Haines, AK

Happy 27th Birthday, Chris!

Today we arrived in Haines, Alaska around 10:00 am. It was very foggy – the ship was blowing the fog horn since 3 am about every minute! This picture is the fog -- only the mountain top shows!

We had signed up for the White Pass & Yukon Route train trip out of Skagway. After a 45 minute ferry ride from the ship to Skagway we boarded the train. Construction began on the tracks in 1989. The narrow gauge railroad climbs from sea level in Skagway to almost 3,000 feet at the Summit in just 20 miles and features steep grades of almost 3.9%. There are 2 tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles (which Bob loved!). Thirty five thousand men worked on the construction of the railroad – some only for a day. It was completed in 1900. For all the engineers reading this – The White Pass & Yukon Route was designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994. This is an honor shared with other world civil engineering marvels such as the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and the Panama Canal.





The views were wonderful! We traveled up to White Pass where the engines changed ends of the train, we flipped the seats over, and headed back down the hill. We had a couple hours to check out Skagway.

The Arctic Brotherhood Hall is perhaps the most photographed building in Alaska. (Of course, we took a photo, too!) Lodge members collected over 8,800 driftwood sticks on the shores of Skagway Bay and nailed them to the front wall!

Rotary Snowplow No. 1 was built in 1898. It helped the White Pass & Yukon route railroad clear heavy winter snow up to 12 feet from their tracks. It was retired in 1965.

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Ketchikan, AK and Shipboard Life

We were up at 7:00 am ready for a day in Ketchikan, Alaska. After a stop at the Visitors Bureau to pick up a Walking Tour map we headed off to see the sights. The salmon were “running” upstream to spawn – what a sight!



We walked up Ketchikan Creek past the salmon ladder to the Totem Heritage Center. Ketchikan has the largest number of totems in the world. It was fun to see them and to read about what the different figures mean. We walked down Creek Street – the area became a red-light district in 1903, when the City Council ordered bordellos to relocate across the creek from the town site. More than 30 bawdy houses, most with one or two “working girls”, lined the creek over the years.




Otters were sunning in the creek and bald eagles were sitting in the trees overhead. What a sight! We headed up “Married Men’s Trail” to the Lodge for a great view of the harbor.




Ketchikan has a tunnel where you can either go thru the tunnel, around the tunnel or on top of the tunnel! We chose to walk around it on the water side to visit the famous Burger Queen. Much to our disappointment, it wasn’t open on Sundays! So we took some pictures and headed back thru the tunnel and back to the ship.

I guess I should share some of the life on the ship with you. We are on the Holland American Ryndam. Our cabin is on Deck 6 with 2 decks below us of cabins. The dining room and theater are on Deck 7 & 8. More cabins on Decks 9 & 10 with the Lido Deck 11. Here is a photo of our cabin. It is much larger than any we have previously been in. It might look like we have a window to the outside, but we don’t! We are in one of the inside cabins. We have decided that we don’t spend much time in our cabin so why pay the extra for a window? We get up around 7 am. Most days we are already at the pier. We head up to Lido for breakfast. Lido has the buffet where you can have anything from cold cereal to eggs made your way! Also available: fresh fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice (and about 5 other kinds of juice not fresh squeezed!), eggs, toast, French toast, pancakes, omelets, sausage, bacon, hash browns, oatmeal, cream of wheat, do you need to hear more?? After breakfast, if we are in port, we head off the ship to explore for the day. If we are walking around the port we come back on ship around noon or early afternoon for lunch. Yes, more food! We also eat lunch up on Lido where you have Asian, Chinese, pizza, hamburgers, taco bar, salad bar, and many, many more options! I try to have a chicken or turkey wrap. There is a dessert bar with waffle ice cream cones! So far I have had watermelon sorbet, raspberry sherbet, butter pecan and vanilla with fudge! Afternoons are spent exploring towns or relaxing on the ship. Around 6:00 pm we head to the dining room for supper. We have open seating which means we can eat from 5:15 to 9:00 and sit with different people each night. We usually head to the theater entertainment which starts at 10:00 pm. It ranges from the dancers and singers, a juggler/piano player (he was great!), and comedians. One night at 11 pm the Filipino crew members did a show! Several sang and they had their native dances. We are headed for bed around 11:00 without heading to the midnight buffet which has included any kind of chocolate you can imagine!

Our cabin - 364

Day at Sea

Today was a “Day at Sea”. We enjoyed relaxing on the deck and watching the scenery pass by. We spotted a couple whales! Hard to get pictures of them. You would see their water spout and then a tail! Great time sitting on the deck watching for them!

To Canada and Beyond!

We had a relaxing night with Jack and Paula. On Friday morning we headed to Vancouver about 8 am. We had no traffic and made it thru the border control (in fact, we were the only car going across the border!) We arrived in Vancouver and located the pier where our ship was waiting! We had donuts at Tim Horton’s then Jack and Paula transported our bags to the pier.

We boarded soon after 11:00 am and began to explore the ship. It isn’t as big as some that we have been on. Our cabin is much larger than any we have been in! We can both stand up and move around at one time!

We had our safety drill and then the ship headed off about 5 pm.

This is also our first cruise where we have “open seating” for the evening meal. We can enter the dining room anytime between 6 pm and 9 pm and will be seated with different people each night. We have enjoyed meeting new people each night.

Arrived in Seattle

Bob and I spent yesterday running errands in the rain and packing! We got to bed at 11 pm only to be awoken at 1 am to the weather radio going off! Flash flooding was happening in Washington County! Back to sleep after checking and finding a dry basement only to have the alarm go off at 4:45 am!

We finished packing and Joe and Janet came to pick us up for our trip to the Moline airport. We arrived soon after 7. When we checked in we were told our plane from Denver to Seattle had been "suspended". So received only boarding passes for the Moline to Denver leg and successfully made it thru security. Off to went to sit and wait. Boarded the plane on time and arrived in Denver 15 minutes early. Stopped at the desk to ask about our "suspended" flight. The lady was confused as to why we were told that as the plane was still scheduled and it was on time! YIPEE! Off to wait for 2 hours.

We boarded the plane and arrived in Seattle 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Mt Rainier was visible as the plane taxied in. Not bad for a suspended plane! Our 2 checked bags arrived. Jack and Paula met us at the terminal and off we went.

First stop was for food at a Mexican restaurant. The food was great and plentiful!

We are now at Jack and Paula's getting a lesson on Blogging 101. I will try to get on to the internet as often as possible on our trip to update you on where we are and what we are doing.

Our Itinerary

Planes from Moline to Seattle

Thurs. Aug. 27
Depart Moline 8:34 am United Flight 7589
Arrive Denver 9:44 am

Depart Denver 11:45 am United Flight 339
Arrive Seattle/Tacoma 1:35 pm

Alaska Cruise – Holland America Ms Ryndam

Fri. Aug. 28 Depart Vancouver
Sat. Aug. 29 At Sea
Sun. Aug. 30 Ketchikan, Alaska 7:00 am – 3:00 PM
Mon. Aug. 31 Haines, Alaska 10:00 am – 11:00 pm
Tues. Sept. 1 Juneau, Alaska 7:00 am – 6:00 pm
Wed. Sept. 2 Sitka, Alaska 7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Thurs. Sept. 3 Hubbard Glacier Cruising 7:00 am – 11:00 am
Fri. Sept. 4 Seward (Anchorage), Alaska 6:00 am

Alaska Tour – John Hall Tours

Sat. Sept. 5 Denali National Park
Sun. Sept. 6 Denali National Park & Fairbanks
Mon. Sept. 7 Fairbanks, Alaska
Tues. Sept. 8 Alaska Highway & Tok
Wed. Sept. 9 Whitehorse, Canada
Thurs. Sept. 10 Muncho Lake, Canada
Fri. Sept. 11 Fort Nelson, Canada
Sat. Sept.12 Grande Prairie
Sun. Sept. 13 Jasper, Canada
Mon. Sept. 14 Banff National Park, Canada
Tues. Sept. 15 Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada
Wed. Sept. 16 Leavenworth, Washington
Thurs. Sept. 17 Seattle
Fri. Sept. 18 Head to Relatives

Visit Relatives in Seattle Area

Fri. Sept 18 – Sun. Sept. 27

Panama Canal Cruise – Holland America Line Westerdam

Sun. Sept. 27 Leave Seattle, Washington
Mon. Sept. 28 At Sea
Tues. Sept. 29 At Sea
Wed. Sept. 30 San Diego, California 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thurs. Oct. 1 At Sea
Fri. Oct. 2 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sat. Oct. 3 At Sea
Sun. Oct. 4 Acapulco, Mexico 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Mon. Oct. 5 Huatulco, Mexico 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
Tues. Oct. 6 Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Wed. Oct. 7 Corinto, Nicaragua 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thurs. Oct. 8 Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Fri. Oct. 9 At Sea
Sat. Oct. 10 Enter Panama Canal Balboa
Exit Panama Canal Cristobal
Sun. Oct. 11 San Blas Islands, Panama 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Mon. Oct. 12 Santa Marta, Colombia 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Tues. Oct. 13 Oranjestad, Aruba 9:00 am – 11:59 pm
Wed. Oct. 14 At Sea
Thurs. Oct. 15 Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
Fri. Oct. 16 At Sea
Sat. Oct. 17 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sun. Oct. 18 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 7:00 am

Planes from Ft. Lauderdale to Raleigh

Sun. Oct. 18
Depart Ft Lauderdale 2:15 pm Delta Flight 2042
Arrive Atlanta 4:15 pm

Depart Atlanta 6:55 pm Delta Flight 1444
Arrive Raleigh 8:16 pm

Planes from Raleigh to Tampa

Sat. Oct. 24
Depart Raleigh 10:55 am Delta Flight 1999
Arrive Atlanta 12:23 pm

Depart Atlanta 1:45 pm Delta Flight 2065
Arrive Tampa 3:11 pm

Sat. Oct. 24 Howard Johnson Plaza, Downtown Tampa

Western Caribbean with Bauer Family Carnival Legend

Sun. Oct. 25 Leave Tampa, Florida 4:00 pm
Mon. Oct. 26 At Sea
Tues. Oct. 27 Grand Cayman 7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Wed. Oct. 28 Cozumel, Mexico 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Thurs. Oct. 29 Belize 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Fri. Oct 30 Isla Roatan, Honduras 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Sat. Oct. 31 At Sea
Sun. Nov. 1 Tampa 8:00 am

Planes from Tampa to Moline

Sun. Nov. 1
Depart Tampa 1:00 pm Delta Flight 2066
Arrive Atlanta 2:34 pm

Depart Atlanta 4:00 pm Delta Flight 5470
Arrive Moline 4:59 pm