Hello Emerald Isles and Goodbye Alaska

Haines to Juneau:  After a great opera performance of La Boheme by Opera Fairbanks and the romantic wedding of our friends Peter and Rena we got up bright and early and drove all day to Haines to catch the ferry the next morning for our trip to Juneau.  Please note that I drove at least half of the time!!!!

We sure miss Fred!!!!

The ferry ride from Haines to Juneau was uneventful except for the fact that we met a very talkative passenger who had David’s ear for the whole ride.  Juneau was quite atypical of what we expect the rest of our trip to be since we stayed with our friend Jim Powell and his wife Beth Kertulla; had dinner with my friend and co-coordinator Jan Carlisle and had dinner and were treated to a whale watching tour with Dylan’s oldest friend Andrew Heist and his lady friend Erin.  It was great to see Beth and Dr. Jim in their own home and they were the most gracious hosts.  I was so pleased that Jim had the chance to meet Andrew.  Equally fun was to finally meet Jan’s husband and son whom I had heard so much about.  Her house was like a treehouse!!!

Driving in certain areas of Juneau was quite a challenge.  We had never seen such steep streets.  And above it all loomed the cruise ships!

Not nearly enough time in Juneau since the whale watching took up most of the day.  And what a great tour it was.  Lots and lots of whales, spouting away.  And, according to those who know, the weather was quite good which seems to mean no rain and even a little sunshine.

         Glaciers, whales and sea lions made for an enjoyable trip.

From Juneau we went to Sitka on the fast ferry (35 knots per hour) which took only 4 hours as opposed to the usual 8 hours.  Jim went with us which was great since that meant more time with him and we were able to drop him off at his conference.  Then David and I stopped at a picnic table by the harbor to eat lunch and met a man who asked us to watch his wheelbarrow full of fish while he went to get his car.  When he came back he gave us a wonderfully packed and frozen bag of red salmon and one of halibut!!!  Wow!  He also told us to go to a free camp ground at Blue Lake which we did and it was great!  Unfortunately when we woke up the next day it rained until noon, so we just had to stay in bed…poor us!  The rooftop tent kept us dry and cozy.  Then we went into Sitka to the local museum on the campus of Sheldon Jackson College, now closed and used for community events. 

We decided, since we had such great fish to invite Jim to dinner at the picnic table at the harbor.  He came and we started cooking, then Andy and Cathy, (who had given us the fish to begin with) joined us and then some German guy wandered by and joined us too.  Dinner for 6!  What a hoot!

The next day, after a great hike to Blue Lake, (sunny, sunny sunny)           we went into town because we had left our sporks (titatinium, if you please) on Andy’s boat where David went to wash them.  Well, since they are the friendliest people one earth, they invited us to come back and join them for dinner and a cruise.       What fun!  I am sure if we lived in Sitka we would become good friends. We are amazed, in general, with how friendly the folks in southeast are. Here is what the Sitka harbor looks like at sunset.   Here is a sea otter we saw on our boat trip. 

Our first introduction to totem poles was in a national park in Sitka where the replica totems were displayed along a winding path through dense and lush rain forest.                    We discovered, through photos that the old native villages were full of totems, almost one per house, but that most of them were so degraded that local carvers have been replicating them over time.  To commission a new one required a 5 year wait and a payment of $5000…per foot!

Unfortunately, our ferry did not leave for Wrangle until 4:45 in the morning.  We went to the ferry terminal at about 10:00 pm and tried to sleep in the parking lot.  Then, when we boarded the ferry for the 16 hour ride we went to the solarium at the top of the boat where they have an overhang with heat lamps and  plastic lounge chairs and tried to sleeping our sleeping bags.  Some folks even pitch tents on board.  I slept better than David.

The ferry’s are great!!!  First of all, from a campers point of view…they have showers full of hot water!!!!! Yummy!!!!!  The food is reasonable and good, and even if you bring your own you can use the cafeteria for incidentals.  We pack up breakfast and lunch on each ferry we travel on and are quite comfortable bringing our own food to the on-board cafeteria.  And then there are many different places to sit and relax, even watch a movie at times and plugs for computers so work can get done!   And of course the scenery is spectacular!!!  For those who have never lived in Fairbanks, southeast is a real treat.  They don’t call it the Emerald Isles for nothing!   All of it is a temperate rainforest, lush and fecund and HUMID!!!  My hair is CURLY!!!!!  About as unlike Fairbanks as can be.  We have been so lucky since it has only rained at night, and even though some days are misty we have had our share of sunshine.  Since the folks in southeast can count on one hand the days of sunshine up to now, we feel quite lucky!!!

We got into Wrangle at 9:45 pm and went right to the city park to camp.  The main attraction in Wrangle is AnAn, an intense black and brown bear viewing area.  But, silly us, we knew nothing about this, but, of course our luck held, and we got up at 7:00 am the morning after we arrived and hooked up with a tour (very expensive but worth it) that was leaving at 9:00 am.  I will let the pictures say it all!  Except that we were there so long (from about 11:30 to 5:00) that we actually got to identify individual bears by their personalities!!!  Luckily we did not have to go the  outhouse during that time, because two of the folks who did got stuck for about 10 minutes each while black bears kept them hostage wile roaming between them and the viewing area.              Oops!  Not bears! But eagles and fish too!   And crows eating up the food chain.

We also visited a beach which was full of petroglyphs just lying around half buried on the beach. 

We left Wrangle for Ketchikan and arrived there in the dark.  We drove to a campsite in the Tongass National Forest and put up our tent in the dark.  We were quite pleased when we woke up that we were camping in a lush rainforest right on the shore of Ward Lake. We had our first sighting of a slug here! And I could use my “old lady”national park pass to get us in for ½ price!!!!  No special trips in Ketchikan, just walking around gawking and looking  the lovely dock post toppers and at the huge cruise ships that came in at a rate of almost 5 ships a day, hiking through tropical rainforests and around the lovely lake, spending too much time in the library and McDonalds trying to access the internet…and sunbathing at a popular bathing beach one intensely sunny day. We also rode around seeing the sites...

While speaking with a native artists, he told us that after 1 and ½ days of sunshine the residents were all anxious for the rain to start…which it obligingly did the next day. We did purchase a lovely print from Norman Jackson which we will take to Peru.

Our campsite was lovely and the second day there we stayed in camp all day to hike and relax in the warm weather.  Great fun.  Then the last morning, in the rain, we woke up to see a bear in our campsite.  However, since we were on top of the car, we could enjoy the view and not worry about our safety.  However, the bear was not nearly as pesky as the campers who walked passed our tent, walked back, gawked and then engaged David in VERY long conversations about the tent.  (He loved it although, one morning, while we were still in bed, he did surprise a guy who peeped too close by popping up and saying “Can I help you?’ and scaring the guy quite a bit.  This is getting a bit old as the tent is quite a spectacle wherever we go.

We visited Saxman Park which had a display of more totems.           



We had a few hours to kill before the ferry so we went to the movies and saw Dark Knight Rising…not worth it unless you are waiting for a ferry.

Left for Prince Rupert and did not get in until 3:30 am!  And then with going through customs, etc, we did not get on the road until about 4:30 am.  So, we decided to drive through Prince Rupert in the dark and press on until the afternoon, driving on the Yellowface Highway, Canadian route 16, that goes through lovely mountains and farmlands and cute little towns.  Unfortunately, we are OLD and by the time we found a campsite on a wonderful, large, mountain ringed lake, we were extremely tired and I went right  upstairs for a long nap with David joining me a hour later.