Alaska Cruisin'

Chief Johnson Totem pole near Creek Street in Ketchikan

At this time last week, I was feeling green from seasickness. We were navigating through a sea storm just outside of Sitka, Alaska, and my insides just didn't know how to deal with feeling as though they were in a tumble dryer. We arrived safely in Ketchikan the following morning, but when I got off the boat and put my feet on solid land, my body could not accept that the ground beneath me wasn't still moving. Everything I looked at wavered a little and my brain and belly continued trying to steady themselves against going wobbly. Weird, but awesome: it was like absolutely nothing else I've ever experienced.  Pretty much like the rest of the cruise.

As you've probably guessed, I was on an "inside passage" cruise through southeast Alaska.  We had to skip Sitka (and gain a day at sea) due to the storm, but we got a full day in Juneau, a morning in Ketchikan (wayy more than enough, IMHO), and a full day in Victoria, BC.

Glacier Bay

I've been lucky enough to see a pretty decent portion of the world, but I've never seen anything like the southeastern Alaska landscape: remote-ish islands bearing more trees and bears than people, and glaciers that were as blue as a robin's egg. Except for my Trans-Mongolian trek back in '07, Glacier Bay National Park was nearing on as remote as I've ever been.

Let me backtrack a little: at the end of July, my husband and I sat inside a travel agency, a quarter in my hand. Heads: Alaska; tails: Belize. We got heads, and the travel agent laughed as we told him to go ahead and get us on a cruise ship. (Yes, for real.) I was excited to go on a cruise, but also had no freakin' idea what it was like to be on one. If you've never been on one, you may share some of the same questions I had just two weeks ago:

1. Is the food actually good...and free? - YES GOOD FREE FOOD AND ICE CREAM ALL THE TIME NOM NOM NOM. You can pay to go to the boat's specialty restaurants (usually $10-25 a person for three to four courses), but why bother when there's a free buffet with like 100 kinds of free dessert?  The only bad "food" we had was the crap coffee in every city we stopped in. (Seriously, southeast Alaska, what is with this coffee?)

Life-sized chess by the pool! 

2. What the hell do you do during days at sea? - The ship has a lot more to do than I expected. Basically, it's a moving casino/resort: Hair salon, nail salon, spa, pool, hot tub, activities for every hour, worship services, shopping arcade, fitness center, all kinds of team trivia games throughout the day, ICE CREAM, library, casino, bars, magic shows, giant chess board...the list goes on and on. I expected to do a lot of napping during the days at sea, but I ended up attending so many activities (like how to make marzipan flowers, bingo, and Indonesian tea ceremonies) that I really didn't "rest up" as much as I expected.

No hot dog legs on the beach pic for us!

3. Is the room with the view worth the extra $$? - We did not splurge on the room with a view. We got an interior cabin, which allowed for wonderful, pitch-black, silent sleep (well, except for the stormy sea night), and forced us to get out of the room every day to hang out on the deck or sip tea and read up in the library with the giant windows. I snuck a peek into a balcony room and while it was a really nice room, I'm glad I was forced out of my room to spend some time enjoying scenery with other friendly folks.

Mendenhall Glacier in its (receding) glory

4. Are the shore excursions worth it? - Again, we did not splurge on shore excursions. My husband and I fancy ourselves as off-the-beaten-track folks, and we figured we'd find some great stuff to do without the crowds. In Juneau, we took the rewarding 3-mile East Glacier loop to find waterfalls, see Mendenhall Glacier from above, and enjoy the Tongass National Park scenery.  We topped it off with Pel'meni dumplings then Alaska Brewing Co. beer at the Red Dog Saloon. That was totally worth missing other excursions for.  In Ketchikan, we followed the (poorly drawn) visitor's center map to see the major sights of the town, and we were a bit disappointed (especially after our great Juneau hike).  I'm glad I can say I saw Ketchikan, but I'm thinking that the $150 Misty Fjords excursion outside town would probably have been worth the money--especially since we went after salmon season, and most of the salmon left in the Creek were belly-up.  Victoria, BC is best seen on foot during the first visit: we got to visit local brewpubs (Canoe Pub is worth a visit!), find delicious poutine after randomly turning down a side street, and pay a visit to the only (tiny) Chinese temple that was recently rebuilt after a major fire. There are so many little gems you can find in Victoria if you bring just a sense of curiosity and a willingness for a long, long walk.

Victoria's Parliament Building is just as amazing as the postcards make it out to be.

We talked with folks who left the boat at ports of call just to try a local meal, then came right back on to nap, read, or enjoy a massage at the spa while the boat was mostly empty and quiet. That was the best part about this cruise: No judgement. Do what you want, when you want, and you choose whether to be left alone or to make friends.

Though I'm by no means a seasoned travel or food critic, I would like to mention the small adventures that made the trip more memorable than the glaciers and orcas alone would have made it:

This is what delicious looks like. 

- Pel'Meni restaurant in Juneau. Picture this: a tiny restaurant shadowed behind a large, famous waterfront Alaskan seafood restaurant. Bright orange walls, flyers advertising local happenings plastered on the side wall, and a back wall with a built-in shelf full of a vinyl collection that would make even Rob Fleming (of High Fidelity) jealous. The sounds of Radiohead's Paranoid Android from scratchy vinyl greets you at the door, along with a young teen male behind the counter, with massive pots of boiling water on a commercial-sized stove behind him. Sounds hipster-ish, but it carried the kind of vibe where I might be able to curl up at the corner table with a book and stay all afternoon. I chose this place because it was a kind of food not easily found at home or on the ship, and I was hankering for something new: Russian homemade thumb-sized dumplings covered in curry powder, butter, cilantro, and Sriracha sauce, plus sour cream on the side. For $6 I received a styrofoam container full of dumplings (more than enough for one person - can feed two if this is just a light lunch) with a slice of bread. This food wasn't a culinary explosion that blew my mind, but it was comfort food at its finest. I ate way more than I should have and left with a full belly and my soul feeling warm. I highly recommend this place if you find yourself in Juneau and want to try something different and filling...soooo filling.


- Parnassus Books in Ketchikan. This bookstore was quiet, reflective, and carried just the right amount of kitsch with their real items. I bought most of my souvenirs here: children's books featuring Native Alaskan legends and art, postcards created by local artists, and temporary tattoos featuring totem pole art. I splurged on a scarf with a Tlingit tribe's Chilkat weaving style for myself, and my husband bought himself a ceramic travel mug with a similar design. The woman at the counter (perhaps the owner?) patiently provided advice to our touristy questions, called several other gift shops in the area to see if they had another hard-to-find scarf I was also interested in (she found a store that carried it!), and chatted with us for nearly 45 minutes on Alaskan history, her move to Alaska, and her daughter's amazing road trip from Anchorage to Washington, DC for a job with local politicians. It's hard to find such genuine people in a tourist-trap area. If I find myself back in Ketchikan, I'm going back to this bookstore.

- Stink Meat and Cheese in Tacoma, WA. This wasn't part of the cruise, but the food here was so damn good that I have to mention it. We stopped in Tacoma for a day after the cruise to attend a friend's wedding (congrats, again!). This sandwich stop had 5 stars on Yelp! so I figured it was worth a visit. Oh my god, was it worth the visit.  It may be worth going to Tacoma just for a sandwich here. Just look at the menu online and swoon - I don't even need to describe it because the menu speaks for itself. The service was friendly and the portions were reasonable for the price. Seriously: visit this place if you're in Tacoma.

There's honestly nothing like a sunset at sea, especially after a cold, grey, rainy day.