Here it is about half an hour before we go across the Street to Chabad of Anchorage for Mincha Kabbalat Shabbat and our first Shabbat meal.
We anchored in Seward Alaska this am and were off the ship by 8:30 am.
We rented a van and thankfully were able to get all our luggage into the van with enough room for us to sit comfortably. We drove the 2 and a half hours to anchorage and checked into our hotel. It is literally next door to Chabad.
We then did our laundry and did our shopping for food for Sunday and Monday. We found out that we are very fortunate that the Chabad rabbi's daughter got married this week here....it was covered on the local news as it is the first chassidic wedding to have ever taken place in Alaska.
So therefore we will not only be dining with Chabad but we will be participating in Sheva brachot with the family.
We met the mechutan from Kiryat Malachi at the supermarket this afternoon.
So it should be a very interesting Shabbat.
Btw, Shabbat ends here at about 11 pm.
Anchorage is a city of 200000 people and looks quite developed and modern. It is our first taste of urban Civilization in a week.
We hope you all had a great Shabbat
We will let you know how our Shabbat was by Sunday or Monday.
All the best
Fran and David
Today thursday is the last full day of the cruise. Tomorrow morning we disembark at about 8 am and we are driving to Anchorage for Shabbat.
Today we stay on the ship....no port stops. Instead the ship sailed last night in the direction of the Hubbard Glacier, a six mile wide glacier which is about 300 feet high. We arrived near the glacier at about 8 am and the captain steered the ship within the legal limit of about one mile away from the glacier.
Because of its sheer size, you thought you were much closer. The real thrill of seeing the glacier is when it "calves" which is when pieces peel away from the glacier and deposit themselves into the icy ocean below. And for this, about 2000 people were lined up on the decks of the ship to watch this phenomena.
The glacier did not disappoint and calved many times; each time there was a sound almost like thunder when the ice fell into the sea, with the accompanying large splash of water.
We stayed there for about an hour and it was cold, probably the only time that we have felt cold all cruise.
After watching the glacier, we went to our room and packed as all luggage has to be outside our room by 11 tonite.
Because we are on the ship all day, they have a series of shows, sales, events etc to keep us occupied. First there was a talent show of the staff of the ship and they were excellent; better than the professional entertainers on board. Then we watched an Iron Chef competition put on by the chefs of the ship. After that, there was a lavish brunch buffet which we could not eat, but it looked great.
We then took a table for all 6 of us and we played a little cards.
We are now In our room waiting to go to dinner at 6 pm. Tonight there will be a gala variety show in the theatre...should be good.
We are still a few hundred miles from Seward, which is where we disembark and pick up our car for the 2-1/2 hour drive to Anchorage.
Overall, this has been a very good trip, a chance to be with close friends and also to see many places that we likely would never have dreamed visiting.
The ship and the accommodations and the service have been outstanding, but it is really the camaraderie that makes it worthwhile.
We will likely post again after our Shabbat in anchorage or perhaps after our 7 hour Sunday cruise thru the Kenai fjords near Anchorage.
We thank you for following us and wish you all a Shabbat shalom.
All the best
Fran and david
Well, today was another excellent day. The weather was magnificent.
We arrived in Skagway, Alaska (population 600) at about 6:30 am. We had a van booked at one of two car rental agencies in town, Avis. We were scheduled to drive north from Skagway, cross from the USA to Canada into British Columbia and then a few mile further into the Yukon. Our destination was Emerald Lake, a pretty emerald colored small lake about 100 Kim's. North of Skagway, about 2/3 of the way to Whitehorse, Yukon. We were told that the scenery was magnificent all along the way.
It seems that the excursion of choice for all the cruise visitors was either the Klondike railway or driving like we decided to do.
Figuring that the single lane Klondike Highway would take an hour and a half each way and then another hour or two to stop for photo opportunities, and based on the fact that we needed to be back on board by 3:45 pm, we decided to try and be on the road by 8:30 am.
Skagway was established during the yukon gold rush, when it was used as the gateway to the Yukon. At one time, at the turn of the 20th century, it was the largest city in Alaska. Today, the city looks like it looked then, a frontier town, with clapboard sidewalks and the traditional western town look. It is catering exclusively to tourists 99% of whom come into town on cruise ships. Today thee were 4 ships in town so it is likely that there were 10000 people in town.
We left town pretty much on schedule and headed out of town on the only road that heads north. About 5 miles north we passed USA customs into Canada and because the area is an avalanche zone, the Canadian customs office is about another 6 miles up the road. All along the way there were scenic pull overs on the side of the road. The combination of clear blue skies, amazing mountains and glacier colored waters (lakes, rivers and waterfalls ) was truly scenic. There were very limited services (cafes, toilets, etc) and there are no gas stations at all between Skagway and Whitehorse, a distance of about 120 miles.
Some of the highlights were Emerald Lake which was an amazing blend of light and dark emerald colors; the Carcross (short for Caribou Crossing) Desert ( a real large expanse of sandy dunes) that is the remains of the bed of a dry glacial lake; and the little town of Carcross where we ate lunch and found COR ice cream.
It was a photographers delight. And the weather could not have been more perfect.
When we returned to town, we had about a half hour before having to board, so we took a short walk thru town. I checked my Internet at the only place in town ( which was being run by an Israeli from Miami who lives here for 5 months a year) that has wifi services.
We reboarded the boat and sat in on a cooking demo by Jason our executive chef. We are now resting before dinner.
Tomorrow, we are on board all day as we pass by the Hubbard Glacier and make our way to Seward which is the gateway to Anchorage where we will be for Shabbat
Hope all are well
Fran and David
Today was a wonderful day. When we got up we had no idea that we were in Juneau as it was so foggy that you could not see five feet in front of you. But by breakfast time the fog was lifting and the sight was spectacular.
Juneau is nestled in the middle of 7 mountains so that wherever you look there is a mountain above you. In between those mountains runs the Inner Passage of the Alaska waterways. The mountains are so packed in together such that there is no roadway that leads out of he area to connect to other parts of the USA or Canadian mainland.
And beside the view being great, the sun was out strong. The locals were thrilled as there are only 50 days or so of sunshine a year here and this year has been particularly dismal. The temperature hit the mid 70s today and there was not a cloud in the sky.
We had planned on walking thru the town in the morning, taking tramway to the top of Mount Roberts at noon and then visit the glacier in the late afternoon. Our plans changed when a booth on the docks in front of the ship offered us an amazing deal on a whale tour and visit to the Mendenhall Glacier. We grabbed the deal and we were off to the glacier.
The glacier is the closest glacier to a city in North America. About 8 miles and 20 minutes driving dropped us off at the glacier. There as a short nature trail to walk where you could see salmon swimming upstream to lay their eggs of a shallow river.
We then saw a mom bear and two cubs in the nearby forest, and then we watched a movie about the history of the glacier.
We then took a short bus ride to the docks and boarded our boat for whale watching. We went quite a ways into the bay and soon saw both Orcas and Humpback whales. The weather was ideal and it was the perfect day for whale watching.
On our return, we went on the tramway to the top of mount Roberts ...the view up there was awesome.
Back in town we dropped into an Internet cafe and downloaded emails and then finally returned o the ship.
Supper tonight was the regular salmon in Saran ...absolutely delicious....we also had mango sorbet and Mango ice cream
After dinner we went to the theatre and watched a comedian/impressionist and he was very good.
It is now 11:15 and we are off to sleep.
Tomorrow we are in Skagway and we drive north into the Yukon
Hope the weather holds for us
All the best
Fran and David
