Kings on the Road

This year marks our 40th wedding anniversary and as if that wasn’t memorable enough we wanted a travel experience to commemorate the event.

What to do in the face of a surging pandemic! We have been cruisers for a long time and found a trip to one of our favorite places, Alaska. Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas was sailing out of Seattle in September on a seven day itinerary at the same time as our visit to family there. Perfect. No border crossings to worry about. No unvaccinated guests allowed. Negative Covid test 72 hours before sailing. Reduced passenger load with full crew. Travel insurance in case we decide to cancel. And great ports along the Inside Passage.

We had taken an Alaska cruise 23 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. This cruise planned stops in Sitka, Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Ketchikan. The trip began on schedule sailing north in Puget Sound. The next morning we noticed we were sailing slowly south off the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula. We then learned that bad weather around Sitka was causing our captain to dilly dally near Washington until the weather cleared. This resulted in our Icy Strait port being cancelled and our guided hike there cancelled. While we were disappointed, we were glad the captain was looking out for us.

The story of Sitka is the story of Alaska. The Tlingit people thrived here for countless generations before Russian fur traders came for the abundant sea otters and their pelts. The Sitka National Historical Park tells the story of the complex culture of the Tlinget and the conflict with the Russians. There is an impressive collection of totems as well as the Russian Bishop’s house and the site where Alaska was turned over to the United States in 1867. The Russians really had no interest in colonization as they were only there for the furs. As the fur trade declined they were happy to sell their interests to the Americans. Of course the Tlingit had no say in this and continued a long decline before a rejuvenation in the 1960s. This is a particularly abundant area of Alaska with an ice free harbor, a temperate rain forest of Sitka spruce and Western hemlock and rivers hosting massive salmon spawns. The area supports brown bears, river otters, mink, black-tailed deer and over 150 species of birds.

The mid-point of our our cruise brought us to Endicott Arm, Dawes Glacier and Alaska’s state capital – Juneau. Our wet chilly morning visit to the fjord and glacier views was awesome. The water in front of a glacier is such a unique color. The chunks of ice floating all around us were beautiful. Juneau itself was still partially shut down due to the pandemic and the cold weather cancelled our planned kayaking experience but we had a good time.

Ketchikan was our last port of call on our Alaska cruise. As with our other stops this one was more enjoyable since ours was the only visiting ship that day. Creek St is the historic red light district that operated until 1954. A local salmon hatchery had thousands of fish following their DNA upstream to spawn. Ketchikan has the world’s largest collection of totems which began to be restored by the CCC during the Roosevelt administration.

Reflecting on our cruise we realize we were not just taking a vacation for ourselves but also rejuvenating the cruise industry and the musicians artists and other workers severely impacted by the pandemic. So often during the cruise the crew thanked us for coming back. In this era of huge cruise ships this really was a dream cruise. The crowds onboard and ashore associated with modern cruising just really were not an issue with this cruise. It proved to be the memorable celebration of our 40th anniversary we were looking for.