Almost exactly two years ago I was in this part of Alaska. There are significant differences between the two visits. It was cool and rainy the last time around while it was warm (60's) and sunny this time. There were many more active waterfalls in 2008 though there was a lot more ice floating in the water of the Tracy Arm this time. Almost all of the Juneau tours with the exception of the expensive "flight seeing" were tours I had taken the first time. The last time I visited Skagway, I took the White Pass and Yukon train excursion. This time Michael and I decided to pass on the tours and explore Juneau and Skagway on our own. I had traveled extensively on the "Alaska Marine Highway" in 2008. I'm in a luxury cruise ship in 2010. I think I had the more authentic experience in 2008.
I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the visit to the glacier was in a (small) cruise ship as opposed to an (even smaller) excursion boat. The fact that the sun was shining made it easy to stand on deck, camera ready for whatever came up. Even ten stories above the water, the view of the glacier face was impressive. Later I compared pictures I took in 2008 with my new ones. The shape of the ice face has changed. It appears that the face of the glacier has shrunk back ten or twenty feet in the past two years. There were far fewer waterfalls in 2010 but the view of glaciers in the distance was much better. This time we had competition: the Sea Princess went up Tracy Arm ahead of us and spent more than its allotted time at the glacier face. As a consequence our arrival in Juneau was delayed an hour or so. It's ironic that each ship is allotted half an hour at the glacier face.
We have seen at least five different Princess ships since we left Vancouver, all much, much bigger than we are. All carrying over 2000 passengers each. The cruise ship season in Alaska is winding down. I can't imagine how crowded all of these ports were during the summer with four or five ships docked in each port every day, not one or two. It certainly seems that the number of jewelry stores in each port has exploded. A trip to Alaska by cruise ship is no longer exotic. It has devolved into just another shopping experience punctuated by the same generic (expensive) tours in each port. See the whales, see the glaciers, see the bears!
The mountains, the glaciers, the ocean and the wild life are still wonderful. It's just too bad that so many people only seem to want to find a McDonald's and buy a tee shirt or maybe some of those diamonds for sale everywhere. For Michael and me the best parts of the trip so far have been the opportunity to talk to real local people and walk a few blocks off the main streets and see how real Alaskans live.
I had been to all of the sights in Juneau so I was able to take Michael on the tram up to the top of Mt. Roberts. It was beautifully clear so we were able to take a scenic hike. Later were able to walk into the parts of Juneau not devoted to tourists. It's amazing how small the Alaska State Capitol building looks. We would have walked more but Michael was still feeling under the weather so we returned to the ship for afternoon tea and, later, dinner watching the brightly lit ships in the harbor.
Skagway was fun. We walked all over the downtown early and found Michael some cold medicine. We had espresso in a coffee shop frequented by locals that had been recommended by the clerk in a more touristy place. The highlight of the morning was watching a work crew take a refurbished White Pass and Yukon diesel locomotive off a wheeled cradle and position it on the railroad track. It appeared to have been unloaded from a ship. Later that afternoon we saw an older, beat up looking diesel being taken off the tracks and loaded onto the cradles. We concluded that the locomotives are serviced elsewhere and we were watching a swap.
We finished our visit having walked more than seven miles all over the town including a trip to the rail yard and the airport. The sail out from Skagway was spectacular. We were able to sit comfortably on the rear deck and watch the mountains and ocean slide by. We were even accompanied by dolphins for awhile.
I wrote the above blog Friday, it is now Tuesday. I have had problems uploading this to the blog site. I will try sending this using Michael's computer. After Kamchatka we are told that due to Japanese regulations we will not have Internet access until Korea. I'll keep writing and eventually my posts will get published. More later on Kodiak Island and Dutch Harbor.
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