Albuquerque to California Road Trip and Alaska Cruise June 6-24, 2012

Anne joined us in Albuquerque and we started our nearly month long trip to see family, friends and escape our summer heat.

We had the car packed to overflowing. The far side of the back seat is stuffed floor to ceiling. The remaining back seat space for a passenger became known as the "penalty box" because it seemed like a penalty to have to ride back there.

The car's dash panel reported 103 degrees outside as we passed through Yuma, AZ however it was far more pleasant when we arrived at Mike and Helen's home in San Diego.

Here is Ella, the newest member of the McCarthy family.

Everyone got to have a turn with her.

Mike and Helen served a much appreciated steak dinner

Ian is in his Superman stage

Anne and Carol had some quiet time with Ella.

This is the pleasant back yard and view of the house Mike and Helen have recently moved into.

Leaving San Diego, we enjoyed a drive along the ocean up to LA to visit Kim and Revalee

They welcomed us to their beautiful home and a nice lunch.

View from Kim and Revalee's balcony

Kim showing us his wine cellar

LA traffic - We don't love it

The view improved considerably when we reached Cambria.

We had the good fortune to find the Moonstone Landing motel which was right across the street from the ocean and next to a nice restaurant.

The desert and the mountain people have arrived at the ocean!

The water was refreshing but of course not warm enough for swimming

The beach combing was fun

This is a close up. The mollusks were actually pretty small.

Click on the movie below to see these guys in action

Note that when playing these videos, you can click on the little gear icon near the bottom right to change the video quality. 720p HD is the best. You can also click on the little frame corners to the right of the gear to view the video in full screen.

Continuing our drive up ocean Hwy 1, we found a place where sea lions had come to the beach to molt.

Molting is especially obvious on the Elephant Seal in the foreground.

They look helpless on land but this video shows they can move quite rapidly

View a live web cam at http://www.elephantseal.org

We really enjoyed our drive up scenic Hwy 1

Just before leaving Hwy 1 and heading inland, we stopped at Nepenthe for lunch

We arrived at Jane's house with wine and hors d'oeuvres for everyone. Pictured here are Steve, Pat, Jane, Eileen and below are

Joe, Kevin, Anne and Carol. Joe was just returning home from working at Mt. Everest base camp and Kevin happened to be in the

bay area for his computer business.

We enjoyed a drive in downtown San Francisco. Carol's car with an automatic transmission took these hills easily

Lunch at a favorite very old restaurant, the Tadich Grill.

Views of the Embarcadero near the ferry terminal

Here we are in line to enter the pier and board our ship

On board the Sea Princess waiting to sail for points north

Passengers are gathering on deck to watch the ship squeeze under the Golden Gate

There are almost always strong tidal currents and breezes near the Golden Gate

When watching this video, remember to click on the little gear icon near the bottom right to change the video quality. 720p HD is the best.

You can also click on the little frame corners to the right of the gear to view the video in full screen

Anne's picture of the underside of the Golden Gate makes it look like it was made with a giant Erector Set

Last look at San Francisco

The Cliff House restaurant on Point Lobos. Note the rough water.

The captain announced that we had a ship's speed of 20 knots and were sailing into a 30 knot breeze. The combined wind was so strong

that he ordered the doors to the outer decks closed.

However, the Sea Princess was 950' in length and 77,000 tons. The wind and waves were translated into a gentle motion that rocked us to sleep at night.

After all the driving, hauling luggage and standing in boarding lines, it was a pleasure to relax in the dining room and have menus with no prices

for the next 10 days!

The days at sea were filled with reading, lectures, parlor games and cocktail parties.

Deck 7 was open for sightseeing or walking laps, 3 laps = 1 mile.

Juneau was our first port and it was busy with both ships and sea planes. There are no roads from Juneau to the outside world.

The wharf where we docked was an easy walk into town. Carol and I spent some time at the public library using the free WiFi to check and

send emails while Anne went on a hike with a new friend, Sue up Mt. Roberts.

Jane walked a short way along the wharf.

Carol and I discovered Tracy's Crab Shack and had a cup of wonderful crab bisque.

On our walk back to the ship, it started to rain, an extremely frequent event in Alaska. I am gaining weight on our cruise but the biggest

bulge under my raincoat is my laptop :-)

Back on the ship, the pastry server jokes with Jane

Our next port is Skagway, a port used by the gold rush prospectors. In 1896 gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory.

Boats brought thousands of hopeful prospector most of whom were unfamiliar and unequipped to deal with the rigors of Alaska and Canada.

Skagway is located at 59°28′7″N 135°18′21″W

At this far north location, sunrise was at 3:42AM and sunset was at 10:22PM.

Comments from Wikipedia;

More ships brought thousands of hopeful miners into the new town and prepared for the 500-mile journey to the gold fields in Canada.

The prospectors' journey began for many when they climbed the mountains over the White Pass above Skagway and onward across theCanadian border to Bennett Lake, or one of its neighboring lakes, where they built barges and floated down the Yukon River to the gold fields around Dawson City.

Officials in Canada began requiring that each prospector entering Canada on the north side of the White Pass bring with him one ton (909 kg) of supplies, to ensure that he didn't starve during the winter. This placed a large burden on the prospectors and the pack animals climbing the steep pass.

In the visitors center was an exhibit representing the typical one ton of required supplies.

This exhibit is not very well done as you see a lever action rifle laying across the top and underneath is a case of shot shells :-)

An old photo showing the start of the 20 mile hike to the top of 2,860' White Pass making multiple trips

to each move their one ton of supplies.

Once over the pass they had to cut trees, plane lumber and construct boats or barges to navigate

the rivers and lakes for another almost 500 miles!

In 1897, three separate companies were organized to build a rail link from Skagway to Fort Selkirk, Yukon, 325 miles (523 km) away. Largely financed by British investors, a railroad was soon under construction. A3 ft (914 mm) gauge was chosen by the railway contract builder Michael James Heney. The narrow roadbed required by narrow gauge greatly reduced costs when the roadbed was blasted in solid rock. Even so, 450 tons ofexplosives were used to reach White Pass summit. The narrow gauge also encouraged tighter radii to be used on curves, making the task easier by allowing the railroad to follow the landscape more, rather than having to be blasted through it.

Picture of the snow blower used to keep the rail line clear of snow.

Anne and I had reserved an excursion to ride the railroad over White Pass and kayak in Bennett Lake.

It took two engines to haul our train up the steep grade

An odd thing about the train was this furnace. Climbing higher, we soon began to appreciate it.

When we arrived at the top of the pass, we crossed into Canada and I was having strong doubts about Anne's kayaking idea.

Fortunately we lost some elevation on the far side and the weather improved a bit.

The outfitters had protective clothing for us and good two person kayaks.

I am wearing wool socks, bluejeans, rain over pants, a flannel shirt, a wool sweater, my raincoat and another raincoat from the outfitter plus a life vest.

I am only marginally warm enough. The really good thing is that we did not tip over!

This may look like an action shot but it is really posed. As I had just passed my camera to one of the outfitters to take the picture, I didn't take the time to

work my hands back into the neoprene mitts attached to the paddle.

Riding the bus back to Skagway, we crossed from Canada back into Alaska.

We departed Skagway and headed for Glacier Bay

This is a promotional picture from Princess. Note the sunshine and blue sky.

Here is what we actually saw when we arrived.

Fortunately, the rain stopped and we went out on deck.

(The GMRS radio sticking out of my pocket was a handy way to communicate

on the ship. We are hundreds of miles away from a cell tower.)

We were surprised to see a few nuts in the pool. Note the huge movie screen and speakers.

Your eye tends to focus on the breaking face of Margerie Glacier but if you look beyond, you can see more of it up the valley. We were told that this

glacier moves 7 feet per day! The face is over 200' high and about a mile wide. We were lucky enough to see it calve while we were there. Big chunks

broke off of the face and splashed into the water. A few seconds later we heard a sound like thunder.

Many fractures are visible in this close up view. I think it is interesting how blue the glacier ice looks.

Two lovely ladies at the ship's rail as we approach Ketchikan

Part of Ketchikan is built along a creek

We road this funicular up to a hill top hotel for lunch

Lunch at the Cape Fox Lodge

Posing with some totems

There were 3 other cruise ships ahead of us into the Ketchikan port filling up the docks so our ship had to anchor out. We are riding

back in one of the ship's tenders.

We were happy to have an extra large window

Looks like this big cruise ship nearby us has jet engine assist :-)

We have another day at sea on our way to Victoria, CA.

Our stateroom

Carol made our bath cheerful with some flowers taken from Jane's garden when we left SF

View of our dining room and we are enjoying dessert

The entertainer paying special attention to Jane

Arriving in Victoria, we hired a car and driver to show us around. The car is a Daimler.

The ladies settled in to be chauffeured.

We were surprised to have a doe and four fawns trot out into the street in front of us. They seemed to be in no hurry. Note that the car is right hand drive.