Goldie Hawn, and Larry & John Muir

You may be wondering what these three people have in common. Not much! In fact, two of them aren't actually the correct names! They are, correct or not, the three most often mentioned people on our Alaskan trip.

I would have imagined that the first reference would have been obvious, but I realized after the fact that I had the name wrong! What I was imagining was the original Overboard movie, the part where the yacht turns around, and the actress, in her satin pajamas and sleep mask slides right out of bed. I thought it was Goldie Hawn, but the more I think about it, I think it was the actress that played her mother. I was TERRIFIED that this would happen during the night. Consequently I slept in a tight little ball, waiting to fall out of bed. As you may assume, I did not fall out, though I did talk about the possibility nearly nightly. I will say that the only two times that I really felt the ocean was at night. There's no one to confirm that because Louise sleeps like a rock, but I did hear people talking about it at breakfast the next morning (affirmation that I didn't make it up!).  ;)

The bottom line, is I didn't fall out of bed, nor did I need the plethora of sea-sickness items I brought with me. I had these fetching glasses with me, Bonine, Dramamine, ginger in two forms, and two prescriptions for anti-nausea. Don't you sort of wish that I had walked around the boat with these on everyday? It's okay to laugh right out loud... ;)

As you may have read in one of the other blogs, I was reading a lot about John Muir, and becoming reacquainted with him and his "work" with glaciers. And I was sharing all my information with my travel buddy.  Only here's the tricky part: my chemistry teacher in high school was named Larry Muir, and his name just kept rolling off my tongue!

I don't remember much about Larry, but one memory I will never forget. My high school had a Monday morning meeting where we sat by advisory. My advisor was adamant that we didn't get seated until everyone arrived. So we were late walking in, the announcements had begun, and the only seats left were on the top row. I went up first, and here's where this story starts.  The left two legs of my chair were not totally on the platform. And I fell. I think I screamed. I know I was wearing a dress. I know that because I will never forget when it fell over my face on the way down, blocking my view of my white Sam & Libby flats (LOL). But the embarrassing part came when I hit the floor. I landed on my lab partner, and broke his fingers or his hand or his something. Everything's blurry after that mortification. Cautionary tale, kids: sit with your advisory or you might be hit by falling people! And wear pants.  Always wear pants. The next morning as chemistry class began, Larry took a look around - I was limping in the door with a VERY swollen hip, and David showed up with a cast on. Larry gave a nervous laugh, and announced we should switch up the lab partners. LOL. So while Larry is forever ensconced in my memory, it's not for his knowledge of glaciers, though he got a lot of credit for them on this trip!

What fascinated me so much about John Muir was what he was able to deduce using maps, and his theories on how glaciers behaved. He had maps from when Vancouver went through (roughly 100 years prior), and compared those with what he was witnessing first hand. As early as the late 1800s, he was making a call for the conservation of our wild places. It's troubling that over 100 years later, we are still exploring this topic. But along with conservation, he was adamant that we get out and play in the dirt, that we connect with nature:

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life."

Happy Sigh.

So, travelers, that was our trip!  Every adventure and visit I've had to Alaska has been different, and all have been amazing. If you haven't been to Alaska, go! If you've been, go again; chances are there's something new to see. :)

"I have seen the sun rise over Paris, above the ruins of Machu Picchu, and on the horizon of an elephant-dotted African savanna, and none of them can equal the dawn breaking in Glacier Bay."
~Mark Adams, Tip of the Iceberg

That's (finally) it for us! Until next time...

💚

Skagway

Alaska has always called to me, as I think it does to other travelers. When landing in Anchorage, the Chugach mountains are always bigger than I had remembered, and the greenery more lush than I had imagined. I had only been to southeast Alaska once, in high school. We spent a week in Metlakatla for a church trip. In the history of my life, I have never gotten up on purpose just to be, except for that week. The church had a large set of stairs that I sat on each morning, just taking it all in. The scenery begs to be painted, climbed, written about, and explored.

This brings us to Skagway.

Skagway was borne of the Klondike Gold Rush. We've all heard of the Chilkoot Trail, right? Skagway is home to the sister trail, the White Pass Trail. Hundreds of thousands of hopeful gold seekers started their journey in Skagway. Well, I mean, they didn't start here, but here's where the real journey began.  Men would gather supplies, and haul them up the mountain, where they would build a boat and float down the Yukon to Dawson City, where the gold was supposedly to be found. Fun fact: most of the prospectors in the Klondike Gold Rush traveled there roughly two years after gold was originally found. By the time they got there, most of the creek claims had already been taken, leaving no place for the newcomers. Not so fun fact: the alternate name for this trail is "The Dead Horse Trail". Ew.  About 3,000 horses and other pack animals died along the trail, mostly from starvation. :(  You'll be happy to know that there is not a picture for that terrible fact!

Nowadays, there's a train that goes up the mountain, parallel to the original trail. So many men, horses and wagons traveled the route, that the trail is clearly visible from the train. And it's a tiny trail. It's difficult to imagine a horse and wagon fitting on the trail, and nearly impossible to imagine two way traffic.

At the top of White Pass, it's only 3,000 feet in elevation, but it's a true alpine type ecosystem. The trees are shorter, the shrubs heartier, and there are lots of lush meadows. It's so beautiful. At the US/Canadian border, we left the train, and took a bus through the northern edge of British Columbia and into the Yukon Territory.

We doubled back on the same road and stopped at the Yukon Suspension Bridge which goes across the Tutshi Canyon.  Talk about magnificent! And a little terrifying. ;) It was extremely bouncy, and while there were tall fenced sides, there wasn't an actual handrail.  But again, it was so beautiful. T&L have been to a lot of amazing places in our lives, particularly this year. Who knew this was all but in our backyard?

On the way back, we saw people biking back down the South Klondike Highway. How much fun would that be? I'd also like to drive all the way to Whitehorse one day. And the bucket list grows.

Back at the ship, Thelma was sunburned and a little overheated, and she took a nap. Louise opted for her own adventure which included a walk around town and ice cream. Isn't vacationing grand?

Dawes Glacier and Juneau

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn to see Dawes Glacier. Well, it's Alaska in the summer, so it wasn't really the crack of dawn, but it was early for this girl!

We darted down the Endicott Arm Fjord (as much as a cruise ship can dart) just after 6am, arriving at Dawes Glacier around 7am. The crack of dawn these days in Alaska is about 3:30, so this was at least several hours later! One of us does early mornings, and the other need a reason to rise. ;) This was reason enough. The fjord is wide enough for a cruise ship, but not heavily traveled. There was a much smaller boat behind us, taking advantage of our iceberg-clear wake.

Something I didn't know about glacial silt is that it doesn't settle, but is suspended within the water, giving the water the milky depression glass look.  I'm sure there's more science behind it, but the bottom line is that the water is beautiful, and has this cloudy quality that is hard to describe. It makes you think the water is shallow since you can see the silt. Of course, if a cruise ship is coming through, it can't be that shallow! In addition to beautiful water, there were icebergs and plenty of harbor seal pups along the way.  The ship made many icebergs flip all the way over, dumping many a harbor seal in to the water!

At the end of the arm was Dawes Glacier. I have had many opportunities to teach about glaciers in the course of 21 years. Many of the demonstrations or experiments included rubbing ice cubes on gravel. As you can imagine, that did not increase much understanding. The book I'm currently reading (Tip of the Iceberg) discusses how John Muir hypothesized that glacier carving existed, and used changing maps to support his thinking. That coupled with seeing the paths of these glaciers is helping me have a whole new understanding. I'd love to tell you when this glacier surged, and how far it has receded, but Wikipedia is quiet, and TripAdvisor does not seem reliable for this kind of info. ;)  I think it can be assumed that the fjord was once a glacier, and that the water that exists there now is from the receding glacier path. Something else I learned was the the noise that the glaciers make is not always due to calving. Some of the noise is escaped oxygen, escaping sort of like a bubble as the pressure releases to the surface.

After viewing the glacier and fjord for a couple of hours, we had breakfast, and then I took a very lengthy nap. First, I was tired! And second, I was patched up for our later whale watching tour, and while the patch works (motion sickness), it makes me incredibly tired.

We pulled in to Juneau about noon, and we had a whale watching tour scheduled for 2pm. It was beautiful in Juneau today -- sparkling water, and almost 70 degrees. We took a whale watching tour that was a Citizen Science tour. What that means is that the tour company works with scientists who are researching specific phenomena, and provide data to them.

Our first science check was pulling up a crab pot. They are tracking an invasive species - the European Green Crab.  It first showed up in San Francisco in the 1980s, and has made it as far as British Columbia. So far, there has not been a presence detected in Alaska, but they check daily. We hauled up a crab pot, and found nothing but sculpin and starfish. The lady I was hauling the crab pot up with had never seen a starfish before in person. It was stuck to the outside of the pot, and the guide asked her to pick it up. She had no idea how to handle it; turns out we know stuff being Coasties!

Onward to the whale watching. It was a beautiful day, and the whales were out, and showing their tales! Remember that great science at Medina Elementary called "Voyage of the Mimi"? Okay, maybe you all didn't love it, but I did!  And just like those videos, we identified whales based on their flukes! It was amazing, and we saw these three whales up close and personal. Our captain was great -- giving us great views, and keeping a safe distance, but these whales were playing around! Got amazing shots, but also just got to experience these awesome creatures. They were all around, and the sounds of their breathing was magical (and at times startling!).

Well, the iLounge on the ship is right above tonight's live music. I think it's karaoke; mom thinks the band is just warming up. Either way, it's NOT Carrie Underwood down there! We have to be up early for our train out of Skagway, so we are happily going to call it a night.  More adventures tomorrow!

Our Favorites -- From England!

Favorite road sign:

Mom: It has to be "Sheep Lying Down in Road." I think it was in Dartmoor National Park. My least favorite was the roundabout sign. Or hearing Siri proclaim. "At the roundabout....". 

Erica: I totally forgot about that sheep sign! Hilarious, and true. Not only that, we saw the phenomenon. I also enjoyed that the road signs were made at Ikea - no words, just unknowable symbols. 

Favorite Hamilton song

Mom: I think, "You'll Be Back".

Erica: That's mine too. It's easy to sing, and hilarious. I loved watching that performed in London. The English patrons thought King George was too funny.  

Favorite store:

Mom: It has to be Seasalt in St. Ives. The patterns and the fabrics and the details on the clothes were so unique. 

Erica: Seasalt - yes! All the shops in St. Ives were so cute. 

Favorite food:

Mom: I think my favorite were the scones and clotted cream at Snappers.

Erica: Clotted cream. Yum. I fantasized about making it at home, and it's a no! It takes forever, and sounds iffy at best. We'll just have to go back to Cornwall!

Weirdest food:

Mom: Scallops at the pub near Snappers. [We don't know where this was!].  They don't clean the frill off (look it up -- ew). 

Erica: To be fair, there was a lot of weird food. The English are known for high tea, and that's about it! The bacon really got me. I'm not sure what I was looking at, but it was fish shaped. And limpish.  Everywhere. 

Favorite navigation moment:

Mom: I don't know if it's my "favorite", but getting back to Snappers each night was hard!

Erica: As the navigator, I take this question rather personally. My "favorite" was the night we were trying to get back to Snappers, and we were looking for the BP Station to take the 30 or whatever back home. I was sure the BP station in question was old, and so we drove by this new one several times until frustration took over, and we just rolled the dice. And home we found!

Favorite tube experience:

Mom: I was really pleased with how well we were able to navigate wherever we were going.  Double edged sword, I was often offered a seat by other passengers. How nice. But am I of that age? Insert wide eyed emoji. ;)

Erica: The tube and I have a love-hate relationship. I will say, that while I hated going on it, it was very easy, efficient and safe. There. 

Favorite natural wonder:

Mom: The coastal path in Exmoor National Park. It was the rugged English coast I had hoped to experience. 

Erica:  I loved that we went to National Parks! I mean, woohoo!! Last year when we were in Canada we managed to find ourselves in one of their national parks, and this year we found two in England. I love that there is a world out there protecting natural wonders. 

Favorite man made wonder:

Mom:  Going through the ruins of Glastonbury, feeling the history. [She's shaking her hands like the Godfather as she says this.]

Erica: Glastonbury, hands down. I just ran across a picture on my phone, and gasped. What is that? Glastonbury.  Happy sigh. It was everything I had hoped for, and a little more. All the magic that I had dreamed about all these years, rested soundly in those grounds. 

Favorite experience:

Mom: My favorite experience was actually driving through the English countryside, seeing the hedgerows and the sheep, and wondering where Granny and Grandpa had visited. Had they walked in the same places that I had? Had they seen the same rugged coasts?  I like to think that they had.

Erica:  I've bifurcated the categories so there could be so many favorites. The whole trip was my favorite. But my favorite experience might have been Evensong at Westminster. It wasn't a tourist activity, but a normal church service.  The men's/boy's choir was phenomenal, and the entire experience so spiritual. There is a power in that building that is unmatched. I wasn't able to finish reciting the Apostle's Creed because I was so choked up, but what an amazing place to be able to say those words. Think of the generations of people that have said that before me in the very same spot!

Favorite mode of transportation:

Mom: I think it has to be the boat tour on the Thames. Seeing London from a different experience was awesome. And what a beautiful day!

Erica: Well, that Volvo was everything, but I also liked our big city learning from John. He taught us how to use Uber! And we did it on our own too!

Favorite Harry Potter moment:

Mom: The Forbidden Forest. That was very well done. The forest floor was bouncy, just like a real forest. The trees were huge, although they weren't as big as those spiders!

Erica:  The Great Hall. I was so surprised that it existed in that scale. It was huge! I also liked being able to walk into the house on Privet Drive. I know there are a lot of green screen effects, but the amount of things that were "real" was impressive. 

Favorite movie from plane ride:

Mom: It wasn't on the plane, but I liked the Highwaymen.

Erica:  Oh! Me too; we had time for so many flicks on the plane! All were good, but I especially enjoyed "On the Basis of Sex". Is it wrong to fist pump in a public area? Too late! It's a great film, even if you know the history forwards and backwards. See it and fist pump!

Place you want to go back to:

Mom: I think St. Ives. We didn't spend enough time there. It was right on the ocean, and so incredibly beautiful. 

Erica: I'd go back to any of it, but I especially want to see the rest of the Jurassic Coast. We only saw Charmouth Beach, and each beach on the coast has a different geological wonder. We just didn't have time! 

And so, that is finally a wrap. We had wanted something so special for our 25th trip, and we sure got it. T&L don't expect to travel internationally for #26, but they do expect to have another amazing trip. Oh the places we'll go!

Ketchikan

When I was at the school board meeting last week (SS adoption), one of the board members asked me what I was doing this summer, and after hearing that I was going on an Alaskan cruise, commented that Astoria looked like a lot of those little Alaskan towns.  Ketchikan fits that bill.  We arrived around 6 o'clock this morning, and so we had a view of town as we were eating breakfast on the boat. It didn't hurt that it was overcast, the city is built on a hill, and it was misting: Astoria!

Our shore adventure today was Sea Cycling. I think it's supposed to be one word, but the autocorrect is exhausting. ;)  It's basically a paddle boat built up on kayak pontoons.  Of course, it was raining, so we had a real Alaska experience. I mean, you're not having a good time until you're wearing waterproof gear!

We paddled around the...bay? Strait? I have no idea what to call this little body of water. Edit later: Ward Cove! We pedaled out to where we would leave on the ship, so I know we were in some sort of normal waterway channel, but we only saw one other boat, so we were a little removed from the harbor.

First we hugged the coastline in to an estuary and up a river a little way. As the guide goes out every day (probably more than once a day), she had local knowledge about the animals we were seeing. She had seen the seal pup near their dock when it still had the umbilical cord attached, and a mother and baby bird (no idea what species) she knew was the last baby the mom had left after spring in the animal kingdom. Once we got around on the other side of the channel, it really started to pour. I'm not sure the other couple was having quite as much fun as we were, but we thought it was comical.

In addition to seeing the beautiful sites, we were also dealing with two things, independently. I was focused on trying to get my left leg to complete each rotation of the pedals, which took all my will power, and some acrobatics with my toes and hips. Meanwhile, I abandoned my partner all together in trying to figure out how to steer the boat. There was a rudder that was both touchy, and had a delayed reaction. We zigzagged a little bit as T&L figured out pedaling and steering!

Back at their dock, we were treated to an "eagle show". They had some herring that they chucked in to the water, and about a dozen eagles arrived out of nowhere. I've seen plenty of eagles in my life, but never this close up. We could hear their wings flapping - it was powerful. And the sound when they snatched the fish out of the water was pretty amazing too. I've never seen anything like that.

I had trouble loading the video in Blogger; I hope you can see the video on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/cLybGGeLs3A

We were pretty drenched when we got back to the cruise dock, but as we had two hours left before departing, we had to sneak in one more adventure!  Our guide drove us up to the Totem Heritage Center where we saw some amazing totem poles. They have one of the largest collection of unrestored totem poles in the world. Some of the ones on display are from over 100 years ago.

Fun fact, and something that I didn't know, totem poles are planted in the ground for a variety of purposes, and then left there, even if the people move on. It is not tradition to move them to another location.  The Totem Heritage Center was founded as totems around the area were being vandalized, and some of the stories were being lost.

We were the only ones there, but we still felt the need to whisper. These aren't religious symbols, but they felt very powerful, and instilled a lot of awe in them. We only had a little time here, before the shuttle came, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, but we were both so glad to have made the stop.

And then, we got on the free city bus to take us back in to town.  Ketchikan is small, but it was a circuitous route! We were not the only tourists on board, but it was close. And apparently though our genetic code is Alaskan, we scream tourist! We had several nice, though strange, conversations with locals on the bus.  My "favorite" part was when the bus stopped in front of Safeway, and the driver left the bus running and went in the store. Nobody on board said a thing -- apparently this was normal or acceptable behavior.  He came back with something under his jacket - I'm sure I don't want to know what!

Getting back on the boat, we were cold and wet, and had missed lunch. But guess what they serve at 4pm? High tea! Okay, maybe not "high tea" but a tea like service. We had scones, and jam, and coke, and french fries. ;) Don't tell the Queen.

After a nap, we were treated to some whale displays during dinner! We are getting very excited about tomorrow's excursion which is whale watching out of Juneau!