Blogs from Alaska, United States, North America - page 208

In Search of the Midnight Sun - Chapter 3 August 3/4, 2008 On the ferry, we visited with an English couple who have bought a motorhome in the US and have been travelling North America for three years (with trips home to England in between). They are shipping the motorhome back to England this fall. He said they can double their money by reselling it there. We noticed a lot of different languages in Skagway. There are many international travellers coming in mostly by cruise ship. But, we have been keeping track of license plates and so far have seen 38 from the States, eight provinces, and three international plates we think from New Zealand, Switzerland and Germany. It certainly is getting to be a global community. Canadians are few - where are you?? We ... read more

What's hot: Totem poles What's not: Cruise fatigue Travel lesson of the day: Take the local bus. from Kathy: Ketchikan is one of the rainiest cities in North America, with more than 160" of precipitation annually. Giant slugs and giant vegetation and sagging porches are testament to the humidity. We arrived at 6 a.m. to grey drizzle and learned that this could be considered a weather bonanza for Ketchikan. It is 52 degrees. The kids stayed in bed while Paul and I went exploring. At the Native Trout Hatchery, we watched salmon struggle to make their last leaps into the hatchery pools. A native woman explains, "Salmon die anyway once they spawn. So we kill them and donate the meat to the senior citizen home." The eggs and "milk" are kept to run the hatchery. Notice, ... read more

What's hot: Global warming. What's not: Floating glacial ice. Travel lesson of the day: Mother Nature isn’t bound by cruise advertising. from Kathy: There are ice chunks all about us in the waters of Tracy Arm. The fjord itself is surrounded by dramatic, high mountains. A few tiny fishing boats skirt the ice. Half way up the fjord the captain turns the boat around, fearful of damaging the ship’s propellers on the ice. Many are disappointed about our shortened adventure. This isn’t what the brochure promised! No one says it but you can’t help but wonder: Is this is an effect of global warming? Ship’s naturalist Michael Modzelewski does a talk on glaciers and no lecture on glaciers today can go without this piece of news: the glaciers are melting. For instance, Modzelewski says the Sawyer ... read more

What's hot: Cruising Outside the Inside Passage to Juneau What's not: Juneau 101 Travel Lesson of the Day: You can run but you can't hide from the retail machine. Meet Your Personal Acquisition Consultant “I’ll be right there with you on the ground,” said Jennifer. Was she a military commander encouraging her troops? Was she a humanitarian leader taking volunteers into a disaster scene? Not. We meet Jennifer-the-Credit-Card-Wrecker at a session that was billed as a sort of Juneau 101. Having been to a million park ranger talks in the National Parks, we were expecting to learn some Juneau history, geology, economy, demographics--you get the idea. Instead—with trumpets blaring—a perfectly dressed, miked-up 5’5” 30-something powerball of acquisitive energy named Jennifer sprinted on stage and began throwing... read more

In Search of the Midnight Sun - Chapter 2 July 29/30, 2008 Arrived in Whitehorse and planned a couple days to recoup and renew our groceries, laundry, body and soul and plan the next phase of our Alaska trip. A trip to the visitor’s center and a look at the weather confirmed our original plan to head south to Skagway if the weather looked good and north if not. The idea being we would go down to the coast first and take the ferry from Skagway to Haines and carry on through the south area of Alaska and return via Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks and Dawson City on the north route. While in Whitehorse we toured the Klondike - the largest paddle wheeler to traverse the Yukon River. We walked the suspension bridge over the Whitehorse Rapids ... read more