My final Alaska post (I think). The Regent Seven Seas Navigator was a great ship. It was our first time on the Regent Seven Seas line (albeit it is only our second cruise and our first in 20 years). It was smaller than most lines with only 490 passengers (vs 2000+). While 490 is far […]
This is an extra image from our first day at sea. This is a panorama I made from our balcony. I am glad I brought a tripod(s). To give you a perspective it is actually three shots at 35mm. Remember to enlarge your browser to full screen and click on the image to get the […]
We set out from Ketchikan for Vancouver at about 6pm on Monday evening and arrived at 6am Wednesday. It was 36 hours at sea. Here is our last Sunset in Alaska as we headed in to the Inside Passage. Tuesday started as normal with a nice breakfast. The rude awakening came when we came back […]
Today we visited Ketchikan. It is the oldest city in Alaska. It is the farthest south and the fourth largest at 14,000. I tried in vain to get on a bear watching expedition to Neets Bay or Prince of Wales Island but they were full (despite being expensive). We were already scheduled to go on […]
We decided to take a day off from excursions and just explore Skagway. Quite touristy but quaint. Most (if not all) of the buildings have been converted into T-shirt shops, bars or Jewelry stores (Tanzanite is a big seller, apparently). The locals like to assert their independence and in this case, the proprietors sided the […]
After visiting Mendenhall Glacier, we boarded our third Allen Marine chartered cruise. It was billed as an evening of whale watching. We were told that one in ten trips, an Orca (Killer Whale) is spotted. We saw four. It was cool just to spot them (even if they never did the Sea World jump out […]
Our catamaran took us back to our ship which had now traveled up to the Port of Juneau. We had a little time to relax, clean up and get ready to visit the Mendenhall Glacier. This is arguably the most noted glacier in alaska. Being in the capital city helps. It is visited enough that […]
I was up early Friday and noticed these floating past our balcony. Our ship had ventured into the Tracy Arm (basically a very large fjord), home to the North and South Sawyer Glaciers (which were one prior to their retreat. To get a feeling for the sheer size of the mountains on the sides […]
After seeing so many Harbor Seals sunning on ice floes (go figure), we were excited to go on a smaller excursion. We ventured into the quaint town of Sitka, situated at the edge of the Sitka Sound with pretty dramatic terrain. The local fishing is going well. Here is an early morning crew with nets […]
This is the second post from Hubbard Glacier. The weather was amazing. Partly to mostly cloudy but the air was clear and no rain. As we neared the glacier and again as we retreated I had a chance to get up close and personal with a lot of Harbor Seals that were sunning themselves on […]
