Alaskan Dream Cruise: Return to Sitka

On the last morning of our marvelous sea-faring adventure, we cruised along the length of Sitka,

past fishing boats and processing plants...

sea planes...

and into a private dock in the backyard of Bob and Betty Allen, the owners of Allen Marine and Alaskan Dream Cruises. Can you imagine having a totem pole and a dock in your backyard? It's not so unusual here. This is the Allen home...

…and this is one of several houseboats nearby, docked right next to a very old shipwreck.

During breakfast all our luggage was removed from the ship and we said our last goodbyes to the officers, expedition leaders and crew.  Owner Bob Allen even dropped in to express his thanks to us for cruising with his company. It was a surprisingly emotional experience! The crew had been so effective and generous in their professional relationships with us, that we all felt very grateful. Of course these feelings go a long way towards leaving good tips, which I feel certain many of us left behind.  (If you're interested in reading the review I wrote, see the Cruise Critic website.)

Bye-bye Baranof Dream! 

We had scheduled two days/three nights in Sitka after the cruise to rest and catch up on laundry, emails,  naps, and whatever else we might need.  It turned out that our new friends Dave and Judi also needed to do some laundry and planned on spending the day in Sitka. So we invited them to join us, as we had a rental car, and the four of us spent a rainy day at the laundromat and the McDonald's across the street. We had a great time. Good company makes any chore a pleasure.

After the laundry was done we had some more time before Judi & Dave had to catch their plane, so we used the free vouchers Alaskan Dream had given us to the Alaska Raptor Center.  The very well informed guides there introduced us to many of their birds, including this American Kestrel. What a beautiful little hunter!

The Raptor Center houses and rehabilitates all kinds of raptors, from tiny owls to bald eagles.  The only birds they keep are those that are not able to return to the wild due to disability of some sort.  This bald eagle was one of about 7 or 8 permanent eagle residents that we saw.  Neat to be able to see them so closely. They are intense birds.

We were introduced to several kinds of owls and hawks in their outdoor cages. Then we received a tour of the indoor space where they rehabilitate the birds. The eagles had the largest space - about the size of a gymnasium, where they could safely practice flying between different kinds of perches.   There were smaller spaces reserved for small raptors and owls.  There were no "shows" of trained raptors, like we've seen at various other museums and nature centers. 

The time finally came to drop Judi and Dave off and say goodbye until some future get together. We drove on to Frank & Gloria's Place, where we had stayed overnight right before the cruise. Although  our cabin on the cruise was plenty comfortable, it did feel good to spread out a little bit. 

The next two days were cold and rainy, but we just took it easy and saw some more of Sitka. The first day we drove all the way to the end of the road to the south, and the next day we drove all the way to the end of the road to the north. (The whole road is a total of 15 miles long.) 

At the northern end is Starrigavan Recreation Area, which has lots of trails to explore. After some deliberation we chose the Mosquito Cove Trail. There were brown bear warning signs, indicating that bears had been seen in the area a few days ago. No surprise. Did you know that there is an average of one brown bear per square mile in southeastern Alaska?  Well, we decided to do it anyway, be alert, and make a lot of noise, as is recommended.

It was a beautiful trail, traversing the steep shoreline and passing through rainforest-like terrain. Of course this means dense vegetation, lots of dead trees and big rocks: plenty of places for bears to hang out without being able to see them. Well, we were nervous through the whole walk.

An hour and a half later, no wildlife sightings. That was fine with us. 

But, minutes after getting into our car and driving back toward town, an adolescent brown bear came  bounding across the road in front of us like a big sheepdog, followed by three officers with dart or stun guns in close pursuit! The bear got away into the woods, and the officers stood around deciding what to do next - then waved us on. We had to assume the young bear was getting into trouble in the neighborhood and these guys were problem solving. This was the closest encounter we had with a bear during our whole Alaskan visit. 

I made one more interesting stop while we were in town: the Sitka National Historic Park, also locally known as Totem Pole Park.  I was very impressed with the beautiful collection of Tlingit and Haida totem poles, as well as other native arts and historical artifacts. Many of the poles are mounted along the shore in the deep woods, where they are truly striking, mysterious and powerful, especially in the misty rain.

That about did it for Sitka. We left feeling ready for the next leg of our Alaskan adventure: Anchorage.

Alaskan Dream Cruise: The Norwegian Fishing Town of Petersburg

During the night our ship traveled south through Frederick Sound to Petersburg, a small fishing village on Kupreanof Island. The last three places we stopped were actually on the mainland, which is why we were seeing so many glaciers. They form in the high mountains of Alaska and Canada and some work their way to the fjords leading to the Inside Passage. Frederick Sound is where we saw all the whales, and we were going to pass through it again.  We were all keeping our fingers crossed for whales in the evening.

As we pulled into the dock, the fog slowly lifted to reveal fishing boats coming and going. Petersburg is a very busy port.

During breakfast the sun broke through and the vibrant colors of sky, water and fishing boats emerged.
It's so blue in Alaska!

The green building in the next photo is a fish processing plant. Most of the fishing boats bring their catch to these buildings where they clean, filet, freeze and ship out the fish. We were seeing these in almost every town or city we passed. By the way, since leaving Juneau, for three days we had hardly seen a building, a fence, a power line or any evidence of human beings.  Surprisingly, we actually saw very few boats or ships as well.  

Now we were back in civilization, though not in a real big way. 

This being a fishing town, it is fitting to have a memorial to fisherman lost at sea.  It was right outside of the Sons of Norway Hall, where we were invited to a performance of Norwegian folk dance by a group of local children. 

We received an informative introduction by a local woman, describing the Norwegian history and culture of the town, as well as a generous and delicious spread of Norwegian cookies made by the young dancers before the dance.

It was wonderful to see young people willing and eager to learn their cultural dances and traditions, and to share them with enthusiasm (especially the cookies).  Evidence of this kind of cultural pride was a consistent them of our cruise experience. 

We had a few hours to tour the town on a school bus driven by another very knowledgeable local woman who is not only a bus driver, but a historian.  She informed us that Petersburg is not named after the Russian city, or the Russian czar, as one might assume, but is named after the man who established the fishing industry, and therefore the town, in this location.

Evidence of the town's fishing history and current industry is everywhere. These are fishing net floats hanging on the side of a building.

These are fish traps sold at the hardware store, along with anything you could ever want for fishing.

This is one of the historic buildings in the town that has Norwegian painting on the shutters. It was, and I believe still is a dormitory for company fishermen.

This was the 5th of July and the town was still in celebration mode. There were sidewalk sales, bunting everywhere and contests, like the herring toss. Yes, the herring toss. Another contest, in which a couple of our fellow passengers actually competed, is the mother-son rowboat race.  The mother is blindfolded and has the oars, and the son has to direct her as to how to row. (Ingenious.) Our passengers won the town's medal for the most entertaining competitors! 

We ended our visit to Petersburg with a walk along a boardwalk through the muskeg, 

a kind of wetlands of deep moss unique to the northlands. 

Back on board the Baranof Dream for lunch and launch.

In the afternoon (after our naps) our guide Leonty oriented us to our events of the following day, in the town of Kake (pronounced "cake"). Kake is a Tlingit community that is working very hard to recall, develop and maintain their cultural heritage. He explained that the town would not look so pretty and perfect as Petersburg, but that it was none-the-less and vibrant and healthy community. This was really helpful for all of us to know. More about Kake in the next post. 

That evening we were again blessed with the company of humpback whales for hours. This time they were feeding in groups of maybe 3-6 (hard to tell) very close to us. We watched them emerge vertically from the water with their mouths wide open, the folds in their throats fully extended. At some points they were in every direction we looked. We watched one particular pod that seemed to be three adults and one youngster whose feeding and diving behavior was a little erratic. We imagined that the adults were trying to teach the youngster how to participate, but the youngster didn't quite get it, or was just having fun. In any case, we got to see some pretty unusual behavior and whale body parts flipping and flapping in every direction. We couldn't have asked for more.

Alaskan Dream Cruise: A Whale of a Fourth of July

We woke on the 4th of July to this beautiful view. (We saw a lot of these quiet mornings and evenings on our cruise. ) But it wasn't quiet for long. This was going to be a real kicker of a day.

The passengers were all divided up into four color coded groups of twelve each (We were the orange "team.") There were four activities for the day: kayaking, DIB rides, RTV, and hiking. The groups would rotate through the activities for about 1 1/2 hours each, so that everyone would get to do everything, if they so desired.

The kayaks were all lined up on deck ready to be the first to go out. They took the most time to get people into and launched. The crew were real experts at doing this, so that everything went super smoothly.

Emily, one of our expedition leaders, offered a little mini lesson in kayaking.

They had a spiffy kayak launcher that made it easy to get into the kayak and effortless to get the kayak into and out of the water.  So smart to have this. Just imagine the spills it must save everyone, not to mention the liabilities.  The crew (in orange vests) assisted every passenger (in yellow vests).

And they're off, like a flock of turtles!

The DIB set off with 1/3 of the passengers...

and Leonty got us up to speed for driving the RTVs.

Our great new friends, Dave and Judy were on the orange team with us.

Go Team Orange!

Rick at the wheel of the RTV. They were really bumpy.

Our caravan of RTVs. 

When it was our turn to go out on the DIB it was cold and rainy, and we were tired and just wishing it would be over already, when our DIB captain Rica spotted this young black bear chomping down on some grass along the shore. She got us as close as she could and we sat and watched for a long time. Not tired anymore!

All the happy campers made it back to the ship in one piece, with no incidents and had a typically great meal. After dinner the best kind of fireworks began…Zippy little Dall's porpoises started dashing around the ship. These marine mammals are the fastest small cetaceans. They look just like small orcas. They don't arch out of the water like most porpoises, they just barely break the surface or skim right under the surface, zig-zagging really fast, making this zippy sound. Zzzzzp.

At about the same time, humpback whales started to appear around us in small groups. In the distance they were breaching and feeding. 

Close to the ship they travelled along with us, cruising and diving like they do. Showing their flukes before the deep dive. At one point one surfaced right next to the ship and scared the **** out of us who were close to it.  We were jumping and hollering just like kids at their first fourth of July fireworks. 

It went on for hours until we were too tired to stay up any longer. Can you imagine? And it wasn't the last time we saw humpbacks…

Alaskan Dream Cruise: Tracy Arm Fjord

We woke up to sheer rock outside our cabin window.

Cruise ships often cover their greatest distances while the passengers sleep. Overnight we had travelled into Tracy Arm Fjord, and were making our way toward the South Sawyer Glacier. 

We were already starting to see large hunks of floating ice, some of which had harbor seals resting on them. Harbor seals come deep into the fjords, close to the glaciers, to have their pups in places that are safe from larger predators, such as the orca.

Soon we could see the South Sawyer Glacier. In the picture below we're still at least a mile away from it. Because of all the icebergs, it was becoming increasingly risky to get closer. 

But our captain, a true prince among captains, was slowly making his way closer and closer. Sometimes a crew member would have to get down on the lower deck and verbally guide the captain around a glacier.  This was about as close as we could get.

In addition to the magnificent blue of the glaciers, the colors of the rock and the vegetation in Tracy Arm are simply gorgeous. Just to give you some perspective, the vegetation in the next photo that looks like moss, are actually trees about 6 feet tall in some places.

Tracy Arm is also known for its waterfall. We must have seen close to a hundred over the course of the entire day; many falling thousands of feet down the sheer rock walls of the fjord.  If it weren't for the ice and snow, you might think we were in Hawaii.

Here you can see the Baranof Dream in the fjord near another waterfall.

Our next stop was North Sawyer Glacier, which calves much less ice, making it more approachable. The mountains behind the glacier are at least 5,000 ft. high.  If this were Hawaii those might smoking volcanoes, but they're just clouds.

Again, because there was so little calving and floating ice, it was safe enough to get closer to the glacier in the DIB, the small inflatable boat used to get to and from the ship for excursions. This photo gives you a sense of how huge these glaciers are. We never got closer than half a mile to the glacier.

The rest of the day was spent traveling back out of Tracy Arm, and waterfall spotting. Just look at the colors in those rocks.

At Icy Falls, the captain got us pretty darn close…

Don't you think?