Ahhhh-laska!

It took him 4 years, but Alex finally caught up to me last week by stepping foot in his 50th state: Alaska! We took a cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage, and while this was my 6th trip to the state, the first 5 visits were to Anchorage in the darkest days of winter, so this trip offered up a very different experience for me. For one thing, DAYLIGHT!! The Alaska I'd previously visited was covered in ice and saw sunlight from about 10am til 3pm. Last week, we saw spring in full bloom under sunny skies at 3am! Sunset technically happened around 10pm, but nearing midnight, we could still make out the edges of the mountains we were sailing past, and a few hours later the sun was back for another day. Awesome!! And while this was certainly no tropical vacation, at least I didn't spend my time outdoors thinking I might freeze to death (I have very little tolerance for cold, and those Anchorage winter winds whipping off of the water made my tears freeze on my cheeks more times than I'd like to admit). Alaska in the summer is the way to go! Here are some highlights from our trip: 1)We could walk to the cruise ship from our home! That's West Seattle behind us, as we took a pic off of our balcony (which was another highlight: our only other time cruising, we had a windowless room, which was rather dark and uninteresting, but having a full view of the world going by made our room on this ship the best place to be). Not having to spend money on plane tickets and hotel rooms in another port city dramatically reduced our expenses and travel-hassles. Where else can we cruise from Seattle, I wonder? 2)Wildlife! Okay, I didn't actually take any wildlife photos (I decided it was better to SEE the wildlife, rather than try to frame a shot of it), but we saw black bears, mountain goats, bald eagles, otters, seals, humpback whales, and even baby orca whales!! 3)The State Capitol! There's Speaker of the House Alex sitting in his chambers. We took an impromptu tour of the Capitol building in Juneau, which was pretty cool. We learned some things about how government runs in a state with a land mass equal to a third of the continental US but a population equal to a large town in New Jersey. Turns out, the state government is in session only 90 days a year, during the winter months when much of Alaska is too frozen over for much else to be done. Congresspersons make about $50,000 for those 3 months (most of them have jobs throughout the rest of the year), and it is required that all of them be present during voting sessions (to the extent that if a congressperson is NOT present, they will send state troopers out to get them--no joke!) and they must all take a definitive vote (AYE or NAY)--no voting PRESENT. Which sounds smart to me!! We also learned that every citizen of the state of Alaska gets paid every year for the oil that is drilled there (they get paid somewhere between $1200--2000 each year), which seems a bit socialist to me, but that's a dirty word up there. 4)The Railroad! We took a trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railway, on tracks that were built over a hundred years ago as a result of the gold rush. We had a tour guide giving us some history on the area, mostly centered around the gold rush of the 1890's. I used to teach a bit of this history when I was touring with Living Voices, but to put myself in the place where it happened...zowee! The scenery was stunning, but more impressive was the thought of what it took to build these tracks, with 30 feet of snow on the ground and granite hills to wind through and grizzly bears to contend with. Anyone who has a chance to get to Skagway should take a ride on this train!! 5)The Yukon! Before we boarded the train, we took a 2.5 hour bus ride from Skagway into the Yukon Territory. We travelled from sea level, where the snows had melted and spring flowers were everywhere, up 3000 feet to mountain lakes and treeless tundra. A magnificent change of terrain, with a brief stop at the world's smallest desert: 6)Caribou Crossing! Okay, any place that I walk into and have a 2-week-old goat thrust into my arms is gonna be a winner in my book! Caribou Crossing is a museum/native arts store/petting zoo/sled-dog training facility just outside of the town of Carcross (a shortened form of it's original name, Caribou Crossing) where we stopped for lunch on our way to the train. As soon as we got off the bus, we were handed plates of BBQ chicken and homemade donuts: awesome! Then Alex and I made our way towards the sled dogs, only to be stopped by a baby goat chewing on my hair: double awesome! And then, there were husky puppies: my head almost exploded from all the awesomeness!! There were puppies as young as 3 weeks old, curled up with each other and their mama behind a fence. But the 3-month-olds were out and about and looking for love, which I was happy to give. Now, I've never been sure what to think about sled dogs. On one of those trips to Anchorage a decade ago, I was staying at the same motel as a number of Iditarod teams (this being the week before the annual 1000-mile race), and I couldn't help but worry about those dogs being chained up on a frozen parking lot night after night. Supposedly, these dogs are made for frigid conditions and love to run. But...really? Well, we had a chance to ride a sled pulled by a team of huskies (most of whom had run the race several times), and as huskies are Alex's favorite dogs, how could we say no? There were dozens of dogs, and they all were barking and pulling on their chains as some were being hitched to the sled. It became clear in watching them that they were all pulling because they wanted to be on the team! And once our team was hitched and we were on our way, their barks were silenced and they just ran. It was fun! Alex and I were on the back of the sled, so we were able to talk to the woman in charge (I'm sure there is a title for her position, but since I didn't think to ask it, I'll call her The Musher). The Musher had run 3 Iditarods with many of the dogs on our team, and she clearly loved what she did. She said she considered the dogs her best friends, and they clearly loved her. Somehow, I managed to get back on the bus without slipping a puppy under my coat. 7)Glacier Bay! Wow. I don't have many more words to describe it. We spent a day slowly making our way through inlets in Glacier Bay, and this is where we saw otters and whales swimming alongside the ship. Glacier Bay National Park is huge, we saw only a small section of it, but it was nothing short of stunning. We witnessed huge chunks of glaciers splitting off and thundering into the bay below, and it was impossible to know just how large these glaciers were, except for an understanding that they were so much further away than they seemed, as was evidenced by a solid 2-second delay in when we were seeing the ice bursting into the bay and when we were hearing the resulting BOOM! This was an excellent time for us to appreciate our balcony room, as it was cold and rainy on the deck, but we could just open our balcony door and enjoy the view while curled under a blanket. Put this on your bucket list! 8)Ketchikan! This might have been my favorite port town. It actually felt like a town, rather than an outdoor mall for cruise ships. The history of the place was evident everywhere. And, we took a tour of Dolly's House, a brothel from back in the day, and I swear, Dolly was serving meals on the same dishes that my grandmother used (tell me if I'm right, Mom): All of the ports were cute and had some unique charm to them, but this one made me want to see more. 9)Traveling to new places with my best friend in the world! We've now completed the 50 states (plus Puerto Rico--and why is that not a state yet???) so now it's time to start checking off countries. There's no one else I'd rather be with as I take my first steps into the unknown. How lucky are we?? And finally... 10)Coming home!! We loved every moment of our trip, from the towel animals left by our superstar room steward Nelson and the "Happy happy washy washy" song which greeted us every time we hit the buffet (ask me later)--the staff on Norwegian Cruise Lines is seriously stellar!!--to the wonders of the 49th of these United States (which is SOOOOOOO much bigger than Texas, and yet I didn't once hear of anything referred to as being "Alaska-sized"), to the joys of just sitting and watching the world drift by as I hold the hand of the man I love...it was all wonderful. And yet, we were so very happy to come home. Home, to a city we love. Home, to an apartment we love. Home, to the friends we love. Home, to the kitten-horses we love (and oh, how we missed them, and they missed us too, as they let us know by not leaving our sides last night). Home. The perfect ending to a perfect trip. I've got hundreds of pictures to share, but I'll leave that for another post. It's time for me to get my land-legs back in action!