Alaska—The Last Frontier

On Monday, August 16 Jen and I started our 7 day adventure to explore southeast Alaska.

We boarded the Serenade of the Seas.

This is a medium size cruise ship that can accommodate 2500 passengers. Due to COVID we left port with about 900 guests. Besides having to test negative, we had to wear a contact tracer and purple wrist band to confirm our vaccination.

Masks were mandatory, only four persons permitted on elevators and hand sanitizer dispensers were everywhere.

The ship was very comfortable. It was strange how empty it felt. The meals were more than ample and very tasty. ( we sampled a lot….) We spent a good deal of time in the coffee shop enjoying cappuccinos and black tea lattes.

After almost two days at sea we reached Juneau, the whale “heaven” of the world.

We took a whale watching and glacier tour. This allowed us to get a look at the town and surrounding area. It looked a lot like western PA mountain towns except all the trees were pines. The houses seemed “weather worn” and discarded vehicles present.

Of course we don’t have waterfalls running down our little mountains. Nor do we have glaciers. In the Juneau area there are about 37 glaciers. The silt and minerals that are constantly flowing into the waterways provide the right environment for salmon to thrive. The abundant of other smaller fish in the inland passage draw the northern migration of whales to Alaska. The whales eat 23 hours/day—little fish: no salmon. They gain about 7 pounds every hour. Most of them leave for breeding in Hawaii and places south as winter approaches. They don’t eat until they get back to Alaska.

We saw three adult whales and one baby.