Alaska
Inside
Passage

The first thing you have to ask yourself when you consider a cruise to Alaska is whether or not you have an occasion special enough to merit the expense. Are you retiring? Are you filthy rich? Have you "just always wanted to go"? Is it a gift for someone special? Well, the last is the reason I decided to go. Our trip to Alaska was a gift for my young bride's 30th birthday. She threw me a great party for my 30th and I almost couldn't keep her gift a secret for the month or so I had to wait for her to hit the big 3-OH.

She was surprised, and if you can believe it, she was a little disappointed. She has "always wanted to go to Germany" — her homeland of sorts, as she is the first in her immediate family born in the United States. No, she doesn't have a cool German accent, but her Oma sure did.

Join us in reflection of our trip and realize why she now thinks any other place in the world would be a disappointment.

We sort of expected a Love Boat-esque departure from the harbour at Vancouver. Everyone stands outside and waves to everyone else on shore. Well, our expectations suffered from too much Hollywood influence. We didn't know we were moving until we saw the dock floating by from the elevator. Talk about a weird sensation.

It had been a terribly long day, departing for a 6:00 AM CST flight and finally disembarking at 6:30 PM PST — 14 hours later. Taking off from Vancouver, a double rainbow promised we would have a wonderful time.

Juneau, Alaska would bring us face to face with the capital city of Alaska. We had one excursion planned: a helicopter ride to the Mendenhall Glacier where we would exit and walk around on the glacier for an hour and a half. We had been on a helicopter ride once before while visiting Sedona, Arizona — a choppy, gut-wrenching roller coaster that made us anxious about another trip. But the chance to actually walk on a glacier? We were in.

The first thing I wanted to do when I got off the boat was use the phone. I just had to call in and see what was going on in the office. We docked about 9:00 AM, making it around noon at home, and I just needed to satisfy myself that they could survive without me. But enough about me.

Here it is — the Radiance of the Seas docked in Juneau. Ours was the inaugural season of the Radiance in Alaska. The boat was really nice. There was even a top-floor bar and dance floor modelled after the Seattle Space Needle.

You may wonder what can top riding a jet-powered helicopter to the top of a glacier. I gotta tell you, not much can. Even though a train ride doesn't sound as exciting as the helicopter, I assure you, the views were awe-inspiring. Our weather was once again incredible. No rain and 60 degrees in the valley.

Skagway is a little town that probably holds about 345 people in residence — and residence, I would have to assume, means you tough it out during the winter. This was the launching place for the Alaskan gold rush. I have to confess, I didn't even know there was a gold rush before our visit, but that's the reason we like to go places we've never been: to learn something.

For the railroad trip, we were advised to get a car near the end of the train because the smoke and fumes are strong at the front. We were also advised to sit on the left side for the view. This was good advice for good pictures of the train, and there weren't many fumes on the way up. But on the trip down... whoa, boy.

The White Pass & Yukon Route railroad was started to get the gold-hungry settlers over the treacherously cold mountains and on their way to gold. Today, the railroad trips up the mountain are about the only thing Skagway has to offer the thousands of tourists who see the town for the first and last time in their lives each day.

For Ketchikan, we had excursions planned again. Alicia was headed to a canoe ride with Gladys. Jim was to fish for big game. And I was to ride yet another mountain bike. We should have known there was going to be a problem with Ketchikan when we were informed that we would have to tender into the "city."

Ketchikan is home to a whole bunch of salmon and about 40,000 majestic American eagles. The place has a rain-to-sunshine gauge that shows only two weeks a year of rain-free days. In keeping with our great luck, we had one of the prettiest days anyone there could remember.