5/23–Wrangell

This is a new port for us and we are excited to see it.  Again, sail in is beautiful – we are so fortunate with this weather.

Today we have 2 tours booked – morning and afternoon.  We start off with a quick (thankfully) canoe trip around the harbor to the Shakes Island tribal house.  The harbor is flat calm (phew), so it’s not so tough to get around.  While we are paddling, our guides give us a great history lesson on Wrangell, the Shakes Tribe and a lesson on fishing and the different boats in the harbor.

We pull our canoes ashore – just like the Shake tribes people did all those years ago when they landed here, and head up the embankment for the house.  At the end of the island there is a natural dry dock – but only for 4 hours at a time!  The tide is similar to Hilton Head – extremely large tidal shifts, but faster than HHI.  People can pull their boat up to this mooring, wait for the tide to go out, then work on their boat. But they have to be quick – we could see the difference from when we arrived until when we left a little over an hour later!  And where we had landed our canoes was completely under water – our guide had run out and moved them so we could get in them!

We got to explore the Shakes Tribal House on the outside and take pictures of the construction and the important totem poles there. 

Then we get to go inside for a special dance presentation.  6 of the tribes people are there and tell us stories about the native culture, their history and families – as well as how they just rebuilt and re-dedicated the Shakes tribal house with hundreds and hundreds of visitors, dancing and singing tribal songs.  They showed us dances and taught us words. It was really lovely (but no photos allowed!).

Back to the canoes to paddle back to the ship.  The water is still peaceful, the sun shining – it’s a beautiful morning outing.

Lunch on board, then back out to wander before our afternoon hike.  We headed over to the Native museum, which was fascinating and had great historical displays and the actual totems that were recreated for inside the Shakes Tribal house.

We meet for our afternoon hike, and meet two more lovely guides.  Everyone we have met here has been just amazingly friendly and so knowledgeable.  We hike up through a neighborhood

then onto a well maintained stair stepped walkway up the Mount Dewey trail following John Muir’s path.  It’s a pretty strenuous hike, climbing up all the way – but the views are worth it. 

Back down we go – to the ship – to the Captain’s party – then to dinner and our last day at sea!

5/22–Sitka

Another gorgeous day – we have so lucked out!  The sail in is amazing – gorgeous scenery with the twin volcanoes in the distance. Stunning!

Today we are doing a bike and hike tour.  We are taken out to the end of the road in a van, then grab bikes and head out for 2 1/2 miles on a gravel road that ends at a park.  The views are fantastic, but I can’t get the camera out to take a picture because I’m focused on the road!  Oh well – good memories at least!

Once at the park, we all get chocolate bars as snacks, then head up the trail following along a waterfall. It’s a pretty strenuous hike up the mountain, but totally awesome scenery makes it all worthwhile.  The waterfall is magnificent, rushing along beside the trail – and the snow in the mountains (and avalanche trench) is amazing.

We end up hiking pretty far up and make it to Bear Mountain waterfall before turning back. 

The hike down is just as fun – then the bike ride back goes by in a blur.

Back on the van to the ship where we hop on a shuttle and head into town to roam around.  We ask the shuttle driver where to go for a drink and she sends us to the Pioneer bar.  She says it’s historic and people like it.  We are thinking touristy – but no – this is as local as you can get. It so reminded us of Remy’s – where everyone knows everyone – unpretentious and casual. 

We have a couple of drinks, people watch, look at all the photos on the walls of boats and the town, then head back to the shuttle stop and the ship.

Once aboard, we go up to the pool deck to listen to the Sitka High School jazz band. Great group of kids – really nice little touch to bring them aboard. 

What a fun, fun day!

5/21–Tracy Arm and Juneau

The morning we sail through Tracy Arm, see the glacier (which I didn’t realize was a glacier – duh!) …

…. and arrive in Juneau ahead of schedule on another incredibly sunny day.  It’s so nice today, that we are able to hang out on the pool deck in the sun for a while before we disembark.  Incredible weather!

Today we are taking the Flavors of Juneau tour – not as active, but sounds fun!

First we go to Chez Alaska, a cooking school where we have a demonstration of zucchini wrapped salmon and red wine and strawberry sauce over ice cream.   The chef, Anna, and her husband, Jerry, are funny and informative, giving us a great insight into what living in Alaska is like.  The food is great too – and we find that we really do like salmon – if it is fresh!  And maybe even the right kind.  What we had today was Sockeye which was fantastic. So – we’ll see when we get home what we can find.

Next stop is Mendenhall glacier.  We’ve been before, but it is so neat, it’s worth the repeat.  It is one of the few glaciers you can almost walk up to and touch – our tour guide/bus driver told us when he was growing up you actually could walk up to the glacier. It’s receded too far to do that now though. We hike down the beach for better views of the Glacier and Nugget Falls, then head back to the bus.

Our final stop of the day is the Alaskan Beer Brewery.  Great local brewery with a wonderful story.  Ed loves the beer (and I don’t mind the White Beer they have our for summer), and the tour was great.  They also have a collection of beer bottles from all over the world.  None from Asheville though, so we got a business card and promised to send them bottles to add to their collection.

We then sample a lot of the different beer they had on tap, grab a t-shirt and coasters, then head back to the bus and the ship.

Once in town, we go to the Alaskan Brewery store for another shirt for Ed, then back aboard.