Alaska, Part II

Wednesday July 19         

Note... we are far from fast internet, so no photos... photos need fast internet... 

The ship docked early in Haines, Alaska, a smaller very Alaskan town.  Think Northern Expose... I suspect that for Holland America, this is an alternative port to the very crowded Skagway, a few miles up channel.  Many passengers are boarding a ferry for Skagway, then riding the White Pass & Yukon Railroad.  We are not…

We get off the ship to explore… There is a locally staffed information center at the land end of the pier… With maps and such, and a free shuttle about town…   We first visit the Bald Eagle Foundation, then the Hammer Museum (named for its subject matter, the hammer) then the Sheldon Museum, the local history and cultural museum,  the furthest only 7 blocks from the ship…  We stop for coffee and internet (posting part I of this tale)… We explore a few local stores… The town is thankfully devoid of the typical corporate cruise shopping opportunities.  Instead they have local shops with wonderful things…

Among the museums, the hammer museum particularly stood out… It was both wonderful and weird…  apparently the personal project of a single man obsessed with hammers… Out front is a giant hammer serving as a sign post… inside are rooms of hammers, well organized by industry or use, some with patents displayed… others speaking for themselves… I believe that the Hammer Museum knows that it is at best unusual, but is totally unapologetic about it.  In a competition of weird local museums it would likely win…  I recommend it highly and purchased a tee-shirt.

Heading back towards the ship we explored Fort Seward, the now abandoned Army base… Some buildings are now a lumber yard… others a bicycle shop and a adventure outfitter… we discovered an art space in the ruins of a burnt out barracks building.    One building is the Indian Arts Center… Where they let you explore the artist workshops.  One dedicated to large projects like totem poles, another to print making… These were not galleries but instead real work spaces with tools and such scattered about.  There was of course a gallery, but also a particularly chaotic cluttered office. It was welcoming.

We continued our tour by walking the parade ground, past the houses officer’s housing most now private homes but at least two now B&Bs.  Beyond was the fire house (now an office) with its hose tower where we discovered a small painted stone sitting on a displayed fire hose…  The stone was clearly placed there, but no explanation was offered…  We continued to explore…  We find a restaurant…  The Fireweed.  We had really good artisan pizzas and local beers.  We get directions to the brewery…   They told us that the mayor would be leading a native dance troupe which would be performing at the dock at 5:00…   

We re-board the ship, finding a second mysterious rock on the dock…  We are now intrigued… With time to spare before the dancing, we once again leave for “downtown” where we find the brewery… Along the way we find a third rock… We are now in search of more rocks… we ask about… no one will admit to knowing anything about our rocks… We have a beer… talk to man from Auburn CA…  We leave with an invitation to his cabin in Birney Falls where the fly fishing is good…

Heading back to the ship, we stop at one of the stores where Gael buys not cards… we continue to search for more rocks…  We fail to find any… back at the dock the rock there is now gone… Gail suspects that you are supposed to move them if you find one… I return to the fire station to photograph the first of the rocks… it is still there and when I turn it over it offers a link to a Facebook page… “Haines Alaska Rocks”…   Back at the dock the dancers are dancing… the Mayor one of two drummers leading the dancers…  Dancing for cruise ship passengers is traditional, but the motivation has changed…  Instead of entertaining us, they are now sharing their culture…  It is a subtle but significant change.

As we prepare to depart a cruise ship passes, outbound from Skagway… soon we are part of a parade of ships… lead by that ship, and followed by two more…  At the mouth of the sound we meet Holland’s Eurodam, heading north as we turn south…

Thursday July 20              

The ship docked early at Juneau, Alaska, the state’s capital.  Again, I awake very early and go out onto the balcony looking for whales.  It is dead calm… seas glassy… I should be easy to spot whales… Seeing none I return to bed.  Gael and I finally get up as we dock…  After breakfast in the Lido we head ashore.  We have not booked shore excursions, planning to find a way to Mendenhall Glacier…  We instead spontaneously choose a whale watching cruise, with a stop at the glacier on the way back…

We are aboard the green bus… research back home before we left has suggested that for glacier trips you want the white bus not the evil blue bus, but had not mentioned the green bus…  

The green bus took us north of town where our small boat awaited… a 16 passenger boat… With a captain and naturalist.   Leaving port we get the appropriate Coast Guard safety lecture… (if someone falls overboard keep pointing at them an laugh… so we can find them when we turn around… )

Quickly we find porpoises… small dark porpoises… Then sea lions on a bouy…  Beyond a whale is spotted.  The common local whales are humpbacks… Here to feed for the summer… while here they are generally solitary… we follow that whale (at a distance) as he (or she?) surfaces and blows several times then disappears for a longer dive in search of food…  Of course, as soon as a whale is spotted, a small fleet of boats converges to watch… and follow… until the whale gets bored and dives deeply, or until another whale is spotted beyond…   I suspect if you viewed the area from a small plane you would see clusters of small boats, each cluster with its own whale.

Our second whale takes deeper dives… and as we are running out time it dives, lifting its tail out of water, allowing the naturalist to identify the specific whale… based on the pattern on her tail…

It’s a quick trip back to the dock, then back on the green bus, and on to the glacier…

The glacier while crowded is a National Park Service site, so while crowded feels less exploitive… We climb the trail to the visitor’s center, then take the short hike to the falls, ending up below the falls on a sand bar in the lake, with a wonderful view of the glacier… The hike is not challenging… One woman is pushing her mother in a wheel chair..  another is wearing high heels…  The hike takes about 45 minutes… then back to the parking lot to get the shuttle back to town… in this case we are on the blue bus… which on this occasion is not particularly evil…   There had been a bear spotted on the way to the glacier, but by the time we reach the spot he is hiding…  So we don’t see him…  

Back in town we walk several blocks to the Alaska State Museum… Three years ago I had been here to advise museum staff on the way to restore a railroad locomotive.  That locomotive is now on display in their new museum, and I wanted to see it…

We found it, took pictures, then explored the rest of the museum… then headed back towards the ship, finding a Mexican restaurant, simply named Taqueria, which offered King Crab tostadas as well as cauliflower tacos and avocado enchiladas… It was wonderful… having eaten we walked through town, stopping at the Red Dog… then at the Alaska Brewing company store (the brewery, and beer were a short shuttle away…) and a gallery which had prints by a known local artist Rie Munoz…

We re-boarded the ship 30 minutes before sailing… Slipping down the channel past the Alaska Treadwell and Alaska Gastineau Mines… Then out into the main channel… southward as night falls and the world turns to gray… on to Ketchikan…  Reports to follow...