2022 The Wonder of Alaskan Cruise - The Second Time Around

[ZapperZ]

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It took about 45 mins to get to Haines.

Once we arrived, we got on another bus that will take us on a scenic tour of the area. I think we drove along the Chilkat river valley and made several stops along the way.

Our tour guides set up telescopes at each stop so that we can see quite a distance away, specially on the mountains. We saw mountain goats and bald eagle using the scopes.

But up close in the river itself, we saw lots of small fry of pink salmon. These babies will spend about a year in the river before the make their way to the ocean. And in about 4 years time, they'll come back to spawn in the same location.

We stopped for a hike in one of the rain forest. Unfortunately, this was cut short because we were running out of time due to the delay at the beginning of the excursion. Besides, it was already around 2:15 pm and we were all starving and dehydrated.

We stopped by somewhere and had a light lunch and refreshment before we were drove back to the port at Haines to catch the boat back to Skagway.

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[ZapperZ]

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Got on the boat back to Skagway.

At Skagway, we got on the bus to bring us back to the Wonder. There was the option of getting off in Downtown Skagway, but we opted to go back to the ship.

It was a long and tiring day. We ended up chilling on the ship, getting a bit or two (and some ice cream), and just enjoying the wonderful weather.

It was a fun excursion. I got to see mountain goats, which was something I wanted to see. But I think that this was the least engaging excursion that we had during this cruise.

We left Skagway around 8 pm.

Zz.

 

[Tiggerish]

Recap - Day 4

Day 4 was our first port-of-call, which was Skagway. When we were here back in 2018, we did the White Pass Railroad, so we decided to do something different this time. Our excursion was supposed to be a boat ride to Haines, a scenic tour of the surrounding area, and a forest walk.

The weather was perfect when we pulled into Skagway. A couple of other cruise ships had already docked.
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Soon it was time for us to get off the Wonder and meet our transportation to take us to the boat dock to go the Haines.
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Unfortunately, there was a considerable delay in us getting onto the boat. It arrived a bit late, and there was some mechanical issues that they had to take care of. So we were delayed probably between 1/2 hour to 45 mins.

We finally got on our boat. We had a good look at the Wonder as we left Skagway for Haines.
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Looking back as we left Skagway.
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Gorgeous photos in this post and the next one from Haines.

Last time, we did not do the White Pass Railroad, so we are doing it this year.

 

[ZapperZ]

Gorgeous photos in this post and the next one from Haines.

Last time, we did not do the White Pass Railroad, so we are doing it this year.

Hint: if you're going up, sit on the left side of the train. If you are heading down, sit on the right side. Of course, don't do this if you're afraid of heights.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Recap - Day 5

Juneau, the capital of Alaska, was our port-of-call on Day 5.

We arrived at dusk on another clear day.

Behind us at a distance was another cruise ship also coming in to dock.

The excursion we planned for that day was a 6-hour photo safari. We later found out that the company that conducted the tour was called Gastineau Guiding, which was a family/locally-owned business.

We left the Wonder to be picked up by a bus that will take us to the start of our hike though the young forest near Mendenhall Glacier.

Here we have arrived at the the start of our hiking expedition.

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[ZapperZ]

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Our guide, Sophia, was terrific. She was very patient as she guided us on the hike. She's also an expert photographer and was giving us basic lessons on how to snap photos of various scenes using both fancy DSLR cameras and also phone cameras. She gave us tricks and features that we could use with phone cameras to improve not only the quality of the photos, but also the composition.

So here we were starting our hike through the forest on a gorgeous day.

The next few photos, you'll get to see if I learned anything from Sophia! These are all various shots I took during the hike while trying to pay attention to the composition and how to get the best quality. The photos were taken using an iPhone and also a Nikon point-and-shoot camera that has various settings.

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[ZapperZ]

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We saw several markers to denote the location of the Mendenhall glacier during various times. Basically the entire forest that we were hiking was covered by the glacier at some point.

We finally got out of the forest right above and near the visitor center. We got our first glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier. I was here back in 2018, but I didn't see it from this vantage point, so it was nice to see it from a slightly different perspective.

More practice of taking pictures, this time on one of the floating bits.

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[ZapperZ]

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Sophia guided us to our waiting bus that took us to a harbor where our photo safari continues on the water in a boat that was made to be photographer-friendly.

Soon we were on the water. There were other tour boats, but our captain (Captain Jason, I think) knew just where to go to get us views of whales.

Did we see whales? Oh good lord we sure did! I lost track how many whales we saw, most of them from a distance. There were at least 6 sightings. But ONE encounter was very close. I estimate that we were about 50 yards away from a humpback whale.

Rather than show you photos, I'll show you a video that I edited when I got this closest encounter with a humpback whale. It was breathtaking!



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[ZapperZ]

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Needless to say, we had a whale of a time. It was such a worthwhile excursion!

Tired but exhilarated after a long day, we got back to The Wonder. We cleaned up, grabbed a bit to eat, and settled in for the evening. We managed to get photos with Mickey and Minnie on the ship.

After dinner, we had some energy left to join in the British Music Trivia game. It was lucky that we did, because we won!!!

It was a fun end to an amazing Day 5 of our excursion.

Zz.