Seward, Juneau, and Ketchikan May 17 – 20

Ron went off to look at the Exit Glacier and visit the Sea Life Center (Alaska’s only public aquarium – we had visited it some years ago) while we were in Seward. A new excursion was offered and I opted for it – a talk by a vet tech at the Sea Life Center. The tech presented us with descriptions of animals that, I found out, were actual cases of rescue situations with which their center had dealt. What followed were some thoughtful and informative discussions on which animals were releasable and which weren’t, and which animals this facility is equipped to help and which are transferred to other places. They would much prefer to release but can’t always do so, especially in the case of young animals (otters, for instance) who stay with their moms for a couple of years. Humans aren’t very good at teaching otter survival skills but they have figured out how to teach baby seals to fish – and they only stay with their moms for 6 months. At Fish School a seal is introduced to a piece of fish in a tank about the size of a kiddie pool. Once it figures that out, living fish are introduced and it will graduate to a larger and larger tank as it gains experience.

https://www.facebook.com/AlaskaSeaLifeCenter/videos/fish-school/227234342677670/

The tech did followup with the rest of the story for all the animals we’d talked about – and which had been released after rehab and which were still living at Sea Life.

The next day was a sea day, (with sun!) and we got to cruise by Hubbard Glacier – another photographic wonderland. Stunning as usual.

We then had another A+ day – this time in Juneau – slightly drizzly but otherwise comfortable. Juneau – another mountainous, gorgeous location that’s perfectly set up for any sort of adventure you could imagine and can swallow up any amount of cruise ships that appear (well, maybe not any amount). There were 5 today – we were the mama bear size at 750 passenger capacity (Also docked were the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas, 4200 passenger capacity, and a Seabourne – about 450 and a couple of others. Since we’d been on several Alaska excursions in the past, we’d decided to check out the Alltrails app before we left home and took a hike. I don’t know where all the passengers were, but the very tourist friendly board walk along the pier was practically empty. Maybe they were all on tour – there are a LOT of tours in Juneau – helicopter and float plane trips, dog sledding, salmon bakes, canoeing, fishing, whale watching – you name it – it’s here. And, it was clear that the employees in the port cities were happy to see us – and we were happy to see them. We’d chosen a short hike (Gold Creek Flume Trail) that required a pretty steep uphill climb in town just to get to the trailhead. A friendly fellow stopped to talk, and when he found out where we were headed, immediately volunteered to take us to the trail. Along the way, he pointed to his house, then said he was a legislator and he hoped we wouldn’t hold it against him. He told us an alternate way to get back to town after the hike and informed us that he was flying to Anchorage later that day.

We thoroughly enjoyed the hike (and more dog contact), and the Alaskan beer at the pub afterwards (and the conversation with the waitress, newly arrived from Austin). A very good day.

As I mentioned, we’ve done many of the Alaska cruise ship excursions in our past, but we hadn’t yet done a self-drive ATV here, so that was the plan for Ketchikan. For some unknown reason, the place in the world that claims to have more rainfall than practically anywhere else had no rain the day we were there. And, for some other unknown reason, out of 700 passengers, we were the only ones on the tour. The bus driver who took us to the site gave us some history. For 40 years, the surrounding area was a pulp factory til it was blown up by a lottery winner (an 8 year old girl) in the mid 1980’s rather than being demolished. He was born and raised in Ketchikan, one of the major fishing industries in the world. Although he wasn’t happy about federal regulations in general and the myriad changes to the local economy, he did acknowledge that the area has been overfished. We also found out the ATV’s were originally Israeli assault vehicles that had been damped down a bit for tourist use. With that information, when we arrived and saw two young women (Monica and Sara) wearing camouflage clothing I couldn’t help but ask them about it and the source of the vehicles, based on what we’d heard. Sara blanched, and essentially said “NO, I’m a hippie!!! And, I’m from Colorado!” A good way to break the ice. Turns out that she’s fascinated with plants, especially growing them and gathering them for food. They outfitted us with helmets, explained how to operate the ATV (a TOM CAT – and yes, it was created in Israel) and we were off. Ordinarily, one of them drives in the front, and one brings up the rear, but since there were only two of us, they rode together and we followed. Our trail was an old logging road and we had a couple of stops to see a view of some of the many surrounding islands, a waterfall and to learn about the local flora and fauna. It was fun to swap stories and see which plants exist both in our neck of California and on Ketchikan. A black bear did appear on the road on our way back in front of Monica and Sara (they saw his companion as well) and immediately bolted away. I couldn’t grab my phone in time to take a picture – it was safely in my zipped pocket (lots of potholes – Ron enjoyed it a lot, especially when they told him to drive through them versus trying to swerve to avoid them.) It was definitely a fun trip.

An appropiately named Rhinoceros Auklet. He’s been there a pretty long time – rescued as a baby. He’s definitely imprinted on humans so he wouldn’t make it in the wild. The volunteer in the aviary was trying without success to keep him from approaching the little girl in the next picture (he liked her a lot….) He’s learned that if he jumps down, she has to call a trained employee who will pick him up and put him back in the tank. He likes the handling so he keeps doing it.

I really liked this display. Notice the time clock so you can test your breath holding ability.

I’m always fascinated with the logistics of running a city on the sea. This was a major restocking port for us. The orange “fork lift” will soon be picking up the white basket which is being loaded with crates of fruit by the black fork lift.

I completely agree with the pushback of smaller towns saying “stay away” to big cruise ships (Venice, for example). However, in Alaska the scenery dominates everything.

You can always tell when you’re seeing something spectacular when the crew shows up to watch with you. We’re approaching Hubbard Glacier.

For thos who haven’t yet been to Alaska, it’s really tough to get perspective. What appears to be a field of snow is actually the face of Hubbard Glacier, 350 feet or so exposed above the water line. It’s visible height is often compared to the Statue of Liberty, who, from ground level is 305 ft.

We were lucky enough to see the beginning of spring in Juneau. Residents were seeing the fruits of their labor – the gardens were blooming like crazy.

Although there wasn’t any snow where we walked, this was clear evidence of what happens when the mountains give way.