – and only exists because of the Klondike gold rush in the 1890's. The "city" sits at the bottom of the deep White Pass, which provided the easiest (VERY relevant term) access to the Yukon gold fields high above and north of here. A railroad was built in record time to ferry hopeful prospects up, and for a while Skagway had more than 30,000 residents. That died very quickly once the gold rush ended, and the city was all but deserted until Pearl Harbor, after which the U.S. Army arrived overnight – unannounced – seized control of the railroad (which required extensive repairs) ... read more

Geo: 55.3542, -131.691We docked in Ketchikan, Alaska very early on Wednesday morning. Given the hour, we opted for room service, as we had to meet for a tour we booked at 7:15am. The time change was still working in our favor, and as Alaska has its own time zone, we'd gained an extra hour of sleep simply by arriving in the state. We took a "wilderness" cruise to tour the Misty Fjords National Monument, which comprises more than 2 million acres of protected forest and seaways – it is larger than the State of Connecticut, and only accessible by plane or sea. Throughout our tour, we encountered many protected areas and national parks which were not put under federal administration until the 1970's. There was an omnibus bill Jimmy Carter signed in 1980 which created new ... read more

Geo: 49.2605, -123.114We were not rushed in the morning, but with the three-hour time change, alas we were all up well before the sun. We had our choice of coffee houses for breakfast as they are – quite literally – on every block, often with two or three in a row. As we headed out with our bags, headed back to the airport to meet our tour, our elevator stopped and – in one of those cliché "small world" moments – a guy I work with, who was called back to active duty and has been in Iraq since Summer 2008, walked on with his wife. We stared at each other in disbelief, with me hoping the woman he was with really WAS his wife. She was. Turns out he grew up in Washington, had just ... read more

Geo: 42.3316, -83.0478... read more

Geo: 39.0516, -77.4831Hello to all who are choosing to read this. I'm a bit intimidated, but I'm going to try something new and see if I can post this latest travelogue onto a compatible website, allowing pictures, video, etc. This is new for me, so please bear along. I'm going to write as usual, and see if I can finagle something on the web.As I think most of you knew, we decided to visit Alaska this summer. It has been on our list of places to go, and economic realities being what they are, it turned out to be a perfect time to go. When I was child, my grandparents drove my brother and I up to Alaska on the as-yet-unpaved Alaska highway all the way from the States back when I was seven years old. ... read more