Alaska Part 3: Ketchikan and Victoria

On Friday of our voyage we arrived in Ketchikan. Unfortunately we were only docked here for a few short hours. I would loved to have spent more time here.  There is this awesome area here called Creek Street. All the buildings are up on stilts and the Ketchikan Creek flows beneath them. During salmon season you can see tons of salmon swimming upstream. Creek Street, actually, used to be the red light district of Ketchikan and there is a historic museum dedicated to this history. There is even a trail that leads to the street through the woods called "Married Man Trail." You can probably guess why it goes through the woods instead of through town. I guess in Alaska men outnumber women 7:1. We heard the joke a few times from the women here that "in Alaska the odds are good, but the goods are odd".

Creek Street

Nic and I got off the boat as soon as it docked to be able to browse Creek Street a bit (which is now mostly shops).  We didn't get much time, however, because Ketchikan was where we had decided to book our zip lining tour! Ever since my mom went to Alaska and raved about her zip lining experience we have wanted to try it. We were actually just planning on doing it without Nic's parents because Nic's dad has a serious (I mean serious) fear of heights. After mentioning it to them though they said they wanted to come along. It was pretty funny because the day we booked it Nic's dad kept calling me freaking out because he was watching the video on the company's website. In fact, we didn't really talk about it much until the day of so as to keep his nerves down. He did great though, and really loved the experience. One of our awesome guides tried very hard to distract him as he was crossing the rope bridges. So much so that she was pretty much rambling about nothing and at one point Lloyd looked up a her wondering what on earth she was talking about and she just said, "Hey, I'm just trying to distract you." Super nice people.

We rode the mountain to the base camp in an Unimog. This is the moment Lloyd saw the first zip line up in the trees.

Geared up.

Still looking pretty somber there Lloyd.

This was before our "practice run". We were about 8 feet off the ground for the practice.

This is after the practice run. Note that there is a walkway that goes right up to the platform.

135 feet up!

Victoria mastering the zip.

Some rope bridge action.

Nic in the trees. The shortest cable was 100 feet and the longest was 850! I wouldn't say I'm a lightweight, but my weight almost didn't carry me to the end of that one. Luckily I stuck my foot out last minute and the guide grabbed it. Otherwise I would have been hauling myself in hand over hand on the cable.

Very studly.

I see a smile! He loved it.

Here is one of our two fearless guides (I wish I had taken a picture of the girl). We all got medals upon completion of the course. Lloyd said he is framing this and putting it up at his office. We got some great video of the whole thing too, including one where Zach (pictured above) took our camera as he zipped down one of the longest cables. Very cool. If you are interested in the coolness of it visit alaskacanopy.com.

All alive and well!

At the beginning of the zip lining adventure we kept telling Lloyd that his reward would be the lobster night that awaited us on the ship that evening. It did not disappoint. This was formal night #2 and our last real night on the ship. Allow me to insert my plug for cruising here. Cruising is a really fun way to travel. Especially if you are traveling with someone other than your immediate family. You are "delivered" to gorgeous locations and you don't even feel like you are "traveling" to get there. We saw lots of singing and dancing, a magician, a comedian. We watched movies with popcorn, went to karaoke night, watched cooking demonstrations. We even went dancing one night. All of this while we sailed through one of the most beautiful places in the world. Seriously you'd be walking along and all of a sudden you'd pass a window and outside would be the most breathtaking view. It was perfect. Plus, we met some really interesting people. A lot of older people sail to Alaska (especially on Holland America). We met a Czechoslovakian woman who survived a concentration camp in WWII. She was alone on the cruise and we the opportunity to spend some time with her. At karaoke night we met a woman who use to sing on Broadway. She wowed us all with her karaoke performance. (Her cute husband was really good too.) So many interesting people and, to be honest, you begin to feel a sort of comradere with these people as you sail through such a beautiful and desolate place. Very cool. Anyway, that is my plug. On the negative (but also positive) side, the food is plentiful and by the end we were done. eating. 

Speaking of food. I did not eat ALL those lobsters. But as a table we probably took down 8-10 of those bad boys.

Not a great picture, but this is what a girl like myself looks like on dessert night.

Saturday we sailed to Victoria, British Columbia. I spent some time here in High School on a choir trip, and, I loved it so much that it lead to Nic and I spending some time here on our honeymoon. It is a beautiful city on a beautiful island. We were only here during the evening and Lloyd and Victoria decided to stay on the boat. So Nic and I set off to relive some newly-wedded bliss. Despite our food overload on the ship, we decided to eat at the restaurant we "splurged" to eat on our honeymoon. We are far from rich now, but as newly weds we were downright poor. It was fun to revisit the memories and we really enjoyed walking around the city for the evening.

Nic snoozing on the deck as we are en route to Victoria.

The Empress Hotel. It is the place royalty stays while visiting and faces the harbor. High tea is served here and is suppose to be quite the event.

The parliament building. 

And thus ends our Alaskan adventure. We docked in Seattle early Sunday morning, got off the ship and headed home. I loved every moment of this trip. It was stress free. It was relaxing. It was entertaining. It was stunningly beautiful. The best part, though, was spending it with three people whom I love very much. I loved going with Nic's parents and would travel with them again tomorrow if they'd have me. As for Nic, it was a much needed getaway for just the two of us. We talked, we laughed, we held hands, we stayed up late, we danced, we sat and did nothing at all. I can't think of anyone I would rather have experienced it with. Love you Nic.

Alaska Part 2: Juneau and Sitka

Juneau is a really beautiful place. It is nestled in between tree covered mountains, with waterfalls everywhere. It (along with most Alaskan "cities") is only reachable via plane or boat. In fact, 1 out of every 3 residents has a pilot's license just so they can get around.

We spent the day sight seeing and eating salmon in the woods. Loved this place.

We took this sweet bus out to Mendenhall glacier. Its called the blue bus. Go figure.

This is our engagement picture in front of the glacier and the waterfall.

There were these HUGE ice bergs out in the water in front of the glacier. The water was really clear and the ice was so blue. It was really beautiful.

This huge waterfall was right next to the glacier. Because, you know, the glacier alone wouldn't be cool enough.

After the glacier we headed into the woods to eat some fish. I didn't take very many decent pictures at the actual salmon bake, but there was a huge grill with tons of salmon cooking on it. A young guy was there playing music and they served the best chowder I've had in a long time.

Now a yellow bus.

After the bake we roasted marshmallows.

There was a beautiful area a few hundred yards away from the bake. There was an old mine there and some gold panning pans. There were gold flecks all over in the bottom of the river, so Nic and Lloyd spent some time trying to strike it rich. No such luck, but it was fun anyway.

(I think the two pictures below show the real connection my father-in-law and I have. I can't look at them without laughing.)

Strikin' it rich!

Perhaps Nic has found a new career.

After our tummies were full, we decided to take a spontaneous hike up one of the mountains. There was a gondola that went to the top, but it was $30/person. After talking with a couple of locals we opted to take a trail that traversed up the North side of the mountain. We were able to talk Lloyd into our insanity (he was quite willing to join actually) and so the three of us headed up the trail. It turned out to be quite a bit hotter than we expected, and we had left the ship earlier without plans to hike. But despite wearing jeans (not my preferred hiking attire) and having limited water, it turned out to be awesome. In fact, it was one of our favorite parts of the trip.

I found this randomly on the trail. Pretty cool.

Juneau from afar.

Headed to Sitka

In Sitka we decided to rent some bikes to see the area. Before that, however, we walked around town a bit just to get a feel for it. Its very small (its not the same town as you see on the movie The Proposal), but the people were really friendly and it was (as expected) beautiful.

This is the high school. The picture doesn't really show it, but it was tiny.

Yikes! We wanted to see what the cost of living would be here, and this is what we found. Five bucks for a gallon of milk. Super expensive meat. Super cheap Salmon. I could live on Salmon. (The lady at the store told us they get paid a lot more than people in the lower 48 do. She said she didn't feel like it was hard to live there and has lived there all her life.)

Heading out on our ride.

We rode up to a place called Whale park. There were these board walk trails everywhere. We went on our honeymoon to British Columbia and spent some time in a little town on the far west side of Vancouver island. There were tons of these board walk paths everywhere there and so it brought back some fun memories hiking around on them.

We didn't spot any whales here, but did I mention that we saw quite a few on our trip? Most of them we saw on our entrance into Glacier Bay. We also saw seals, dolphins, and bald eagles. The bald eagles in Alaska are as prevalent as seagulls are at the beach. Seriously they are everywhere. As much as I dislike birds, I have to admit that they are pretty majestic.

Sweet bike riding pants.

Nic loves to look for sea creatures.

And we found some.

 

Totem pole park. It was pretty cool learning about the different kinds of totem poles. The culture of the natives there is very much alive and its very interesting to hear about it from the people themselves.

Next up: Ziplining in Ketchikan and revisiting Victoria.