Juneau (part 2)

Yeah, I'm writing this two weeks after the cruise. But there are still many great memories popping up as I settle back to my daily grind. Especially of Juneau, as this was the nicest town and the most picturesque of the trip. So a few more random thoughts to complete the picture, if you don't mind.

The Taku Lodge was a remarkable little collection of cabins, notable not in how it looked so much as where it was. There is absolutely no road access, all supplies (and people) are brought in only by floatplane or by barge. The story of how it came to be, and the owners that managed it over the past 84+ years or so is what makes the place so remarkable. Here is a link to a fairly thorough history: http://www.wingsairways.com/taku-lodge-history.html.

Long before we arrived in Juneau we were given warnings about black and grizzly bears. They have a set of rules all their own, and once you go venturing outside into Alaska on their territory you're under their rules, not yours. This couldn't have been made more punctual than the sign that greeted people to Taku Lodge.

One of the most memorable things about Juneau, and Taku Lodge, was the smell. The air was FRESH - I mean, unlike anywhere else I'd ever been. And it being the early spring season when we visited there was a smell there (probably a flower I never was able to identify) that remided me -strongly- of the smell of an apiary. That is, when I used to keep bees, there is a distinct sweet smell of bees and beehive when you first open the hive Or standing next to a hive when the weather was warm. That's what the air smelled like. It was a really pleasant memory that I'll never forget.

The floatplane was a DeHaviland Beaver, made back in the late 40's and early 50's as military marine transport and rescue(?) planes. They are extremely well suited to the Alaskan climate and terrain, and even with seven of us packed into the plane it had an impressive amount of power to take off of water. (I've owned a floatplane and I know what it takes to break contact from water and take off.) I was able to negotiate the co-pilot seat. Tracey got the very back seat of the plane, the only seat with views from both sides of the aircraft. We both had SLR cameras and got splendid shots of the glaciers, vistas and waterways. See my web album to view the best of these photos. The most remarkable was, as I'd mentioned earlier, that "glacier blue" colour in the ice which came out extremely well considering the plane was in motion and we had to shoot through the windows.

In case anyone reading this is curious... my camera rig for most of the Alaska trip was a Canon 30D with a 4gb card. The new lens I had just purchased for the trip was the 70-200mm f/4L lens which I chose because of its zoom power, "L" rating and because it was considerably lighter than its f/2.8L older brother. At over $1100 for the lens alone, it was barely affordable but the results are worth it. Lots of people on the cruise had Digital SLR's, probably an equal number of Canon and Nikon owners. I loaned my lenses to a few Canon owners who were using the (blah!) 18-55mm kit lens and they were all impressed. I'm telling you, if I were a Canon salesman I could probably earn my way on trips like this just selling lenses.

Sailing the Alaskan Coast - Day 3

Day 3 Memoirs

Welcome to our Alaska cruise. I'm starting blog entries on Day #3 (Juneau) because I didn't remember I had a blog until just a few hours ago! Many interesting things have happened but I'll have to write about them later. Here's starting from yesterday (Sunday, June 3rd).

After seeing so many eagles on the train trip up from Seattle to Vancouver I shouldn't be so surprised to see another one. But this morning one went past the window of our cabin, passing a scant 20 feet away!! Oh, if only I had my camera in hand at that moment.

The weather cooperated magnificently today -- we weren't sure if any days would have good weather so we'd thought the first chance at seeing glaciers on a day without rain would be one we try to book an air flight. These tend to be between expensive and downright highway robbery. But it's one of those things you have to say, "Well I'll only be this way once in my life and its the only chance I'll have."

Finding tour operators in Juneau was a frustrating mystery. Where were they? We wandered Juneau's nice, clean streets with elegant shops aimlessly and finally found the "discount" shops. Not many, but we managed to be persuaded into a flight tour over five glaciers, with a salmon bake dinner thrown in to boot -- at the low price of only $225 each. Well, low it isn't but it was a lot less than taking a $398 helicopter tour if we'd booked on the boat.

This tour was to the Taku Glacier Lodge (long and very interesting history about this place -- ask me about it later) by seaplane, dinner and a short hike, and then back by seaplane to Juneau. All in about 3 hours. This had better be one helluva good time at $75/hour.

The salmon bake was quite good, better actually than most of the food we get on the ship. Fresh salmon, caught 16 miles upstream, then roasted on an open alderwood fire (not baked) to just about mouth-watering perfection. Add to this tasty beans (homemade home cookin' style), slaw and some of the most flavourful biscuits I'd ever had and I was quite impressed with the meal even though it was pretty much standard homestyle fare. It just happened to be the best of its class.

One of the most impressive parts of the meal was to learn that the ice used in our drinks was actually from remnants of the Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier across the river! I was literally drinking melted ice formed from snow that fell 4,000 to 5,000 years ago! Talk about the novelties of life.

The flights to and from the Lodge were... well, spectacular. I'd never seen glaciers in person and didn't even know the term "glacier blue" until I was hit rather suddenly with it in tiny pools just below me. I used a lot of digital film on these blips trying to get the best representation of that blue that I could. I only had a little bit of time to review the photos but I have to say that even in film the colour of "glacier blue" comes out rather well.

After morning whale watching, snow-capped mountains' glory, harbor seals, Juneau and glaciers, downloading the camera cards took quite a while. All told almost 500 pictures were taken on two dSLR cameras. 3.5 gigabytes!!

Today was a four meal day, since we took the sushi bar option for late dinner, just before the evening entertainment. Imagine this... five hours of All-You-Can- Eat sushi every night of the cruise! My first two meals of the day were lighter than average, but add to that the salmon bake and sushi and I started to wonder for the first time this trip how much I was going to weigh by the end.

Tonight's entertainer was ventriloquist Don Bryan of Canada. His bio provided to us in our daily schedule was impressive so we decided to go. A lot of his schtick was a bit old, dated, stale and sometimes too racy. However two of his acts really shined: one was with nothing more than a tennis ball and two O-rings (another great short story behind this I'll tell you later). But it was his last section that had me laughing hysterically, my eyes tearing so much I couldn't see for ten minutes straight! He used a live member of the audience as his 2nd "dummy" -- for this he chose a man about 40 years old and fairly stocky. He used touch contact to emulate puppet control (by squeezing the man's shoulder the man was supposed to open his mouth but not say anything). With a series of three different voices, each more ludicrous than the last, the whole audience was lost to laughter. I hadn't laughed so hard in anytime I can remember of recent past.

Tonite while in Juneau we once again cheated the evil Cruise Line of their money grubbing capitalistic greed. I brought a really powerful Wi-Fi antenna (15 dbi for those who are curious) and started poking around the town across the water from the boat. Our room was not dock side this port so the nearest houses were 2 or more miles across the water on the opposite side of the fjord. It took three attempts but found an unsecured router I was able to establish free service. Voila! And for all of 45 glorious minutes we had access to our email. Thank you, to whomever you were, for your generosity of sharing your internet. If I can do this at our other two ports of call we would have saved at least $100 in access fees.