Alaskan Cruise Day 6 ...... Ketchikan Alaska

Hello Ketchican.  Catchy name that one!  Did you know its the salmon capital of the world?  Nope nor did I but we all do now!


  See proof, the sign says so.



There were four cruise ships docked!  Two Princess ones, us and an NCL one.  John liked the NCL colours, the kids liked the huge movie screens up on the Princess top decks (How come our ship doesn't have one of those?). We are the ones with the dark blue hull.

Ketchikan is actually on an island, with its airport on another island.  You have to take a boat across to get there, although most air traffic is once again float planes.  These are seriously cool things and  if you can get the Sarah Palin images out of your mind, they would be worth the $150 for a flight if we had more time.  It was fun just watching them take off and land.  Most of the houses are along the waters edge and have their own docks with either a boat or a float plane....if you are rich both.  Land is a bargain but building would kill you. 

Coming into port we saw orcas dear a dry dock.  Biz was pressed up against the window calling "Here fishy, fishy, fishy", must have worked.  No photo once again!

The Ketchican Duck Tour was our first activity for the day, its a bus tour with a difference, you get to drive around on the water.  You should have seen the kids faces when we were going down the boat ramp.  Like all good boat ramps there was some dude parked on it when we wanted to get out. So we did lappies in around the docks.  As you do!

 

Fishing is the other big industry (apart from tourism and timber)

There is even a Deadliset Catch tour There is one here which was in the show early on.

This isn't the boat!   

Told you these things are cool, look his and hers!

A little more about Ketchikan.

Here the kids are hanging off a statue in the port. 

Every photo he stuck his tongue out, every one!

Whats the best thing about the duck tour? Sticking your head out the port holes like a puppy.

Class my kids, all class!

Glacier Bay....more photos

 I'll say nothing but let you drink in the visual splendour .....

that is Glacier Bay National Park.

Now try and so some work after SOMEONE leaves me a comment!

Day 5....Glacier Bay National Park....Sunday July 15th

This was the day I had been waiting for.  Bella and I were up early for our now standard two dippy eggs, toast and bacon.  She has been eating really well this trip.  They had told us that early in the morning you might see Humpback whales then a little further on orcas as well as sea otters and seals.  Bella notice some dolphins and ea otters playing while we were eating.  Headed out on deck to see what we could see (no bear yet Mum!).

It was a little grey but the cloud had started to lift and you could see little glimpses of the sun, it was just magical.

Eventually we were joined by the boys team, who finally got out of bed. They fuelled up on Vegemite toast (got to love that they had Vegemite on the boat), pancakes and a big breaky for Daddy, the kids decided they wanted to go to Club Hal. John and I got to go up on deck and take it all in.

Then they said that a bear was sighted on the shore near the sail boat.

Sure there is a bear, ita the black blob and I am running with that!

 

Anyway this started to make up for the bear!

Other people looking, they served pea and ham soup on deck for the glacier spotting.

 

Icebergs, Rhys asked when we saw him at breakfast if we had seen any icebergs. Hadn't then but we started to now.  He had learnt about Titanic, (did I tell you a family two streets over, from where we live,  were lost in the sinking?), and was worried we might sink.

Getting bigger.....

Me and pink blankie.

Oooohhhhh

More to come, bit slow on the upload..............that's the computer not me!

Skagway...White Pass and Yukon Route

When we booked the cruise, of course there are heaps of add ons and shore tours.  It would be quite easy to double the cost of the cruise with extras!  BUT since its a once in a lifetime chance, we decided to have a look at what was available.  Having three kids is also rather expensive as it had to be something they could do.  We found out that you can leave your kids in the kids club on port days but we do prefer their company, most of the time.  (Although I would like them to sleep in their own beds, as Biz snored, H wiggles a lot and Mr R well he just has to tuck himself under you and he also kicks off the blanket)

Skagway has an old railway that is reported to be very scenic and good for kids, given we have a train mad little boy and don't mind the odd trip ourselves, this is what we decided to do, more about it here.

The White Pass and Yukon was built in 1898 to service the gold rush that was happening in the Klondike and it took just over two years to build, not too bad!  It goes from Skagway, where the ships would arrive with supplies for Yukon and also take mineral concentrates out.  The railway was closed in 1982 due to economics but given a new life as a tourist attraction when it reopened in 1988

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Here she is, most of the time it is pulled by diesel locos but they do have a few steam engines for special occasions.  As you go past the workshops you can see them and a few others who are no longer in service or out of action for good.  Each of the cars are restored and given a name from the local area.

Tickets please! 

Not long after she fell asleep and didn't wake up to the halfway point!

This is how the coaches are kept warm!  We picked a seat close by.

Beautiful rivers race through the landscape.  The round trip takes about three hours and turned around just after the Canada-US border.

The jagged peaks show where the glaciers have been in the past.  If it is jagged it stood above the ice, valleys with a rounded u shape have typically had glacial movement.

The old bridge.  Didn't go on this one!

We did go on this one. 

 They have a special rotary snow plow that clears the tracks that looks like a massive fan.  This a a great clip from you tube.  It is over 100 years old!

On the way out, just as you pass through the town, there is an old steam engine rusted and worn with its snow plow still attached and beside the tracks, down a gully another lies wrecked and slowly decaying, taken over by the surrounding woods. 

They were doing track maintenance near one of the smallest police stations I've ever seen

These are the Bridal Falls and the shot doesn't do it justice. 

This cantilever bridge is one of the worlds engineering masterpieces along with the Eiffel Tower. 

This is where the train decoupled and chuffed around to the other end to. make the return journey.  We had to flip the seat backs over so we would be facing the other way

Was it worth it?  Yes.  Would we do it again Yes, even with the kids.