Travels with the Arctic Blondes 2019 - Alaskan Cruise Adventure

Port 5 on our journey is Juneau. Juneau has been the capital of Alaska since 1906.  The area was a favourite fishing ground for the local natives and they had a village and burying ground here.  The first European to see the Juneau area is recorded as Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during George Vancouver’s 1791–95 expedition. He and his party explored the region in July–August 1794.  In the 21st century it is known as Indian Point. They annually harvest herring during the spawning season, and celebrate this bounty.  On October 18, 1880, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris marked a 160-acre town site where soon a mining camp sprang up. Within a year, so many miners had arrived that the camp became a village, albeit made up mostly of tents and shacks rather than substantial buildings. It was the first European American settlement founded in this territory after the United States purchased Alaska. The village was first known as Rockwell, then Harrisburg (af...

Our 4th port of call is Icy Strait Point. Icy Strait Point is a privately-owned tourist destination just outside the small village of Hoonah, Alaska, population of about 800. It is owned by the local Tlingit people and is located on Chichagof Island. Icy Strait Point was first opened for cruise ships in 2004.  The site includes the 1930s Hoonah Packing Company facility, now converted into a museum, restaurant, and shops. At the dock, traditionally garbed presenters offer a look at Huna Tlingit culture, and an indoor theatrical production along the same lines is also offered. All shops located there are owned by Alaskans. The local town of Hoonah is a mile's walk away. this is what our first look at the day looked like - our luck is holding weatherwise          Docked at Icy Strait Point  Old cannery building converted to museum, shops and restaurants   old dock, new dock  boats coming and going on t...

Arrrrgh!!  Woke up at 5:30 AM, way too early for me! Decided to peek out the window to see what there was to see.  Wow!! Made waking up early not a bad thing.  This is what I saw.   Stunning – we were travelling up a narrow channel, heading toward our stop for the day Skagway.  This is the northernmost point of our trip. Passing by Haines, Alaska Today, for the first time, we have company in port, the 700 passenger Seven Seas Mariner.  Our weather is holding – the temperature is supposed to be about 60 plus, no rain in sight and no wind.    We could not ask for more.  In 1900, Skagway was incorporated as the first city in the Alaska Territory. One prominent citizen of Skagway, and one might argue, a founding father,  was William "Billy" Moore, a former steamboat captain. As a member of an 1887 boundary survey expedition, he had made the first recorded investigation of the pass over the  ...