5/22-6/1 Alaska Cruise (Radiance) & Land Tour, LOTS of Photos (L.J. & Bev Part II/I)

[WalleyeLJ]

Hmmmm, after reading your reply I'm thinking/hoping that my hubby wont be sitting in the front. He's 6'5 and weighs more than you. If he did his knees would be in his chest and he'd be very uncomfortable. He has a bad back and would not be comfortable at all sitting their. Guess I'll be emailing Shona again and asking her about the sitting arangements. Thanks LJ!

 

Sue,

I'm glad that helped. In anny case, if you get a chance to sit up there, it's a blast!

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Hey All,

Sorry for the break in the posting. I'm swamped with work and getting ready to head to San Francisco for a week on work & vacation, so I'll be off the boards for the next bit of time - but I will return!

L.J.

[sue402001]

Have a great time LJ! (You have until mid-August to get it done, lol)

[DizzyDallasDi]

Even more dramatic, check out this large, still frozen over alpine lake, and the waterfall plunging hundreds if not a thousand plus feet down the lower left side of the elevated lake...

 

 

 

 

 

That lake and waterfall didn't look any different a week later when I was there. But the photographers clearly had different skills and cameras. :D

 

[trouble1964]

Looking forward to the rest. If you want to throw in some SF photos, that would be great----one of my favorite places!

[tlcoke]

LJ,

I just finished your first review of your trip from last summer. Awesome Photography, makes me wish my trip was next month, not 13 months from now. I am looking forward to follow along on this review of your first trip.

 

Do you have a link to Bev's blogs on your trips. I would love to read her perspective.

[Hogladyrider]

Ditto on the request for a link to Bev's blogs, if she is open to sharing, I also would enjoy, as I follow MANY blogs of travelers.

 

Thanks

Susan

[WalleyeLJ]

Have a great time LJ! (You have until mid-August to get it done, lol)

 

 

Well Sue - I'm back! I truly didn't expect to be off the grid for so long. So, without further ado, I shall jump back into the fray!

 

So there we were, Michelle having given us the heads up that we were getting ready to start our decent. Here are a couple more shots from high above the Fjords before we dropped in for a thrilling landing!

 

 

 

More breathtaking views…I was even losing my fear of flying by this point!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle rolled the plane over to the left, slipping down and losing altitude as we approached a river in one of the valleys below us. She got down from several thousand feet to several hundred feet in short order. She flew up the river valley a short bit, and then pulled the plane around to the left again on a thrilling hard bank, leveling us out and following the meandering river as it led us into our final destination in the Fjords…

 

 

 

Dropping in for our attack run!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pulling a 180…a land of limitless water and trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comin’ in low and fast…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, we did NOT land in the river – or the rocky beach ahead!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up – absolute, beautiful silence!!!

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Looking forward to the rest. If you want to throw in some SF photos, that would be great----one of my favorite places!

 

 

As you wish! I just started going through the photos - 5,500 of them. Here are two of my favorites so far! Saw a Princess ship leaving Pier 29/31 (??) the first day we were in town.

 

 

 

Hyde Street overlooking San Francisco Bay & Alcatraz

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Gate Bridge & The Presidio

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

tlcoke/Hogladyrider,

 

I would be glad to post the link to Bev's blog. It's got this trip, our 2012 Alaska trip, and a couple of Caribbean trips. Just remember - if you read ahead about this trip, it's ruin the mystery!!!:D

 

LJandBev's TravelPod Blogs

 

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ljandbev/1/1242871680/tpod.html

 

L.J.

[JosieRhodes]

Thanks for posting the link to your wife's blog. Like everyone else, I really enjoy reading your reviews and seeing your pics.... And feel have gotten to know your "voice" so it was really cool to read about the same trip from her perspective :). Like those books which flip between the two main characters' point of views :)

 

 

Karen

[Hogladyrider]

Yeah HE's back!

 

Gorgeous photos from the plane. Looking forward to reading your continued adventure.

 

Thank you for posting the link to the blog, and I am not going to read ahead.

 

One of my weekend guilty pleasures is getting caught up on my blog reading for the week, so glad to add this blog to my collection.

 

Susan

[tlcoke]

tlcoke/Hogladyrider,

 

I would be glad to post the link to Bev's blog. It's got this trip, our 2012 Alaska trip, and a couple of Caribbean trips. Just remember - if you read ahead about this trip, it's ruin the mystery!!!:D

 

LJandBev's TravelPod Blogs

 

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ljandbev/1/1242871680/tpod.html

 

L.J.

 

Thanks for posting the link - I'll try not to read ahead.

[WalleyeLJ]

While it felt like we should have certainly scraped the pontoons as we settled onto the lake, we didn’t, as Michelle brought us down on the placid waters somewhere in the middle of Misty Fjords, 40 or so miles from Ketchikan. As we motored across the water, we continued on for a couple hundred yards, with the view below out the right side of the plane, before Michelle brought us around 90 degrees and brought us gently to the shoreline. A lot of the Misty Fjords trips we looked into landed in the Fjords, but the most you got to do was to step out onto the pontoons for a minute or two, and then head back out. One of the draws to Island Wings was that we were able to spend 10-15 minutes actually on shore checking things out. One thing Michelle briefed us on before we got out of the plane was that she had seen a grizzly in the area earlier in the week, so she asked us to keep a sharp eye out for him/her. The area where we getting out had clear sightlines for several hundred feet in each direction, but the rocky beach was less than 100 feet from the waterline to the escarpment tower hundreds of feet above us.

While I wasn’t worried, I can say that for the next few minutes I had an unusually high level of awareness of my surroundings – welcome to Alaska! We climbed out the pilot side door behind Michelle’s seat one by one, and walked along the pontoon until we could get off and onto shore. We stood in awe for a few seconds, taking in the utter solitude and peace that was all around us. Then from the silence, a distant buzz/roar echoed around Fjord. It took a second to spot it, but far across the water on the left side of the water, a speck of another float plane scooted across the water until it took flight, droning its way into the sky and back towards Ketchikan. We wandered around a few minutes, checking out the sights. Two things of note: one, we found a Grizzly bear claw lying among the rocks along the shoreline. It was just lying there like one of our cat’s claws on the carpet. It had to be 3-4 inches long, and curved like a scimitar’s blade – thick, but not as sharp as I pictured one would be. For the life of me, neither Bev or I took a picture. I was so shocked to find it that we didn’t even pick it up. It just seemed better to leave it alone – like if we moved it that the former owner just might show up – lol. The other cool thing was that was we caught our first harbor seal peeking at us from the calm waters of the Fjords – it was just an instant, and the shy critter just slipped below the surface, not a trace but for a few bubbles. A couple more minutes, and we all piled in the plane, buckled in, and a couple minutes later, we too were zooming across the water, and like the plane before us, lifted off, shooting along the waterway below us as we gained altitude and headed back to civilization…

 

 

 

Just landed, idling down and getting ready to turn towards the shoreline….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our surprise visitor (lower left quadrant a little less than halfway from the waterline to the top of the first tree line) heading back to Ketchikan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect view

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle took a number of shots of Bev & I – this one was our favorite!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beach (Leonardo DiCaprio not included – and this was a MUCH better movie…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading down the valley, back to Ketchikan…

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

As you all can see, I tend to get a bit bogged down in the details and of course the photos, which takes time. Bev's blogging when we take our annual vacation keeps our friends and family up on our adventures while were gone. It's also a huge help for me to jump start my memories, along with the photos, to help me work on my reviews. I was just kidding about reading ahead - especially for those folks leaing these last few weeks of the season who I won't finish up in time for;):eek::D.

L.J.

[tlcoke]

As you all can see, I tend to get a bit bogged down in the details and of course the photos, which takes time. Bev's blogging when we take our annual vacation keeps our friends and family up on our adventures while were gone. It's also a huge help for me to jump start my memories, along with the photos, to help me work on my reviews. I was just kidding about reading ahead - especially for those folks leaing these last few weeks of the season who I won't finish up in time for;):eek::D.

L.J.

 

I am going next summer, so no rush for me. I love your writing style and love the photographs almost feels like we are right there with you.

 

I hope to dig into Bev's blog soon.

[WalleyeLJ]

So, there were many great sights heading back to Ketchikan as well, but I’ll keep them down to a fairly short list. I can say that the flight back seemed to fly by even faster than the flight out. The weather was generally great in both directions, and we only had a couple of small bumps of turbulence the whole trip, and they were brief and minor. I almost got comfortable in an airplane!!! It’s a lot easier to do when 1) you can see where the plane is going. I swear I’d fly a lot easier if I could just sit in the cockpit! 2) There was so much scenery to take in…like…

 

 

 

It was good to know that as isolated and wild as the Fjords were, at least you saw another plane on occasion…just in case…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breathless! The scale doesn’t always translate well in the photos, but that vertical cliff face was hundreds if not a 1,000+ feet – awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing was easier to see on the way back was all the wetlands, lakes and waterways when we were between or had cleared the mountains. This was a shot of one of the countless lakes large and small we passed over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the last high mountain lakes – still showing some ice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ketchikan is still a very active logging community, and right outside the Monument, where it converted back to National Forest, and the evidence of logging was very easy to see from the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the log rafts getting loaded up before it heads of for parts unknown…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up – the landing in Ketchikan…and then off to Creek Street!

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

We love water – being in it, on it, or just near it. I guess that’s one reason why we enjoy cruising so much. However, getting to see the wild waterways of Alaska form above was a neat experience. The first shot below shows a wetlands waterway/river cutting through the forested flatlands. The other is a great shot showing the alluvial fan (that college class is finally paying dividends!) of debris washout at the mouth of a river being deposited in the shallows before the drop-off to deeper water in the main channel – something I’d really only seen in photos previously – and now I have my own!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the next few minute flying over the open waters around Ketchikan. We circled around a couple of times looking for the tell-tale spray of water and dark silhouettes that would give away some whales, but alas we didn’t see any. We did circle a small island that had a pair of nesting eagles high in one of the trees, but I didn’t get any good shots due to the angle through the windows. Then, we were comin’ ’round the corner of the south end of the island and Ketchikan slide into view. Here’s shot looking north towards Ketchikan – the same angle we approached on Radiance earlier in the morning – just a slightly different angle of viewing!

 

 

 

Coming up on Ketchikan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Island Wings is located just a bit north of the cruise ship berths along the waterfront, so we were able to get a great look at Radiance and the other ships in port as we flew north and then swung to the right and landed facing south looking at the same ships…

 

 

 

Radiance patiently waiting for us in port

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone need anything at Safeway???

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steady at the controls, Michelle brought us in for a nice landing and just a few seconds later, our Misty Fjords adventure was officially over!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[jrose529]

I'm enjoying this as much as your 2012 review and can't wait for more!

 

Judy

[WalleyeLJ]

I'm enjoying this as much as your 2012 review and can't wait for more!

 

Judy

 

Thanks Judy! I saw your other post, and the good thing is you've got some time to get comfortable with your new camera, which will help a lot!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

A quick ride from Shona back to the waterfront and we were off to spend the time we had left in port checking out downtown Ketchikan and Creek Street. We got dropped right in the parking lot between Berth #3 & Radiance, and the waterfront Tongass Trading Post building. Just above where we got dropped off was a small little park/green space which had a large totem style art carving of a Bald Eagle. Bev took a couple photos for other groups, and one of them took ours. Then, we made our way on foot along Front Street, checking out the sights of downtown until we can to Mission Street on our left, and the famous “Welcome to Ketchikan” sign stretched across the street. After taking the obligatory snapshots of the sign, we browsed our way along Mission Street. We didn’t really go in and check out any as we wanted to make sure we had some time at Creek Street. We figured we’d stop on our way back to the ship if we still had time!

 

 

 

Eagle Art Near the Cruise Pier

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view looking south along Front Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ketchikan Duck Boat Tour – picks you up right next to the ship!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at a Celebrity Ship in Berth #2, the Pier side Tongrass Trading Post (we got dropped off on the other side), and a sliver of Radiance just under the bow of the Celebrity ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Ketchikan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Get your salmon – and free gift with purchase!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Walking along Mission Street towards the north entrance to Creek Street, we came upon a beautiful small park nestled between Mission Street and Mill Street (to our right) the flowers were plentiful and gorgeous, amazingly healthy and vibrant. I guess all the rain Ketchikan gets helps fuel the short summer growing season! In addition to the beautiful flowers in the park, there was a totem pole, our first in Alaska. While Ketchikan is noted for its wonderful collections of totem poles in various locations like Totem Bight State Park, Saxman Village and Totem Heritage Center, we weren’t able to make it to any of those locations, so the ones we were able to enjoy in downtown Ketchikan were a great experience. Here are a couple of shots of the park and a composite of some of the figures carved on the totem:

 

 

 

Park, flowers and our first totem pole

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totem figure details

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the little park where Mill, Mission and Stedman Streets all meet, you are treated to the towering presence of the Chief Johnson totem pole – it’s 55 feet tall!!! It is a replica of a totem originally carved and placed near here in 1901. The photo of the interpretive plaque below tells the full story. You can’t help but check it out when you’re in this part of town, plus it marks the parking lot that provides access to the north entrance to Creek Street – so it makes a great guide! If you are interested in taking the funicular up to the Cape Fox Lodge for lunch, the views, and this rare form of transportation, you can see both pictured halfway up the totem pole on the left edge.

 

 

 

55 foot Chief Johnson Totem Pole

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fog Woman – producer/mother of salmon

 

 

 

 

 

 

The story of the Chief Johnson Totem Pole

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the left and behind the Chief Johnson totem pole lies a little parking lot, and the upper entrance to Creek Street. Here’s a shot of the start of the boardwalk and some of the colorful buildings that make up the historic Creek Street area. For those unfamiliar, Creek Street is famous as the historic location of the bars and brothels that served the community from the 1800s through the 1950s. In addition to the colorful stories of some of the strong, colorful women who worked and lived in this part of town, there are some neat stories of the bootlegging days when alcohol was smuggled in on the tides through trap doors in the floors of the buildings set on pilings along the creek. Today, it’s full of restaurants and art, craft and gift shops – and great deals on t-shirts!

 

 

 

The upper entrance to Creek Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[sue402001]

Your pictures from Misty Fjiords are truely amazing LJ. We were unable to go last week as the weather wasn't cooperating. Between the rain and the clouds you couldn't see much. Michelle did take us to some other fjiords hoping we'd be able to see them better but that was not to be either. Instead she dropped us off at Traitors Cove early and we were able to enjoy some great bear viewing. Guess I'll just have to go back to Alaska to see Misty Fjiords! :)

[WalleyeLJ]

Your pictures from Misty Fjiords are truely amazing LJ. We were unable to go last week as the weather wasn't cooperating. Between the rain and the clouds you couldn't see much. Michelle did take us to some other fjiords hoping we'd be able to see them better but that was not to be either. Instead she dropped us off at Traitors Cove early and we were able to enjoy some great bear viewing. Guess I'll just have to go back to Alaska to see Misty Fjiords! :)

 

Sue - It's a shame you couldn't get it, but I've got bear fever now, so I'm excited to hear about your bear viewing. What was it like? How was the rest of your trip? What was you favorite part(s)???

As for the next post, it's on hold as I finished packing for my fake Alaska trip to go salmon fishing with my Dad on Lake Ontario this weekend. I'll get back to it when I return next week!

L.J.

Edited August 30, 2013 by WalleyeLJ

[WalleyeLJ]

As you cross Totem Way over the bridge to the shops and other businesses on the far side of the creek, look left and you get a nice view up the Creek, along with the viewing platform on the other wide of the river. Above the platform is the still accessible “Married Man’s Trail”. The MMT was the way that the betrothed men of Ketchikan would sneak their way down to the painted ladies of Creek Street back in the day…

 

 

 

 

The Creek Overlook and Married Man’s Trail

 

 

 

 

As you look right, the shallower running waters of the left side spill into the much deeper pool that lies on the right side of the bridge. There you can see The Halibut Hole restaurant (with the American flag on the deck), and a number of the piling supported buildings and businesses that line both sides of the creek.

 

 

 

The Halibut Hole – Creekside Dining with a great view!

 

 

 

 

Waterfront shopping along the Creek

 

 

 

 

After crossing over the bridge, we found the one shopping destination I was looking for thanks to the Alaska forum here on CC – the Soho Coho, which features Ray Troll artwork, including my favorite travel collectible – t-shirts! Troll has some of the most unique artwork in Alaska, and some of it has some saucy flair in the sayings. The cool thing is that if you aren’t into t-shirts, you can get the same artwork on mugs, magnets and other media. Here’s a look at the interesting art and often even more interesting sayings and slogan’s like “If You Must Smoke, Smoke Salmon”, “Spawn ‘Til You Die”, “Walk Softly and Carry a Big Fish” and “NASCARP”. I’ll leave it to you to find some of my other favorites…

 

 

 

Ray Troll T-Shirt Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the more fascinating things I’ve encountered in my travels is the legendary Jackalope. I first ran into this famous creature while crossing the country from Massachusetts to Idaho in the summer of 1995. Years later, my Mother-in-Law gave me a mounted one, rescuing it from her yard sale under the charge of taking good care of it. For those unfamiliar with this hybrid critter, it is a cross of a Jackrabbit and an Antelope. Well, what did my wander eyes fins in the Soho Coho but a fantastic specimen of the Alaskan legend the Horned Humpy – brought to us by none other than Ray Troll. You can read the story of his “encounter” below the Humpy. All I can say is his art has no bounds…

 

 

 

The Horned Humpy of Ketchikan

 

 

 

 

My t-shirt acquired “Alaska – for the Halibut”, we left the Soho Coho and headed for the funicular for a ride up to the Cape Fox Lodge for lunch!

 

 

 

L.J.