Alaska Day 4 - Skagway / White Pass & Yukon Railway

This morning we arrived in Skagway - the gateway to the Klondike gold rush.  As we approached the docks, we were surprised by the number of large cruise ships already docked.  Our little ship was dwarfed by the cruise ships, and I'm sure our total of about 70 people (including crew) wouldn't even fill a deck on one of the bigger ships.  Small is nice!  Here we are coming into the harbor and a comparison photo of the Admiralty Dream vs some cruise ships.

 

Our first adventure into Skagway was a quick bus tour around town.  This didn't take long since Skagway is a small place (population 800 during the off season).  Here's our bus and tour guide.

Rosie and I walked around town on our own.  Here are some photos of the "downtown" Skagway area.

 

 

 

 

Our next Skagway adventure was to ride the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad from Skagway up to the top of White Pass - where we made a brief excursion into Canada (note: we didn't get off the train).  Here I am boarding the train.

Some of our group on the train.  We had two cars exclusively for our group.

Here are some pictures taken from the train.  The track was built on the side of the mountain.

 

 

Yeah - we arrived at the US-Canada border.

A great shot of the harbor down below.  The larger cruise ships are visible, but I can't see the Admiralty Dream.

Day 5 is Glacier Bay National Park.  It was fantastic!

Alaska Day 3 - Tracy Arm

After breakfast the ship departed for Tracy Arm.  Tracy Arm is a very scenic fjord (30 miles long) with steep cliffs, many water falls, icebergs and glaciers (really neat).  The fjord was cut by a moving glacier.  At the center the fjord is about 1000 ft. deep.  Here are some pictures of the fjord and some of the water falls.  Note - some of the water falls carry a lot of water (which is COLD).

 

 

 At the end of the Tracy Arm is the South Sawyer Glacier.  Here are some pictures of the Sawyer Glacier.  Note: At this point, we're wearing all the cold weather gear we brought.  The wind off the glaciers was very cold.

 

 

Yes, the ice is indeed BLUE.  This is due to the highly compressed nature of the ice.

The Sawyer Glacier is actively calving (i.e. large chunks of ice are falling from the face into the fjord).  As the ice chunks fall off, they make a wave (small or large depending upon the size of the ice chunk) and a loud sound like thunder.

 

The black dots on the ice in front of the glacier are harbor seals.  Resting on the ice is a relatively safe spot for them.

We also saw several killer whales as we navigated through the fjord.

We were excited to see a black bear looking for something to eat.

We thought this rock was especially neat.  Do you see Jabba the Hut in the design?

Tracy Arm was beautiful - now on to Skagway.

Alaska Day 2 - Hobart Bay

Our day in Hobart Bay was a great time of exploring the bay by Kayak, Zegos (small outboard driven runabouts) and ATVs (Kawasaki all-terrain mules).  Rosie and I were one of the later groups.  Our first trip was up the mountain on an ATV.  Here I am in the mule.

 After the ATV trip, we headed out on the Zego; these are great fun!  Here are other folks in our group on their Zego.

This group is heading off on a trip around the bay.

Rosie took this picture as we rode on our Zego.  We saw the rear end of a brown bear as we rounded the corner.

We also saw a lot of bald eagles in Sitka and Hobart Bay - and across all of southeast Alaska.

Kayaking was by far the most work.  Here's one group of kayakers:

Several of the kayak groups saw black bears near the shore.

Rosie and I are waiting to kayak.

I've got all my kayaking garb on (note: I still got wet).

Here's Rosie standing on the hill above the ship.  Notice the daisies.

 After dinner and while we slept, the Admiralty Dream headed for Tracy Arm and our Day 3 adventures.

Alaska Day 1 - Sitka

We left Hot Springs Village on Thursday, 12-JUL, and drove to Ft. Worth to spend the night with the John Stonecipher family and to catch an early flight to Seattle on the 13th.  We had a great evening with them.  On Friday morning John took us to the airport bright and early (arrived at DFW at 5 am).  Thank you, John!  Our flights took us from DFW to Seattle and then Seattle to Sitka, AK.  We arrived in Sitka on a drizzly afternoon; the tour company was at the airport to meet us and get our bags to the hotel.  We're in front of a sign that says, "Welcome to Sitka."

 

Sitka is a port town and supports a lot of fishing.  Here are some of the boats in the harbor.

Since we had some free time on Friday afternoon, we walked up to the Sitka National Historical Museum.  We saw some neat totem poles.  Here I am in front of one.

On Saturday morning we started our official tour.  We started with a bus tour of the city.  We next went to the Russian Bishop's House.  Sitka was the administrative center of Russian America.  Also, this is where the sale of Alaska to the USA was finalized in 1867.  The Bishop's House is one of only a few remaining Russian buildings in the USA.

From the Bishop's House, we walked to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.  This is a replica of the original that burned down in the 1960's.

The church is in the center of downtown.  The bishop gave us an excellent overview of the history of the church.

As we walked around Sitka, we found several "well trained bears."  Here I am with one:

The Tlingit people lived in this area for more than 8,000 years.  In the afternoon we went to a Tlingit performance of traditional songs and dances.  Here's Rosie with one of the performers.

 After the performance we boarded a small vessel for our rendezvous with the Admiralty Dream - our home for the next week.  On our way out we saw seal lions, harbor seals and other wildlife.  Here are a couple of harbor seals - the animal that brought Russia to Alaska.

The harbor seals' fur was known as "soft gold"; it feels great--as many as 1,000 hairs/square inch.

On board the Admiralty Dream, we headed for Hobart Bay and exciting day 2 activities.  Here we are coming into the bay.

More to come on Day 2!

Old Tunnel State Park near Fredericksberg, TX

On Sunday night (01-JUL) we went to the Old Tunnel State Park to see the bats come out at night. There were about 1-2 million bats that came out of the tunnel in approximately 30 minutes. Here's the old train tunnel.

Before the bats emerged, we had an overview by the park ranger.

Here's a photo of the night sky with the bats. The picture isn't grainy, the sky is filled with bats.

We highly recommend the Old Tunnel State Park. According to the ranger, August is the best time to see the bats. The mother bats come back with their young and there are over 3 million bats in the tunnel. Be sure to pay the $5.00/person and go to the lower level; it's well worth it!

 

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Major Chris

On Thursday, June 28, Chris' promotion ceremony was held at the JAG offices at Ft. Hood. Rosie and I were excited to be there for the ceremony. We're also glad that Rosie's sister, Julie, could drive down from Ft. Worth. Chris is introduced by his commanding officer, Colonel Risch.

Amy, Adam and Lottie get to attach Chris' major bars. Of course Major Dad had to bend down a bit.

Here's Major Chris next to the JAG flag.

Julie and Chris pose for a picture.

Here we are with Chris and Amy.

As proud parents it was neat to hear praise/compliments about Chris from his commander and peers.

After all the official stuff, it was party time - cake and drinks.

Congratulations to Chris for a well deserved promotion!

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