With the Alaska season coming up soon, I decided to revisit the Alaska cruise my family took with great friends in July, 2002. Others on the same cruise enjoyed the trip in their unique ways, but this is a quick summary of how my family and I spent our time.
All of us had a fantastic Alaska cruise aboard Celebrity Mercury and truly wish you could have joined us.
I know you would have enjoyed the entire experience. The Mercury is a gorgeous ship. The food and service were excellent, while the nightly shows were always extremely entertaining.
As avid card players, we enjoyed Bridge lessons and friendly Duplicate Bridge games. My 15 year-old son, Jay, soon became something of a favorite with the Bridge instructor and the other gamers, most of whom were senior-aged ladies.We didn't spend all of our time in the card room, however. Throughout most of the cruise, we had tree filled islands and snow covered mountains to view off the sides of the ship. Ocasionally we saw whales, eagles and other wildlife.
Our first port, Ketchikan, brought drizzling rain, and the salmon weren't climbing the ladder as we hoped, but we still enjoyed a walk on historic Creek Street, a clapboard sidewalk beside wooden buildings perched on a beautiful creek that was really more of a river by my standards.
Julie and I hiked up nearby Deer Mountain, a steep hike through a rainforest, with unique foliage and temperatures in the 60s but otherwise very much like a rainforest in Hawaii with its little waterfalls and plush jungles. We didn't encounter any bears or see any eagles on this hike. We thought we'd arranged for the taxi that brought us to pick us back up, but he didn't show. Fortunately, we allowed sufficient time to hike back to the ship to rejoin our family and continue our cruise.
Hubbard Glacier was incredibly beautiful with deep blue highlights to its massive white crevices set in the turquoise water. Seemingly everywhere in Alaska, puffy and thin clouds lingered across the horizon.
As the bus driver in our next port, Juneau, commented, "Alaska may not be heaven, but we can see it from here."
In Juneau, we bussed and then hiked to the Mendenhall Glacier. Next to this mile and a half wide by twelve mile long glacier is a magnificent waterfall that we managed to get directly next to in order to experience its power.
We saw lots of eagles and even some jumping salmon on the bus ride back to town and then took the tramway leading to a mountain peak and found glorious vistas and some beautiful mountain trails.
While in Juneau, we also visited the Red Dog Saloon, a place a friend recommended as the highlight of the Alaska cruise.
It was an old saloon right out of a cowboy movie with swinging doors and signs asking men to take off their sidearms and welcoming "even women."
Inside, we found sawdust floors and a funny piano player pounding out old and very old singalongs in a unique style, and more signs, like one saying, "If our food, drinks and service aren't up to your standards, please lower your standards."
Another sign said something like "Our cooking's never killed anybody, but the miners have killed a few of our cooks."
It was a nice contrast to the elegant cruise ship dining room.
Sitka came on a bright, sunny day, and the city itself is incredible. Imagine Dana Point Harbor set in the middle of Big Sky, Montana, but add some small tree covered islets to the harbor and misty clouds to the bright blue sky.
Mostly, we explored the national park, which combined totem poles with scenic harbor views and a rain forest.
My 11 year-old daughter Amy read the stories of the totem poles to us from a guidebook she received at the ranger station.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and, as I said, I wish you had been with us. Most of all, I wish my daughter Gina, who was a graduate student at the University of Washington, had joined us. I can't recall why she didn't come. Perhaps because she was busy with her boyfriend, Laszlo, who would later become her husband, but it has remained a sad spot in thinking back on this otherwise amazing cruise. As an aside (written when refurbishing this post in 2017 to the new site format), Gina and Laszlo did cruise the Inside Passage a few years later as a happily married couple, and their delightful daughter Emma was the star of the ship.
By the way, we didn't take as many photos back in the old days when we used a Canon camera and developed film, but I linked my blog posts with the few photos taken to the hotlinked words above.
You can search for Alaska cruises at http://www.CruisePlanners1.com or by phoning 310-546-9618.
As avid card players, we enjoyed Bridge lessons and friendly Duplicate Bridge games. My 15 year-old son, Jay, soon became something of a favorite with the Bridge instructor and the other gamers, most of whom were senior-aged ladies.We didn't spend all of our time in the card room, however. Throughout most of the cruise, we had tree filled islands and snow covered mountains to view off the sides of the ship. Ocasionally we saw whales, eagles and other wildlife.
Our first port, Ketchikan, brought drizzling rain, and the salmon weren't climbing the ladder as we hoped, but we still enjoyed a walk on historic Creek Street, a clapboard sidewalk beside wooden buildings perched on a beautiful creek that was really more of a river by my standards.
Julie and I hiked up nearby Deer Mountain, a steep hike through a rainforest, with unique foliage and temperatures in the 60s but otherwise very much like a rainforest in Hawaii with its little waterfalls and plush jungles. We didn't encounter any bears or see any eagles on this hike. We thought we'd arranged for the taxi that brought us to pick us back up, but he didn't show. Fortunately, we allowed sufficient time to hike back to the ship to rejoin our family and continue our cruise.
Hubbard Glacier was incredibly beautiful with deep blue highlights to its massive white crevices set in the turquoise water. Seemingly everywhere in Alaska, puffy and thin clouds lingered across the horizon.
As the bus driver in our next port, Juneau, commented, "Alaska may not be heaven, but we can see it from here."
In Juneau, we bussed and then hiked to the Mendenhall Glacier. Next to this mile and a half wide by twelve mile long glacier is a magnificent waterfall that we managed to get directly next to in order to experience its power.
We saw lots of eagles and even some jumping salmon on the bus ride back to town and then took the tramway leading to a mountain peak and found glorious vistas and some beautiful mountain trails.
While in Juneau, we also visited the Red Dog Saloon, a place a friend recommended as the highlight of the Alaska cruise.
It was an old saloon right out of a cowboy movie with swinging doors and signs asking men to take off their sidearms and welcoming "even women."
Inside, we found sawdust floors and a funny piano player pounding out old and very old singalongs in a unique style, and more signs, like one saying, "If our food, drinks and service aren't up to your standards, please lower your standards."
Another sign said something like "Our cooking's never killed anybody, but the miners have killed a few of our cooks."
It was a nice contrast to the elegant cruise ship dining room.
Sitka came on a bright, sunny day, and the city itself is incredible. Imagine Dana Point Harbor set in the middle of Big Sky, Montana, but add some small tree covered islets to the harbor and misty clouds to the bright blue sky.
Mostly, we explored the national park, which combined totem poles with scenic harbor views and a rain forest.
My 11 year-old daughter Amy read the stories of the totem poles to us from a guidebook she received at the ranger station.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and, as I said, I wish you had been with us. Most of all, I wish my daughter Gina, who was a graduate student at the University of Washington, had joined us. I can't recall why she didn't come. Perhaps because she was busy with her boyfriend, Laszlo, who would later become her husband, but it has remained a sad spot in thinking back on this otherwise amazing cruise. As an aside (written when refurbishing this post in 2017 to the new site format), Gina and Laszlo did cruise the Inside Passage a few years later as a happily married couple, and their delightful daughter Emma was the star of the ship.
By the way, we didn't take as many photos back in the old days when we used a Canon camera and developed film, but I linked my blog posts with the few photos taken to the hotlinked words above.
You can search for Alaska cruises at http://www.CruisePlanners1.com or by phoning 310-546-9618.
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