On this trip, I happened to be at the right place at the right time, or the only friend available to go. A friend had booked this cruise for his parents and at the last minute they pulled out leaving him holding the bag for an already paid-for cruise and an additional companion to fill the spot.

Like my first Italian trip, this cruise was in 2002 also. I had never been on a cruise before and hadn’t really thought about going on one; they seemed to be for “older” people; I was only 40 at the time. But getting that call from my friend Brian to be his traveling companion was my lucky day.

The cruise would be for seven days, leaving out of Vancouver BC, then heading up to Juneau, Skagway then Ketchikan, and a few stops in between. This trip ended up being an amazing experience. Showed me the benefit of what a cruise could be like and the ability to experience an area of the country I may have never seen.

I know a lot of people would hate to go on a cruise, I thought that too, but I’ve been on two and loved both of them. They aren’t the only way I like to travel. It is nice to be in a place for more than a few hours, but if you plan you can do a lot in just those few hours (most of the time we have a whole day on land)…just don’t miss getting back to the boat, they will leave you.

Vancouver

In all honesty, I don’t remember much of Vancouver. We flew in the morning of the cruise. Dropped out luggage off, since we had a stateroom, there was special treatment so we took benefit of it. We walked a little downtown but mostly hung out around the boat.

The day was overcast like it was going to rain at any moment. Now I’ve heard so much of the inclement weather up north, maybe this is pretty normal most of the time. I also heard, in the summer in Alaska it can rain quite a bit; we lucked out with little to no rain, just lots of overcast weather that seemed to come in only when we were on the boat as you can tell by the pictures.

Pictures from the boat, while waiting to head out of the bay. The cruise line we took was Holland America and for my first cruise, I really loved the ship. It wasn’t one of those mega-ships you see now. It had wood decks, the perfect first cruise ship.

If you’ve been on a cruise before, you know there are several days that are full days on the ocean, going from one place to another and our first full day was spent on the ocean, we weren’t very far offshore, but it was a great way to acclimate myself to the ship so I knew how to get around. I spend tons of time running from one end of the ship to the other trying to get the best photos, and sadly there was no deck that just went around to make it easier.

Juneau

What I am about to say I surely can say with definitive experience, but I suspect these small towns along the cruise stops are absolutely set up to service the tourist, and seeing how small some of these towns are, tourism is probably a big part of the town's income.

The three towns we visited were very small fishing towns, and once you disembark the ship, you can immediately find things to do. Ships are set up to book tours for the passengers, but Brian and I didn’t pre-book our excursions, we did them once we got off the ship and whether it was luck, we were able to do a lot to experience Alaska.

Like most mornings the weather was overcast. This time of year, it’s typical for Alaska to get lots of rain, so someone was looking over this trip for me. Our suite had a nice side balcony, but the best photos could only be taken from the bow of the ship, so most, if not all. mornings that’s where I was.

Fun fact. Juneau is not connected by roads to the rest of the state or North America. The only way to get to it is by boat or plane.

Juneau was the only town we didn’t book tours, we decided to take a hike, and what a hike it was. Forgive my feeble old age memory so I can’t tell you what the hiking trail was. It was one of those trails where there were several cutouts for people to get great views. At a certain distance up the trail, there was a restaurant which was the end-point for most people. What is clear to me, the further up we hiked, the fewer people we came across and it was wonderful being away from all the chatty tourists. On the way down we stopped at the restaurant and I remember the beer was the coldest I had ever tasted; I can still remember it today; oh wait maybe my mind isn’t as feeble as I think!

These photos were from the start of the hike.

The views were just breathtaking. I kept snapping photos, it didn’t matter if I had already taken “that” one, maybe this time I’ll see something different; it’s almost too much for the eye to take in.

And yes, we hiked across that ridge. There was a small group of us that made it to the top, so we all hiked along the ridge together to celebrate our accomplishments.

On the way back, there were places we slide down the side of the mountain on the snow to get down faster.

Up until this trip, I had never seen so much beauty. I grew up in New Hampshire and was used to mountains, but these far exceeded those mountains.

Skagway

Skagway was a small fishing town, just north of Juneau. It's home to gold-rush-era buildings, now preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad runs vintage locomotives past the famously steep Chilkoot trail and offers sweeping mountain views during its climb toward Canada–Google

Here we did most of the activities of the trip and all were planned at the last minute. First, we took a plane ride to see the glaciers up close, it was a small 4-seater; we were in the back so the photos were all taken through the plane’s windows.

Interesting story. While flying around, there were moments when the pilot would turn around to look at us while telling us a story all while heading toward the side of a mountain. Brian and I kept looking at each other like “should we say something?” that mountain is coming closer fast. Then at the last moment, he’d turn back around and veer away. He said he loves to do that watching the tourist’s faces; he’s done the flight so many times he knows how long he has before he needs to turn back around.

Close up of a Glacier in Alaska — **Glacier up close**

If you’re not afraid to be in a small plane zipping around the mountains and at times feeling like you’ll crash, then it’s worth the trip. The total time was supposed to be an hour; our pilot said if he was into being a tour guide that day and the passengers are cool he tends to spend more time in the air; he spent more time in the air for us.

After we got off the plane, we had a lot of the day to still kill so we hopped onto a tour bus, not one of those huge ones, but smaller, I think there were only around 20 people on board.

And yes, we still had more time to our day. If I remember correctly, we had 8-10 hours in Skagway. To end our adventures, we went on a smaller hike; no mountains this time. We found a quiet pond to unwind beside hoping we wouldn't run into any bears.

Glacier Bay

Heading south towards Ketchikan, we stopped in Glacier Bay National Park. Like other parts of Alaska, it was stunning. I had never seen glaciers until this trip and getting up close and personal with them was fascinating. They make eery noises while they push down then calve off.

And just like that, the time passed, and we headed out to sea on our way south towards Ketchikan, our last stop.

Ketchikan

Ketchikan is considered the beginning of the last frontier. It’s set at the southernmost entrance to Alaska’s famous Inside Passage.

Ketchikan has a population of around 8000 people with a yearly rainfall of 140-160 inches of rain; maybe they could send California some of that rain.

After the adventures we already had, there was only one thing we decided to do; take a pontoon plane up to see the Misty Fjords National Monument. I hadn’t really thought about how the plane would feel landing on water, but surprisingly it was pretty smooth.

We stayed on the fjord for an hour or so, then headed back to town. We watched a lumberjack show for a while and hung around the town until it was time to get back on the boat.

As I was pulling these pictures together, I wondered what these gents are up to now in 2022, are they still lumberjacks? Probably their sons are doing the shows now.

We headed back to the boat to take a much-needed break and enjoyed the quiet of the boat while everyone was on shore.

On the way home, the ship took a small detour to allow us to see some whales. I think they were in migration or something like that, so the captain wanted us to be able to try to catch a glimpse.

Below are some misc pictures from the trip.

Beyond the obvious of how beautiful this trip was, this cruise afforded us lots of time on shore for excursions, I think because the ship was docked right where we were visiting you could get off the ship and start your day.

If you’re hesitant about a cruise, this is a great one to take. It was 7 days from start to finish. This ship wasn’t one of those floating cities which I call the “plastic” boats, it felt more like the old style ships, with better safety abilities for those pesky icebergs that can sneak up on you. Don’t worry, cruises do a safety drill on your first day on board.

I lucked out and had a suite that came with some nice perks and a full outside balcony, which we didn’t use all that much. I thank Brian for calling me that day to see if I was available and I thank all his other friends for not being available.

Alaska Adventure (2002)