Alaska, a New Frontier

Kayaking in Alaska- First time!

Alaska was always on my bucket list.  We took an expedition cruise with American Queen Voyages from Vancouver, BC to Sitka Alaska.   This cruise was more of a hybrid of a regular ocean cruise and an expedition cruise.  It has some of the favorites from both kids of cruises.

What made it a hybrid?  Well we had port days and expedition days.  Usually the cruises have one or the other.  The ship was a small ship that only has 200 passengers on-board.  There were some teens on-board but not a lot and there are no kids clubs.

Our itinerary was a follows:

Vancouver: Embarkation.  We came in two nights before sailing.  The cruise does include a one night stay the night before sailing.

Scenic Ocean Cruising:  Our first full day we were sailing the whole day.  We did have lectures in the expedition room.

Ketchikan: This is a quaint little town.  We did the included excursion and learned a lot about the Tlingit people and totem poles.

Misty Fjords:  This was our first day doing expeditions.  We started off our day on the Zodiacs.  The ship is split into 4 groups based on their level of expertise unless there is a group on board.  We were a group so we were all together.  In the afternoon, we did the kayaking.  We loved that even though we were not very coordinated in our paddling.  In between, we also had lectures and science time.  The guides would share information about their expertise.  One our first day we learned more about whales.  We also had science and we were able to see different types of seaweed under the microscope and learn about it.

Wrangell:  This was another town in which we did the included excursion.  We learned more about the Tlingit people and were able to go inside a meeting house.  This building actually house numerous families.  We also had the opportunity to go the Petroglyph Beach State Historical Site.  We saw petroglyphs that were hundreds of years old.  They even had some replicas that we were able to do rubbings of.

Waterfall Coast (Gut Bay):  This was our second expedition day.  This day, we started off kayaking.  We were able to see some mink, lots of eagles, and some otters.

Petersburg:  This was one of my favorite of the town ports.  We did have to tender in as there was no big dock.  It was also the day with the worst weather.  It was rainy and drizzling.  We went to a Norwegian event in which a bunch of kids danced traditional dances and we were able to have some Norwegian pastries. 

In the afternoon, we also did a Premium excursion and went garnet mining.  It was a very long drive and extremely rustic.  You had the same kind of bathroom as the bears.  We chiseled off garnets from a huge rock on the side if the road.  The gentleman who was our guide at the mine owned the rights to the mine.  The property itself is owned by the federal government.  We got to keep all the garnets that we found.

Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm:  On this day, we were near Dawes Glacier.  We had the unique opportunity to see a huge calving.  This is where a section of the glacier will fall off and create an iceberg.  On this day, we did not Kayak, we only rode on the zodiac but it was incredible seeing the calving.  I, Lynne, also brought back a piece of ice to put in my drink.  I rinsed it off and it lasted almost 2 full days.

Kake:  We were not able to come ashore here due to a coast guard policy but we did have some people from the Tlingit tribe come on board and they did a presentation for us and we were able to ask them questions.

Sitka:  This was where we disembarked.  We did visit a totem pole park and then a raptor center before heading to the tiny airport.

We did get to see a lot of wildlife and We had the show of our lifetime from a few pods of Orcas that hung around for over 30 minutes and put on a show for us.  I was in my glory!

We did see a black bear, lots and lots of eagles, otters, Dahl's Porpoise, Steller Sea Lions, Orcas, and Humpback Whales.  Being whale lovers, we were so excited to see all that we did.  We even saw a mama and baby otter.

Alaska is an addicting place to visit.  I am excited to travel back again.