Karen and Jonathan's Blog: Alaska Trip May 2005

Karen and Jonathan took a well needed holiday to the Inside Passage of British Columbia and Alaska. It was a good time of solitude, where both of them enjoyed God's beautiful creation away from their normal everyday life of work, family and ministry. Seeing as kid #1 is on its way (Karen is 14 weeks and 1 day as we write this), this was the last major vacation trip as a couple, and so they particularly enjoyed the time they got to spend with each other.

Below are some select photos from their trip.

Day 1: Vancouver, BC

Workers at the Port of Vancouver (at Canada Place) prepare the Norwegian Sun for departure.

The view of Canada Place as we depart from Vancouver, BC.

View of the Lion's Gate Bridge from the Norwegian Sun.

Karen on the promenade deck (6) in Vancouver, BC.

A Harbour Seaplane flies over the Norwegian Sun as she heads out to sea.

Is that Hans on the bridge? Karen's father decides to watch the ship sail off from the Lion's Gate Bridge - he is the person on the left.

We are sailing on NCL's Norwegian Sun.

Day 2: At Sea in the Inside Passage

Karen and Jonathan pose before dinner on Formal Attire night. (The ship is at sea on this first night.)

Window seat dining in the Seven Seas Restaurant (Jonathan). The Seven Seas Restaurant (one of the ship's main restaurants) serves three meals a day. Karen and I particularly enjoyed our meals here because of the friendly service and the delicious food.

Day 3: Ketchikan, Alaska

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, AK.

The Norwegian Sun docked at Ketchikan, Alaska.

A tranquil scene at a busy port in Ketchikan, AK. (Three cruise ships were parked right next to where this was taken.)

A view of Creek Street from the bridge. During the prohibition, smugglers would smuggle booze from Canada by canoe and deliver them to underground "pubs" via trapdoors underneath these houses.

The "Creek" at Ketchikan, AK. Creek Street was known as the red-light district during the gold rush.

Creative use of early century contraceptives made of silk. Dolly (who ran the local brothel in Ketchikan, AK) decided they were too valuable to throw away, so she washed them out and made flowers out of them.... (We were glad there was a "do not touch" sign outside the display...)

Some streets are actually staircases in Ketchikan!

The Norwegian Sun at berth in Ketchikan, AK.

Jonathan poses outside of Ketchikan as we sail away.

Two U.S. coast guard ships escort us out of port near Ketchikan, AK.

Alaskan Ferries are called the "highway" of Alaska. Most cities and towns (at least in the panhandle) are not reachable by road.

Beautiful Sunsets greet us as we sail for Juneau, AK.

Day 4: Juneau, AK

Mendenhall Glacier Park in Juneau, AK.

Ice floats in Tracy Arm.

An ice float "threatens" the ship. The captain cancels our cruise into the glacier itself because of excessive amounts of ice floats. Notice how this is just the "tip of the iceberg" - you can see the outline of much bigger chunk of ice just below the surface of the water.

A tranquil scene in Tracy Arm near the Sawyer Glacier.

Day 5: Skagway, AK

Skagway "Kate" and "Al" perform for us...to get us into the gold-digging mood.

Buckets on the gold dredge would dig up en masse the earth underneath lakes. Gold would be sifted out and the tailings of the dredge would spit out the other end.

Buckets of the gold dredge.

The output end of the Gold Dredge.

Karen pans for gold at the Klondike Gold Dredge in Skagway, AK.

A (rather scary looking!) wooden tressel along the White Pass & Yukon Route.

The White Pass and Yukon Route took us up to the international border between Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Flags from left to right: USA, Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon, Canada.

Karen poses in front of the White Pass and Yukon Route train in Skagway, AK.

A 1920s street car (now used as a tour bus) stops in front of a modern day Starbucks coffee.

The White Pass and Yukon Route in Skagway, AK.

We took the White Pass and Yukon Route railway when we got to Skagway. This railway is quite a feat. It served as the backbone transportation route for Alaskan gold-diggers destined for the Yukon. It is one of the largest and steepest narrow-guage railroads ever built, and stretches from Skagway all the way into British Columbia and the Yukon. Today, it again serves as one of the main attractions of Skagway, thus making it the biggest revenue generator in Skagway. Karen poses here on the snow-clearing train.

Karen poses in front of a building in Skagway, AK. Driftwood adorns the entire front face of this building.

Brothels were popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s due to the disproportionate numbers of men present in Alaska. They were there looking for gold. Hrmm.

Nowadays, many of these brothels are now museums. $5 for 15 minutes ...just like in 1898.

Alaska Cruiseship Services: a wonderfully odd place in Skagway amidst all the tourist shops. I was in need of offloading some of the pictures on my CF cards (they were getting full) onto CD. The photo shop on the ship wanted to charge me $14.95 per CD. I promptly decided to wait until we got to shore. But the photo place in Skagway wanted to charge $15.95! Alaska Cruiseship services offered cheap Voice over IP service and Internet/computer services to ships crew at dirt cheap prices. I managed to burn two CDs and use their computers for 45 minutes for the cheap price of $5.00. It pays to shop! :)

Karen enjoying her time at Skagway, AK.

A "postcard" picture of the Norwegian Sun taken at Skagway, AK.

Our steward (Victor) and stewardess (Larissa) left us a beautiful swan on our bed made of towels!

Day 6: Wrangell, AK

Wrangell, AK.

A fishing vessel off the waters in Wrangell, AK.

Petroglyphs in Wrangell, AK.

At the Petroglyph beach in Wrangell, AK.

The incredible view from Petroglyph beach in Wrangell, AK.

Petroglyphs in Wrangell, AK.

An abandoned fishing vessel in Wrangell, AK near the Petroglyph beach.

Day 7: At Sea - heading back to Vancouver

A beautiful sunset in the inside passage as we sailed back from Alaska.

Karen was waiting anxiously for the chocolic buffet... but of course was careful to not eat too much! We met a nice German tourist at this buffet where we got to practice our german.

A bald eagle in ice!

A bald eagle in chocolate

The Norwegian Sun in the Carribean (chocolate style)

Chocolate Norwegian Sun

Early on in the trip, we had to do a lifeboat drill. The captain assures us that there are more than enough life boats for all the passengers on board. Crew members are subject to floating rubber zodiac boats though...

Walking on the promenade deck was a favorite pass time. One mile is 3.5 rounds.

Self portrait (Look in the left corner of the mirror) and fisheye view of the promenade deck

The promenade deck of the Norwegian Sun.

The Internet Café: Karen won a 100-minute plan here...although we really didn't have much use for it since we wanted to stay as far away from computers as we could on our vacation!