Ketchikan – Our First Stop in Alaska

 We sailed into Ketchikan under drizzly skies.  Later we found out why.  This is one of the rainiest cities in Alaska.  The legend tells of a man who married a bear, had 3 bear cubs with her and later saw and talked to his former (human) wife after promising his bear wife that he would never see or talk to the human wife again.  The bear wife was a bit upset and the two of them, bear wife and man husband got into an argument and started arguing.  It came to blows.  The 3 bear cubs, now fully grown came upon the scene and killed their man father.  The female bear wife was so distraught that she climbed to the top of the mountain over Ketchikan and, staying there, cries a lot.  This is the rain that falls on Ketchikan.  Today she was not so sad.  We had some blue skies.

Our 2 tours today both had to do with “Totem Poles,” or just “totems” as the Tlinget people prefer.  The first took us to a park with dozens of totems, both large and small.  Unfortunately, I am still unable to transfer pictures from either my phone or my camera.  I am going to see the resident ´specialist” tomorrow for some help.

The second tour took us to the Saxman Totem Park where we heard the stories behind some of the more famous totems.

There are several types of totems.  Some are identity totems.  They are used to identify the tribe living in a village.  For instance, if the tribe is the Eagle Beaver Clan, the top of the pole would have a representation of an eagle.  The bottom of the pole would have a representation of a beaver.  In between would be representations of important events or people in the village.  These totems would be place where they could be seen from the river or other body of water.

Other totems were to honor a person or event.  Still others were to shame a person.  More about these later.

One of the major social events in their lives was a “potlach.”  If two tribes were not getting along, or if relations were uncertain, then a tribe would send a message inviting the other tribe to a potlach.  The other tribe would then come to visit for a few days.  This is why the river-side totems were so important.  The visitors would see the totem and know that they were at the right place.  The visitors were greeted with dancing to the beat of a drum, given food and lodging for 2 or 3 days and given gifts of all sorts.  At the end of the potlach, they would be sent home with more food and gifts.  In return, they were required to invite the original tribe to their village within 2 to 3 months for a similar party or Potlach.  If they did, there was peace between the tribes.  If not, there might be war.

One “Potlach” story involves the purchase of Alaska from Russia.  Seward came to Alaska and was welcomed by at least 4 different tribes to be entertained and honored at potlaches.  He was fed, boarded and given extensive gifts.  Therefore, he should have invited those tribe to his home and treated them as he had been treated.  He did no such thing.  He simply packed up and went home.  This was a major insult, so the Tlinget village carved a “Shame” totem.  The top has an image of Seward sitting on a large box representing all the gifts he accepted.  The rest of the pole is blank.  Seward is wearing a potlach hat which looks like a large upside-down funnel.  It has 4 stripes, indicating that he had attended 4 potlaches.  Some of Sewards descendants visited the Saxman village and asked what they could do the “redeem” their ancestor.  They were told that they would have to pay the villages for the value of gifts given to Seward, which would amount to at least a couple million dollars.  The relatives decided to leave Sewward on top of the Shame totem.

North to Alaska!

We have started our next adventure, a Viking cruise from Vancouver to Hong Kong, by way of Alaska, Japan, and, hopefully, Taiwan.

It was not the best of starts.  Darrell set an alarm for 4:28 since we were being picked up at 5:15.  He woke up at 4:40.  The alarm was set for PM, not AM.  We had to scurry, but I had the bags (3 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, 2 backpacks and my purse) downstairs in the garage by 5:08, to find our ride already waiting for us.

The flights to Houston and Vancouver were uneventful, except that the “gangway” from the plane to the terminal in Houston was at least 3 blocks long, all at a 45-degree angle uphill (or at least that is how it seemed to me.)

We boarded a bus in Vancouver for a long ride to the dock area.  Vancouver has certainly changed since we were last there.  The first part of the ride was through residential areas.  At least I think there were houses behind all those hedges.  Many of the hedges were some kinds of evergreens, planted about 2 feet apart so they made a continuous solid “fence” about 10 feet tall.  Others had various kinds of shrubs, planted closely and trimmed with a flat side facing the street, also about 10 feet tall.  It was a six-lane highway through a green valley.

When we approached the commercial area, the buildings started getting taller.  For the last 20-30 minutes of the drive, we were surrounded by buildings of 20 to 40 stories.  Many looked like residential buildings with odd shapes and balconies on all the units.  None were straight rectangular buildings.  It was an architect’s dream-land.

Check in went smoothly.  Then began the long wait.  Vancouver is a very busy tourist port, but it only has 3 piers for cruise ships.  Use of these piers is based on seniority.  The cruise lines which have been sailing from Vancouver the longest get first priority for docking.  Some of these lines have been around for many years.  Viking Ocean Cruises began in 2015, and did not immediately sail out of Vancouver, so we had to wait for 3 very large cruise ships to load their thousands of passengers and all that was needed before our ship, the Viking Orion could dock.  It had been waiting, probably not patiently, out in the bay.  We had a holding room in a hotel across from the pier where we had access to a “snack.”  They had 2 lines of food and round tables for us to sit while we waited for over 4 hours.  The food was good but a bit unusual.  They served pickled zucchini, pickled eggplant, pickled cauliflower, the usual crudities, fruit plates, wedges of naan, cookies and 2 kinds of muffins.  At the end, after the cookies, were some kind of sandwiches, about 3 inches thick.  Coffee was at separate tables.  The room held round tables seating about 500 people.  Since there were over 600 passengers, some of the people sat in chairs out in the lobby.

At check-in, we were given a number (11) which told us our group boarding number.  I do not know how many groups there were.  When they finally started calling group 1, a cheer went up.

Now we could get onto the ship! (or at least after the first 10 groups.)  Finally, they called number 11. We walked across the street only to be led down the pier. Now it was time for another line snaking back and forth to get to the “customs” machine.  Did I mention that we had gone through the machines before?  You enter your passport and press down on it in the machine.  It did not work.  Try again.  Still no luck.  The official came over and tried.  No go.  She tried again, this time leaning down on the passport.  It worked!  A few more questions from the machine and it spit out a paper.  Now it was Darrell’s turn, with the same results (also after a few tries.) We walked across the room and gave the papers to an official. 

Next, we came to a room with row after row of chairs.  This was our home for another half hour.   We were dismissed, one row at a time to walk down toward the waiting ship. Our guide led us down the long pier to an escalator.  Our guide saw that the escalator might be difficult with backpacks, carry-ons and, in Darrell’s case, a cane, so she offered to have us use an elevator.  OK, we now walked halfway back the pier to the elevator, went down 1 level and walked halfway back the pier to the structure that had been erected to bridge the space between the pier and the ship.

Boarding the ship went smoothly.  Scan your room card, be greeted with a glass of champaign or punch, and look for your room.  One of our 3 suitcases was there.  By now, we were well past our 6:00 reservation for the Chef’s Table.  We went down anyway and had a delicious California Cuisine meal. 

Our last bag arrived in our room after we got back from dinner.  We were both a bit tired and went to bed!

12/25/2022 Merry Christmas

We slept in this morning, and the World Café was closed by the time we got ready to eat, so we ate at Mamsen’s which stays open until 10:30. Usually they will prepare waffles, topped with a dab of whipped cream , fresh fruit and a couple of curls of brown cheese.  Today there was no server at the station, but the waffles were available but no toppings were available.  I tried one anyway, but it was cold and tough.  They were also out of the pickled herring which I like.  It was rather disappointing for a Christmas breakfast.  I miss the usual fresh citrus and stollen (German bread with lots of candied fruit).

We wandered around the ship, finding areas which we had missed before. They were all in the very bow (front) of the ship.  On second deck, The Hide. Had tall windows just above the water line.  The waves were about 5 feet below the bottom of the windows.  When we hit an especially hard, they completely covered the windows.  It was quite a sight.  I hope you can play this video

The Shelter is a semi-enclosed area on Deck 3.  Today it was closed because of the rough seas.  The next deck up has a large bar with piano.  Today it was almost empty, but we sat there for a while. 

There were some decorations but not as elaborate as on the ocean-going ships.

12-24-2022

 

12-24-2022 An Unexciting Day

Today is Christmas Eve.  We had an early start with a SOB ride at 7:00.  This boat has good visibility, but does not go to the shore.  It was still sunny at that hour, since the sun never set last night.  We rode around looking for penguins , seals and whales.  We saw a lot of Adelie penguins swimming and diving in and out of the water, but I was never fast enough to get a picture.  On one medium size iceberg, we found a crabeater seal, enjoying the sun. 

The sight of the day was the “Statue Gallery”, an area with lots of small icebergs and floating chunks of ice which had broken off from them.  The variety of shapes was unbelievable!  I will let them speak for themselves.

It was cool out on the water in spite of the temperature, 33 degrees F.  We saw people from the Zodiac walking along the top of a low stretch of land.  I was scheduled to go out in the Zodiac later, but I found out that there was just a lot of walking on loose pebbles with no penguins, seals or much of anything else to see, so I cancelled my slot on the Zodiac.

We had dinner in Manfredi’s Restaurant, the food is always good there, and the experience was made better when we shared our table with another couple.

When we finished dinner, it was after 9:00, but I went up to deck 5 to work on the puzzle.  About half a dozen people were working on it at that time.  There was a Christmas Dance going on in The Library, the next area over, so we listened to the music and watched people dance and puzzled and lost track of the time.  Suddenly it was midnight!  I gave up and went to our cabin.  I do not know how long the others worked.

12/23/2022 Brown Bluff

 9:06 PM and the sun is high in the sky.  It is a beautiful ending to a marvelous day.  We woke this morning to bright sunshine.  Some of our friends stayed up last night to see the sunset.  They failed.  It never set.

I went ashore In the Zodiac with a “wet landing.”  This means that the Zodiac pulls up as far as it can onto the pebbly beach, we scoot along the side of the zodiac as far as we can, swing our legs over the side and are helped down into 6 -8 inches of water. It does not sound too bad if you have long legs.  Let’s just say that I need some help getting out.

As we traveled from the ship to the shore, we were accompanied by dozens of penguins bobbing in and out of the water and back in.  They seemed to be having a great time, but the water was a bit too cold for me to try it.

We stepped ashore and immediately saw hundreds of penguins standing, walking and paying no attention to us.  This pebbly beach is home to breeding colonies of Gentoo and Adelie penguins.  The crew marked off areas around the nesting areas so we would not disturb them.  However, they really did not seem to pay attention to us at all.

A penguin “nest”, remember that they are birds, is a                                                                         pile of rocks on a rocky beach. 

 

The female lays 2 eggs, usually, and sits or lies on them until the chicks hatch.  They seem to be about 6 inches long.  In the next few days, they will peek out from under Mom and them scoot back to warmth.  You may see just a head sticking out.  As they grow, they venture out into the open, but stay close to the mother.

The first nesting area we saw was Gentoo penguins.  There were a lot of Adelie penguins near the shore, but they were not welcome in the nesting area. 

These Gentoo penguins are about 42 inches tall.

This cute fellow, an Adelie, is about 36 inches tall.

Further along the shore we come to the Adelie penguin nesting area.  Here the chicks were older, about the size of a mallard duck, but still covered by downy feathers.  Their backs were grey rather than black, and they still stayed close to the nest.  

We did see a couple of “adolescent” penguins, about half the size of the adults.  You could recognize them by their grayer backs and very short tails.

The penguins went about their business as if it were any normal day.  I wonder how humans would react if several dozen creatures five times their size showed up and wandered around staring at us and taking pictures.

It was about 37 degrees Fahrenheit today, so we enjoyed the warmth, the sunshine and the penguins.

 

Darrell & I went on a ride on the Special Operations Boat before dinner.  We saw penguins sitting on icebergs, several kinds of birds and more massive icebergs.

 

 

This iceberg had tipped when a lot of the underwater part had melted.

 

 

One had several deep cracks running through it.  Our guide told us that it would probably soon split into several parts.  You do not want to be near it when that happens since it creates a huge wave, easily capable of capsizing a Zodiac.

The mountain above our landing site is an extinct volcano -a young one, probably only a million years old.

12/22/2022 A Swell Day

 

There are ocean waves, and then, there are ocean swells.  Kayaking has been cancelled several days because the “swell” was too high.  Today was not a kayaking day, and it was rough even in a Zodiac.  We traveled toward the shore where we saw a chinstrap penguin standing still and looking out at us.  There seemed to be another penguin lying down beside him, perhaps on a nest. He just stood there and let us take a picture.

A little further on we saw 2 or 3 penguins near the edge of the cliff.  There were penguin highways leading to the top of the hill, and we watched a penguin come down and join the others.  In the past, when we saw penguins, it was usually in larger groups, with some on rocks or in the water.

Our next sighting was a group of 3 Weddle Seals enjoying a nap on the snow.  There were also some penguins nearby, but they seemed to know that these seals were no danger.  They do not eat penguins.  One of the seals rolled over and waved to us.

The most interesting part of this cruise was the scenery. The coast line was mainly large rocks.  I will try to add some pictures to show them.

At dinner the sun came out for the first time!  That really made it a “swell” day!

12/21/2022 Pancakes with Whipped Cream on Top

We are having a calm day at sea with snow showers all day.  The temperature is above freezing, so any snow that lands on the deck turns to slush.  Since the sea water is colder than the air, the snow flakes float on the surface and congregate in round patches.  They call it “pancake ice.”  Snow has accumulated on top of some of the patches and looks like whipped cream on some of the pancakes.  

It is overcast, so there is not a lot to see looking toward the land, but lots to see on the water.  Icebergs are continuously breaking off the snowpack on shore.  We have not seen the actual “calving” but the water has lots of floating icebergs and smaller chunks of ice.  The shapes give your imagination a real workout.  One berg looked like an Egyptian sarcophagus. The part of the berg that is under the water melts faster than the above water portion.  Eventually the whole thing becomes top-heavy and tips over.  I guess that some may tip over completely. But the one we saw today only went 45 degrees.  You can see the line which were horizontal from accumulations of snow, and they are now are at an angle.

I went out on a Zodiac this noon and got a close look at the floating ice.  The sun was not shining and it was gently snowing.  The driver stopped the boat so we could sit still and listen to the ice bobbing up and down and bumping into other ice.  It is impossible to describe.  Sometimes we see penguins sunning on the ice.  Maybe they can see fish in the water, because after a bit they dive deeper into the water.

The waiting list to go out on the submarine is long, so I will probably not get a chance to go.  They have had to cancel some submarine sailings so those people who got on the sign-up sight within the first 5 minutes it was open will probably get to go.  I did not feel like staying up until midnight to book my tours, so all the submarine slots were taken.  I am on the waiting list, however.

Darrell has gone on the Special Operations Boat (the SOB)  ( I mean the boat, not a remark about my husband.)  I hope to go out on it on Dec. 23.

I have spent some time working on a 4000-piece puzzle.  There is not even enough room for it on the puzzle table!  On the right side, there are 3 rows of pieces on the side edge of the table.

We never did finish it!