PCWalton1

Hello and thanks to all who joined in. I didn't shoot many pics today as we were busy getting off the ship. One of the joys of cruising into Vancouver is we can just grab a rental car right at Canada Place and drive home to Seattle. One way has run between $50 and $80 

A beautiful day for driving home. At the border

Marie with our friendly wait staff

We took a break from packing to watch a cake decorating contest on the centrum. Looks like the cruise director got the worst of it as icing began flying

Never a welcome sight

Well we are getting close

Quiet transit day as we prepare for our arrival in Vancouver tomorrow. I little choppy but still great weather

A month ago we disputed with our bank the charges for our cruise and they credited us the money. Looks like this week Princess has given us the FCC. Half to my account and half to my wife's account. Except she doesn't have an account so we have no idea where that went. 😂

Don't really care as we will never cruise with Princess. Too bad I can't give the FCC to one of you. 

Time to take off and head back to the ship

Take off!

Back to Radiance

Everything we flew over is part of the Misty Fjords National Monument which was declared a monument in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter. Thank you Mr. President. 🙂

There was a wood floating platform here which allowed for us to get out and enjoy the scenery. It was so beautiful and peaceful

Marie with our pilot Michelle.

A little about her from the Island Air website.

Michelle Masden, pilot and owner of Island Wings, arrived in Ketchikan in 1985. Sincethen she has had many experiences which uniquely qualify her as an expert in providing you with a memorable trip. A self-described “flight junkie” Michelle has spent over twenty-one thousand hours, or almost two and a half years, above the Earth’s surface. She conducts business from the left seat of her magnificent flying machine.

This is Michelle's plane. From her website:

DeHavailland Beavers are the greatest bush planes ever built. They were named one of the ten outstanding Canadian engineering achievements in the past century!

Michelle named her DeHavilland Beaver the “Lady Esther” in honor of her grandmother Esther. She grew up with Esther who always encouraged Michelle to follow her dream and yet Esther was terrified to fly and never once boarded a plane!

The story of Lady Esther dates back to 1959 when she was delivered to her first owner the US Army Air Corps. There were a total of 1692 Beavers built by DeHavilland, the US Army purchased over half of them. The first prototype was flown in 1947 and construction continued through 1967. More than half of them are still in service today!

Here is the other plane taking off

Such a beautiful day meant a warm flight so we wisely jettisoned the coats and scarves since the plane does not have air conditioning.

Another plane was heading to the same place as us

Time to land 

Token picture of me

I do not like heights and flying in a small plane accentuates the feeling of falling so I concentrated on take pictures. And NO I did not sit in the front seat.

Late in the afternoon we took a tour with Island Wing Air Service. The booking was late in the afternoon and finished just a half hour before final boarding time. But since we booked this cruise last minute we didn't really have a choice. And the office manager assured us they did not want to fly us home so we would be back on time.

Flightseeing tour with Michelle of Island Wings Air Service.

Alaska's Inside Passage or Southeast Alaska is home to some of the most breathtaking scenery on earth. One of its jewels is the majestic Misty Fjords National Monument. Completely road-less, this 2.3 million acre monument is larger than Yellowstone National Park. A seaplane tour is the only way to comfortably experience the many different levels within these deep narrow fjords. More dramatic than the Grand Canyon, the fjords are steep walled inlets of the sea.

Created by glacial gouging long ago, snowcapped granite cliffs, dramatically rising 3,500 feet from the sea, are ribboned with sensational waterfalls plummeting thousands of feet back to the ocean. Nestled within the steep walled canyons lie pristine bowl-shaped alpine lakes suspended at many different elevations. Fed by more than 150 inches of misty rain annually, the lush rain forest comprises giant stands of spruce, hemlock and cedar cling to the rugged terrain. Wildlife abounds with mountain goats and harbor seals being the most frequently sighted animals.

Our most popular tour lasts two hours and takes you across Revilliagegedo Island into the heart of the monument on the Alaskan mainland where the fjords are located.

Headsets with two-way voice communication are provided so you can chat in flight and ask questions as we fly.

For the highlight of the tour, we will land on an alpine lake or on a calm bay at sea level and let passengers get out of the aircraft and onto land for a quiet excursion. Relax, stretch your legs and take some photos as you drink in the silence of the vast wilderness.

At the recommendation of my niece we ate lunch at Annabelle's. It did not disappoint. King crab legs and coconut shrimp with beer (for me) and salmon bloody Mary (for Marie) to wash it down. After that we headed back to the ship to drop off what we had bought before heading out on our excursion.

 Good morning. We were in Ketchikan and once again it was a chamber of commerce day. It reached the low 70s with gorgeous blue skies.

We started the day walking around downtown so Marie could shop.

59 minutes ago, twangster said:

After dinner my new friends from deck 13 had heard a rumor that the Northern Lights might be active tonight.  

 

While they did not appear, there was amazing star gazing from the helipad.

 

Can you find the Big Dipper?  It's on the Alaska state flag so appropriate tonight.

What an amazing shot. 

SMH morons  🙄

After our tour we headed back through town but made a stop to see some young eagles in their nest

Wait is that twangster I see sailing down the mountain? 😂

All in all another great day in Alaska. We saw bears (check the box) and even eagles. What a great time. 

We had four sightings though several may have been repeats. This one was by far the largest

I think this is one we had seen earlier but made for a nice scenic shot

Once we drove up into the hills we staked out a bridge and began our wait for bears. 

Surprisingly it was not long before we had our first sighting

Marie with our driver and protector Mike.

This was a good spot to wait as there was plenty of salmon in the stream to entice the bears

We even had a mink sighting.

What has been a continuing theme we started the day grey then enjoyed blue skies as the day continued on. I am definitely enjoying that combination as I have read the horror stories of rain every day.

First we had to drive through town

16 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

What a huge difference in views!!! Next time, go straight for the 1pm 😁😁

I don't know, I thought sliding into the clouds was pretty cool 👍😁

Good morning

Today we are at Icy Strait Point, aka Hoonah Alaska. We will be heading out in search of bears today

We will be taking a Wilderness Tour and Brown Bear Search with Hoonah Travel Adventures.

Chichagof Island has the highest population of bears per square mile of any place on Earth. Our guides spend a lot of time in the pure, uninhabited Alaskan terrain and know how to spot all kinds of wildlife.

While there is a high probability of seeing bears, we can’t guarantee a sighting.

We can guarantee a journey into wilderness and a chance to experience the sheer beauty and ruggedness of the Tongass National Forest!

This tour is operated in the Tongass National Forest under special use permit from the Forest Service, USDA.

https://cruising.org/news-and-research/press-room/2020/june/clia-announces-voluntary-suspension-of-cruise-operations-from-us-ports?fbclid=IwAR2GUFoXWW7OvEcrJLZjwTaR-TdesMsXT3fRFAHNJH60V1nhlpO5kZDJ00s

It was then time to board the train and make the journey back to Skagway

A really old trestle that thankfully we didn't use

We made two stops along the way to pick up hikers

A view of Radiance and Explorer

Back in town

For an additional fee you could get a dog sled ride, we didn't join in but we did see some of the dogs

After that we head to the town of Carcross by way of a stop at Emerald Lake

At Caribou Crossing Trading Post and ready for lunch. The bbq was tasty but the real highlight was the fresh made donuts. 

After lunch we toured the trading post which had a lot of great animal exhibits

At the border. They call this place Fraser mainly because they need a name for the mail to get delivered to those at are living here and guarding the border.

Even in Canada there is a desert 😁