Month: June 2025

by

Glacier Bay National Park: June 13-15, 2025

Friendship is a beautiful thing.

We spent two days at Glacier Bay National Park, our 31st National Park. We don’t have some lofty goal of visiting all 63. We go to one if it’s in the area of our travels. Heck, we haven’t even visited all of them in California.

Glacier Bay, of course is beautiful, even more so than the other parts of Alaska we cruised through. The National Park has a bunch of special rules, all for the protection of the wildlife and environment. Only two ships per day are allowed, and one of them is usually Holland America. There’s speed restrictions in whale waters and vessels must maintain a distance of at least a quarter nautical mile from humpback whales. Additionally, vessels are prohibited from altering course or speed to reduce the distance between the vessel and a whale if already within a half nautical mile. And a ship can only have one skiff out at a time. So on our last day there was only a morning adventure.

If you know Amelia you’ll believe this, she was the life of the ship. The hotel manager said she wasn’t supposed to tell passengers who the crew favorites were, but she told us, and hands down it was Amelia.

The 64 passengers were an interesting mix. We had a couple from Germany and another from Great Britain. Folks from all over the United States, from Rhode Island to California. Interestingly enough Idaho and Colorado seemed over represented. The age range was preteen to an 84 year old stud. There were honeymooners and couples celebrating anniversaries. A lot of the wives were younger, with a bigger age difference than our 8 years.

We really connected with a lot of people.  I’m guessing it’s because of the shared sense of adventure and active lifestyles.  My favorite story is a 50 year old from Ohio on her honeymoon. She had never seen or been in the ocean until this trip. And she did the polar plunge! Now that’s a tale she can tell!

The shoreline of the Gloomy Knob hike.

Gloomy Knob was a steep slippery hike.

Tony found a fossilized snail.

We hiked through this slot.

Magnificent views

Laurel, our sweet, high energy guide with an infectious personality.

A great hiking group. L to R: Steve & Amanda from Eagle, Idaho. Cooper, his chick Bryce, Dwayne, Laurel, and Kendall, the wonderful family from Colorado. Amelia, Dianni, Tony, and myself.

Be careful on the descent!

The river mouth bank covered in mussels.

Waiting for the skiff

Tanner, the bartender, making one of her signature drinks of the day.

The bread and butter became a thing at dinner.

A view of the bridge

Saturday, 6:30am we slowly cruised by Margerie Glacier.

Amelia and Nico on the skiff heading to Lamplugh Glacier.

The last day, we had a choice of only one adventure at Lamplugh Glacier. Kayak, shore walk, or ridge hike. We did the ridge hike. It was an awesome finish on an incredible week.

Steep, but look at that glacier!

Some scrambling required

Nootka Lupine

The payoff, John, Amelia, myself, Levi, Henry, Aidan, Nico, and Kelly.

Lamplugh Glacier is 0.9 miles wide, 165 feet high at the face, and over 19 miles long.

Henry and Amelia goofing off. You can see the ship at 9 o’clock.

Zoomed in look

Alaska Moss Heather

Year after year they’ve been seeing this marmot.

Amelia leading the hike down.

Happy girl

We got lucky and got to also do the shore walk because we had to wait for the skiff. All the kids were putting the glacial silt on like a facial. On the left are two guides, Kira and Kelly. Then you have Amelia’s compadres, brothers Aidan and Nico, and their cousin, Henry.

The icebergs were huge.

 The kids were acting like the scene in A Christmas Story when Flick gets his tongue stuck on the flagpole.

Slow motion video of Aidan doing a backflip.

I love this photo

Walking to the skiff for the ride back.

Tradition is on the last day you do the polar plunge. It’s a festive event. Josh, one of the guides, donned a sequined dress and was dancing for everyone before the crew took the first plunges.

That’s Tony in the center and Dianni diving in. They were in the first passenger group to get into the freezing cold water.

No diving for me and Amelia!

How cold was it, you ask? 40 degrees!!

Amelia, Tony, and Dianni are nuts. They did it twice!

On the last night was the traditional captain’s dinner, but we didn’t have to get all dressed up. After eating, the captain called the crew up by name to cheers from all the passengers.

Amelia with three of her favorites, Zach, Tammy and A’Dreia.

The entire route

The crew lined up on the second deck and waved to all of us as we disembarked. That’s Amelia standing on the dock, looking up and waving at all of them.

Adios Alaska!

by

Uncruise Alaska: The First Four Days

The last frontier

What a fantastic trip! Forget those huge cruise ships that hold thousands of people, Uncruise is the way to go. Our little ship had a total of 64 passengers. We were able to go places the big ships could never dream of going. It’s all inclusive, so you don’t feel like you’re getting nickel-and-dimed to death. Every day you pick a morning and afternoon activity. The choices were kayaking, bushwhacking/hiking, skiff ride, meandering along the shoreline, and one day they even had a snorkeling option. Depending on the activity it could be anywhere from one to three hours long. The food was excellent and the drinks always flowing at the bar. Yes it’s more expensive, but well worth it, and this is coming from a guy who’s frugal.

We saw so much wildlife, but my iPhone couldn’t capture them like the professional cameras on board.

  • Humpback whales
  • Dall’s porpoise
  • Sea lions
  • Harbor seals
  • Sea otters
  • Coastal brown bears, which are quite a bit bigger than the black bears we’ve seen in Mammoth and Tahoe.
  • Moose
  • Mountain goats
  • Marmot
  • One of the craziest things was two Sitka black-tailed deer swimming a long ways from one island to another. That was something none of us had ever seen, even our guide.
  • Bald eagles
  • Ravens
  • We also got four new birds: Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, Black Oystercatcher, and the super cool looking Tufted Puffin.

In the most enduring and loving way we were referring to the crew as a group of misfits. They were awesome! Every single one of them. It speaks volumes about the culture of Uncruise that all the employees were able to be themselves. Straight, gay, transgender, crazy hair color, piercings, whatever! Everyone was accepted and quite excellent at their jobs.

I knew it was going to be a special trip when on the first morning, while sipping coffee in our cabin, and looking out the open window I saw a whale spout, then watched it breach. I saw the fluke! Amazing!

A super geeked up Dianni and Tony.

Our first morning we took the skiff to Dawes Glacier. Wow! We saw multiple calving events. The sight of huge chunks of glacier falling was incredible and the sound was loud and distinct. The experience was something we will never forget.

Heading towards Dawes Glacier

Closer

As close as we could get and still be safe. The face of the glacier is 600 feet high and half mile wide.

A video of the waves after a calving. 

Three very happy people

We lucked out big time on the weather. Days two and three were perfect.

The dinners were the fancy small portion style with a waiter. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style.

9pm and the sun was still setting!

Banana slug

Our first bushwhack was in an area that had been clear cut 40 years ago. It was a tough introduction to bushwhacking…

…but we made the most of it and the whole group laughed as we struggled up and down terrain that sunk and broke easily.

We came in early on an unguided kayak day and Amelia for the first time ever got on a stand up paddle board. The picture shows the fantail of the boat with rollers where the kayaks easily launch and dock.

Doug, the guy in charge of all the guides, paddled around the boat with Amelia.

The Widerness Discoverer and my wife

After dinner on day three they had a special secret treat for us. We went through that gap…

…into the Red Bluff Bay of Baranof Island…

… where the water was beautiful and calm.

Eventually we came upon a 700 foot waterfall. It was the first time all season that they were able to do it, prior to this the sea was too rough. We really lucked out with the weather.

Video!

It was amazing how close the captain got to the falls.

The sun was setting after 10pm and rising around 3:45am. So between dusk and dawn there was only about three hours of darkness.

One afternoon we opted for meandering the shoreline. It was quite enjoyable going slow and really looking at everything. It’s also one of Amelia’s favorite things to do.

We saw a huge pile of bear scat that our guide determined to be a couple hours old.

Chocolate Lillies

Alaskan Violet

Lapland Rosebay

Skunk Cabbage. Bears actually don’t hibernate like other mammals. They go into a state called torpor. They can wake up if they need to, but rarely do. While in torpor they develop a fecal plug, composed of feces, dead intestinal cells, hair, and bedding material, that acts as a natural plug to keep the den clean. When Spring comes and they start moving around they will eat the skunk cabbage. It works as a laxative so it blows out the fecal plug.

Lush temperate rain forest vegetation

Moss laden tree

Another day on the water

Reflections are so cool.

I kept hearing the first bushwhack was a dud compared to the other ones, so I tried it again with Tony. It was much more enjoyable. The girls had some time away from us and did a bushwhack lite.

Shooting Stars

Dwarf Dogwood

Tony and our awesome guide, McKenzie

Yellow Pond Lillies, a couple weeks away from blooming

The shoreline where the skiff dropped us off had a lot of starfish.

Our route the first four days.

The large window in our cabin was great.

Up next Glacier Bay National Park!

by

Juneau, Alaska: June 6-8, 2025

Look at the water cascading down the steep mountains of Juneau. Everyone said to expect rain and everyone was correct.

So…we drove our truck down to Amelia’s dad’s house in Pacific Beach and he gave us a ride to the airport. As the three of us were driving through the heart of P.B. there was a homeless dude standing in the middle of the street, long dirty hair, wearing rags, and looking a lot older than his age. He was waving his arms and yelling at no one in particular.

Being the smart aleck I am, I said, “We must be in Pacific Beach. We won’t be seeing that in Juneau.” Wrong! The first thing I saw when the taxi dropped us off at 10pm at the Alaskan Hotel were homeless people. That was an inauspicious start to our big Alaska trip.

Juneau is unique among US state capitals because it has no roads connecting it to the rest of the state or to the contiguous United States. Cruise ship lines are one of the big economic drivers. They own all the tourist shops right in front of the terminal. It was out of place and bizarre to see so many jewelry shops. They all seemed to be selling tanzanite. The folks working in the shops also seemed out of place. If it wasn’t for the weather you’d think you were in Egypt. Once you got out of the terminal area all the shops had signs about being locally owned.

Lucky us! We traveled with another great couple again. This time it was our friends from Colorado, Tony and Dianni. More than a year ago we booked this trip with Uncruise Adventures. What a genius name for the company. It’s not anything like those huge cruise ships. Our ship only had 37 cabins! We all arrived on Friday night. Saturday the guys went fishing and the girls went to Mendenhall Glacier. The girls were smart. We didn’t catch anything. More on that later.

On Sunday, we had a lot of time to kill. Checkout was 11am and embarkment wasn’t until 5pm. We made the most of it walking in the rain all over town, through a neighborhood with incredible staircases until we stumbled upon a great restaurant with arcade games upstairs.

The Alaskan Hotel and Bar was centrally located, rustic, and interesting. Our little room had slanted floors. I had to put pillows between the mattress and box spring to feel level enough to sleep. 

Back home on my morning walks I see coyote scat everywhere.  In Juneau, it’s bear shit, right on the sidewalk in front of the tourist shops.

Amelia at the Mendenhall Glacier.

Temperate rainforest

We were chumps to use Chum Fun Charters! It’s not really their fault, but it was stupid. The salmon weren’t running and eight of us stood in the wind and rain for two hours, casting our Mepps lures, all for naught.

Tony and I acting like we had a great time. Here’s a beautiful quote from Tony in reference to all my wrinkles and his lack of them, “Asian don’t raisin.”

Steep staircases throughout the town leading up to residences and streets.

Great tip from Brent, my buddy’s kid, to visit Devil’s Club Brewing.

Immature Bald Eagle

First part of our killing time tour

That’s me sleeping on a couch at the Crystal Barcade. No, I wasn’t hungover! Those days are long gone. I had a GERD issue the night before and slept poorly. While I was napping, the other three were playing arcade games. On Sunday all the games are free. BTW, the food downstairs at the Crystal Saloon was excellent.

Our Uncruise ship waiting for us.

Bon voyage!