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.
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