Archive for "Travel"
Victoria and then Back to Seattle
Posted on August 11, 2025 by Ching under Travel.
I know. I can’t believe I’m still posting about our Alaska cruise a month later. I promise this is the last installment. I just couldn’t fit everything into a single post and so here we are, five weeks later, still talking about our trip.
Victoria, British Columbia was our final port before returning to Seattle. It wasn’t really a sight-seeing port because we were only docked there for three hours, and we didn’t even get there until 8 PM. There were excursions offered to the Butchart Gardens but, after considering the time it takes to get there, you really would only have 15-20 minutes to explore the gardens before they closed for the day. We didn’t think it would be worth it so Brian and I just opted to do our own exploring. I saw on the map that Fishermans Wharf was only a 15-minute walk from the port so we did that instead.
We thought about not even getting off the ship, which is what my mom and dad did. They just stayed on a the ship and had a nice dinner. We wanted to get off the ship to get our passports stamped but they don’t even do that. I don’t think they even looked at our passport on our way back. At least we got a stamp from the Yukon Suspension Bridge when we were in Skagway. We were really hoping for some more passport stamps, though.
So we got off the ship and walked over to Fishermans Wharf. It’s not a bad walk but it got pretty chilly as the sun set. Neither of us were dressed for the cool weather because the forecast was 73 degrees, but that was the high. We were ding dongs in not taking into account we would be there in the evening and we failed to consider that the temperature would drop significantly once the sun was gone.
We got there just as shops were closing.
The house boats were really cool though.
The water taxis also looked cool. I wish we had ridden in it. I don’t even care where it went. It would have been fun just to ride.
We wanted to try this Mexican seafood place and this crab shack but both were closing up already. Plus, it was getting colder and colder. So, after poking around the wharf and snapping a few pics, we decided it was time to walk back.
It seemed kind of silly to only stop somewhere for three hours so Brian and I looked into this. Apparently, there is a US law called the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) that requires foreign-flagged ships traveling between US ports to make a stop in a foreign port. For cruises from Seattle, Victoria is a convenient pit stop to meet this requirement.
It’s super close to Seattle also. After leaving Victoria around midnight, we were back in Seattle by morning for debarkation. Debarkation was pretty smooth and we were off the ship in no time. I feel like waiting for the shuttle to our hotel took longer than actually getting off the ship.
Okay, so I lied. I probably will have one more post because I want to tell you about this really good restaurant close to our hotel that we ate dinner at the night before flying home. So come back for that post.
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Ketchikan, Alaska
Posted on August 4, 2025 by Ching under Travel.
View of Ketchikan from our cabin balcony.
First stop – coffee.
Then shopping.
Then sightseeing.
One of my favorite parts was finding the bar, which Jay couldn’t even remember the name of the bar at first, where Jay had left a sticker on a previous trip years ago. We found it just by them remembering its location. It turned out to be Totem Bar. He left a few more stickers there and other spots in Ketchikan. It’ll be fun doing a little scavenger hunt and looking for his stickers on future trips.
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Juneau, Alaska
Posted on July 26, 2025 by Ching under Travel.
We didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Juneau but we got the experience of a lifetime with our helicopter and dog-sledding tour (see video above for highlights).
We started the day with a hearty breakfast from the dining room.
We did a little bit of sight-seeing off our cabin balcony before heading off the ship.
Our group actually went on a few different excursions at this port. Most of our group, including mom and dad, went on a whale-watching excursion with Jay and Becca. The Culvers went on a helicopter tour and glacier walk on Mendenhall Glacier. Brian’s parents and Brian and I went on a helicopter tour and dog-sledding adventure. We all had to wait in the same area for our tour guides, though.
Hanging out with the Culvers (Sandy and Lorin), while waiting for our respective helicopter tours… Theirs was through Temsco Helicopters and ours was through NorthStar Trekking.
You basically just look for one of these guys when you get off the ship in order to find your transport for your excursion.
We followed him to the bus and, after a short 10-minute ride, we arrived at NorthStar. Most of the tour employees/guides were practically kids. Here’s the guy who gave us the safety briefing…
Here’s our cute helicopter pilot…
They crammed 6 of us (7 if you count our pilot) into a tiny helicopter. You forget how cramped you feel while looking at the amazing views, though. I’m not even going to bother posting pictures we took from the helicopter on here because the pictures just do not do the landscapes any justice.
Here are a couple of pictures of Brian as we were getting ready to hop on the sleds.
Here’s a picture of us with Redman, our guide.
It was a great experience overall, despite our sled crashing. The sled in front of us was holding Brian’s parents and Redman and then they attached another sled with a seat, which is where I was, and then Brian standing behind me. I guess Redman couldn’t counter-balance Brian’s parents (both seated on the sled with him standing behind them) so their sled ended up toppling over. Thankfully, no one was hurt. We ended up re-configuring with me in the front sled and Brian’s dad in the back sled with Brian before continuing and it was better after that.
Brian tried to get GoPro footage of the experience but the GoPro was acting up. We didn’t get much of the excursion. But it’s all in my brain so I’ll remember it forever. What an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience!
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Skagway, Alaska and Fraser, Canada
Posted on July 21, 2025 by Ching under Travel.
Skagway, Alaska was our first “actual” port of the cruise and it is the stop where we spent the most amount of time. The rest of our stops were brief compared to our stop in Skagway where we had about 12 hours.
We arrived early in the morning and so we had plenty of time to explore before our noon train excursion. As you all know, Brian can’t function without having coffee first so that was the first order of business. We decided to go for something local and hit Glacial Coffeehouse.
The line was long but totally worth it.
I can’t speak for Brian who always just gets plain black coffee, but my honey bear latte was delicious. I hadn’t been drinking coffee on the ship so this was my first coffee in several days.
We ran into mom and dad while poking around town.
Funny thing. As prepared as we were for this trip, we still managed to forget something at home. Brian rolled and prepped his belt but forgot to actually put it in his suitcase. So he ended up having to buy himself a belt in Skagway. We tried to find one in one of the ship’s many gift shops but had no luck. I guess they figured, after eating all of the food on the ship, you won’t need one and so, despite selling everything that you can imagine under the sun, they did not stock any belts. Anyway, Brian still needed one and, thus, we bought one for him in Skagway.
We had plenty of time to run our stuff back to the ship before our train excursion. Met up with Jay and Becca, who did a bit of souvenir shopping as well, on our way back to the ship.
Our train excursion started with a bus tour, with plenty of stops for photos, and about 45 minutes at the Yukon Suspension Bridge, before boarding the rain in Fraser. Here’s a highlight video of the excursion.
Jay and Becca were smart and grabbed a couple of to-go burritos from the taco and burrito station on the ship.
One of the photo stops was the iconic “Welcome to Alaska” sign at the US-Canada border. Our tour bus driver Rose did a great job of taking photos for everyone.
We also had a long stop at the Yukon Suspension Bridge Park.
Train selfie with Jay (topmost) and the Culvers (Lorin and Sandy).
Brian bought a 125th anniversary souvenir ballcap that you can only get on the train. I would have got myself one too but I figured I could just borrow his. Plus, I prefer visors.
Brian tried to get a timelapse of our scenic train ride but we were actually seated on the wrong side of the train. If you are coming from Skagway to Fraser, you want to sit on the left side of the train for better views. If you are coming from Fraser to Skagway (like we were), then you want to sit on the right side of the train. I had read something about this on the Facebook groups. Someone said to sit on the left but I forgot to take into account which direction the train was going so I’m thinking they boarded in Skagway. It makes a difference! Anyway, by the time I figured it out, all the seats on the right side of the train were already spoken for. Thankfully, the train windows are huge — pretty much the entire side of the train consists of windows — so you can enjoy the beautiful sights no matter where you are sitting. Just better if you’re on the correct side for taking pictures and videos though so people aren’t in the way.
There are several stops along the route where hikers can hop on the train. This was one of those stops. The sign has the schedule of when to anticipate pick up times so you can plan your hike accordingly.
I really enjoyed the train ride. There were waterfalls everywhere you looked. Water was just running down the side of the mountain in several places from the snow tops melting. The landscapes are so beautiful. I can understand why people want to live there despite the cold weather. I could wake up to these views everyday and it wouldn’t get old.
I’ll be posting about Juneau next. Stay tuned!
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Endicott Arm Fjord
Posted on July 18, 2025 by Ching under Travel.
We were actually supposed to sail through Tracy Arm Fjord but for safety reasons got re-routed to Endicott Arm Fjord. I have read that Tracy Arm is more scenic but is often blocked with huge icebergs early in the cruising season; thus, cruise ships often have to switch to Endicott Arm Fjord, which is much more accessible.
Not having been to Tracy Arm Fjord before, I don’t know that we could really tell the difference. Perhaps we will do this cruise again in a few years but go later in the season to make sure that we get so see Tracy Arm. I have heard that you get to see different sights and animals depending on the time of year so we had planned to go back at a different time, anyway. Now that we have experienced a late-June to July sailing, I think we want to do a September one next time. Maybe we will even get lucky and get to see the aurora borealis.
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