RV Adventure – Ferry to Juneau, AK – NNs On the Wind

May 27, 2019May 28, 2019 Kathleen Ennen

MAY 24, 2019 – Ferry to Juneau, AK

Today, Friday, May 24 we g0t on the ferry to go to Alaska!!!! Yesterday we left Portland on a 6 hour train ride to Bellingham, WA. We stayed overnight in a terrific Airbnb in Fairhaven, the old port part of Bellingham and also where the train station is as well as the ferry terminal for the Alaska Highway System ferries.

We wandered around Fairhaven a bit today. We found Mark Twain in front of the book store!!! We had a great breakfast and then after a little walk about out along the coast, we stopped to get some takeout for dinner. Not sure what the food options will be, but it’s likely the dining room will be a bit pricey so we’ll save that for night #2 and #3. We arrive early, 4AM, Monday morning. We have some supplies for breakfast – bars, fruit, and other stuff, but will need real coffee from the snack bar!!

We boarded at about 3pm and got our cabin key from the purser’s office. This is not Amawaterways!!! But it’s fine!! There are plenty of people who are spreading their sleeping bags out on a plastic chaise in the heated, roofed, solarium. They and their stuff are there and if they need lockers, there are lockers to secure stuff in needed. Then there are about five tents pitched on the aft deck areas. There is careful “pegging” with duct tape!! There are even some who top off the layers of duct tape with fluorescent tape to avoid anyone tripping and tipping the tent over. We pulled away from the dock at 6pm. And then now we switch to Alaska time, 1hour behind Pacific time. We will arrive in Juneau at 4AM on Monday morning. Not a pleasant thought but it’s not tomorrow!!

Our cabin is comfy enough with a stackable chair to sit in and look out the good-sized non opening window. It’s fun typing and watching the forest covered islands slip by. We expect at some point to spot wildlife along the way.

(Thank you T Mobile for the plan that lets me have data while now in Canada!)

MAY 25, 2019

Today was an all day cruise along the coast of British Columbia. There was a 2 hour period that was open ocean to the west and the boat was roly poly in the swells. Not too bothersome to me but others found it difficult. I sat outside amidships facing the shore side. Didn’t see any critters but the scenery was terrific.

We came inland and started along the Inland Passage. The town we passed during the day was Bela Bela. There were channel markers and a lighthouse as well. There was a narrow passage that was fun!!! But the narrowest portions were in the middle of the night.

It was fun sitting in the sun and occasionally talking with people. I also did some napping just to stay in practice!

The ferry occasionally shows movies and at 7 I watched the Avengers – Infinity War. It was shown on a large tv in the lounge area where there is cushy recliner seating. I snuck in a beer and some munchies!!! Fun…..

MAY 26, 2019

We docked in Ketchikan at 7am Sunday. I wandered off around 7:45 and walked along the waterfront for about a mile. There were 3 cruise ships in the main part of town and a number of float planes flying out. I didn’t get all the way into town as the ferry terminal is about 1.5miles north of town. We did find a nice grocery store where we bought some big salad bar salads for dinner. The chicken gumbo looked good too. There is no refrigeration available but ice is 25 cents so we fill a plastic bag with ice, keep it in the shower, and keep things cold.

We pulled away from Ketchikan at 10 and headed to two more stops before Juneau early Monday. We stopped at Wrangle and Petersburg before the night run to Juneau. I stepped off for 15 minutes to visit the Trading Post in Wrangle next to the ferry’s parking lot. There were pelts!!! Beautiful fur, but what do you do with it??? There were also earrings of “cod ear bones” and Alaskan jade. I found a pair of whale’s tails in jade and thought it a good souvenir for the journey.

MAY 27, 2019

Apparently if there’s a knock on the door at 3:45am to get ready to disembark in Juneau, we didn’t hear it. At 4 I looked out the window and it seemed we weren’t there yet. But at 4:30 the ferry had fully docked and cars were driving off. This is a “city” that has roughly a 42 mile “highway” on the coast. Juneau sits next to the mountains and the glaciers, steep slopes and is not connected to anywhere by road. If you want to get to Juneau, you either fly, or take the Alaska Highway Ferry. We are visiting another cousin here, Gerry. They drive about 5000 miles a year. You can’t go anywhere but into town and back!

After taking a 2.5 hour morning nap I got up at 9am, had a little breakfast, and joined Gerry’s wife on a 2 hour walk along a river with terrific views of the mountains and the channel. It was sunny and surprisingly warm and it felt great to be walking along the flats by the water.

We took a short drive into the city for a brief tour. There were 3 very large cruise ships in port and the tourists were swarming around the core of the city. We stopped at the Alaskan Brewing Company and picked up 3 growlers of good stuff!!!!

We have traveled over the years and retired in 2017, when we started on a nine month long adventure departing in December 2017. In the past we’ve traveled to Sri Lanka, Africa (several times), Turkey, and made a number of trips to Europe, and St Lucia. Our 2015 trip to Turkey, took nearly 3 weeks to explore Istanbul, Cappadocia and the areas in proximity to Izmir.

This is a chronicle of our travels, past and present. We love to travel by trains, planes, ships, and cars – and love sailing whenever and wherever we can.

We retired from the US General Services Administration, the Federal Government’s landlord! Thom worked at planning and large scale program management of numerous projects and Kathleen, a registered professional civil engineer, was a project manager for many infrastructure and building renovation projects, including both design and construction aspects, in New England, Florida and the metro DC area. We lived in Washington DC for 12 years and upon retirement sold the house, putting a few things in a 5’x5’ storage unit and started traveling.

On return to the US in September 2018, after traveling to 21 countries, we bought a Class C RV – 2019 Thor Freedom Elite 24FE. We enjoyed our week long camping trip in New Zealand in a small converted van with few amenities, so this seemed liked a good way to tour the US. We hope to visit family along the way and as many US National Parks as possible.

UPDATE – the Covid pandemic made travel more difficult for us. We were abroad for several months when the pandemic started and returned to the US in July 2020. After several months in the RV to visit Utah and Albuquerque NM, we moved east, bought a house on the Northern Neck of Virginia, and sold the RV. For 2021 and 2022 we tended to our new house and cottage, gardens and various boats including a 18’ 1977 Marshall Sanderling catboat and a 25’ Steiger Craft Chesapeake fishing boat, and kayaks and a canoe. Hopefully travel will start again one day!!

May 2022