Alaska

Monday, June 18, 2007. Setting Sail

Flew to Vancouver and boarded the ship.

Map of Journey

To view this page with a white background, click here .

The Coral Princess seems to be a mid-sized liner, about 1000 feet long and can carry about 2000 passengers.

Walking the Plank

The cabin didn't feel cramped, given that it's only about 200-250 square feet (and that seems to include the balcony).

Chantra, our room steward, pulled out the bunk bed. Very useful (we returned the crib).

At 4:30 pm we went to the "Sail-a-bration" party.

As the ship left shore, it seemed that the bridge was approaching us.

`Sail-a-bration`

Tuesday, June 19, 2007. At Sea, popping Dramamine

At sea all day. The waters were choppy, and some of us didn't feel too good. Dramamine helped.

The famous Horizon Court buffet, scene of the famous breakfasts and lunches.

Went to a Princess Jeopardy tournament, joined a family (husband, wife, and son) and we came in second (score was 49 at the end of Jeapordy to 51 by a team called Alaska, and in final Jeapordy -- Wright Brothers -- we each doubled our score).

Meera went to Fun Zone. Went to an Alaska port presentation which was a little boring. Not worth it. Afternoon tea at 3:30 pm with scones and tea, followed soon after by dinner. I don't think we're going to starve. Dress code for dinner was formal. The gang went Indian, except Kaushik and me.

Speaking of going formal, we all got used to the dressing up bit, and it was actually enjoyable.

P & V took it to the next level and even slept in their finery.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007. Ketchikan

Left on the 9:30 tour ("First City Deluxe Tour"), our bus driver was Patrick. Visited

South East Alaska Discovery Center

Temperate Rainforest exhibit, history of Alaska, fishing in Alaska.

Mediocre tour, but the tour guide was a nice high school kid who wants to major in Psychology with a minor in culinary arts. The one thing we got out of this was a neat trick for remembering the kinds of salmon ... Chum (thumb), Sockeye (index, puts your eye out (?)), King (middle, longest), Silver (ring), Pink (pinky).

Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center

not a great tourist attraction, tour guides weren't very knowledgeable
had a couple of bald eagles, one owl, and some salmon hatchery ...

The Great Horned Owl's temperament is as bad as he looks. Here's some footage.

`Great Horned Owl`

Totem Heritage Center

good collection of 19th century totem poles, and excellent tour guide

Saxman Native Village

Saw a totem carving center (but could not go in because we were a 2nd class tour :-) -- apparently there's a pecking order in these tours.)

Saw Lincoln pole, Seward "shame" pole, and others.

On the way back, saw Creek Street in which the old Red Light District used to be. Passed by Dolly Arthur's house.

The "coastline" of the homes along the dockside made a good picture.

See the sign for "temporary tattoos" on the umbrella outside the ship.

Post-Lunch activities

went to a class on cha cha dancing, followed by a class on line dancing
afternoon tea
trivia contest ... our team was Meera, Abhijit, Rohan and Rhea ... got 17/20, beaten by another team which got 18. Kids got water bottles for collecting pencils.
went to a (bad) comedy show, and then bar-hopped to the Bayou cafe (Jazz piano), Crooners Lounge (Rat pack music), and other good stuff.

Thursday, June 21, 2007. Juneau

Meera went with the others to hike on the glacier. P, V, and I went to the hot tub and swimming in the morning (possibly leading to V's ear infection). Late morning we walked to the Mount Roberts tramway.

We went on the funicular up the mountain. Good view of Juneau, also a nice trekking trail.

At 1:30, went on the city tour (Deluxe Mendenhall Glacier & Juneau Highlights). Bus Driver / Tour Guide was an Art History student named Amanda.

Alaska State Museum

Historical artifacts of Alaska. See Alaskan humor.

John Muir travelled on the Thomas Corwin.

Lighthouse lens below is interesting.

Macaulay Salmon Hatchery

This is run by DIPAC, which is the Douglas Island Pink and Chum, a non-profit organization that incubates baby salmon and releases them into the river. They seem to do this for 120 million salmon. They break even by harvesting some of the salmon (about 5 million) and by donations. Apparently they get no government money. Amazing.

Green Angel Gardens and the Inukshuk Shop

Green Angel Gardens is a rainforest created and maintained by Jane and Jeff Svinicki, a couple that bought 4 acres of land and created a rainforest out of it. Amazingly good. Just the perfect length of time, very well documented flora, and they manage to strike a balance between the wildness necessary for a rainforest and the organization that allows visitors to stay interested and learn. One of my favorite stops, and the best botanical tour I've ever had.

They have a numbering scheme to help visitors identify the various kinds of plants, flowers, lichens, etc. See #29, which is a Skunk Cabbage.

Back to the Inukshuk shop, where they serve tea and muffins (definitely not cookies). We bought an Inukshuk.

Mendenhall Glacier

Finally, went to the glacier.

And a video of the glacier.

`Mendenhall Glacier`

Later in the evening went to the Beatles trivia contest. P, M, and I formed a team, we got all 20 songs right, got 2 albums bonus (out of 5, got one from Sgt. Pepper's , and another fluke with Revolver), so a score of 24. First team got 28 (they missed one album bonus (Strawberry Fields Forever was in ( Magical Mystery Tour , something that all of us should have gotten), second high score was 25, we came third. I was thrilled at having gotten all the songs, my team mates weren't as impressed.

Friday, June 22, 2007. Skagway

Took the bus in the morning, trip involved going through Alaska into British Columbia and ending up in the Yukon Territory. Bus driver, Ben, was a nice fellow.

Filled dead time with stories about Bruce the Moose, etc. Before we left, noticed quite a bit of graffiti on the side of the rocks near the dock. Most are a sign of the ship and the captain. The story is that in days of yore, ships used to put a stake and a bucket in front of their sign.

People who wanted mail, etc. taken by that ship dropped it in the bucket, and the ship took it for them (and it was presumably picked up at the other end).

Goat Lake

We first went by Goat Lake, see the sign for the hydroelectric project and Pitchfork Falls.

Beautiful scenery all the way, and the view from the bus was quite good. Notice the white and red L-shaped poles on the side of the road. When the roads are covered with snow, the poles indicate the edges of the road.

Bove Island

Emerald Lake

The final stop on the way out was Emerald Lake. Beautiful green water.

`Emerald Lake`

Caribou Crossing

Had lunch at Caribou Crossing. Highlight was the taxidermy exhibit.

The place had been made up to look like a trading post. It's well done.

Carcross

From Caribou Crossing, we next stopped at the town of Carcross which seems to exist only for visitors. Surprising to see a "performance theater" sign, just doesn't make sense.

The town has several structures, including the dock and bridge, which are "use at your own risk".

The Matthew Watson General Store seems to be the centerpiece of the town, and the abandoned yellow building used to be the Caribou hotel which was apparently one of the earliest hotels in this whole territory.

White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad

Next stop was the train depot at the town of Fraser, where we boarded the WP&YR Railroad. Beautiful scenery on the way back.

`Train passing by a deep gorge`

We ended up at Skagway. After a brief stop at the Alaska Shirt Company, we headed back to the ship.

Saturday, June 23, 2007. Glacier Bay

Highlights were two glaciers, Margerie and Lamplugh. We also saw a mini-avalanche.

First, Margerie Glacier, taken from the upper deck.

Kids had fun, we narrowly averted destruction.

Next was Lamplugh Glacier.

Went to the Promenade deck.

Played trivia in the afternoon, with Anooshka, Arooshi, Rhea, Rohan, and Meera along with Abhijit and me, team name MC (Milk Chocolate) Truffles. The kids did amazingly well, every one of them answered at least one or two questions and we won with a score of 16.

Formal night, we had our "studio" picture taken later.

Who Wants to be a Princess Millionaire.

Sunday, June 24, 2007. College Fjord Glacier

Went to casino. Went to a trivia game along with P & M (team name, the Young Ones) with Pat and a couple of sisters. Didn't win but did okay.

Also went to Jeopardized Trivia, bet the farm on Final Jeopardy and guessed that Banting and Best were Irish, they were Canadian. Amazingly, not a single team (out of 9) got it right. Our resident Lifescan alumnus unfortunately did not benefit from her foray into the world of diabetes.

Ship sailed around the sound, we saw the College Fjord Glaciers (whole bunch of them, named after various East Coast colleges.) It was a foggy, cloudy day, so not the best for taking photographs.