This past month John and I were able to go on a trip to Alaska! It was a gift given to us by John's brother Jordan who used his points to fly us to Anchorage and he secured us a stateroom on the Coral Princess. Initially, the plan was to take John's Dad with us, as the plan had been to gift him with a trip, but he ended canceling because he didn't feel comfortable with the thought of traveling. A gift for Max still needs to be decided on now, but John and I kept our travel plans and decided to still go. I am so glad that we did. It was an opportunity of a lifetime!!
I really still can't believe that John and I actually traveled together somewhere!
We flew to Anchorage and then left out of Whittier. We visit Hubbard Glacier, sailed up through Glacier Bay, rode a train in Skagway, watched Whales and hike to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, and attended a lumberjack show, fished for salmon and ate fish tacos in Ketchikan!
It was all incredible!!
While on the ship, we rested, went hot tubbing, watching movies under the stars, went to shows, ate as often as we wanted and walked the deck as much as possible in search of whales. I felt such gratitude for every single Alaskan moment that I could share with John.
Moments that took my breath away include:
Flying on a plane!
I still don't understand how these massive vehicles can float in the sky, but holy cow, I was unprepared for how cool it would be to see the TOP side of a cloud!
We were definitely new to the whole airport thing. It took us a while (and a lot of questions to strangers) to find the right check-in lines, etc. John got frisked and had his knife confiscated (he's a fisher at heart - he always has it on him. haha;) and suffered a bit of motion sickness while flying, but overall I think we pretty much conquered the world.
At one point, after a stop in Seattle and hours in the air, the Captain announced that we were approaching Anchorage and encourage us to look outside the window if we hadn't yet. I'd had a blind over our window (we figured it would help John feel better) and when I obediently opened it, we were greeted with the most beautiful snow-capped view of the rugged Alaskan terrain.
Breathtaking.
We spent the night in Anchorage and as soon as we woke up, we took a shuttle down to the train station which was conveniently next to ship creek. We were going to get to Whittier (where the ship was) via a scenic train ride. While we waited for our time to board the train we walked down to ship creek and watched the locals fishing for salmon.
There were so many people catching Salmon. John was a little envious and had we a couple of hours to spend, we probably would have just rented him a rod. haha.
I was happy to just watch those beautiful little swimmers swim upstream (they were spawning) and fight their way toward their destination further up the river.
What a remarkable instinctual trait.
I wish they didn't have to work so hard, right at the end of their lives, but what determination!
Breathtaking.
The train was another first for us as we've never really ridden on one of those either.
(Unless the ride at Calaway Park counts;)
This is where we got our first real glimpse of the Alaskan countryside.
We rode past mudflats, traveled alongside the ocean for a while, noticed the first of many Glaciers, and past by Baluga Rock (a place where local Natives used to stand to watch the Baluga whales.)
Scenery like this had me feeling pretty excited!
Shortly before noon, we arrived in Whittier and the Coral Princess was the first thing we saw!
Oh, the excitement!!!!
We were some of the first to arrive and we immediately set out to tour the ship.
It included indoor/outdoor pools and a giant movie screen on the top deck, two theatres, nine restaurants, a spa, an "oasis" area for adults to go, a gym/workout facility, and lots of shopping!
It was grand. Extravagant really. I'd maybe even go so far as to say it was glutinous.
Breathtaking.
We settled in quickly and within a few hours we were already traveling through channels of ocean water - Hubbard Glacier being our first real stop of note.
We saw seals, sea lions, puffins, and whales spouting off in the distance.
When traveling to see glaciers though - it really was the glaciers that had our attention.
Hubbard Glacier (shown in some of these pictures) was 6 miles wide and 76 miles long, stretching far back beyond any distance we could see. They are massive!
We were able to get up close to several glaciers and it was always an exciting moment to see a large chunk of glacier crack off and crash into the icy water. It is called "calving" and we were lucky to see some active calving moments.
It sounds like thunder!
Breathtaking!
Every evening we would carve out a bit of time to eat (usually in the Bordeaux dining room) and then we would walk the deck until as the sunset. It looks like we were trying to be romantic, but really we were just determined to see every whale we possibly could!
I really need to interrupt this post for a minute to journal about the food, because oh, my...the food!
I was not prepared for what "all-inclusive" meant. Let me try to break it down.
* It meant dining anytime in the horizon lounge. 24 hours a day. Brownies and chocolate sauce at 1 am people! (If that is your thing. And why wouldn't it be?;)
* It meant fancy dining in the Bordeaux dining room any time we wanted. Waiters put cloth napkins on our laps for us!
* It meant lobster tails and crab legs and shrimp and mussels and clam chowders...
* It meant two - even three entres if that is what we wanted
* It meant three desserts (because sometimes it was just too hard to choose just one)
* It meant we could walk up to the pizza guy and ask for pizza any time (Nate's version of heaven, right there;) Same thing with ice cream cones too!
* And finally, most obviously - it meant 9 legit pounds gained in 7 days.
John was impressed with the food for sure, but for some strange reason seemed to only eat when he was hungry. (lame!) I ate all the time, any time, just as my ship card told me to do. (It said right there on the front "Anytime Dining." I like to be obedient in all things! ;)
Would anyone believe that even the food was ...Breathtaking?
It was.
Skagway was our first port.
It is here that we took a scenic train ride up to the White pass Summit. We had purchased this excursion thinking it would be one that Max would enjoy. He probably really would have liked it as it took us through tunnels, up and around a mountain, along a trail that the settlers used during the gold rush and then back down again.
It was a stunning ride, for sure.
John and I made quite a pair though. While on the ship - John would occasionally struggle with feelings of motion sickness but any time we were off the ship - I did!
As much as I loved touring the beautiful area around Skagway, I looked forward to getting back on the ship where the ground felt more stable beneath me. ...weird!
Juneau was our second port and the stop that I was looking forward to most of all!
I'd purchased a whale-watching excursion that included a hike to Mendenhall Glacier.
In hindsight - I wish I had booked an excursion that did not include a hike as all I wanted to do was look for whales, but John kept reminding me that this way we got to see more of the country.
(I suppose;)
The whale watching really was where it was at though. (Above is a picture of our guide James.)
The humpback whales are the ones most commonly seen in these waters at this time of the year. They migrate up from Hawaii to feed and store food/energy before heading back to more tropical places.
While in Hawaii they are apparently quite active, breaching, mating and doing all sorts of things to show off. While up here though, they are focused solely on eating and so we didn't see a single breach. We saw lots of tails though. Lots of backs and lots of tails.
In this picture below, you may notice the black and white tail. I was able to use this photo I took to match it with a whale that has already been identified. (James had a book on his ship that contained tail pictures of every whale they've been able to ID so far.) . That particular whale is called "Flame" and Flame actually had a calf with her whose name was "spark."
In the top right corner of the above group of photos, you can see a large pectoral fin. That fin belongs to another ID'd whale named "Barnacles." Barnacles was fun to watch because she had her calf with her. She was slapping her giant fins against the water, rolling over, and clapping. She was teaching her baby another way to communicate. (There is another picture of that below too.)
Isn't nature spectacular?
Breathtaking!
It was nice to see Mendenhall Glacier but I found out later that had I booked the other excursion (without the glacier stop) we would have seen Orca!!! Blast!!!!
But, as John would say, "this way we got to see more country" so...yay, I guess ;)
During one of our evenings out on the deck, we were able to spot an incredible number of Humpback Whales! I say there were probably 22, John says almost 40. Despite our inaccurate accounting - take our word for it - we saw a lot of whales!
We must have traveled through an area where the feeding was good or something. Even though these creatures refrained from breaching or putting on a show, they were still spectacular to watch. It was in these moments while staring out at the seemingly endless ocean, being blessed to watch the sunset or see a magnificent animal in the wild, that I always felt the smallest. Not insignificant (quite the opposite really) but completely and utterly small.
It's the best feeling. Breathtaking, really.
Ketchikan was the last port we really got to explore and I wish we could have had more time here. Such a fun little town!
It's the salmon capital of the world and for good reason. We left our ship out on open waters and rode on a smaller emergency watercraft to a drop off location with instructions to be back in six hours. (Hardly enough time when visiting a cool little town like Ketchikan.)
We used up one of those precious hours watching a Lumberjack show. Even though it was a very staged and rehearsed act, we actually really were entertained. It was funny and left us with an impression of what actual lumberjacks really used to do.
I have to admit, the moment I'd walked past a fish shack - nothing else interested me much. I don't know if it was the fact that I'd grown so accustomed to eating every hour on the ship or the idea of enjoying authentic fish n chips right by the ocean, but it was quite apparent to both John and I that I wasn't going to be happy until I'd had the food I'd come here to have!
So, here it is. The most delicious, most scrumptious, most mouthwatering fish taco and battered Salmon we have ever eaten.in.our.lives. (Compared to that one other time we ate these two things on Fisherman's Wharf on Vancouver Island. (We are obvs fish taco connoisseurs;)
It was perfect.
I most likely may never taste that exact flavor ever again. I tried to savor it, I really did.
And for the record, it did taste so much better while eaten right next to the ocean, just as I had suspected it would.
After lunch, we walked up to Creek Street which was once a red-light district in Ketchikan.
It is quite literally the cutest street I have ever walked along. Once the tide had come in John was finally able to rent a rod and he spent two of our Ketchikan hours catching Salmon like a happy little man. I took this time to myself and walked through the town, wandering along a river to a park filled with totem poles.
We met up again around 3:30 and I wish I could say we went and got more fish tacos, but we didn't. We said goodbye to Ketchikan and shuttled back out to the main ship while the sweet memory of fresh salmon and spicy cilantro infused mayo lingered on our lips. Sigh...
The rest of the trip was spent at sea. We spent some time out on open ocean water, but the last day was spent traveling through channels along the BC coast. We were told that we would be traveling through waters that were known to be the best in the world for Orca viewing.
You can bet I wasn't going to waste a minute of our time anywhere else on the boat. I set up camp on the deck, stopping only to run upstairs to grab something to eat. Of course, it just so happened that when I went up to eat, that's when people saw two orcas! I returned to my post in time to see two fins gliding gentle off towards the horizon. As if!!!!!
I practically refused to go eat from that point on.
On our last "at sea" day, just when the whale watching was supposed to be prime, a heavy heavy fog set it. It is without a doubt the thickest fog we've ever seen. We could barely see a few feet off the deck. Our captain was sounding the fog horn every 60 seconds. It was eerie! A little scary, even. It's crazy how quiet fog makes things.
At one point I'd walked out onto the deck and found myself alone. With the weather and visibility as it was, only a crazy person would venture out onto the deck. So - there I was, desperately longing to see a whale, when all of the sudden I heard a rushing exhale of air and I knew it could only be the sound of a whale puffing air. I glanced over the edge of the boat and right there, just a few feet from the boat was a whale. As I stood there surrounded by that blanket of fog, it really felt like it was just me and this whale for a moment. I felt reverent respect and gratitude for all that I had been able to see and experience that past week and despite the fog, I wasn't giving up on the hope that we would see an orca yet.
We walked the deck, stared out at the water for hours, and played phase 10. That is essentially all we did for a good 15 hours or so. haha.
Breathtaking.
It was with great hesitation and reluctance that I finally went to bed that last night of our trip.
I did not want it to end! It couldn't end!
I hadn't seen my orca yet!
There were still more fish tacos to eat!
I wasn't ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I'd wanted to, I could have cried myself to sleep. But I didn't. I saved my most sorrowful moments for the next morning. As we sailed into Vancouver and past under the Lions gate bridge, John could not help but be fascinated with all things related to coming into port.
When he pointed out the exact spot under the bridge where we'd all camped as a family two years ago - I refused to smile.
When he noticed the overwhelming insane amount of crates of food stacked high, ready to be loaded on for the next group of lucky cruise passengers - I refused to smile.
When he tried to remind me that we just had 7 breathtaking days on the ocean and we got to see so much - I refused to smile.
I kept thinking about the logistics of actually having to disembark. Did I really have to? Who could actually make me? Technically, a landlord in Canada has to give their tenants 90 days eviction notice. Hmmm... Maybe there was a way to stay? I mean, if I flat out refused to go...?
There had to be a way to stay!
Only when John reminded me that in a few short hours we would be back in Alberta with all four of our kids again, only then did I begin to smile. Seeing them was something I could agree to be excited about!
What a week this had been. What a gift it was to see what we were able to see. In fact, every day I was in awe of the fact that every single thing I was looking at was nothing I had ever seen before.
Breathtaking.
Every blessed minute of it!
