Alaska! – Part Two
Continuing on my Alaska cruise adventure, last week I talked about Juneau and the first 3 days of the cruise. On day 4, we stopped in Prince Rupert, BC which was again another small town where we visited the Museum of Northern British Columbia, Cow Bay and the sunken garden. We had lunch in the town, which was a great choice and a we chose a restaurant that was suggest by our tour guide. We returned to the ship after lunch, and I was able to get an appointment at the spa during the afternoon – nothing like a little pampering to make your day even better.
Day 5 was a day at sea as we passed through several channels. The Grenville Channel, The Whale Channel and Princess Royal Channel. Unfortunately, we did not see any whales, but the scenery was amazing. This was one of the days that I visited the spa for the second time and had an enjoyable afternoon massage.
Day 6 was our final zodiac tour in Alert Bay of the Cormorant Marine Park. This was probably one of my favorite days. It started out rainy and we were not scheduled for the first tour of the day but the one at 10 am. It was also much colder than some of the other days and only scheduled to be in the low 50’s and out on a zodiac at speed that does make it cold. We were very lucky that by the time we left for our tour at 10 am, the rain had stopped and since several people had cancelled due to the rain, my zodiac trip had only 5 guests and our guide! It was an amazing opportunity to see so many things and ask all of our questions. Seeing harbor seals and many bald eagles was fun. Then we found a rock that had a lot of sea lions resting and playing was fun and when they came into the water and were swimming near the boat that was even more enjoyable. But the BEST part of that tour was the humpback whale! He was swimming near us, and you could see his back coming out of the water and hearing his blowhole was a sound I will never forget. We also had porpoises swimming around our boat as we made our way back to the ship.
We left Alert Bay in the early afternoon so that we could cruise the Johnstone Strait and the Seymour Narrows. Our tour guide had told us about the Narrows, and it was an interesting story. The Seymour Narrows is a 3-mile/5 km stretch of the Discovery Channel north of Vancouver Island. It is notorious for the strength of the tidal currents flowing through it. The average width of the narrows is just 2,400 feet/750 meters. During extreme tides, the current through the narrows can make it difficult to pass and the ship must pass at high or low tide – when the tide is in.
Day 7 was when we docked in Vancouver, BC to disembark the ship that morning. We made our way to the Westin that we had pre-booked so that we could spend the day in Vancouver and ended up at Stanley Park for a nice walk where we saw the lighthouse and more totem poles and a visit to the Vancouver Aquarium.
The following morning, we boarded the Amtrak Cascades train to take us from Vancouver to Seattle where we would then fly home. We were hopeful that the ride would be some great scenery and be an easy way to get to Seattle from Vancouver to catch our flights home. But to be honest, the ride had some nice scenery but was probably not worth the time to do that part and was definitely not worth the 4 hours. Most of my train rides (including on the Orient Express – but that’s another story) have been in Europe and I guess I am more spoiled by the scenery there.
Alaska was amazing in so many ways, and I definitely enjoyed the scenery, the wildlife and the adventures I did! As I said, I would probably have considered doing more adventuring during my time in Alaska…and definitely will when I go back!
