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| Awesome beauty |
If there was really a Garden of Eden, it could very
likely be located somewhere in the largest state in the USA, Alaska. For
the beauty there seems unending and I only visited a tiny section!
I remember some years ago telling
a friend that I would like to visit Alaska and her reply was
that she had been on a cruise there and saw nothing but icebergs.
Well she and I must have taken
totally different routes as whereas I saw a couple of these, they were
insignificant to everything else.
We took a Disney cruise from
Vancouver, Canada in July 2019, arriving in Vancouver early,
not only to ensure that we didn’t miss the proverbial boat, but also to see a
bit of the province since we were in the area.
The unforgettable incident was when we were boarding the "Skytrain" to go downtown and being ahead of the others, I entered as the door opened . The others waited too long for a couple who seemed to have the whole day to go nowhere, to exit, but before they could enter, the train's door closed separating me from them. Naturally, I simply decided to stay on the train till it reached the waterfront exit, but I hear my granddaughter was inconsolable, thinking I had been lost. They all had to exit at the next stop and looked around for me to try and appease her, but naturally, I was nowhere to be found. When they arrived at the waterfront, she was so relieved to see me that she grabbed my hand and to hold on to me for the rest of the vacation.
That resolve lasted for about ten minutes!
Vancouver is as beautiful as I remembered
but the constant and regular rainfall which it is notorious for, did not mess
up this trip. In fact, it didn’t rain once while we were there.
We spent a lot of time at the waterfront
downtown near the convention center and there was so much to see there that we
didn’t even have time to hop on the ferry to visit the popular Victoria island.
Its a good thing we had visited it some years before.
What I found fascinating on this
trip was the numerous sea planes which were taking off in quick succession as
we walked around the waterfront. I had never seen sea planes outside of the
Eastern Caribbean but they are not half as many there. In both Vancouver and Alaska,
they are popular the mode of transport. It is understandable about Alaska as there
are so many islands there with no access by road but most of what we saw in
Vancouver seemed to be just for sightseeing or to go to Victoria island.
To get to Alaska we did not go much
by the ocean but rather sailed along in the huge fjords paved out by
glaciers hundreds of years ago.
As cruises go, all was well on
the boat and the entertainment good. We even got ourselves some Jamaican food,
as lots of Jamaicans work on board, having been recruited by Disney through
their office in Ocho Rios. That's how we wheedled a meal of escoviched fish, some
well kneaded flour dumplings and pear.
A most delicious treat.
The breathtaking scenery all the
way to Alaska was almost worth the cost of the trip. Going up the fjords too made
the passage not only calmer but extremely scenic. The stops were Juneau
the state capital, Ketchikan, Skagway and the glacier at Icy Strait
Point.
Our first stop was at the glacier
and believe it our not, that shore expedition was sold out. Being allergic to
the cold, I certainly had no intention of getting closer to any glacier but my adventurous
daughter had wanted to, although her sensible eight year old daughter out rightly
rejected the idea! But the ship went close enough for us to see it and it was
really awesome.
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| View of the glacier from the ship |
Those glaciers are the huge
things that melt over centuries and create beautiful gorges and fjords.
One would have expected that the
capital of this huge state would be big and blah as bureaucratic centers
usually are. But it was nothing close to that, and interestingly it is located
on an island with no road joining it to the mainland.
While we were there, it was
overcast and a bit cold and unfortunately for the residents, the ferry
operators were on strike. People therefore could only go to and from the
capital by small boats and sea-planes.
The strike was called because the Governor was
trying to cut back the transportation budget for the state. According to an
informant, he is a Trumpist who doesn’t care about poor people, hence
his trying to reduce the ferry and other forms of transportation for the
ordinary people.
My greatest desire once on shore,
was to see some bears but although we visited three temperate rain forests
in which they are supposed to be prolific, escorted by with guides armed with
bear spray, I never saw one live bear.
I was so upset when I heard from
Michelle that another passenger saw a momma bear with her three cubs just ten
feet from where they were! The only thing consolation prize was the wild
berries I fed on while hiking in those forests. And I must admit the
information about the circle of life and the flora in the forests area,
were interesting and informative.
What calmed me a bit after not
seeing any bears, was when we went by a small boat up to the North Pass,
to go whale watching. And we were not disappointed, as it is absolutely wonderful
to see six huge whales swimming in line as if they were sent to
entertain us.
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| A whale surfaces |
It was awesome and unforgettable, a memory I
was cherish for the rest of my life.
On the way back to Haines we also
saw a group of sea lions sunning themselves on a buoy without a care in the
world.
Skagway, which was sunny
and warm had even better weather, I was told, up to the week before when they
had 20 hours of daylight there.
In Skagway, population 2000, was
originally invaded and the native people displaced, when prospectors flooded
the area searching for gold, before the stories that cause the gold rush
turned out to be a hoax.
We went searching for bears and bald
eagles there too and whereas we did see numerous eagles and their nests, no
bears were in sight.
We however got a good story about
a former president, Warren Harding. According to local lore, he visited
the town, accompanied by both his wife and mistress. Six days after he returned
home, he developed severe stomach aches and died. It is said his wife insisted
that there should be no autopsy!
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| A beautiful glacier |
I guess the moral of that
story is that you should never take both your wife and mistress on the same vacation!
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The only bear I saw was in a store!
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Ketchikan, an attractive
little town, is big into shopping.... tourist type goods. It was there we met a
few young ladies from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands who
told us they travelled there each year from May to November, to work in the
tourist shops. They are provided with accommodation and transportation which
they say allows them to save a lot of money and really enjoy the months they
spend in Alaska.
While in Ketchikan we also
visited an interesting totem site and learnt a great deal about the
construction and meaning of these huge monuments as well as the tribes that use
them.
