Skagway to Vancouver

I just wanted to post a picture of Hubbard Glacier on the blog. I didn't have my pictures downloaded on previous post. The glacier is pretty impressive...300 feet high and moves at a rate of about 12 feet a day. To hear it move is impressive as well...sounds like thunder. We didn't see any major ice breaking off (calving) but some ice did slide into the water.Hubbard Glacier

Hubbard Glacier up close

Aug 3, Skagway
Since we all have been here before we didn’t book any shore excursions. Jack, Sue and I went into town and walked around a bit. Had lunch at a cute little café, “Sweet Nothings”. We found a Starbucks and a quilt shop, so I was a happy camper. We took a carriage ride around town…the town is about 300 people in the winter and swells to 1,000 plus in the summer to cater to the tourist. Tourism is their only industry. Food is barged up from Bellingham, Wa once a week, so even the milk they get is 10 days old by the time they get it. I don’t think I would do well living here.
There are fires burning all over British Columbia and we are in the middle of a very smoky city. It has been hard for me to breathe at times. The smoke is very heavy today; makes it look like fog.
Dinner tonight was in the dining room again. Nothing special.

Aug 4 Icy Straight Point, AK
Still very smoky and we all are having problems from it. We elected to not go ashore today….nothing but a Tinglit Village and tourist trap. However, they do have a zip line and I think I might like to do that someday…it looks fun. Perhaps on our next cruise when I can talk Jenn, Bev, Melanie, Janet and Suzi into going with me!!!!
Tonight was formal night on the ship. The last one. For such a short cruise there have been 2 formal nights…2 too many for me. We really liked not having a formal night on NCL. Jack, Suzi and I went to the show last night, a very good Broadway Shows Review. Al wasn’t up to walking that far last night (to the front of the ship) so he elected to go back to the room. He enjoys cruising, but doesn’t partake in a lot of the activities any more. It is really hard for him to get around anymore.
Formal Night

Wed. Aug. 5 Ketchikan (ketch me if you can)
We arrived this morning at 7:30 a.m. to a beautiful day in Ketchikan. NO SMOKE! What a cute little town this is. The ship docks right downtown so there was no problem for Al to get to town. We did the Duck Tour today, we had never done one and it was fun. Jack, Suzi, Al in front of the "Duck"

Ketchikan is a town of approximately 8,000 people year round. Of course the main industry is fishing, then tourism and logging. In the summer the town grows to about 12,000 people to take care of the tourist that come on the cruise ships. The only way in to Ketchikan is by boat or plane. Speaking of planes, this is a very, very busy float plane town. We are seeing/hearing about one or two landing or taking off every five minutes. Ketchikan proper is built on an island and the airport is across the river and there is no bridge to it, so you have to take a ferry to the airport.
There were 3 other cruise ships in town today. Our tour guide said they usually have between 12-14 ships a week in town. One of the ships, the Holland American Zaandam lost a passenger in Juneau on Sunday. It was docked right next to us there. Apparently a lady from Arlington, Washington jumped overboard to commit suicide. One thing for sure, if you live through your jump to the water, you won’t survive very long in the icy water. If I remember correctly, the water temperature in Juneau was an icy 39 degrees.
Tomorrow is a sea day and then we arrive in Vancouver, BC early on Friday. We are staying in Vancouver for the weekend, leaving late afternoon on Monday. We are both anxious to get home…our puppies and kitties await!
Aug 6 At Sea
Our cruise has really been smooth water. Hardly a ripple in the sea! Amazing compared to some cruises we have been on. We cruised the inside passage today and it was foggy this morning and we couldn’t see a thing. Then this afternoon it cleared up and WOW…what beautiful scenery we were treated to. Before we got to Prince Rupert there were a few logging or fishing villages along the coast. From Prince Rupert on down the houses that are built along the coast are amazing. We also had a beautiful sunset.

We are all tired of the food on board and are looking forward to having choices tomorrow! Not that you don’t have choices on board, but they all come from the same kitchen and it is beginning to all taste the same. I will say our dining room staff have been excellent. Actually the bar staff has Al’s number…the attendant will come to the table each night to ask Al if he wants his “coffee”, which is actually a Bombay Sapphire Gin Martini, with lots of olives. Packing tonight….UGH!
Aug 7, Vancouver
We arrived at 7:00 a.m., and by 9:30 a.m. we were off the ship. It is cloudy and a little cool in Vancouver. We took a scary cab ride from the port to our hotel. Of course we couldn’t check in until after 2:00 p.m., so we stored our luggage and took another scary cab ride to Gastown to catch the Hop On Hop Off bus tour. We toured the entire route today, and tomorrow we will go again (ticket is good for 2 days) and get off where ever we want. After we did the loop we stopped and had a wonderful Italian lunch at Al Polla. We watched the steam clock go off a few times as well. Then it was time to hail yet another cab for a very scary ride back to the hotel. That cab will have my fingernail imprints in its upholstery forever. I had to laugh because there were 4 of us stuffed into this Toyota Corolla, Al being in the front seat and he took up almost the ENTIRE front seat. The driver kept looking at him as if to say “Geez, you are big!”
After we got back to the hotel and discussed that we had already spent over $60 in cab fares just today and we weren’t done yet, we just might want to look into renting a car. I called around and got us a car for four days for $200; so another $20 later and one more wild cab ride, we now have a rental car. Thank goodness I brought my GPS with me! Jack and I will be drivers, and we are now free to explore. We would try and depend on the bus system, however, with Al not being able to walk very far (across the street tonight for dinner was agony for him) we knew that the bus option was out. At least this way he can see some of the sites from the car.
As I said earlier, we decided to just go across the street for Chinese food tonight…Al had a really hard time walking that far. We had to walk about a block uphill to cross this busy street we are on and he had to stop and rest twice; then after crossing the street he had to stop again. Glad we will be seeing the doctor next week.
We are all tired tonight and retired to our rooms after dinner. I took a short walk down the street to Starbucks, but decided not to get anything tonight. By the way, there are over 204 Starbucks just in Vancouver….I wonder how many are in Seattle? There is a Starbucks almost on every corner downtown and in some cases, Starbucks are directly across the street from each other. For people to lazy to cross the street????

Want to bore your self? Go to Alaska Cruise to see all our pictures!