Promptly at 11:30 am, brother in law Alan picked up us and our 3 months’ tonnage of luggage. Last minute things prevented us from leaving until 20 minutes later than we planned. Then, half way to the airport, we encountered a total road blockage from an accident on Hunt Club Road. We hastily took a long detour, and it paid off. We skidded into the airport with just 35 minutes to flight time! A cooperative Air Canada agent - and the benefit of Elite status baggage check-in - had us at the gate as the final two people aboard, and we were on our way!
Our Calgary friend, Nina Chernichen - who often 
just happens to turn up where we are! - picked us up at the Vancouver airport and took us to the Pan Pacific Hotel downtown, where we met up with her son, had a fun dinner, and got caught up.[Double click on any image to enlarge it]
Sat, Sep 13 Vancouver
Our ship, Diamond Princess, was 
berthed dockside adjacent to our hotel when we woke up, on a 
stunning Vancouver day. We spent the morning in nearby Stanley Park, on a rented bike and jogging, then met Vancouver friend Bruce McLeod for lunch on the sunny Pan Pacific terrace. At 2:30, we and our mountain of luggage headed the 150 yds to the Diamond boarding area. Documents in order? Check. Security? Check. US Immigration? Check. Boarding Pass and room key? Check. We finally embarked on the Diamond 13 months and a few days after making the reservation.
berthed dockside adjacent to our hotel when we woke up, on a 
stunning Vancouver day. We spent the morning in nearby Stanley Park, on a rented bike and jogging, then met Vancouver friend Bruce McLeod for lunch on the sunny Pan Pacific terrace. At 2:30, we and our mountain of luggage headed the 150 yds to the Diamond boarding area. Documents in order? Check. Security? Check. US Immigration? Check. Boarding Pass and room key? Check. We finally embarked on the Diamond 13 months and a few days after making the reservation.
At 6:00 pm, we slipped our berth, gathered speed across Coal Harbour, passed under the Lion’s Gate Bridge, and in the evening light, headed past the dreamy mountain ranges off Horseshoe Bay and glided north to Alaska. 
One of the treats of cruise ships is that you meet wonderful, like-minded, people from all over the globe. And then you sometimes get the pleasure of cruising with them again. Such was the case for Las Vegas friends, Curt and Cindy Cornell, whom we met in Oct 06 on the Grand Princess transatlantic crossing, and visited in Feb 07 in their Nevada home. Because they had been on this ship already for the two preceding weeks, they had a lovely table in the dining room selected for our group of 8 who include other past cruise friends of theirs. They know all the dining staff, and we are certainly receiving the utmost attention and service because of them.
Sun, Sep 14 The Inside Passage
The ship is beautiful and luxurious, with lovely public spaces and gracious lines. We are carrying 2600 passengers and 1100 crew, and ours is a stateroom with twin beds and a balcony, and the room surprisingly holds all of our luggage quite comfortably. Today is a full day at sea, but the weather has turned to the usual coastal fog and mist for this time of the year, so we cannot see a lot. The Inside Passage is a water highway from Vancouver to Alaska that is protected from the open Pacific Ocean by many islands, the largest, of course, being Vancouver Island. The shore is quite close at times as we head up the Georgia Strait, and past the Seymour Narrows into the Johnstone Strait. This is killer whale (orca) and humpback whale territory, and the overcast conditions are ideal for sightings, but we haven’t spotted any yet. Porpoises, yes, and the occasional fishing boat, but no whales. Other than that, only hemlock, spruce and pine trees by the millions.
During the day, the waterway widens, and we head into Queen Charlotte Sound, then past the Queen Charlotte Islands themselves, and the broad and open, glass-like, Hecate Strait. To be sure, the sea conditions are not always this tranquil, but so far it has been grand,. As evening falls, the air cools and the fog closes in densely. Our periodic (and loud) fog horn interrupts the stillness every 3 minutes. It is very ethereal.
Mon, Sep 15 Ketchikan, Alaska
It is uncanny how a 109,000 ton vessel - in the dark of night - can negotiate the coastal islands, and safely come alongside a city dock to drop anchor and tie up without us hearing or feeling it. In any event, we have retuned to rainy Ketchikan, and it is no different than it was on our last trip in 2002. This is the southern part of Alaska that drops down from Alaska proper, and is squeezed between BC and the Pacific. It is a “temperate rainforest”, easily qualifying with 240 inches of rain per year. All the way north along this coast are soaring mountains, and pressed up against them sporadically are towns, villages, and native settlements, all clinging for protection against the sometimes stormy – but not now – north Pacific Ocean.
Ketchikan was the first provisioning stop in Alaska for the Gold Rush pioneers back in 1898. It is not an impressive place, especially in the mist. T-shirt shops and cheap souvenir traps fill the main street, and scraps of paper and cigarette butts litter the sidewalks and curbs. The idea of city zoning is an unknown concept here. and – were it not for the omnipresent Caribbean jewelry stores - there is a sense that this really is the frontier of civilization.
The ship is beautiful and luxurious, with lovely public spaces and gracious lines. We are carrying 2600 passengers and 1100 crew, and ours is a stateroom with twin beds and a balcony, and the room surprisingly holds all of our luggage quite comfortably. Today is a full day at sea, but the weather has turned to the usual coastal fog and mist for this time of the year, so we cannot see a lot. The Inside Passage is a water highway from Vancouver to Alaska that is protected from the open Pacific Ocean by many islands, the largest, of course, being Vancouver Island. The shore is quite close at times as we head up the Georgia Strait, and past the Seymour Narrows into the Johnstone Strait. This is killer whale (orca) and humpback whale territory, and the overcast conditions are ideal for sightings, but we haven’t spotted any yet. Porpoises, yes, and the occasional fishing boat, but no whales. Other than that, only hemlock, spruce and pine trees by the millions.During the day, the waterway widens, and we head into Queen Charlotte Sound, then past the Queen Charlotte Islands themselves, and the broad and open, glass-like, Hecate Strait. To be sure, the sea conditions are not always this tranquil, but so far it has been grand,. As evening falls, the air cools and the fog closes in densely. Our periodic (and loud) fog horn interrupts the stillness every 3 minutes. It is very ethereal.
Mon, Sep 15 Ketchikan, Alaska
It is uncanny how a 109,000 ton vessel - in the dark of night - can negotiate the coastal islands, and safely come alongside a city dock to drop anchor and tie up without us hearing or feeling it. In any event, we have retuned to rainy Ketchikan, and it is no different than it was on our last trip in 2002. This is the southern part of Alaska that drops down from Alaska proper, and is squeezed between BC and the Pacific. It is a “temperate rainforest”, easily qualifying with 240 inches of rain per year. All the way north along this coast are soaring mountains, and pressed up against them sporadically are towns, villages, and native settlements, all clinging for protection against the sometimes stormy – but not now – north Pacific Ocean.
Ketchikan was the first provisioning stop in Alaska for the Gold Rush pioneers back in 1898. It is not an impressive place, especially in the mist. T-shirt shops and cheap souvenir traps fill the main street, and scraps of paper and cigarette butts litter the sidewalks and curbs. The idea of city zoning is an unknown concept here. and – were it not for the omnipresent Caribbean jewelry stores - there is a sense that this really is the frontier of civilization. 
The main town attraction is the Creek Street area, comprised of restored 1890’s Gold Rush era stores and bordellos. One visit per lifetime is really enough for Creek Street, but we went back and were lucky enough to see, in the creek itself, dozens of mature pink salmon doing their spawning dance. Others had recently spawned and were in their death throes, and, as the tide receded, carcasses lay about on the shore, 
waiting to return their nutrients to the habitat and nurture the succeeding generation.Other than that, we walked around town, poking our heads in the odd store, and then returned to the ship well before sailaway in this short port stop.
Tues, Sep 16 Juneau, Alaska
Juneau is the capital of Alaska - and home of Vice-Presidential Republican hopeful Sarah Palin - and a reasonably bustling port city of 30,000. It hosts 1 million cruise passengers per year, and 3 other ships were in with us, disgorging some 8 or 9 thousand consumers onto the streets. We took a local tour bus out to Mendenhall Glacier to see it again. Glaciers are rivers of ice that crawl down mountain passes to the ocean from the main icefields above. The 140 feet of snow that accumulate each winter in the high mountains compresses the residual snow below into ice, and gravity slides the entire mass slowly down the slopes. Mendenhall is some 85 miles long and contains ice that could be thousand years old. At the ice face, sheets of the ice tongue calve off and thunder into the ocean, and float off as translucent blue icebergs in the bay. 
The daytime temperatures along this coast are a reliable (rain or shine) 55 degrees at this time of the year, so it is not too long before the pure water blue colour is oxidized to the usual less-than-pure-water white that we associate with icebergs and snow.In a 5 minute window before boarding our bus to the glacier, Colleen - ever the opportunist - spied a set of lonely (and lovely) birthstone amethyst earrings, and soon they had changed owners.
Back on the ship, we attended a fabulous presentation by 1985 Iditarod champion Libby Riddell, the first woman to win this grueling 1,050 mile dogsled event. Now Colleen is seeking a local tour to learn more about these fascinating dogs and owners who train here year round on glaciers, and in forests. As impressive as this woman’s presentation was, I think Colleen’s motivation is to see these wild and daring dogs that so closely bond with their trainer/owners.Wed, Sep 17 Skagway, Alaska
We are now 940 nautical miles from Vancouver, and find ourselves at the end of a long inland fjord called Lynn Canal, in the village of Skagway (pop.1000). Internet service is down again, this time for geographical reasons. The forecast is for 80% chance of rain, but to everyone’s surprise, the sun starts beaming around noon, and we hustle off the ship and trot the 200 yards to the train station to board the famous White Pass & Yukon Railroad, bound for Fraser, BC (!), 28 miles inland over the coastal mountains and just over the Canadian border. 
This is a very popular attraction, and probably two thousand people pay the $103 to make the trip to the summit (or beyond, like us) during the different daily departures. 
The track follows the trail used by the original stampeders of ’98 to get past the mountains and into gold country. In the 5 years following the initial rush, the United States mint took in more than $10M in bullion, the largest gold rush in the world. From Fraser, BC, we transferred to a coach bus for the return trip. Spectacular countryside and views of hemlocks, spruce and – in their gorgeous fall deciduous colours – the yellows and fading greens of cottontails and alders.Thurs, Sep 18, 2008 Glacier Bay, Alaska
About 100 nautical miles further up the coast, we enter the truly spectacular Glacier National Park. The ship has taken on board 2 Park Rangers to provide commentary as we cruise through this majestic wilderness. When Captain George Vancouver first explored this territory in 1794, he said it was “a sheet of ice as far as the eye could see”. There was no Glacier Bay and its multiple fjords. The mighty glacier itself came right to the ocean’s edge. Today, despite 150 feet of snow falling in the upper reaches of the Fairweather Mountain range, the river of ice 200 feet thick has retreated some 65 miles inland leaving behind a spectacular set of narrow channels, islands, and open water. 
Only a few ships a week are allowed entrance to this area, so it is silent and still. The water is 1000 feet deep in places, and like a mirror as we glided past the forested land. We spotted the odd humpback whale and a few sea otters, and eventually, a few hours later, reached the first of the 4 glaciers we would see. The sun came out for the first time in 4 weeks, according to the Ranger, and we were ¼ mile from the massive ice face of Marjerie Glacier when a major chunk the size of a house suddenly calved off, right in front of us! This was the only major calving the Rangers reported all season! OK by us. This will be the highlight of our Alaska trip. Back we went the 65 miles to the Bay entrance, then headed out of the Inside Passage, and off northwesterly into the somewhat rough Gulf of Alaska. 
