We are back home from our Alaska trip, safe and sound. What an amazing three weeks it has been. Neither Mr wj73 nor I had ever been to Alaska, so everything was brand new to both of us. We spent 11 days on a Windstar small ship cruise, then 4 more days on a Windstar add on overland trip from Seward through Anchorage, then on to Denali, ending in Fairbanks. We extended a few extra days in Fairbanks, then broke up the long plane trip home by extending a few days in Seattle.
It’s hard to even describe everything we saw and experienced. We watched glaciers calve, then kayaked in those waters, avoiding ice floes loosed from those glaciers. We took a helicopter to the far reaches of one of the glaciers, and then trekked for two hours across the glacier using crampons with inch and a half long spikes (not like the little YakTrax we use at home) armed with an ice ax that we could use for gripping, climbing and chipping away ice as needed. We hiked in temperate rain forests, across cold beaches, and next to glacier-fed rivers. We saw modern skyscrapers and ancient petroglyphs. We saw incredible waterfalls falling thousands of feet from melting snow packs on the mountains.
We saw humpbacks and orcas, and more bald eagles than we could count. Otters and sea lions were regular companions as we anchored in isolated fjords. We saw moose, caribou, and even a grizzly bear! We saw indigenous villages and gold rush towns. We visited larger cities like Juneau, Sitka, Anchorage, and Fairbanks, but also anchored far up into fjords where there was no one else for miles. We also visited small fishing villages like Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Haines. We took a ferry to Skagway, and a train to Denali. We passed through Wasilla at one point, but could not see Russia from there. We ate fresh salmon and spicy reindeer sausage.
One of the most special experiences was the day we took a small plane up to Utqiagvik (formerly known as Barrow), the northern most point of the United States. We touched the Arctic Ocean where it has started its spring thaw and walked on the frozen Arctic Ocean ice where it hasn’t thawed yet. We learned a lot of what life is like living in a frozen land. The population is about 70% indigenous and many ancient traditions remain, Including subsistence hunting and whaling. The whaling is tightly controlled, with a limited allocation given to selected indigenous villages each year.
I have a lot of ethical issues with commercial whaling, but have no issues with subsistence whaling done by people who use traditional methods they’ve used for thousands of years, such as going out in wooden canoes and using harpoons. While we were there we passed a group of locals cutting up chunks of a bowhead whale one of them had taken in March. They were preparing it for a traditional summer solstice community feast. They invited us over to take pictures and explain what they did, and even gave us samples! It was very much of an honor for us that the man who had taken the whale offered to share it with us, and we accepted it as such. Turns out raw whale tastes much like steak tartare, but fattier and chewier. What cracked me up is that they were seasoning it with Old Bay seasoning. Never thought of that being used on whale!
And we ate! The food on the ship was amazing. We each gained 5 pounds. The ship normally holds 312 passengers, but there were only 150 passengers on our sailing. With 200 crew. Can you imagine the service we got? Also, being on a small ship, the captain and other officers frequently walked the decks, chatting with passengers as they went along. The ship also had several scientists aboard, including whale experts, a glacier expert, plant biologists, etc. They gave nightly talks on various fascinating topics about Alaska. They also led hiking and kayaking excursions. And again, with so few passengers on board, they got to know us by name and could point out things of particular interest to us. One evening the ship brought on board a Tlingit storyteller elder who gave a fascinating talk about Tlingit culture, ancient and modern.
And yes, we even managed to find a baseball game. Fairbanks has a college-level wooden bat league team called the Alaska Goldpanners. On our last night in Alaska, we watched the Goldpanners take on the Ventura (CA) Pirates. Although it was a night game starting at 7 PM and not ending till 10, no stadium lights were needed as the sun did not set till almost 1 AM. The game was 6-4 in favor of the Pirates going into the bottom of the 9th, but ended 8-6 after a Goldpanners walk off grand slam. I’ve been to hundreds of baseball games, and have seen walk off home runs, but never a walk off grand slam.
After setting so late, the sun also rose shortly after 3am, which was a very interesting experience. It never really got dark. It simply went from dusk to dawn, with no night in between. It was astonishing to walk out of a restaurant at 10:30 pm into the blazing sunshine. I don’t think I’d mind living there in summer with all that daylight, but I would absolutely hate to live there in winter when the reverse is true and it goes right from dawn to dusk, and never really gets light.
And then to finish off the trip, in Seattle we took in the Angels v. Mariners at T Mobile Park. The Angels won, with Trout of course hitting a home run.
We were on Alaska Airlines the whole way coming and going, with no delays or cancellations. We were very grateful for that after reading about the recent delays.
We’re working our way through mounds of dirty laundry now. Other than that, I personally plan to sleep for a week! All in all, it was a great trip. Truly a once in a lifetime, bucket list experience.