Author Archives: watsons

Ketchikan is a city on Revillagigedo Island (that’s a fun name to try and say – Rah-villa-gi-gay-doh) at the southernmost entrance to Alaska’s Inside Passage. Only accessible by sea and air Ketchikan (much easier to pronounce) is one of the rainiest … Continued

Sitka is nestled at the foot of glacial carved mountains facing the Pacific Ocean on Baranof Island and lies at the heart of the largest temperate rain forest in the world, the Tongass National Forest.   The current name Sitka (derived from Sheet’ká, … Continued

May 14th and we were back out in the Gulf of Alaska for a sea day before arriving in Glacier Bay, over 500 nautical miles to the south. It was an overcast and cloudy day. The EXC presentation, “Ancestral Memories, … Continued

We had another sea day between Anchorage and our next port, Valdez. It is hard to wrap your head around just how immense Alaska is. Although Anchorage and Valdez don’t look that far apart on the chart, even driving inland … Continued

May 11 Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska, larger than the smallest state, Rhode Island, with a population of of 288,189 which is 40% of Alaska’s total population. The phrase “urban and wild” is used to describe Anchorage because it is … Continued

On most Alaskan cruises, the sailing is done in the protected waters of the Inside Passage from either Seattle or Vancouver north to Skagway for about seven days. This southeastern “panhandle” area of Alaska is an area roughly 500 miles long … Continued

Evidently, there are a LOT of people who go on a LOT of cruises. We only met two other couples who were first timers like us; most of the other people onboard had been on 5 – 40 cruises, many … Continued