Alaska Part 6: Ketchikan and cruise to Vancouver

(You do not have to view these in order, but if you would like to: Under Blog Archive to the right, click on the black triangle to the left of  October and July, 2014, to get the first 3 posts [Yes, I know, it took me way too long to get these done] and click on the appropriate post to peruse). 
Ketchikan was the last stop on our cruise. It is about 150 miles SE of Juneau, has a population of just over 8,000 and appears to to the last town down the panhandle of Alaska before you get into Canada.
We didn't do much; just wandered around for a couple of hours, had lunch and went back to the ship.
The last day of the cruise was at sea.  It is about 550 miles to Vancouver from Ketchikan.  As you will see below, there was a little action on the high seas. Our ship received a distress signal and had to back track to help.  A crew member on a fishing boat apparently had a heart attack and needed immediate medical attention.  It took about a half hour to reach them.  Once there, we sent a medical team to the fishing boat.  A short time later, the Canadian Coast Guard came and airlifted the crew member to shore.
We didn't have a chance to stay in Vancouver.  We had just enough time to get to the airport for our flight home. It was a good cruise !!

A glacier on the mainland after leaving Juneau.

The narrow inlet were Ketchukan is located (coming up on the left). 

Main downtown area.

Just north of downtown.

A small creek running through part of the downtown area. 

Back to sea: next stop is Vancouver. 

The only whales we got to see.  Have no idea what kind they are.

As I mentioned above; adventure on the high seas.  You can just see the cruise ships tender approaching the tugboat. The fishing boat is too small to see; it is on the other side of the tug..

Two members of the Canadian Coast Guard parachuted to the fishing boat.

A close up just before they reached the boat.

The helicopter raising the crew member.

  The last sunset on the cruise.

  Downtown Vancouver.
 

  North Vancouver across Vancouver Harbor.

When I first saw this, I thought it was another cruise ship, but it is the terminal building.

The Vancouver airport and the end of our journey !
                 

Alaska Part 5: Juneau

As we all know, Juneau is the capital of Alaska.  It is the only U.S. capital that borders another country (Canada).  It has a few more people than Skagway (32,000 vs. 900), but it too, gets over 1 million visitors a year, mainly from cruise ships.  It also has the distinction of being the only capital that has no roads connecting it to Alaska or North America.  I guess you get there either by boat or plane.
Since part of the reason we came to Alaska was to see glaciers, there was an excursion in Juneau to a glacier: the Mendenhall Glacier, which is about 15 miles NW of Juneau.  You cannot actually get up close and personal to the glacier, but you get a good view of it from Nugget Falls. The Glacier is about 12 miles long and the terminus about one mile wide.
After viewing the glacier, we came back to Juneau and took a quick tram ride up Mt. Roberts.  Mt. Roberts is 3,819' tall and the tram goes up to 1,800.'  May not be able to see all of Juneau, but the views are still good.

  Part of the trail to and from the glacier and falls.

Icebergs in Mendenhall Lake. 

  Nugget Falls. It drops 377.'  Looks really big compared to the people at the base.

Mendenhall Glacier.  But look how small the waterfall is compared to the glacier. 

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.

Father and son posing.

  Here's that handsome couple that keeps showing up in my blog !!

A sitka spruce.

Barclay's Willow.

A pretty flower along the trail.

And another.

Going up the Mt. Roberts tram.

Our cruise ship taken on the way up. The waterway is called the Gastineau Channel and it goes between the mainland part of Juneau and Douglas Island on the other side. The island is 76 square miles and is a part of the city of Juneau.

A good view of part of Juneau and the town of Douglas.

Looking north from Juneau.

Looking west at Douglas Island.

More of Juneau looking north.

The Channel looking south (sorry about someones head in the lower left).

Alaska Part 4: Skagway

Skagway is about 250 miles E of Anchorage and about 80 miles SSE of Juneau.  It quite a ways in from the Gulf of Alaska.  You take a backwards L shaped inlet and actually are only about 20 miles from Juneau at one point (didn't realize that until I was working on this post). Skagway is a popular stop for cruise ships.  For a town with a population of just over 900, it gets close to a million visitors a year.
Even though it's a quaint little town, the fact that it gets so many tourist also means that the local stores will have the same old stuff to buy.  It even has several tacky tourist shops that 'follow' the cruise ships, such as Diamonds International and Del Sol. Not really anything to buy to help the local economy.
One thing my son wanted to visit while we were here was the dog sledding excursion.   These are the dogs they use on the Iditarod Great Sled Race from Anchorage to Nome.  We got to see one of the training camps for these dogs.  It was a good experience.

Downtown Skagway looking NE.

  Looking SW.

  We went for a walk where the local folks live.

  This huge rhubarb plant was growing along the street. 

Mother and son bonding in Skagway.

The cruise ships dock at the end of town.

  The dog sled camp we visited. This is where they keep the dogs.

The funky vehicle that transported us to where the dogs train.  It seemed to have one gear - slow and very noisy.

The gravel road they took us on.

Looks like one of us is not having fun - as you can see, it was cold and wet.

There are 16 dogs to a sled.

The team of dogs for our sled.  The young lady who trains this team took our picture.

And this one. This is the type of 'sled' they use when there is no snow.

Forgot his name, but he is showing us his sled and what it takes to participate in the Iditarod. Yes, he has done quite a few races. 

The dogs playground.

A mama sled dog a some of her future sled pups.  They are 2 weeks old.

I guess the cold and dreary are worth it !! (sorry it came out blurry)

Is this better ?

Our excursion ended with nice fire and hot chocolate.

  This photo and the next one were taken where the cruise ship shuttle dropped us off.

  

  This photo and the next two were taken on the way to the dog sled camp.

  

  Three happy tourist at one of the overlooks.

Looking out at Smugglers Cove from the cruise ship.

Skagway from the cruise ship.