Alaska Trip 2000

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More Alaska Cruise 9

Animated Backhoe

Juneau next

9)Sep 13: Juneau
<http://www.juneaualaska.com/slideshows/#>

We were able to find a new 32 meg memory disk for my camera while in Juneau and so I was able to take pictures again. We were allowed time from the tour to eat Lunch and shop for souvenir at this point.

The big attraction in Juneau was the Mendenhall Glacier Tour by and Juneau Highlights. Terry took the Helicopter Tour of the Mendenhall Glacierwhich she described as "absolutely the highlight of her trip". This was the last of our Glacier Tours.

We found a delightful park or town square in the middle of the shopping area that had vendors set up around a grassy knoll. We browsed through several that had Alaska collectibles and then came upon a man who carved on Cotton Wood. He was raising his family of 8 children, in the wilderness and relied on the gleanings from around him for most of what they needed.

I have an Indian Head that a friend carved when we were living in Montana and so I stopped to compare his artistry. He agreed that Cotton Wood is soft and takes a beautiful satiny finish. I have thought that someday I'll try my hand at carving with Cottonwood, and I have won a couple of prizes when I was younger carving wax figures.

As we visited he told me that the white substance on the back of the Cottonwood bark could be scraped, dried and used for flour. I ask him if he could tell me about the herbal properties of "Nettles". The little lady in the heritage center had said her tribe used it because it had such good healing properties. "Yes" ...he confirmed , "I have used it also."

The aroma from the Hotdog Vendor was tempting us ... so we checked it out. The sausage was Reindeer Sausage about twice the size of a regular hotdog. It smelled delicious and so we decided to give it a try. She slathered it with onions golden from the grill and handed it to us to finish with an assortment of condiments from the side board. It was delicious!
<http://www.allenmarinetours.com>

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10 )Sep 14: Ketchican
<http://www.ketchicanalaska.com/ Ketchican is in an area that is very damp, in fact they called it a rain forest. We were fascinated with the green forest and plants of the area. I sure took some good pictures and they are not lost We went on the Princess Tour Coach to see the sights in Ketchican. The young man who was our guide, we discovered, was from the H.... tribe. He was next in line to become the Chief of his tribe after his grandfather. His profession was being a DJ on a local radio station. He was very articulate and so we were treated to a deluxe tour. He was intensly knowledgeable about the totem poles, lodges, and and the history behind each, taking time to explain all the details about each one. The lodge was made with a kingpin [tallest center beam in picture that when taken down allowed the tribe to move the lodge with them where ever they went. I thought of Lincoln Logs as he described the huge Cedar beams they used. He also explained they did not have a written language until the white men brought it to them about two generations back in time.
I finally just couldn't contain myself any longer and so ask if he had been able to write down his family history and linkage of his family and tribe. His reply astonished me as he had 400 years on the computer. However he had not made a web page yet. This is another area that Family History Extractors will have to tackle some day. It makes one wonder how they were able to keep those ancestors straight for 400 years of not being able to write it all down. A large portion of their culture revolved around their Totem Poles. These documented the Ancestors and their standing within the tribe. Their brave acts were very carefully documented in picture form on the Totem Poles. Above are Totem Poles that have been preserved about 200 years and so the picture was taken without a flash.

11)Sep 15: At Sea
The Princesses trip to Vancouver was beautiful. All day we rested, ate and got ready for another formal evening in the dining room. We saw a humpback whale one evening and on another we saw what we thought were dolphins.
This was our last night on the Princess. The cuisine was spectacular every evening but even more so this evening. Each evening had been replete with a five course dinner. Anything we had ever wanted to sample was offered at some time or another during the cruise, This final evening we were escorted to our table by one of our two waiters. After seating us the napkin was spread on our lap and the menu presented.
Wine was served with each meal and since we declined the alcoholic beverages we were served with our choice of fruit juice each meal. We had a shrimp cocktail, cold soup, very creamy and blushed with strawberries., Lobster Tails and King Crab complete with melted butter. Green salads of every variety and as a farewell piece de resistance "Baked Alaska." It was served after being presented flambee as the waiters marched around the dinning room with lights out. Very elegantly presented to our table before extinguishing the flame. . A Champagne Party was held afterwards with dancing. We felt very Royal indeed.
Lunches were buffet or sit down as you choose. We always caught the Buffet as there were so many activities going on we did not want to miss. We had wonderful hot soups, Quiche , hot meats and deli type meats and cheeses. Wonderful fruits, breads, muffins, salads and you name it and it was presented .
A few other spectacular foods we sampled were: Escargot, Caviar, Oysters, Muscles, Clams, Octopus, Abalone, Baked Cornish Hens, wonderful Duck, Sushi, Beef Wellington, Prime Rib; Lamb Chops, Rack of Lamb; Friday brought a Sea Food Pie with Octopus, Abalone with other tiny seafood bits. The various Halibut, Salmon and other sea foods were served as filet, and pates with wonderful homemade crackers and breads. And yes, if you were so inclined Hamburgers and Hotdogs. Tiny garden vegetables, wonderful baked deserts ...to name a few, a Blackberry and Apple Cobbler, a Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate French Silk Pie and several types of Souffles, tiny cookies and exotic ice creams.
A very artistic Chef carved Ice into birds, whales and other fish. Melons were elegantly presented adorned with carved roses, jumping fish and flying birds.

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12)Sep 16: Vancouver to Seattle : The last leg of our trip from Vancouver to Seattle was the Pits. The seats on the Coach were small but even so, we were lucky to get a seat to ourselves. The down side was a smelly latrine that reeked of urine next to our seats. We were processed through customs, where they were totally disinterested in our small amount of Souvenirs. I was having to walk slowly at this point with my knees dictating my activity level. So ...T-Jay got me a wheel chair and pushed me all of the way to the Delta concourse. We thought we had an hour to eat, and were looking forward to a good meal since we hadn't eaten since 8:00 that morning. It was now 3:00 p.m. As we arrived after getting the luggage settled, they began to announce our plane was boarding. In some manner we had miss calculated an hour. The plane was leaving on MST and Seattle was on PST.
While we boarded, T-Jay hurried back and grabbed some muffins from the first vendor he came to and so we had only muffins, Delta's Party packet of pretzels, nuts etc and a can of Pop to hold us until we landed. We were left to remember all the meals we had while on tour. Everything elegant in the way of cuisine had been served. Our memories now were all we had.
Jimmy and I drove on to Idaho that evening. We saw some spectacular storm clouds about 200 miles from home and saw a Wild Fire start off in the distance. We were back to our fire devastate state. The trip had been a wonderful experience but it was good to be home again.