Ketchikan

Another day, another destination! This day was Ketchikan. The men all signed up for a king salmon fishing excursion. Whilst the men were away, the women divided and conquered. Sandra, Becky and Andra shopped. And Annette, Jenny and I went ziplining. We all “supposedly” had a great day, but I’m pretty sure my team had the best;)

So here’s the men headed out:

We kept getting texts from Dave while we were ziplining. The guys weren’t catching a whole lot of salmon (as early June isn’t always the best time for that).

They were catching little numbers like this:

(kidding…this was just the bait)

But they did catch this:

And little salmon like these:

And then finally…THESE!

 

Brian and Curtis were the lucky winners for the day! They each caught themselves a king salmon (as well as a hefty freezing and shipping charge to get their fish home…about $180 dollars to be exact). I was glad Dave got to experience “fishing in Alaska” and was also quite glad he didn’t catch one that was big enough to ship home;)

Meanwhile…here’s our most awesome day of zipping through the Tongass National Forest!!!

“The Man in Yellow Hat” was our guide. I forgot his name, but he sure liked us three gals

The course consisted of probably 7-8 ziplines, one of which zipped out into a little peninsula of the ocean. This is all of us standing on a buoy, waiting to zip back to land. It had some great views from where we were standing.

There were also a few ropes courses and a 3-sided rock climbing wall. All were fun and made me feel kind of like a rock star athlete, which is a first for me.

Anyway, fun day. After we got back, we burned up the last few hours of land that we could. We visited the infamous Creek Street, notorious for once being the Red Light District. It’s a cute, colorful village built up on stilts that now houses restaurants, gift and souvenir shops. It all kind of reminded me of Gardner Village.

This is Dolly’s House on Creek Street. Apparently, Dolly and her house got a lot of visitors (then and even now):

We then walked over to Salmon Ladder. Salmon Ladder is where you can watch the hordes of salmon making their way upstream like this:

We, unfortunately, were a couple weeks off, and only saw this:

A really pretty place, though, as you can see. Can’t get over the green-ness of everything in Alaska!!!

And last, we saved a few minutes for souvey shopping and some more random photo opps. We also bought ourselves some most delicious Orca Corn (kettle and caramel popped corn). It was pretty tasty since we were all quite starved by this point.

See you later, Ketchikan!

Sitka

Hard to choose a favorite, but Sitka may have been it for us. It’s such a cute, historic, scenic, little town and we enjoyed our day there. We woke early and were amongst the first to get off the ship. We tendered in to the land and got started on our adventures.


First up, the Fortress of the Bear. Because orphaned cubs are routinely shot by the Department of Fish and Game, this place’s mission is to rescue cubs, bring them back to health and provide an enriching home for the bears. The center opened in 2007, has shipped some of its bears out to zoos and currently houses 8 bears. They eventually hope to release the bears back into the wild, but Alaska currently prohibits it.

Below is the owner. He came out and told us about the bears, threw fish to them, showed us how the bald eagles in the nearby trees like to swoop in and steal the fish, etc. The grizzlies were super cute and had learned how to beg in a very endearing manner. They’d sit upright on their bums, and then clap their hands; reminded us of the bears from Brave.

 

Here, a worker came into the black bear enclosure and fed three little baby bears grapes, lettuce and the likes. They ate right out of her hands, climbed the trees to get the food, etc. Cutest darned things ever!

This is Dave’s favorite pic from the day:

Two males

 

Right after the bears we caught the bus to the Raptor Center. This place has a similar mission. Here, they rescue injured birds, hope to rehabilitate them and release back to the wild, and if not, provide a safe home for the birds.

 

This tiny, feathered friend was our favorite bird there. Her name is Tootsie and was some type of owl. She is like 3 ounces in weight and is absolutely edible. She actually hangs out in the office with the secretaries, and is often taken out for walks on a little leash.

The bird on the far right below is a hawk from Ogden, Utah. I thought that was cool:

 

Something you didn’t know about Alaska (or at least the parts we visited) is that it’s a rainforest. They usually only gets about 1-2 feet of snow each year; instead, they get about 10 feet of rain. Everywhere you look is lush, green and mossy. This little trail was part of the Raptor Center and it was fun to walk around see the forest. See…it’s totally like an enchanted forest.

 

From here, we walked over to Sitka National Historical Park. It’s a little forest where invading Russian traders and the indigenous Tlingit tribe battled. It’s got a little visitor’s center and several totum poles, but nothing too neat to see otherwise.

 

Below, I’m standing on Castle Hill. This is one of the most historically significant sites in Alaska. Tlingit natives originally inhabited this area and built a strategic fortification at this site. (Can you tell I’m copying and pasting here?) Between 1804-1867 Russians took over. During this time,  several Russian buildings were erected on this site. The last one, known as "Baranof's Castle", was erected in 1837, and perished in a fire 1898.   In 1867, on top of Castle Hill, Alaska was officially transferred from Russia to the United States. Interesting and sad to learn about all of the bloodshed the native people experienced here in years past.

This is a restored Russian Orthodox church here in town. We went inside and just about passed out at the smell of the incense that was burning. One lady turned to me and said, “Isn’t this just the most beautiful place?” I said yes. But it was a lie. It was not much to see…or smell;)

We explored the Russian Bishop’s House. This place is special because it’s one of the few surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in North America.

I liked this little token unearthed several years back:

It’s a little iron plate that had been buried in the ground stating, “This land belongs to Russia.”

 

And now for our most delicious stop of the day: Ludvig’s Bistro. It’s a little clam chowder shop housed in a crappy shed, but has been featured in all sorts of magazines/food reviews. It served up the only clam chowder I have ever enjoyed.  It was expensive, but so darn tasty!!! And fun to eat while we perused the town.

We souvenir shopped a little, bought some treats from the local Ben Franklin, and called it a day.

Glacier Bay

Our next adventure was a Day at Sea. We traveled through Glacier Bay National Park. The ship pulled right up next to the glaciers and parked. Off and on you’d hear thundering sounds, following by snow and ice chunks crashing into the sea. The glaciers are stunning, in particular, the frozen parts that are a solid blue (indicating zero oxygen). Each glacier in all their grandeur made me feel like I was looking at Elsa’s castle and made me miss Little Sister (and Brother too) a bit…but just a bit;)

Still wish my camera did any justice

Meanwhile, when you’re stuck at sea…there’s not much to do except go eat, or in our case, go to cupcake and tea parties. Here, Rob shows us the correct way to eat tea and “scrumpets”:

We also booked a reservation at the ship’s fancy restaurant (the kind where you actually pay money for the food). On our Disney Cruise, this was worth every cent since the rest of the food was pretty gross. We regretted it this time around, though, because the food was just awesome on the ship as it was in the “pay” restaurant.

Dave’s parents at their booth; us at ours (we had reservations at nearly the same times)

No pics for this, but when formal nights rolled around we had ourselves some good laughs. There was one photographer that lured us in for pics. We were trying our hardest to take goofball pics and keep a straight face. It was difficult. We were cracking up all night over it! And the pics were awesome; unfortunately they charge an arm and leg for the professional photos. Plus, they guard them like hawks not allowing you to take a pic of the pic with your cell phone. So, in short, that was just a fun memory that I figured I would at least document in words.

Lastly, what else do you do when stuck at sea? Why, participate in dance competitions, of course! Holland America is doing this Dancing With the Stars at Sea Promo during 2014. I had read about it and thought the odds MAY be in my favor due to the high percentage of older folks aboard. I went Day 1 and took second place next to the stinky, Liz, who was probably 60 or so and a REAL PEACH; and by peach, I mean like a really rotten one. with worms in it. that seems sweet but is actually not at all. Ugh. Joking…sort of. Anyway, winning was based on audience vote, and it just so happens that Liz had all her peeps there and cheering her on that day, and I had, well, 2 of my peeps.

Don’t you worry! I came back for Day 2, and this time I was prepared!!

See…

Best cheer squad ever!

Performing the Cha-Cha, my “star” dance partner, Aaron, and I took home the gold and secured my spot in the Finals. Oh, joy. This little incident darn near gave me an ulcer as the trip went on stressing about performing on stage. in the final show. in front of everyone. One of the MANY moments in my life where I ask myself, “Ashley????!!!!! You idiot!!! What have you done!!!????”

But really, the Dancing With the Stars turned out to be a fun thing. No exaggerating here, but overnight I had kind of gained superstar status on the ship. Everyone knew me. One lady in particular (who I saw like 10 times a day) would shout out, “Dancing Queen!” EVERY SINGLE TIME we crossed paths. I swear I could not avoid her! And sometimes I’d try to beat her to the punch before she’d shout out for all to hear, but there was just no stopping her. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my weeklong life as a celebrity and felt proud to finally have those years of dance lessons paying off;)

And so our days at sea and Glacier Bay came to an end…