Alaska Vacation
July 10-12 - days 6-8
The Return Journey
From Skagway we sailed almost directly for Seattle, stopping for an early Thursday evening in Prince Rupert, British Columbia (about 60 miles south of Ketchekan). The town was pretty quiet, with only our cruise boat at dock. Since NCL is of foreign registry, at least one port had to be outside of the U.S. Prince Rupert has had cruise ships only since 2006, so there were only a modest number of stores, though the Museum of Northern British Columbia had a gift shop with nice things in it at reasonable prices. After the museum, Jon and I continued up the hill to pop into a Safeway to see what the Canadians had for groceries - not a lot different than home, except that all the labels were in english and french. One of my co-workers and friends in Santa Fe County is the Fire Chief, so I ran back across the street to get my picture taken in front of a Prince Rupert fire truck.


We also found a totem pole in a park by a government building, so we took a picture of that also.

Jon wasn't thrilled with Prince Rupert. "It's just like an American town in Oregon", he said. But nevetheless we got to step into Canada to do a bit more than run for a train.

The cruise map indicated that we would traverse the ocean side of Vancouver Island and I wasn't looking forward to those big ocean swells again, but as we passed the south tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands, the open channel was as quiet as the inside passage, and so was the trip down the west side of Vancouver Island all day Friday - a lucky day with mostly clear weather and sunshine breaking out and a few whale sightings to capture our attention.

Carma got around the boat in her wheelchair, but was able to get up to sit at a dining room table and to go in and out of her cabin. Marolynn roomed with Carma and generally watched after her for the cruise. Carma had a super time.

Here's a photo of Jon on the balcony of Carma and Marolynn's cabin. A balcony cabin is a must for at least one couple on the Alaskan trip, and for other cruises also as I was told. We all sat out there for hours watching the scenery.

Marolynn and Carma's cabin was a drop-in place for all of us on the cruise. Sometimes it was a sleep-in place also.

Although there were many shipboard restaurants for meals, we all gravitated toward the Versailles for dinner - it had good service and generally good meals.

Early on Saturday, July 12 the ship docked at the NCL terminal in Seattle and we headed for the airport and flights home. It was a brilliant, warm, sunny day in Seattle and someone took this picture of the Norwegian Star that morning at dockside. I was fortunate enough to spot it in a Flickr upload.