Alaskan Cruise Part 6: Seward

Once again, my stellar procrastinating blogging skills have shown themselves and its taken me forever to get to our last Alaskan adventure post.  We finished up our cruise in Seward, Alaska and it might have been my favorite town on the whole itinerary.  Since we weren't leaving Seward until that evening, we chose a late departure from the ship, which worked out nicely because we weren't contending with nearly as much of a crowd as we would have earlier.  

When you leave the ship, you head straight to a little welcome/visitors center where you can pick up your luggage.  If you have no idea what's going on, which is usually the case for me, there are a couple of employees there that cheerfully answered the same questions that I assume a million people before me had already asked them.  From the visitors center you can hop on the free Seward shuttle bus that continuously circulates through town.  They took us and our luggage to the train station where we checked our bags for our evening train ride to Anchorage.  If you have carryon bags that you'd rather not tote through town all day, you can leave those at the train station office as well, which was a nice surprise.

From there, we took a stroll along the water just enjoying the scenery and trying to decide how to spend our day.  There was a playful sea otter just chilling off the beach so we watched him for a bit before making our way to the Seward Sea Life Center.  Its a bit of a hike from the train station, so if you'd rather not walk, the bus stops there as well, but the view along the water is well worth the hike if you ask me.

 

The Sea Life Center was really interesting and has some really cool exhibits, including a bird room where you can get up close and personal with some friendly Alaskan sea birds.  Definitely worth checking out if you're in Seward. 

From the Sea Life Center, we wandered back down the main drag in town and had some lunch at the Chattermark.  I just had a burger, but the hubs tried the caribou stew and says it was pretty tasty.  After lunch we hit a few shops then just wandered about the neighborhood streets enjoying the weather until Colby declared that he heard a bald eagle.   As it turns out, he knows his birds and sure enough, we found a pair nesting in a tree.  We managed to get some pictures before a fire siren went off and sent them both off into the distance.

At this point we still had most of the day to kill, so we decided to head up to Kenai Fjords National Park to check out Exit Glacier.  You can catch a shuttle with Exit Glacier Guides for ten dollars a person, but I recommend calling ahead to make sure they have room in the bus.  We didn't, but luckily, they managed to squeeze us in.  You could spend all day hiking and exploring in the park, but if you only have a couple hours, that's still plenty of time to walk up to the glacier from the parking lot.  Its a nice paved trail for a good portion of it though it gets a bit more strenuous if you want to get right up next to the glacier.  I've read that the park rangers also give a free tour hourly, but we just explored a bit on our own.

When we made it back to Seward, we found a little watering hole and settled down at the bar to snack and have some beverages until it was time to head back to the train station.  If you're in town, have a drink at Ray's Waterfront Restaurant.  You can't beat the view!

We ended the trip with one of my most favorite parts... The train ride from Seward to Anchorage on the Alaskan Railway.   I had great intentions of taking some pictures along the ride, but it turns out they serve dinner on this train... and we all know how easily distracted I am by food.  I had read some reviews of the food and they weren't great, but we really enjoyed our dinner.  And its "party seating" which means if there are just two of you, they sit you with two strangers.  Luckily we got paired up with a lovely couple from Anchorage who had come down on the train that morning for a date day in Seward (how romantic is that??).  We spent the entire ride in the dining car chatting and having drinks with them.  It was a blast.  And of course we thoroughly enjoyed the view along the way, even if we didn't take any pictures.

Sadly, all things must come to an end, including vacations.  So when we arrived in Anchorage late that evening, we grabbed a taxi (be prepared for a wait!) and headed to the airport for a 1am flight back to the real world.  

Alaskan Cruise Part 5: Hubbard Glacier Cruising

One nice thing about not really ever adjusting to the three hour time difference between Alaska and Texas is that the early morning scenery from our balcony was perfect for enjoying a cup of coffee.  

The view ON the balcony isn't too bad either if you ask me :)

And after a bit, the announcements began over the loudspeaker to let us know that we were entering Disenchantment Bay, home of the Hubbard Glacier.   While being able to watch the coast go by from our balcony was pretty awesome at any given point on the trip, being able to hang out in our own space for the glacier viewing was pretty epic.  No need to push through the crowd to get a good view on the upper deck... we had a front row seat the entire time.  We even enjoyed some room service and the company of our neighbors, from a comfortable distance of course.

As a side note, Royal Caribbean's proprietary Bloody Mary blend is awful. Hence Colby's face above.

According to the captain, this was some of the best weather they have seen this season in Disenchantment Bay and the closest they have been able to get to the glacier in some time.  If you're worried about being on the wrong side of the boat, don't be.  We spent several hours in the bay doing lazy 360's so that everyone had a chance to enjoy the view.

There were some pretty impressively sized icebergs floating around, and it makes one wonder just how much more of it there really is under the surface.  Not to worry, the ship stayed well clear of the big ones.

The pictures don't even do it justice; the glacier is truly breathtaking.  And you just can't imagine how loud the popping and cracking noises that the glaciers constantly make are.  Colby even managed to get some shots of it calving a couple times, which was pretty much his goal for the day.

The Turner Glacier also exits into Disenchantment Bay.  Its smaller and not nearly as pretty as the Hubbard Glacier.  There was a trio of sea lions basking on an iceberg in the far left of this picture but we didn't have a zoom lens long enough to get a good shot.  Definitely want to bring a pair of binoculars on this trip.

I can't help it! He's just so good looking... 

After a while we slowly made our way out of the bay and out to open water so we could spend our final day on the Radiance cruising towards Seward. As the cruise to Seward was out in more open water than previous days, the water was quite a bit choppier than it had been throughout the trip up to this point.  In fact, we spent a good portion of the day relaxing in our room watching tv, reading, or just napping.  I'm sure its because of the rough seas... It had nothing to do with partying and dancing our tails off with some new friends the night before.  Surely not.

Alaskan Cruise Part 4: Skagway

Our next port of call was the little borough of Skagway, population 920.  Unless, of course, there are four cruise ships docked, in which case the population skyrockets to roughly one million.  That may be a sliiiight exaggeration, but I kid you not... there were people EVERYWHERE.  

The first sight you see when you get off the boats is the rock wall along the docks covered in emblems and insignia from countless cruise ship crews over the years.  Its kind of neat to see, and some of them are quite clever.  (look for the giant skull if you're there).

From the docks its a bit of a hike into town but its a pretty stroll and if you are there during the right time of the year you can watch the salmon try to make it up the little stream as you cross.  We caught the very tail end of the run so there were just a few occasional stragglers, but it was still kind of neat to watch them.  Skagway itself is quite a scenic little town with false-fronted buildings in an array of colors that recall a bygone era of dog sleds and gold miners.  At least until you get closer and realize that most of the buildings are filled with cruise-owned jewelry stores and other tourist trap type places.  

We had the entire day in Skagway and since we didn't book any excursions, we exhausted our options of free stuff to do fairly early on.  Should we ever do this cruise again, we will definitely consider an excursion at this port of call.  Based on some overheard conversations on board later that night, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad is good choice.  We opted against it since we were already taking the train from Seward to Anchorage later in the trip, though I suppose there's no rule that says you can't take two train rides.  Alternatively, an idea we didn't come across until after we returned home was to rent a car in Skagway and take a scenic drive to the Yukon territory, which I think might be more our style.  

 They don't need cow catchers on the trains here.  They just need big ass snow movers.  

Despite being somewhat disappointed in Skagway, (In so much as one can be "disappointed" by being in Alaska), we did find a few little gems that were worth some time.   

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park visitors center in the depot has some really interesting displays covering the Klondike gold rush, and the rangers are extremely knowledgable and seem more than happy to answer the questions being thrown at them more or less constantly.  It gets a bit crowded though, especially as people crowd around the rangers to listen, so patience is definitely a virtue here.

Another interesting place was Corrington's Alaskan Ivory and free museum.  The museum is located off the gift shop and is small but filled with Alaskan history and carved walrus tusks.  The gift shop itself is worth a look as well, just to see all the gorgeous carvings.  It too was pretty crowded, and I am clumsy; so I am always fearful in places like this that I am going to knock over a priceless item and end up spending ten grand on two halves of a carved moose antler or something.  But for those who don't suffer from wild irrational fears, its probably not all that anxiety inducing.

I'm not sure if they are a locally owned shop or not, but the Alaskan Knife and Ulu shop had some really gorgeous Ulu knives, including anything from affordable utilitarian knifes meant for actual use to some really expensive art pieces disguised as Ulu knives.  As a side note, if you buy an Ulu knife, for the love of all that's holy, don't buy one that says "Made in China."  They also had some animal pelts of some sort for Colby to drool over, which is good because for every man store I go to, I can drag him to a yarn store with less guilt over him wanting to stab his eyeballs out.  

Which, now that I mention it, I did drag him to one in Skagway called Changing Threads.  The lady there was SUPER friendly and talked with Colby for quite a while about wind power, which was nice because then I could feel even less guilty since she was keeping him entertained.  They had some beautiful quiviut yarns, which are made from the undercoat of the muskox.  Because muskox apparently don't produce mass quantities of fiber, its quite possibly the most expensive type of yarn you can find.  Even for just one skein I had to think long and hard about rationalizing such a purchase... but don't worry; I managed.   

Our last stop, on a recommendation from someone in Juneau, was for lunch at the Skagway Brewing Company.  Sadly, on this one I have to say don't bother...  My salmon burger was tasty if nothing special, but Colby's wings were awful and the beers were just so-so.  We should have followed the crowd to the Red Onion Saloon.  Ah well... live and learn. 

I was going to include the Hubbard Glacier day on this post, but I seem to have gotten a bit wordy and that post is going to be super picture heavy, so I will end here.  Actually, I will end with quite possibly the greatest t-shirt spotted on our entire trip.  As a born and bred Texan, Colby was somewhat less appreciative of its awesomeness than I was. 

Alaskan Cruise Part 4: Juneau and the Taku Lodge

Juneau was probably our favorite stop of the whole cruise, and I could totally see myself living here.  The locals did tell us that it has been unseasonably warm this summer however, so perhaps I would be less keen to move if visiting during "normal" weather.   I bet the fall is beautiful though... right up until the point it gets blanketed with ten feet of snow.

We docked early and spent a little time walking around town before heading down to the waterfront to hitch a ride to our excursion to the Taku Lodge.  

Now don't get me wrong, I love to fly.  I may be a professional adult, but I will still knock someone down on a Southwest flight to make sure I get a window seat.  There's just something about watching the world go by from 30,000 feet; but commercial airplanes are like giant buses.... as in, they are pretty stable.  Something about climbing into this little contraption made me a bit nervous.  Not so much that we were going to crash, but more that I might become violently ill and vomit on my fellow passengers.  

As it turns out, the ride was actually lovely, with very little turbulence.  And even better, EVERYONE gets a window seat.  No fighting necessary.  

how hot is this guy??

And besides, the views were so amazing that I was too busy looking out the window to even think about getting nauseated.  

The flight takes about 45 minutes and flies over five glaciers and some of the most amazing scenery ever before landing on the Taku river in front of the Lodge.

The first thing you notice about the lodge, besides the breathtaking scenery, obviously, is the smell of grilling salmon.  Which happens to smell pretty amazing.  Much like the crab, I am fairly certain it is impossible to get bad salmon in Alaska.

om nom nom!

Humans aren't the only ones who enjoy the smell of delicious grilled salmon... This is Gaby, one of the regular black bear visitors.   The bears that come to Taku Lodge are wild bears, and the lodge doesn't actually feed them; but, since the salmon is grilled outside, they can't really stop the bears from cleaning up the drippings.   They do make sure that the bears don't threaten the safety of the guests though.  

After wandering around the grounds for a bit and checking out the gift shop, we all headed inside for lunch.  And Oh. My. Gosh. It was AMAZING.  Fresh salmon, baked beans, coleslaw,  apple compote... plus the most delicious herb biscuits ever.  It would be pretty much impossible to leave this place hungry.  Much easier, on the other hand, to leave it painfully full.

why waste freezer space when you can just chip ice off a glacier...

To work off some of our gluttony, we decided to take a little walk.  We thought we were walking on a trail that looped through the woods and back to the lodge, but after walking quite some ways, with no turn in sight, we decided to turn around and head back.  Its a good thing we did, since it turns out we were actually on a three mile trail to nowhere.

There was about an hour for exploring after lunch before we heard the sound of the seaplanes coming in with the next round of guests and it was time to load back up for the flight back to Juneau.  Once we made it back to town, it was time for the real goal of our trip to Alaska...

Through a friend of Colby's who is originally from Alaska, we have recently discovered the wonderful beers of the Alaskan Brewing Company.  They aren't available everywhere in the lower 48 yet, but we have been lucky enough to get them here in Texas and they have pretty much become Colby's favorite new beer.  So of course we stopped into their store in downtown Juneau, then hitched a ride up to the brewery itself for a little tour and taste testing.  

If you are renting a car in Juneau, its a short, easy drive up to the brewery.  But if you don't want to hassle with all that, you can catch a ride on their shuttle for $7 a person.  They leave once an hour and you just hop in the van with a bunch of other beer lovers and take a scenic tour through town and out to the brewery.   If you're lucky, perhaps you will get the same tie-dye wearing van driver we had and you can enjoy his entertaining take on living in Juneau. 

You start out as a group with a guide that gives you some mini beers and goes through the history of the company and some info on the beers you get to sample.  Then they turn you loose in the bar/gift shop where you sample even more beers!  Yay for free beer!!

And then, if you haven't had enough beer, when you get back into Juneau you can kill the rest of your afternoon at the infamous Red Dog Saloon.  This beer definitely wasn't free, the place was completely packed with tourists, and the musical performance was mediocre... but we did get some delicious duck farts.  So we counted it as a win.

All in all, it was a pretty spectacular day.  And if you find yourself in Juneau, make sure you do the Taku Lodge excursion.  Even the locals say its something everyone should do while in Juneau, which is saying something.