Sitka Wildlife

 

It was a sunny day in Sitka when we arrived, the Nieuw Amsterdam being just one of 3 cruise ships in port at the same time.  We and a second ship were docked, while the third and smallest ship was tendering passengers ashore.  We had booked an excursion that left from the downtown Sitka museum and visitor Center area so Liz and I went early using the shuttle bus and began to walk around the town of Sitka. Fishing boats abound around Sitka and as we walked along a shore-side trail we kept hearing huge splashes.  We looked to see fisherman catching fish and fish leaping out of the water near them. 

We visited the science center at the one end of the trail and then came back to wait for excursion. The excursion was on a two deck boat with the lower deck enclosed which  allowed us to be warmly inside while approaching rafts of Sea otters floating in the kelp.  We heard how the mother otter wraps her baby in bull kelp which anchors to the sea bottom to keep the baby in place while she forages for food.  Their dense fur keeps them warm as they do not have blubber.  We also saw some small groups of male otters. Then, as we searched for whales,  out of nowhere came a male orca with its distinct tall triangular fin.  We saw him several times over about 30 minutes—it seemed as if he was almost playing with our boat. 

 We began to chase multiple whale spouts and for another 30 minutes or so watched humpbacks spouting, backs arching thru the water, and tail flips as they dove again.  

Valdez and Lowe River

We had a day at sea as we passed out of Anchorage through Prince William sound all the way down Cook’s Inlet and across Prince William sound and then across the Gulf of Alaska again as we made our way towards the port of Valdez.   Most people recognize the Exxon Valdez as one of the biggest oil spills in history—one that created awareness across the world and certainly across the United States of the damage that spilled oil can do to bird life and other wildlife. Here also in Valdez was where the huge earthquake of 1964 originated shortly offshore and produced a tsunami across Alaska wrecking harbor towns down as far as Crescent city and even down to Noyo. Here in Valdez we took another tour bus, this time up the Lowe river valley to its headwaters where we stopped and viewed the beautiful and retreating Worthington glacier.  Today was rainy but mostly light rain, so we could get on/off our bus to walk up to waterfalls, etc.  along the journey we six bald eagles, two on the wing and four in tree tops. We stopped at one heavily fished area where we saw tons of sea lions basking beside a side stream coming into the Lowe River along our highway, and dozen or more fishermen catching salmon.  We traveled all the way to Thompson pass and the Worthington glacier, where we walked around again before turning for the return trip back.  Our ship sails away early evening toward our next port, Sitka.

 Bridal Veil Falls

Sea lions on the Lowe River

Sailing into Valdez

Lovely towel art in stateroom

Worthington Glacier at Thompson Pass

Kodiak and Anchorage

 

After several days at sea passing through the inland passage and up through the gulf of Alaska we will be reaching Kodiak island.we have a lovely view from our cabin on the sixth deck, 6054.  The passage has been smooth barely rocking a little and we reach Kodiak on a day where there is no rain. Because no ships have come in for several years,  and because the only way in and off the island is via sea and air, there were no tour buses available for our tours and we had to use school buses for both shuttling people into town as well as taking them on tours. The problem with using the school buses was that school is in session and so our shuttles and tours had to be flexible to accommodate the school drivers needs of getting back to pick the school children up at 2 o’clock, so all tours had to end by about 1:30 and everybody who was in town on the shuttle had to wait in town until the school buses had dropped off the children for the day and could resume their work for the Holland America cruise lines, around 4. But it all worked out in the end and we had a delightful person who was a long time resident of Kodiak who told us about her life and times and the times around Kodiak as we went up out of town  a ways and to a World War II monument and state park, then back down to a few museums in the heart of Kodiak which were absolutely wonderful.

The next day we had traveled as far as Anchorage and here is the largest city in Alaska with over 300,000 people.  At this port,  we had regular tour buses albeit small ones for which took us up the wonderful wonderful Turnagain arm (named by explorer Captain Cook who was seeking the northwest passage but never found it—here he went up this broad fjord-like inlet and then ordered his crew to Turn Again, thus the inlet ‘s name).  Along our route we saw breathtaking fall colors. Eagles, the back of a beluga whale which I’m pretty sure I did see, as we traveled all the way up to a spectacular glaciated area.  There we saw the tip of the glacier and wonderful blue ice melt streams with spawning salmon — it was a lovely trip and allowed us to see the inland area of this portion of Alaska, which is one humongous state.

Spawned out salmon

Wood bison-a recovering species once thought extinct

Glacier with blue color from the fine silt

Different sizes of black bear, brown bear (grizzly) and polar bear.

Watching the spawning salmon

Getting pictures of wildlife

ArriveCAN, Vancouver Airport, Cruise Terminal and Chaos

 

The trip began smoothly. We had prepared with ArriveCan filling out all the required documentation in that application, and we had taken our Covid test on the Thursday before our Sunday boarding plus we had filled out everything on Air Canada for boarding, and lastly completed all of the Holland America Navigator that we could. 

The shuttle ride to the airport was uneventful — thank you Laura for taking us so early to catch it— and the checkin at Air Canada was swift and easy—luggage tagged and sent off and in 30 seconds we were headed toward our Gate.  The plane ride was uneventful if barebones with only one drink service (water or any of three juices) for the entire 2.5 hours and not a free cookie, peanut, or snack to be found. 

Eventful is the watchword after the plane sat down in Canada.  It is a huge airport in Vancouver and we walked our elderly tired feet off to collect our luggage and find out how to exit the airport. We were tired, being 75 and 76.  The last thing we thought of was to check emails to see if we were the unlucky random person selected for a Covid test.  But Lizzie was.  

She didn’t see the email until she was in the hotel room after a $40 taxi ride to our hotel.  Taxis in Vancouver charge by increments of both distance AND time.  So, in rush hour stopping at red lights everywhere, you watch the meter tick up ever 9.92 seconds! And you are not moving. The taxi tariff sign is pictured above.

We settled into our room at the Holiday Inn on Broadway (and yes, both elevators were working this year).  It was smoky in Vancouver from Frasier River canyon fires. Lizzie and I were so glad to get settled and begin to relax.  So, Liz checked her email….

Despite having a negative Covid PCR test in the past 72 hours, this 76-year old grandmother had been randomly selected to have another test by ArriveCan’s  App, and the “free” testing location was back past the airport in Richmond…another likely $40 and two hours round trip  away.  We couldn’t face it, especially since we would be in Canada less than 24 hours as we boarded the cruise ship at 10:00 the next morning.   

However, as early risers we woke the next morning and decided we had better comply as Canada kept sending Liz reminders to go test or face penalties. So, once again we took a $35 taxi ride to the “free” test location in Richmond.  After 30 minutes Liz had completed the test collection and we were again in a taxi for another $35 ride to the Cruise ship embarkation center.  Thank you Mr. Trudeau for the warm welcome to your country. 

From there it should have been better as we were a priority ship boarding party, but it continued to go downhill. Three large cruise ships had arrived in port Sunday morning and all three were disembarking thousands of passengers trying to leave the facility just as thousands more were arriving to embark on those same three ships. We stood in an unmoving line for 45 minutes because they needed to clear the outbound passengers before the incoming passengers could begin to be processed.  Then we began to

move, snaking through a queue to show our passport and negative Covid test results (from our Thursday planned testing) for our boarding pass, then snaking through a much larger queue to show passport and boarding pass for our carry on and passenger security screens, then into another queue for passing thru US customs as our first port of call was Kodiak AK, finally hustled to another crammed seating area to wait for nearly 90 minutes until we could actually board.  Everyone began to have frayed tempers as they began the final queue to lead to the boarding ramp and show passport and boarding pass one last time as we entered the last security checkpoint onboard ship before taking the elevators to our deck and stateroom.  We had made it.  

Once onboard we awaited the arrival of our luggage, unpacked, and went up to the Lido deck to await sail away.  There we watched the takeoff and landings of several sea planes (me sipping a well deserved margarita) before finally hearing the engines start, then slowly departing Vancouver as we sailed away under the famed Lion’s Gate bridge.