Writing from home now. We disembarked on July 13, flew to Charlotte, stayed overnight and drove home. We’re back, and dealing with all the things you might expect when you leave an old house for half a year.
While on the ship I became so fed up with the limitations of the ship’s Internet service that I decided to leave posting my story until I was home. Now here it is.
The Bering Sea
Sailing from Japan to Alaska was not pleasant. It was the roughest sea we encountered in all six months of sailing. That wasn’t the worst thing, though, as we’ve become used to the ships motion. Simply crossing West to East at such a high latitude meant that we crossed a time zone every day, so had to turn the clocks ahead and lose an hour of sleep every night. Result, constant jet lag! Since we crossed the International Date Line as well, we had to do one day over again!
I was lucky to have my artwork to do each day, so I wasn’t bored, like some people. The ship did its best to entertain them.
Alaska
DAY 167 Friday, June 30. Dutch Harbor AK
Our first port of call, and our first one back in the USA, was Dutch Harbor. It was chilly, damp, dank and drizzly. They call the island the town of Dutch Harbor is on “Unalaska;” I call it unlovely. Just now I’m looking at a photo I snapped of Mary there, and her smile reminds me of how happy we were at that moment, standing on terra firma. Some of our fellow travelers were excited about visiting Dutch Harbor, as it’s the port for the crabbers in the reality show “Deadliest Catch.” They bought t-shirts; we got our steps in and returned to the ship.
OH NO! Some of my drawings were packed with the Luggage Forward luggage! I promise to post them as soon as the rest of our luggage arrives from San Francisco. Stay tuned!
DAYS 168-169 Saturday and Sunday, July 1 and 2. At sea
The sea was so rough the captain couldn’t put us into Kodiak. That was a shame, as Mary was looking forward to seeing it, as she had missed Kodiak on her previous travels to Alaska.
DAY 170 Monday, July 3. Seward
Seward is well known as the jumping-off point for the Iditarod and for the terminal for a scenic train. It is a much larger town than Dutch Harbor and sports not only the train station but a sizable port. We were docked next to a huge but curiously empty NCL ship. It boasts many amenities: coffee and souvenir shops, a Safeway supermarket, the Flamingo Lounge offering “Craft Cocktails and Classic Eats.” A street fair was underway downtown. We lunched on some reindeer sausages (Don’t tell Santa).
The landscape here is ruggedly beautiful. It reminds me a bit of some parts of the Norwegian coastline, but is somehow bolder. I can’t explain why I feel that way, but I do.
DAY 171 Tuesday, July 4. Cruising Glacier Bay
We spent Independence Day cruising Glacier Bay looking for the Hubbard Glacier. It was quite foggy, and we never saw it. We were told we were seven miles south of it, and I don’t know if the three ships that were cruising around a couple of miles north of us saw it either.
DAY 172 Wednesday, July 5. Sitka
Sitka was my introduction to totem poles. It’s surrounded by beautiful forests, and one wooded area is set aside as a park that has a collection of wonderful examples.
DAY 173 Thursday, July 6. Ketchikan
Ketchikan has molded itself into a Disney-style movie set of a logging and mining town. When I look at my photos of it, I can’t help but hear a honky-tonk piano playing in the background.
We took in a lumberjack show, four really pumped-up guys competing with axes and chainsaws, clambering up poles and trying to knock each other off floating logs. It was great fun.
In the morning before docking at Ketchikan the ship hosted a White Elephant Auction for the benefit of the staff. All the Around the World cruisers seemed to have souvenirs they now regretted having bought, so they donated them to be sold cheap to others. The money was to be used for things like staff outings. I donated four large watercolors.
Canada
DAY 174 Friday, July 7. Prince Rupert, BC
One last foreign country, Canada. Prince Rupert is also a haven for native art. Not only do they have a collection of totem poles but a beautiful museum with some dramatic pieces.
DAY 175 Saturday, July 8. Cruising the Inside Passage
The Inside Passage is a somewhat narrow path that winds along among many islands along the west coast of Canada. It reminds me somewhat of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River, and of the Chilean fjords.
By now the walls of our suite were covered with the pictures I’ve been showing on this blog, and word of this got around the ship. People who passed by our door would see the latest one, but wanted to see the whole collection. So the hotel manager and the cruise director decided to let me show them this day in the ship’s reception area. It was a kind of nice birthday treat for me, I think.
DAY 176 Sunday, July 9. Victoria, BC
Victoria was celebrating gay pride day. People were greeting each other on the streets with “Happy Pride!” We watched a wonderful civic parade of people from all over the island: people marching with banners from all sorts of organizations—schools, churches, synagogs, sporting clubs like The West Coast Wonder Women boxers, rock bands on flatbed trucks, fire and police departments. There was a BC Transit bus painted like a gay pride flag, with a sign that said “You Are L♥ved.”
The weather was beautiful and it showed off the city to great advantage. I’ve never seen so many flowers, in people’s yards spilling out onto their driveways, in shared urban gardens, in the city’s parks. And we didn’t even go to the botanical garden! It was amazing.
USA
DAY 177 Monday, July 10. Astoria, OR
Back in the Lower 48, Astoria Oregon. This city used to be the biggest canner of salmon in the world, and is proud of that, of its Scandinavian heritage (There’s a vest pocket park with trolls.), and of being a center for the US Coast Guard, whose museum is something to see. Otherwise, it’s a neat and quiet Main Street, USA kind of place.
One of the canning plants in the city is now an upscale hotel (I drew a picture of it for Inktober). Another has been made into a museum of salmon canning. We didn’t visit it, but we did see a structure we were told was a “brining shed” until a hurricane took away its top floor. The two-storey remains are being fixed up by a local artist be their studio. It made for an interesting drawing.
DAY 178 Tuesday, July 11. At sea
A quiet day at sea, and almost all of us Around the World passengers (a few of us were continuing beyond San Francisco) busied ourselves with the daunting task of packing six months of clothes and souvenirs. All the luggage we were sending back home via Luggage Forward had to be packed and set outside our door by the following morning.
DAY 179 Wednesday, July 12. San Francisco.
Back where we started, San Francisco. We were packed well enough that we were able to go out and enjoy a walk around the city. You know, I’ve tried to show and describe one remarkable thing about every stop we’ve made, but the most remarkable thing I’ve discovered in San Francisco, well I don’t have the heart. Go watch CNN; you’ll know why.
DAY 180 Thursday, July 13.
Officially the 180th day, but we had to be out of our room by 8:00 AM and on the bus to the airport by 8:30. I guess “Around the World in 179 days” just didn’t have the right ring to it for their marketing department.
Home Again
Our flight to Charlotte, NC landed that evening at around 9:30 PM, so we stayed overnight and drove home on Friday. We were awakened at 7:00 AM by a fire alarm, so we threw on some clothes, gathered our belongings and were out through the fire door. It was a false alarm, so we went back inside, choked down their “free” breakfast and drove home. We arrived at about 1:00 PM.
My most remarkable thing that day (outside of our “wakeup call”)? At home: my feet don’t stick out beyond the end of the bed.