Tuesday, August 7, 2018

ALASKA!

I promised a log of our trip to Alaska. Today, I make good on that promise. If you haven't been to that glorious--and still relatively unspoiled--area of the world, I hope this will encourage you to visit. If you have, then may it stir some wonderful memories! You can click on any picture to enlarge.

Day 1, Saturday--EN ROUTE

We made a stop for a day in Seattle on our way north from Los Angeles to join the Quest, our National Geographic/Lindblad cruise ship. It had been a long while since we were last there, and we had time enough to visit the Seattle Center--mobbed with tourists (like ourselves!)--and spend a while in a couple of museums there. First stop was the Frank Gehry-designed Museum of Pop Culture, which we had seen in photographs but never before had the chance to visit.

It's actually hard to get a perspective on the building from the outside, because the long sight lines that are needed are obscured by a great deal of surrounding structures and the convergence of multiple city streets. Still, hard to miss the Gehry eccentricity and whimsy, both in form and color. We stepped inside to be confronted with giant, jumbotron video images of our friends and neighbors, Damian Kulash...


...of the rock band OkGo and his sister Trish, whose wonderfully choreographed videos continue to bring international attention to the band. Quite a surprise! The rest of the museum needed more time and attention than we had to spare, but we wandered through and stopped at a couple of vantage points, enjoying, particularly, an area devoted to the many different sounds that can be wrested from the acoustic or electric guitar, and an exhibit devoted to the Seattle-based grunge band, Nirvana. We also liked a monumental acoustic sculpture of electronically-programmed guitars (see image).


We made our way through the crowds to the museum that the artist Dale Chihuly has created as a showplace for his well-known and justly-loved sculptural work in glass. It's easy for the art snob to dismiss this work as overly seductive and bordering on kitsch. It is, indeed, astonishingly beautiful and seductive to both the eye and the (forbidden!) touch. The museum is divided into exhibition spaces where acres, seemingly, of accumulated objects, infinitely varied in floral, organic, or geometric shape and color, are exhibited in feasts of glittering display.



The exhibition halls lead on to a pleasant restaurant, where we paused for lunch, and into a garden where the ubiquitous glow of Chihuly's glass objects alternates with lush beds of flowers and plants and small forests of trees. I was seduced.


From the Seattle Center we Uber'ed to the gallery area of town, where we enjoyed a reunion with our friend, the gallerist Eleana del Rio, who moved her gallery recently from Los Angeles to Seattle; and a gelato at the cafe across the way. Thence, with my iPhone failing, we made the long trek out to the Apple store at the university shopping center, where I was again seduced--into buying the latest iPhone X.

Then a so-so dinner and back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before departing for Alaska.


Day 2--Seattle to Sitka

We were greeted warmly at the airport by the Lindblad representative, who pointed us in the right direction to check our bags for the flight to Sitka, where we were to join the Quest. We very nearly missed it, having headed for the gate at D3 instead of C3 (I may not have the letters right); on a closer study of the departure board, I realized our mistake and we hurried to correct it. The underground tram system at Seattle airport connects fairly distant departure gates, so we were lucky to have left ample time to board our flight.

A couple of hours later, on our descent, we found ourselves gazing down through the airplane windows at our first sight of Alaska's wonderful, island-dotted coastline...

(Don't forget you can enlarge the images!)

Landing at the small Sitka airport, we were greeted by the first of our National Geographic guides and the Lindblad team who relieved us of our baggage and sent us off on a bus tour of the local area. First stop was the Sitka National Historic Park, where we admired the totem poles...

Ellie holding up totem poles--obviously in danger of falling

...before joining a guided group hike off into the temperate rain forest that is the natural environment of South East Alaska--the geographic location of the Inland Passage. Well informed about the flora and fauna as all our guides would prove to be, our leader led us through the forest...


... to a bridge across a lovely river...


... where, he told us, the salmon would soon be swimming up to their birth place to spawn, in numbers great enough to almost make it possible to walk across the surface from one side to the other.

From the park, we traveled by bus to the Alaska Raptor Center, where a dedicated staff attend to the healing a rehabilitation of wounded or abandoned birds. The vast spaces of the flight training area...

... seen here from behind the screen that provides protection for the birds from human gawkers--like myself

...  allow the birds to safely relearn the skills of flight and living in the wild. We were introduced to this gorgeous golden eagle...




... by one of the staff, who told us about the bird's history as well as the work of the center. We caught a glimpse of the well-equipped surgery...


... and wandered on into the adjacent area where a wide variety of raptors is kept in protective cages until they are ready for release back into the wild. Here's a few of them:






Before leaving the center, we were invited to join those good-hearted avian enthusiasts who Adopt-a-Raptor. It's a sad truth that many of the birds and animals we were to see along the way are in need of human help and understanding. We have done much to blight their environment with our chemicals, our trash, and with our other forms of pollution; and, even more sadly, with our guns and fishing nets. They do nothing to harm us, other than following their natural instincts and tending to their natural needs. They offer us their wisdom free of charge. We owe them something.







From the raptor center, we headed back to town aboard our buses and enjoyed a bit of free time in what was, pretty much, the single business street...


 The ice cream parlor was a favorite. We also enjoyed a visit to St. Michael's, the Russian Orthodox cathedral...


... a reminder of the days when Sitka had a thriving Russian population, now greatly reduced. It was astonishing to find such a rich collection of religious art and icons...




... in this tiny, remote fishing village far from museums and urban centers.

Finally, after a very pleasant afternoon in Sitka, we boarded our buses for the last time to be driven out to the docks, where we had our first glimpse of the Quest...


...and were greeted by our captain, Paul Figuenick, as well as by our Expedition Leader, Annie Fiske, and other members of the staff (I apologize for any names that are omitted, either here or along the way. Chalk it up to the inadequacy of my notes, not to any lack of appreciation of the fine work of every one of our guides).

Once on board, we found our spacious, nicely appointed cabin and had just enough time to unpack before an all-hands life vest drill in the lounge, with the rather hilarious spectacle of a hundred of us landlubbers struggling to get into our clumsy orange vests. Dinner time offered us a spectacular ringside view of the approach sunset from our table...

Click on this!

... and we enjoyed a good meal with new friends, Bruce and Anne from Denver, Colorado--with whom we were to share a good number of meals in the week to come.


Day 3, Iyoukeen Peninsula

I was up early, around 5:30 AM and made my way up through the lounge to the foredeck--a lovely place, as I was to discover that morning and every one that followed, for my morning meditation. (A tip for fellow meditators: you could not find a better spot than this to meditate on the Buddhist concept of groundlessness; on a boat the soft swell reminds you constantly that here you are truly and literally groundless...)

It was a glorious day, sunny, and not too cold at all. Having watched the 10-day forecasts for a while before heading north, I was expecting rain every day. We had none. Not a drop. There was one day of low clouds and mist; the rest, every one of them, were virtually cloudless and warm.

Having enjoyed a great sit, I joined Jeff Grover, one of our resident naturalists and a specialist in geology, and soon a couple of other staff members, in a field glass search for wildlife. Our diligence was rewarded by the first glimpse of a brown bear in the wild, far away on the distant shore--but clearly visible through binoculars.

Buffet breakfast--eggs, bacon, sausages and hash browns along with a variety of fruits, toasts and jams--was followed by our first call from the foredeck to come out and watch whales...



Not easy to capture them with an iPhone!

... humpbacks, as it turned out, and we were treated to an informative running commentary on the nature and habits of these creatures as we studied them in action through our binoculars. We learned to wait for the plume arising through the surface through their blowholes, then to watch as they surfaced several times for breath before lifting their powerful flukes...

(Not my photo!)

... to take the deep dive to catch food. An amazing spectacle! Actually, I found it almost as interesting to watch people as to watch the whales they were watching. We humans have a boundless curiosity about our fellow beings on this planet--particularly, I have to say, the large or the cute ones. Along with my fellow passengers, I found myself spending hours patiently waiting for the mere glimpse of a animal that might never, in fact, appear at all; and, when and if it does, going into paroxysms of ecstasy over the sighting. Awe is the one feeling we can never get enough of, and Alaska provides it in spades--whether in the form of magnificent land- and sea-scapes or the wild animals that inhabit them. So yes, these humpbacks were quite simply... awesome.

Photography is the most popular sport on board, most of us wishing to capture what we witnessed as awesome for posterity. Doug Gould was our resident "naturalist and certified photo instructor" for the trip, and his tips came in very handy, even for us amateurs. There were some pretty awesome cameras around, with lenses extending for a good foot or more from the body. And there were those who, like myself, were willing to settle for iPhones. These latter do take the most amazing pictures, but it is frankly hard, if not impossible, to catch the momentary vision of a humpback's fluke with even a good viewfinder, let alone a silly telephone held aloft and pointed vaguely in what we hope might be the right direction. This, by way of apology for the inadequacy of some of my images!

A fine buffet lunch in the dining room...


... and then it was down to the cabin to change into waterproof pants and Wellington boots and off the mud room where we donned our life vests ready to board the Zodiacs...


... for the ride to the shore of the Iyoukeen Peninsula.


Once there, we set off on the moderate hike that Ellie and I had chosen (the choice for hikes was usually between aerobic, fast, moderate, or slow) with "Geo Jeff", who led our group first up into the temperate rain forest...


... historically the site of a gypsum mine, with cliff faces...


... of great interest to Jeff, who was never slow to expound (always interestingly, I hasten to add) on his passion for the history of rocks. We returned to base along a pebbly shoreline...


... where Jeff proved himself equally eager to share his knowledge of seaweeds and shells.

The second pleasure for the afternoon was kayaking...


While not particularly expert in the art, Ellie and I managed pretty well out on the bay, where the surface of the water was calm enough to lull us into a very soothing sense of peace and isolation from the rest of the world.

Returning to the Quest aboard our Zodiacs, we had ample time for a leisurely shower--the bathrooms are surprisingly commodious--and a change of clothes before joining our new Australian friends Marc and Shirley for dinner in the dining room. (Sorry, friends, I neglected to make notes on the food that we ate at our various meals. All of them were good!) Later, in the lounge, we enjoyed the evening's staff talk, this one by Caroline Jezierski on salmon ecosystems and the life span and breeding habits of that canny (no pun intended!) fish.

Got to bed early, very tired after a long and challenging day.


Day 4, Tuesday--ICY STRAIT to INIAN ISLANDS; GEORGE ISLAND

Up early today, at 5AM, before my fellow-passengers and staff. A good moment to sit, even though it was a good deal cooler than yesterday, with a lot of low-hanging cloud and mist--the only day I did not wake up to sunshine...


Buffet breakfast, as usual, in the dining room, with a view out to the Inian Islands...

...

... we were scheduled to visit later that morning. Anticipating a cold excursion aboard the Zodiaks, we dressed warmly in woolly layers and joined the usual scramble for life vests and wet gear in the mud room... 


... then boarded the boats in our assigned groups for a hour-and-a-half long tour of the islands led by our friend Geo Jeff...

The Quest, of course, is in the background

... seen here on the right giving encouragement to some very cold passengers! Even though the mist never lifted, we were treated to the sight of numerous birds--terns, guillemots, cormorants, the occasional puffin--and literally hundreds of sea lions, some of them surfacing near our boats, others lounging on the rocks at the shoreline...


Not much further along, we came upon a bevy (right word?) of sea otters...

(my picture)

(not my picture, but close...)
... disporting themselves happily in a quiet cove.

Our Zodiac returned us to the Quest in time for our usual buffet lunch, after which we donned gear for a wet landing and climbed back into the Zodiacs for a trip to the shore, where we joined a hike for a mile (or so) up and down a multitude of short, steep, sometimes muddy slopes to the top of the island, where a World War II era gun emplacement overlooks the widest entry point to the Inland Passage. Ready, perhaps, for a Japanese invasion that never came!

Ellie, ready to lock and load!
Ellie and I passed on the second opportunity to kayak, and instead a Zodiac brought us back to the boat in time for a much needed shower before dinner--this evening a choice between duck...


... and cod. I chose the cod, Ellie the duck (above; as always, beautifully presented!) As usual, we enjoyed both the company of new good friends and the spectacular view through the window at the aft end of the boat.

Okay, sorry, wrong end. But still beautiful.

After dinner we trooped back to the lounge to watch the undersea video created around the Inian Islands by our Undersea Specialist, Ashley Knight. A beautiful vista of the myriad colorful plants and living creatures we never see but over which we travel every day. I wonder if it will be made available to us in some way, at the end of the trip? It would be good to have.

Our second presentation for the evening was by Dr. Zach Brown, the director of a new and promising Inian Islands Institute. A native of the area, he crowned his Ph.D. studies at Stanford University with the pledge to open this institute to further "experiential living and learning" in Southeast Alaska. To put together the initial funding, he decided on a "crazy" plan--to walk, then kayak his way back up from Stanford all the way to the islands--an astonishing, and eventually successful feat that he documented in video and photograph and shared with us, along with his eloquent and entertaining narration. A great end to the evening.


Day 5, Wednesday--GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK

Early morning, we were boarded by a Glacier Bay National Park Ranger, Deanna (I hope I remember these names correctly) and Kevin, a Tlingit Native American and Alaska Native Voices Educational Institute Cultural Interpreter (quite a mouthful of a title!) who would accompany us throughout the day and guide us through this incredible landscape carved by glaciers.

After breakfast, the ranger gave us an introduction to the natural environment of the park, and our Tlingit guide offered a fascinating talk on the cultural traditions and the history of his people (pronounced, he told us, with a "lin" accompanied by an under-the-tongue outbreath--much like the Welsh double "ll" as in the correct pronunciation of the name Lloyd, this half-Welshman noted). Once again, we were impressed with National Geographic's efforts to keep us well informed and interested, and also inspired to work in our own lives to do what we can to preserve this precious and yet vulnerable planet.

Later that morning, the Quest slowed to a crawl to allow us to train our binoculars on South Marble Island...



... a crowded roost for the birds we had been learning about: puffins...

(Can you enlarge them? These two puffins were far enough away to be a stretch for an iPhone!)
... and arctic terns, cormorants, guillemots and seagulls of multiple varieties. Favorites, certainly, were the puffins, with their colorful beaks and their short-winged, spirited flight. The island was also home to a good number of seal lions, seals and sea otters; and way off, on the opposing shore, someone spotted a pair of brown bears lumbering around, so we had our full measure of wild life before lunch.

After lunch, it was time for a cruise up the bay...

Note shadows and colors in the water...



...
(You can actually spot the goats here in the upper left quadrant. If you look very carefully!)
... past steep cliffs where we saw mountain goats chomping leisurely on sparse clumps of grass, and on into the Johns Hopkins Inlet leading to the glacier of the same name. As we approached the dead end of the glacier face, we found ourselves passing a growing number of "growlers"--



... small icebergs calved off and floating downstream to join the Chatham Strait. When we reached the glacier itself...


... the Quest turned around and left us with a panoramic view from the after deck; and we watched in awe of the spectacle, waiting for the crack and thunder as chunks of ice separated and splashed down into the water below.

The captain allowed us a generous amount of time to linger over a display of natural grandeur that most of us had never seen before, then started a slow return down the inlet and back into Glacier Bay itself. A good time for a quiet communion with nature, as our ship passed serenely between high mountains on either side--some of them sheer vertical rock faces with the marks of glacial drift...


... others cut through by waterfalls...


... and u-shaped glacial valleys, lush with grasses and undergrowth of a brilliant green hue. Oh, and for me, a nap!

As always before dinner, there was the "cocktail hour"--ginger ale for me!--and a recap of the day's cruise by staff members, to remind us what we had seen and prepare us for what we might expect to see the following day. At the dinner hour, we sailed into quiet inlet at Bartlett Cove...


... where we were able to dock and take a pleasant walk along a lovely lane at dusk...



... passing this whale skeleton...


... a beautifully decorated lodge...

Ellie, as always, color-co-ordinated!

... totems...


... and other carvings...


 (Some of our fellow passengers reported having seen a porcupine; but we were not so lucky...) And now it was near sunset, time to get back to the boat...


... and off to bed in good time for a much-needed sleep. Aside from anything else, the sea air is both exhilarating and exhausting.


Day 6, Thursday--Sitkoh Bay

I woke early and was out on the foredeck a little after 5AM--sunrise, this far north, is even earlier!--for a pleasant half-hour's sit. We were sailing again, this time in a southerly direction in a broad part of the Chatham Strait, far from the shoreline on either side. Even before breakfast there were glimpses of humpback whales, a couple of bears in the distance, salmon leaping from the surface of the water and, of course, the ubiquitous seagulls squawking everywhere. We sailed past the deserted Chatham Cannery...


... and on up the narrow inlet that led to Sitkoh Bay.


We spotted a bear (almost dead center) off on the bank to the port side
The morning's program included hikes and kayaking. Ellie and I had decided to take it easy for a while, but watching our friends out on the water we regretted our decision and the crew were kind enough to allow us to change our minds, making a special Zodiac trip to take us the shore. There was still enough time for an hour of kayaking...


... on the calm waters of this peaceful inlet, before heading for land and joining the second round of guided hikes through the natural environment of the rain forest...



It was the first time we had walked with tour guides Jared Funderburk and Adam Maire, and we were happy to have the chance to get to know them better. By this time we had learned that it was wise to alert our forest friends of our progress with a "Yo, bear" shout every fifty yards or so, to avoid any dangerous encounters; but although we saw ample evidence of their presence...

(The banana slug seems interested in a meal!)

... on our path (!) we met nothing more threatening than a banana slug (see above). And there were plenty of those. We learned a lot about the indigenous plants, fungi...


... and berries. Along the way, too, we were encouraged to pick and sample the orange salmonberries...


... that were ripening in the hedgerows.

Back on the boat we enjoyed our usual buffet lunch before retiring to our cabin for a nap. Ellie has been showing signs of a developing cold, and she was grateful for the time to take a rest. I, meantime, found it useful to spend time in the lounge listening to a talk on Marine Mammals by guide Steve Zeff, and spending some time with our photo instructor, Doug, who was offering useful tips on the iPhone camera. I realized that I have a lot to learn about its capabilities and idiosyncracies.

Excitement on board as we were called to the foredeck to witness the rare sight of seven humpback whales engaged in the drama of bubble net feeding. It's a collaborative hunt which involves a choreographed dive, the trapping of fish in a column of bubbles blown out by a designated whale, and a simultaneous rush to the surface by the whole group...

Not my picture!
My picture!
... to engorge as many fish as possible!

After our daily gathering for a recap in the lounge...


... it was off to dinner, With Ellie feeling the effects of her cold, we decided to spare friends the risk of her proximity and chose the single small table in the dining room with only two chairs. Along with Ellie, I was drooping with fatigue and oversaturated with information, so I failed to pay the kind of attention I would have needed to do justice to the evening's lecture; and was quite grateful when a decent time arrived to go to bed.



Day 7, Friday--LeCONTE AND PETERSBURG

Another glorious day, allowing me to be up and out on the foredeck shortly after 5AM...


 ... and sit without feeling the least bit cold, even though the boat was soon to be surrounded by ice "growlers"...


... drifting down from the glacier up ahead of us. All the guests not yet awake were aroused at 6AM for an early riser breakfast, in preparation to board the Zodiacs for a cruise down Frederick Sound to LeConte Bay...


At the head of this bay is the glacier of the same name, one of the most active in the northern hemisphere, constantly calving to create the huge icebergs...



... that were the target of our morning excursion. Our little dinghies were soon dwarfed by these hulking chunks of ice...

For context!

... whose infinitely varied sculptural shapes...


... and subtle shades of color...


... created a magical landscape that took our breath away.

Here's a little one I rescued from the cold waters beside the Zodiac 
Along the way, our Zodiac was attacked by a band of rowdy "Vikings"--crew members bearing the welcome gift of big mugs of chocolate hot enough to fortify the belly against the cold.

The Zodiacs...

(I nearly fell out of this one, wanting a picture of the outboard and the wake against the mountains. Jeff chose to accelerate just as I let go of the safety rope to snap the picture!)
... brought us back to the Quest for brunch in the dining room and, as we returned to the Chatham Strait we were treated to appearance of a pod of orcas off to the starboard side. Lucky us! These were the only "killer whales" we spotted on our cruise, and we were fortunate to be able to add them to our list of wildlife sightings.

Shortly after lunch, the Quest pulled into our first inhabited landing site, Petersburg...



... a tiny town that boasts its Norwegian heritage...


We docked...


... in a harbor crowded with fishing vessels...


... watching as a float plane...


... made its run down the channel and took off into the (still, incredibly blue!) skies. A number of our fellow travelers had opted for the offered "flightseeing" tour, and returned with excited reports of the glaciers and fjords of the Inland Passage from above. Ellie and I had chosen to stay on solid ground, and took the opportunity to walk the half mile or so to the main street, where we enjoyed a cup of coffee on terra firma in the sunshine. We spent a little while in the shops--looking mostly for a good travel shirt with lots of pockets, the kind I like but had neglected, for some reason, to include in my packing for the trip.

No luck! In addition, I experienced a sudden crash of fatigue--I had been up very early every morning, and the hikes and kayaking were, well... challenging. So we headed back to the boat with a brief stop at the library and the Norwegian hall with its Viking ship outside...



... and were happy to make time for a needed snooze in our cabin before the cocktail hour and the evening's recap, followed by a showing of the video of our voyage, made by our Video Chronicler, Dave Katz.

Dinner was the occasion for a fabulous "crab feast"--greatly enjoyed, to judge by the celebratory sounds, by the entire company. And after dinner, we had the good fortune to listen to a true whale expert, Dr. Andy Szabo, Director and Research Biologist at the Alaska Whale Foundation, who was much better than I at explaining--among other things--the rarity and the complexities of the bubble net hunting we witnessed yesterday.

And bed!

Day 8, Saturday--ENDICOTT ARM AND FORD'S TERROR

Up at 5AM and out on the foredeck for an early sit. The glorious weather continues. I found we were in a narrow strait, with "growlers" drifting past on either side. We were heading north again, from Frederick Sound into Stephens Passage...



... making the turn down Endicott's Arm towards Dawes Glacier. After breakfast on board, we are called down to the mud room in our by-now familiar groups for the final Zodiac ride of out trip--up toward the face of the glacier...



Here, once again, we watch the calving of great chunks of ice, and the slowly bobbing bergs and growlers drifting downstream past us with their "crews" of huddled arctic terns....



It's a sight that somehow grows no less inspiring with each different glacier, a spectacle of which not one of us, I think, tires.

Heading back up Endicott Arm after lunch...



... we pause at the entrance to the small, steeply-sided fjord, Ford's Terror, named after a navy man who in 1889 rowed a dinghy into the narrow entrance at low tide and was trapped, with the rising tide, in the rushing currents for the next six "terrorizing" hours.

This picture (whale included!) proves to be our final Alaskan vista from the boat--and a memorable one at that! It is now the screensaver on my laptop!

Late afternoon, it was time to pack the bags in preparation for an early disembarkation in the morning. After which, we enjoyed a final meal in the dining room and headed off to the lounge for a final farewell from the Quest's captain and crew--all of whom received an enthusiastic and well-earned round of applause. These people worked so hard for us at so many different tasks, from cleaning rooms and making beds to preparing and serving meals, and loading the Zodiacs safely with their passengers to stacking them on the upper deck after use. Their work, along with precise and smoothly-functioning organization, has made of our journey a pleasant and seamless experience.

After these goodbyes, we enjoyed the slideshow our photographic leader, Doug, had prepared from the five favorite pictures most of us had submitted from our cameras...

Not functioning, sorry. The file's too big. Just a screen shot from my iPhone
It provides us--and perhaps our friends at home--with an appropriately nostalgic look back at our seven days with the National Geographic.


Day 9, Sunday--JUNEAU

We woke in Juneau, docked beside one of those gigantic, multi-story ocean-going cruise ships, with another just now entering the harbor. Beside them, the Quest (center, below) was as tiny as a lifeboat...


... but I think that every one of us aboard was happy not to have traveled on those monsters.

Breakfast on board, and time to put the finishing touches on our packing for the flights back to our various homes, or on to other adventures. Leaving our bags in the capable hands of the still hard-working crew, we disembarked--myself, as I'm sure for others--with considerable sadness. Our staff guides and naturalists were on hand to bid us farewell as we made our way up from the dock to the buses that would later take us to the airport.

With a couple of hours on hand, some of us took the tramway...



Again, the Quest can be seen (at center) between two giants

... from the tourist plaza up to the top of Mt. Roberts, overlooking the bay, for a final panoramic view of Alaska. At the inevitable souvenir at the top we purchased a tiny vial of Alaska gold for $4.00 for our grandson, before taking the tram back down the mountainside. Our tram conductor, on the descent, was a Tlingit Native American, who drummed and sang us down into the city with what seemed like genuine spiritual verve...


Some of us even took him up on his invitation to sing along!

Well, talk about anticlimax! After seven days at sea and in the wilderness, we found ourselves back in "civilization"--a tourist mecca with stores featuring wares by Bulgari, Cartier and Burberry, among others...


A woman touting skin cream asked us where we were from and, when we told her, announced--coincidence!--she was from Los Angeles too. She wanted to sell Ellie a $700 skin care treatment. To call Juneau a tourist trap is, well, almost an insult to tourist traps.

We did, however, manage to spend an hour in the wonderful Alaska State Museum, which features artifacts from both ancient times and modern.





We loved, particularly, the basket work...


... and masks...


My personal favorite. My grandson thinks it looks like me!
... along with the tools, vehicles and articles of clothing that made survival possible in a climate that is inhospitable and an environment that is wild as well as beautiful. This visit alone made the stop in Juneau well worthwhile.

Rejoining our bus group, we made the journey out toward the airport, passing the Governor's mansion from which, our driver joked, Sarah Palin claimed to have been able to see Russia. The forested island across the bay was the only thing she could have seen...

Russia? The view from Sarah Palin's Governor's Mansion.
 Which, like the rest of this glorious corner of the world, would have been enough in itself for any human soul...