20th Anniversary Alaskan Adventure

 20th Anniversary Alaska 2024

June 26 - July 6

This is meant to be a personal journal for Sandy and me. A way to capture both images and some of my reflections of our experience. There is likely more writing and photos than most people would be interested to see from someone else’s vacation. Still, you are welcome to peruse it and vicariously enjoy some of the sights and experiences we had on our adventure. 

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And so it begins (actually it began 20 years ago)  ….

Sandy has been planning and preparing for this trip for MONTHS. All the details and plans are coming together!! 

So exciting! Today we got our “medallions” in the mail. These things will allow us to unlock cabin doors, identify ourselves, pay for food, drinks and many other things. Only a few days before we depart on our 20th anniversary cruise to Alaska!

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA TO ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

June 26 - 0/10

1) San Diego 2) Anchorage

Dropped off the kids, Sean and Selah at Grandma and Grandpa’s, then headed to the airport!

On our way!

Almost there! You don’t see mountains like these in San Diego …

The major stops: 1) Anchorage 2) Yakutat Bay 3) Glacier Bay 4) Skagway 5) Juneau 6) Ketchikan 7) Vancouver

ANCHORAGE

1) Anchorage, Alaska

Frank, a listener of our podcast (Geocacher - akerdoc) invited us to stay with him and his family. We stayed with them for three days. He picked us up at the airport then gave us a brief tour at some geocaching stops in Anchorage (I think that’s a statue of Balto behind us). 11:00 PM and there’s still enough outside light to read by. It stays light a LONG time at this time of year. Frank is a fascinating guy and has some of the best stories. He’s seen and done a lot in his life. If he lived closer, he’d be the kind of guy I’d likely hang out with and call a friend. He’s got the same geeky fascination with life, science and general nerdiness that I do. I recorded a short interview with Frank that you can hear on this show (LINK).

June 27 - 1/10 

Why is there a picture of my foot? It may or may not play a big part on this trip. I’ve been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis (LINK) but after the plane flight it REALLY flared up. It is VERY painful. We’re planning to do a glacier hike. I’m praying that it doesn’t hurt or inhibit my ability to walk much. 

There were only the 4 of us in our group and this is our guide Leah. She did a wonderful job of teaching us SO many things about the glacier. She told us that she was getting her Bachelors in Environmental Biology. I also have the same degree so I told her to geek out as much as she wanted and to “bring it!”. I learned SO many new things! Very cool (literally). She’s obviously passionate about her work and knows her stuff! 

The tour company provided us with Microspikes to give us traction on the ice

About to hike on the Matanuska Glacier with our friends Frank and his daughter Sveti. The Matanuska Glacier is a valley glacier. At 27 miles long by 4 miles wide, it is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States. Its terminus feeds the Matanuska River. It lies near the Glenn Highway about 100 miles northeast of Anchorage. The glacier flows about 1 foot per day.

Walking on the glacier sometimes made this “crunchy” sound, kinda like stepping on a bunch of fortune cookies. Groovy!

For Scale: Look carefully and see the teeny tiny people at the red arrow

After over 2 hours of hiking, my foot didn’t hurt too much. So blessed to have been able to experience this adventure!

After we had finished our 2 ½ hour hike, Leah showed us a photo. The entire glacier is 27 miles long. ALL the hiking we had done was under her thumb! What a stunning adventure to have walked on that glacier!

Later that day we did some light hiking to find a few geocaches. Many mosquitos but excellent company and gorgeous locations! The mosquitoes here were formidable. Frank was well prepared and had bug spray BUT STILL they were impressively persistent and bigger (like everything else is in Alaska) than the mosquitoes I’m used to. When they swarm you, it is a mental exercise not to just scream while running away.

June 28 - 2/10

The next morning Frank made some of his famous “Roll Ups” for breakfast. Delicious! 

Their doggies: Charley, Acadia and Chloe.

We shared a gift that we had brought them: A “San Diego Experience” that we created. A treasure chest full of San Diego sand in which was buried trinkets to remind them of our visit. They had to “discover” the items out from the sand using the special excavator tool (a plastic fork). Frank’s wife Sandi planned to join us on the day’s adventures. 

I think one of the things that struck me was the magnitude and “bigness” of everything out there. After spending a day out there my observations were confirmed. Huge mountains, huge lakes, huge glaciers, huge moose, huge mosquitos. Just gorgeous, beautiful scenery! 

After breakfast, we went on a tour on the Seward highway which took us southeast down Turnagain arm. Another beautiful drive to see stunning sights. We did a little more geocaching and stopped at several scenic spots. We were joined by Charley, Acadia and Chloe. My right foot (Plantar Fasciitis) started hurting again.

Driving along the highway there were so many places to stop and so many things to see!

Stopped here to find a Geocache

Giant mountains almost everywhere you turn!

The end of our last full day in Anchorage

June 29 3/10 

Frank had organized a Geocaching meet and greet event for us. We got to meet several Alaskan geocachers and recorded a great interview with one of them about a unique geocache creation method. You can hear his audio on this show (LINK). We bid a fond farewell to Frank, his family and Anchorage. We’re eternally grateful for his family’s hospitality which helped create memories which will last a lifetime.

We boarded a bus that would take us to Whittier where our Cruise Ship and Glacier Tour Boat awaited us.

1) Anchorage 2) Matanuska Glacier 3) Whitter

WHITTIER

Arrived in Whittier, a tiny little port town for our next adventure! We boarded a catamaran, The Klondike Express, to explore Prince William Sound. There we saw even more spectacular Alaskan sights AND sounds!

We saw 26 glaciers on this boat tour and were fortunate to even see several calvings! (When huge chunks of ice split off the glacier and fall into the water). The sound that is made when a glacier calves is hard to describe and one of those things that you “have to be there”. It’s a mixture of close up fireworks (BOOM!) falling rocks (CRUNCH!) and cannonball diving (SPLASH!) Put that all together, turn up the volume to 11, then wait for the boat to sway after the wave gets to you and you’ll get the idea. 

Pictures SIMPLY do not do these landscapes justice. A photo provides no sense of scale (read HUGE!) and the enormity of what you are looking at. Maybe if another boat was in the picture, you’d understand. It would be a tiny, tiny speck at the bottom of this massive wall of ice. All the while, this glacier is slowly plodding, crunching and grinding its way down to the sea. 

After our Prince William Sound tour, the boat headed back to the port where our cruise ship awaited.

Our home for the next week. The Sapphire Princess: This 952 foot beast has 18 decks and  will hold over 2,600 guests and 1,100 crew. 

Docked at Whittier port, the Princess dwarfs everything nearby.

A view of Whittier from the deck of the Sapphire Princess.

We walked around the ship to explore a bit. One of several pools onboard, this one indoor.

The main promenade

SAILING - YAKUTAT BAY and the HUBBARD GLACIER

June 30 - 4/10

1) Anchorage 2) Whittier 3) Yakutat Bay

Breakfast on our first day out at sea. We’d be out to sea for 2 days, first Yakutat bay to see the Hubbard glacier.

The Hubbard Glacier. We couldn’t get too close because of the conditions of the water. The Hubbard Glacier is North America's largest tidewater glacier. It is 76 miles long, 7 miles wide and 600 feet tall at its terminal face (350 feet exposed above the waterline and 250 feet below the waterline). Yes, its big …

I brought a wireless keyboard so that I could edit while sailing by the sea!

This ship was hyper-connected. The medallions that we wore around our necks allowed us access to our room, identified us and kept track of where we were on the ship. I could see where Sandy was on an app. I could also order drinks, food, etc without having to hassle with paying, tipping, etc. It was actually quite convenient and handy. Stopping by one of the many interactive signs in the hallways, this (above) popped up. How cool is that!? Very cool. 

We had a very nice dinner at one of the many restaurants (again no bill or tip needed). At the end they came and sang to us for our anniversary. I’m impressed! Nicely done.

This is the theater at the front (bow) of the ship. Here we saw several impressive shows. Talented and skilled performers. 

Tomorrow morning: Glacier Bay!

SAILING - GLACIER BAY

JULY 1 - 5/10

1) Yakutat Bay 2) Glacier Bay

A day at Glacier Bay: 3.3 million acres of mountains, glaciers and forests. There are over a thousand glaciers here! It is a National Park so we were able to get a stamp for our National Park Passport! Bonus: A ranger came on board and gave us some GREAT lectures on things about the park. A wealth of knowledge for a geek like me! There’s actually a LOT to learn about glaciers. Here’s a LINK and another LINK if you’d like to learn more. 

Sandy enjoys a breakfast before we brave the cold deck

Glaciers: This is one of those “you’ve just got to be there to truly appreciate them” geological, earth-things. Snowflakes fall down on mountains and pile up over hundreds / thousands of years. They compress and squish out all air and become ice. They become SO DENSE and HEAVY that the mass starts moving and grinding downhill. It’s a powerful force and over time (hundreds of years)  turns boulders to fine dust. A glacier will carve out a valley and some make it to the sea (tide-water). The scale, sound and in-person experience would be difficult to capture on a YouTube video. When a glacier calves, the sound and following wave is something to experience if you can. 

Sandy found out what a Hot Chocolate and Bailey’s is. Perfect on the cold deck as we cruised through the bay!

Leaving Glacier Bay

Another night in the theater with Mentalist Alex Crow

Tomorrow, our first port: Skagway!

PORT - SKAGWAY

July 2 - 6/10

1) Glacier Bay 2) Skagway

Our Drive: 1) Skagway 2) The Canadian border and British Columbia 3) The Yukon territories border 4) Carcross

The population of Skagway is about 1,200 people but booms during cruise ship season. Skagway was an important port during the Klondike Gold Rush. The White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad, part of the area's mining past, is now in operation purely for the tourist trade and runs throughout the summer months. The port of Skagway is a popular stop for cruise ships, and the tourist trade is a big part of the business of Skagway. Skagway is also part of the setting for Jack London's book The Call of the Wild and the John Wayne film North to Alaska was filmed nearby.

We rented a car from Turo (https://turo.com) to drive from Skagway all the way up to the Yukon territory. Turo is kinda like Airbnb for cars. It’s a legitimate service that uses private cars that you rent. We met the owner at 8:00AM, got these keys and had the car until 7:00PM that day!

Leaving the Princess to go on our adventure

We rented the car for several reasons. As you might know, when you are on a cruise you can pay for an “excursion”. These are typically at ports where you can then have some kind of experience. Usually you’ll get transported to some location, see or do something then get taken back to the ship. One example was a train excursion that we ALMOST bought for Skagway. BUT, Sandy did some research and found that for a LOT less money, we could take the same route that the train would take, go further, be out longer AND take our time to stop wherever we wanted! A much less expensive and MUCH better experience. We could stop anytime I saw a great photo spot or had a geocache that we could find! The only downside was the pain I continued to feel in my right foot when we hiked / walked anywhere. 

Sandy finds a geocache! 

Getting some great Alaskan / Canadian shots!

Canada! Crossing through British Columbia for a bit on our way to the Yukon territories

A stop at a beautiful lake

Welcome to the Yuknon territories!

We stopped by a small town called Carcross. Apparently it used to be called Caribou Crossing but got abbreviated.

Carcross Desert is commonly referred to as a desert, but is actually a series of northern sand dunes. The area's climate is too humid to be considered a true desert. The sand was formed during the last glacial period, when large glacial lakes formed and deposited silt. When the lakes dried, the dunes were left behind. Today, sand comes mainly from nearby Bennett Lake, carried by wind. The dunes contain a wide variety of plants, including unusual species such as Baikal sedge and Yukon lupine, among others.

Emerald Lake: The furthest north we went

Although we found many geocaches along the way, one was especially significant. Sandy had planned it out so that we could find our 4,000th geocache on our vacation. She even printed up a sign before we left San Diego! We celebrated our find and recorded some audio for the show (LINK).

Back in Alaska and headed to Skagway

In Port: Our ship is large but is dwarfed by the Discovery Princess, alongside us, which carries about 3,600 guests, over a 1,000 more than our ship!

Skagway was closing shops as we headed for The Princess. We dropped off the car, boarded the ship ready for our next destination, Juneau!

On our way to Juneau!

PORT - JUNEAU

July 3 - 7/10

1) Skagway 2) Juneau

Juneau is the capital city of Alaska. Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and it is across the channel from Douglas Island. Juneau has a population of over 32,000, making it the third-most populous city in Alaska after Anchorage and Fairbanks. Juneau experiences a daily influx of 21,000 people or more from visiting cruise ships. The city is named after a gold prospector from Quebec, Joe Juneau.

At some ports you can just walk off the ship, down the ramp and you’re on shore. At Juneau we had to disembark via “Tender”. This is one of the enclosed lifeboats that they use to shuttle people to and from the ship. 

One of many, many bald eagles that we saw in Juneau

We were met by Sandy’s college friend Lauri, a local Juneauan. Lauri was gracious enough to pick us up and tour us around Juneau. How cool is that! She took us to MANY places that we would’ve had to pay for had we chosen “excursion”. Lauri had lived in Southern California, but moved to Juneau years ago and loves it. I can see why. Above, Lauri took us to a statue of a Humpback whale. If you catch it at the right time, water shoots out, like a fountain, making it look like it is breaching! Groovy!

Lauri took us to a hatchery called DIPAC which stands for Douglas Island Pink & Chum. DIPAC currently incubates, rears and releases four species of Pacific salmon; chum, Chinook, coho and sockeye. The salmon hatch here, are released, then return years later. When they return they are caught by fisheries and the cycle continues. It is a strategy and process that is designed to make salmon fishing sustainable. 

We next visited the Mendenhall glacier and Nugget Falls. Nugget Falls is a waterfall which drops 377 feet onto a sandbar in Mendenhall Lake. 

We could feel the spray of water while there. 

At one point we heard a commotion then realized that a proposal had just been made at the base of the falls. 

Mendenhall Glacier is a glacier about 13.6 miles long but has retreated 1.75 miles since 1929, when Mendenhall Lake was created. The end of the glacier will continue to retreat in the foreseeable future.

Although a bit overcast, it was a beautiful day. My foot never stopped hurting and I limped everyday, everywhere we walked. Sucks.

After lunch we headed back to the port of Juneau to board the Princess

We said goodbye to Lauri with such gratitude for her hospitality, showing us around her city. Wish we could’ve stayed longer.

Another wonderful day ends with some dessert

Next stop: Ketchikan!

PORT - KETCHIKAN

July 4 - 8/10

1) Juneau 2) Ketchikan

Ketchikan is a city on Revillagigedo Island of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic Landmark District. With a population of over 8,000 it is the sixth-most populous city in the state. Ketchikan is named after Ketchikan Creek, which flows through the town. We found this to be a cool rustic town with a lot of charm.It was a very warm, sunny day that we spent there. Many people were in shorts and tank tops. It was clear we were heading further south!

We were there on the Fourth of July and the place was PACKED with people waiting for a parade. We found a good spot and watched a bit of the parade. It had a very “small town” feel where people threw out candy for the kids and people in the crowd waved at people they knew in the parade. 

We had plans to watch a Lumberjack show later and strolled around the city exploring for a bit

We found some great spots around town. Do you see that yellow thing floating in the water? I overheard someone say that “it was for the ducks”. I wondered what he meant. More on that later …

Next up was the lumberjack show. It was a “competition” between 2 teams. They did a great job and it was entertaining but I have a feeling that the game was rigged to make sure it was a close call of which team won at the end. They used both powered and hand tools. I was really impressed by their skill, power and experience. They chopped logs, climbed poles and of course did the rolling-log-in-the-water game. This was our only paid excursion since we rented a car and were toured by Lauri at the other two ports. 

Remember that yellow thing floating in the water that “was for the ducks”? …

As we were walking around town, we heard a commotion and went to go check out what was going on. Apparently it’s a rubber duckie (like the ones in a bathtub) race sponsored by the local Rotary club to raise funds for various projects around Ketchikan.

Looking down at where all the action / duckies were. I saw the collection team in a boat, picking up duckies as they made it to the finish line / hole in the floating yellow thing. Whoops and hollering and prizes were given away.

Sadly, we bid our last port, Ketchikan a farewell. Here’s a view as we sailed away.

Since I was on vacation and didn’t really have any commitments I often stayed up late, wandered the ship and just hung out, exploring to see what there was to do. I would go to a bar, have a drink, listen to music then after a while wander to another spot. Several nights, I would be somewhere after last-call and just watch the ocean drift by. By the time I would head back to the cabin, the ship would seem to have “shut down”. It was an odd experience. Over 3,000 on board and I didn’t run into a single soul on the way to our cabin. 

SAILING TO VANCOUVER

July 5 - 9/10

1) Ketchikan 2) Vancouver

Our last day on the Sapphire Princess was sailing on the sea to Vancouver. We would arrive there the next morning. What is there to do on a cruise ship when it’s out to sea and not in port? Below are a few things that we were able to do on our day.

We attended a “Talent Show” of some of the ship’s culinary crew. Cooks, servers, etc. It was “ok” compared to the “real” performers we’ve seen at the theater BUT afterwards …

We got to tour ONE of the galleys of the ship. WOW! I don’t think these pictures will do it justice. They are HUGE and CLEAN and seemed to go ON and ON for just one restaurant. 

They said that they use up to 8,000 eggs EVERY DAY!

The promenade always had something going on. It was 3 levels high and at the center of the ship. Here they’re playing a trivia game with Jenga blocks. Ship officers versus Guests. 

We were cruising down more of the Inside Passage, a channel with land on both sides of the ship, and many islands.

You could watch movies on the big screen while lounging in the pool or hot tub

I think Sandy and I REALLY lucked out on the weather we got! Mostly sunny and warm, rarely any rain. With Alaska you can never be certain.

If you look carefully you can see another cruise ship off in the distance

This was something I really enjoyed. A well furnished band played in the promenade. The best thing for me as a musician? I could go “behind the scenes” on the backside and watch them coordinate and play. SO cool! And they were GOOD too. Really experienced and talented! Obviously selected to play on a cruise ship BUT, I could tell, some of them were new and just reading the music COLD, but they were THAT good and sounded great!

We didn’t take photos of every meal / dish but trust us, the food was absolutely astounding!

On the last day the culinary crew, wait staff, cooks, etc. came through the restaurant in a parade and sang a sort of goodbye song.

Our last sunset on the ship. It’s been a truly memorable experience

On my last night, I once again stayed out late and shut the place down. Here’s one of the lounges. They’re still playing music. Shortly after I took this photo, I headed to our cabin. Next stop in the morning: Vancouver.

VANCOUVER

July 6 - 10/10

1) Vancouver 2) San Diego

We never did lounge by the pool. If you suffer from FOMO, you should not go on a cruise. Too many things to choose from! Sandy got in one quick “lounge” before we had to leave the ship.

Last look at our cabin. “All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go …” A bittersweet moment.

We are boots on the ground in Vancouver. We had been here once before for a major Geocaching event. This time we just had to find something to do since our flight back didn’t leave until 7:00 that night.

We checked our luggage at a hotel and began to explore. We stopped by this visitor center and they had a few suggestions, but nothing we wanted that really interested us or were willing to pay for, so …

… we stopped by a food court to use the restroom (washroom in Canada) and figure out what we wanted to do for the day. Then it struck me … 

The last time we were in Canada we were introduced to Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, donuts, sandwiches, breakfast egg muffins and other fast-food items. On that visit I bought a plastic “refillable” Tim Hortons cup. After a while it cracked and I threw it away. 

I wanted to get a Tim Hortons cup and maybe Poutine for later. This is what my Tim Hortons cup looked like. 

FYI: Poutine is a Canadian dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It’s probably not very good for you but I think it’s delicious! 

We started our hunt, but there was a huge line at the first Tim Hortons, so we moved on to the next one.

The 2nd Tim Hortons had a (locked) display case that had some really nice insulated tumblers. I really liked one of them (2nd from the left) and asked to buy it. After what seemed like a long time and many struggles of the Tim Hortons staff, they could not find the key and gave up. They also didn’t have any of the plastic cups. We walked away thinking “Surely the next Tim Hortons will have the plastic cups and the little black insulated tumbler. Surely, right?

Thus began the quest for the Holy Grails or Tim Horton cups. What a quest it was! We visited 2 more Tim Hortons and none of them had any of the cups. It gave us a goal and something to do. It also allowed us to explore more of Vancouver and provide a distraction while we waited for our flight time. The only aggravating thing was that it meant a lot of walking and my foot was really hurting. It never stopped during our entire vacation. It hurt every day, causing me to  constantly limp. After nonstop limping, other parts of my body were compensating, opposite ankle, calf muscle, etc. and now started to hurt too. It sucked. 

Our quest led us to Gastown. We had been here last time and remembered that there was this cool steam powered clock. Built in 1977, this well-known, antique-style clock is powered by steam & whistles to tell the time. The steam used is low pressure downtown-wide steam heating network that powers a miniature steam engine in its base, in turn driving a chain lift. The chain lift moves steel balls upward, where they are unloaded and roll to a descending chain. The weight of the balls on the descending chain drives a conventional pendulum clock escapement, geared to the hands on the four faces. The steam also powers the clock's sound production, with whistles being used instead of bells to produce the Westminster "chime" and to signal the time.

We walked to 2 more Tim Hortons and ONE of them actually had 2 plastic red cups. Huzzah!!! Good enough for me although I wish I could’ve gotten one of those cool little black tumblers. As we walked the street we ran into this guy playing (get this) bagpipes that were powered by stomping while he beatboxed at the same time. It was actually quite groovy to listen to. Here’s a LINK to a YouTube video of him playing. 

We wandered around a bit more, then decided to head back to the first food court. It was close to where our luggage was stored and had poutine. This was also the place that had the first Tim Hortons we visited where the line was too long. 

Then …

Hallelujah! I couldn’t believe it. They had one last little black insulated tumbler. They had to sell me the display model. I truly believe that except for the one entombed in that display case that they couldn’t unlock, I have the last little black Tim Hortons insulated tumbler in Canada! 

AND I got my little dish of poutine. Life is good!

Our flight back was complicated by delays on BOTH ends. My friend Justin picked us up late, late at night. We didn’t end up getting home until after midnight. 

Thanks for taking the time to vicariously join us on our adventure. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. A bucket-list item for sure. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feels will live long in our hearts and memories. Thanks to all that made this trip possible. Joe and Helen for Sean and Selah care, The Moore family, Lauri, and Justin.

Sonny and for Sandy

Blessings!