Coming Soon: Mediterranean posts + photos

Hello everyone! It's been a couple weeks since I've posted here...and that's because I've been on a travel writing assignment for The Avid Cruiser. I sailed the Mediterranean with a cohort of journalists from all over the world, accompanied by a representative of Holland America's PR office. It was an unforgettable experience.






If you missed my earlier post about this experience, or if you didn't follow along with my daily Live Voyage Report articles, know that I'll replicate all of the photos and articles on this site. It may take me a while to wrap it up, but it will end up very similar to my posts about my last Avid Cruiser assignment in Alaska.





In the meantime, I posted in real time on Instagram and Twitter. You can also see photos in my Flickr album. Stay tuned for wanderlusty goodness!

Love,
me

72 Hours in New Orleans

OCD may travel, but she never takes a holiday.

Technically I'm in The Big Easy for a week, but the fun bit before I switched gears into attending a work conference was three days and some change. My younger brother lives here, working as a History teacher in the KIPP charter school system after two years with Teach for America. The great part about having a friend living in the city you're visiting is your adventures aren't limited to the downtown core that you explore on foot. Ryan and I cooked up a few adventures that the average tourista in New Orleans would never have experienced.

He took me to his favorite all-day breakfast joint, Jimmy J's Cafe.

While at dinner the first night I was here, we flipped through the local indie weekly. We found two festivals that sounded adventurous and took us out of the city. One night we traveled an hour away to Luling, Louisiana to check out the 35th Annual Alligator Festival. Thirty-five years celebrating alligators. Let that sink in for a minute. Oh, The South, you're adorable. There was an ironic lack of alligators in attendance at the festival, which was disappointing. There were, however, plenty of alligators on the food vendor menus.

America is the great cultural melting pot, right?

Since we were in rural swampland Louisiana (no seriously, we drove straight through a swamp to get to Luling), the food was authentic and fascinating. I've been to the south many many times, but I felt like an anthropologist reading the menu: Alligator burgers, alligator sausage poboy, shrimp poboy, fried (un-named) fish poboy, alligator sausage on a stick, jambalaya, bbq pulled pork, crab cakes, beans and rice, bread pudding, crawfish pasta, chicken and andouille gumbo, hot boiled turkey necks, crab boudin balls with creole mustard, bbq ribs, sweet potato cookies, praline cupcakes, and you get the idea.

Small town festivals are a blur of Americana and thick accents.

The website promised "HAND CRAFTED merchandise with Alligator images. Massproduced items, including T-Shirts and posters, will not be allowed for sale. We hope to provide the festival attendees with high quality alligator-related souvenirs." My hopes were high. Low-quality alligator-related souvenirs are the worst. Alas, 85% of the "craft" vendor booths were filled with random Made In China bric-a-brac. Oh well. The organic soap maker, you know there's one at every festival market, was legit. Also, this guy was really the only artist (pictured below). He'll paint a custom piece for anyone who asks, just name the animal you'd like hanging on your dining room wall.

Seafood art on reclaimed swamp wood. Because Louisiana.

The next night we drove nearly 90 minutes outside New Orleans to the town of Houma, Louisiana (which we insisted on calling "hummus" with a hard H, naturally). Houma is home to a two-day music festival called The Best of the Bayou. When I realized Better Than Ezra (from Baton Rouge, local boys made good) was headlining I was 15 all over again and rocking out to "Good" on my Discman. I've seen them a few times in Salt Lake City over the years of touring, I still own all their cds, still know every word, and still think Kevin Griffin is pure sex. It was an awesome show. They played two full hours for a happily sweaty crowd packed into the humid Houma Main Street. For free!!

I loved you then. I love you now. Marry me.

The next night we indulged in the quintessential, cliche-for-good-reason, New Orleans evening: Dinner and jazz on Frenchman Street. We ate at my brother's favorite restaurant Marigny Brasserie, a place we visit every time I'm here, and then wandered until we heard jazz. That's one thing I love about the French Quarter, you're guaranteed no less than 20 musical options in a 10 block radius. Just keep walking and stop when it interests you. We ended up at Maison and really enjoyed the set.

Hardworking local musicians passed the tip jar and said goodnight after a two hour set.

Assorted wanderings and memories written with light...

Two kinds of people in this world: Bourbon Streeters and Magazine Streeters. Period. 

Dining in the Quarter...there's nothing quite like those floor-to-ceiling window/doors. Distinct and stunning.

I had a great time adventuring around Southern Louisiana with Ryan and his tan line...but it's time for me to get to work.

My home / office at the moment. The Roosevelt, now a Waldorf Astoria property, was built adjacent to the French Quarter in 1893. It's alright, I guess. I mean, it's no airport Marriott.

More exploring. More architecture. More foodie adventures. More Big Easy goodness over the next three days. Perhaps another blog post, perhaps not. I leave for Europe (writing a Live Voyage Report for Avid Cruiser as I cruise the Mediterranean) two days after I arrive home in Salt Lake City. Join me! Follow my new adventures on the Avid Cruiser website, or always on Instagram and Twitter in real time. 

Love and lagniappes, 

me

Soulful Travel Preparation: Guest post on Lane Letters

Given our mutual love of travel, it is only appropriate that Christy and I met via Instagram. I was in Alaska on assignment for The Avid Cruiser writing daily Live Voyage Reports about my adventures. I was also attempting to Instagram breathtaking vistas any time a rogue WiFi wave cooperated. Through the magic of the Internet, one click led to another and now strangers on opposite sides of the world are collaborating. Christy actually arranged a series of guests posts on her site, all around the theme of travel and/or living abroad. Check out the whole series!

My article published on Lane Letters is an extended version of what I originally published on The Avid Cruiser.

***

The realm of travel research and preparation is overly stuffed with lists and logistics. I’m guilty of it myself, as are most well-worn travelers. I have bookshelves piled high with guidebooks and endless Evernote files dedicated to locations I’ve either visited or am lusting after. I color code itineraries, read maps for entertainment, and research assorted minutia ad nauseum. I own being a total nerd who revels in trivia. For instance, these facts thrill me to no end: 470 Rhode Islands can fit inside Alaska and 89 percent of Alaska cannot be developed for human habitation. I’ll be spouting those factoids at cocktail parties for years to come. Years. Classic guidebook.

But something is missing. That something is the soul of it all. Quite frankly, the soul of travel can get lost in traditional travel preparation. In thinking about my recent Alaskan experience: What does list and logistic research actually tell me about the people who live in that wild land? What about the people who lived there first? What does a Saturday afternoon in July in Skagway sound like? What do the 200-foot spruces in Ketchikan smell like after the rain? What does salmon taste like when it was caught five minutes ago in the river below the restaurant? As I get older and continue to refine my travel skills, the predictable checklists simply mean less and less to me. It’s akin to the evolution of collecting experiences, not souvenir key chains. I want to experience a place with all five senses, with my soul. Hopefully once I give in to the experience and am seduced by the adventure of it all, I’ll leave with even a fraction of authentic understanding of the place I’ve just been.

If you’re interested in more than arriving, snapping three obligatory wish-you-were-here selfies near three famous monuments, and leaving, how do you prepare to really understand your destination? You selected it for some reason or another, so how do you really dive in and begin to learn about a land, a people, a culture, and the unfamiliar experiences so unique to travel?

Hint: Put the guidebooks down. All the way down, says The Former Guidebook Addict.

To give credit where credit is due, this liberating revelation (an act of permission, really) came to me by way of a creative mentor. Laura Valenti Jelen is a photographer and gallery curator based in Portland, Oregon. She designed and now teaches a series of online photography courses. In a course called Traveling Light, Laura suggests we ignite our artistic creativity in the process of our research. She tells us to immerse ourselves in the poetry, music, visual art, literature, and soul of a place. Listen to Italian opera for two weeks before you venture to Rome. Read heaping doses of Kerouac if you’re planning an epic American road trip, or old mariner’s diaries if you’re ocean bound. Enjoy a Woody Allen movie marathon before you jet off to Manhattan. Watch Ewan McGregor’s documentary about circumnavigating the globe on a motorcycle…just for the delicious wanderlust of it all. Research regional authors and poets who not only call your destination home, but who write about the people, the land, the food. Dive in. Why not? I promise you will experience your final destination in a way you never thought possible.

I dove into three books for my recent trip to Alaska (but one is a now-hypocritical National Geographic coffee table book of stock photos and factoids, so ignore that). While I was sailing the Inside Passage, I read a book of poetry, Cartography of Water, penned by Mark Burwell. His lush descriptions of Alaskan wilderness, coastal rain forests, and isolated frontier life prepared me to at least try and soak in the grandeur of it all. Beyond statistics about annual rainfall, Mark taught me to smell the green. I sailed into Ketchikan at sunrise with these words fresh in my mind:

DREAM ISLAND

At the head of the bay

sits the island,

unreachable and rich as woman.

Knife edge peaks

are fallen slices of the moon

stuck in a hem of spruce.

The island floats

like a fabulous, green galleon

at the edge of the ocean’s dream.

Like the mountain and the spruce,

I join the dreaming.

I taste the salt in the magic,

water nerve. I smell the green.

I touch the cool waist

of the planet.

I also read the memoir of a woman named Miranda Weiss. Miranda and I are more or less the same age. Our suburban childhoods that turned into insatiable desires for adventure connect us beyond the words on the page. Reading about her homesteading adventures in Homer gives me a deep, nearly personal, sense of what life in Alaska feels, smells, tastes, sounds like.

Miranda was 23 when she moved to Alaska with her college boyfriend. She reflects beautifully on her culture shock over the land and people. She opens Tide, Feather, Snow: “Moving to coastal Alaska meant moving to the water life, although I hadn’t known it until I arrived. Nothing is separate from the sea — not the sky, not the land, not a single day, nor my mood. I wasn’t used to this. I wasn’t ready for it.” She continues in the opening passage of chapter two: “Sitting at the edge of the continent, I was completely, terribly, and excitingly alone. I would be retracing the voyage of countless others who had traveled to Alaska before me: gold rushers, early pioneers, thrill-seekers, miners, surveyors, fur hunters, fishermen, law makers, sightseers, and naturalists.” Not only is it more entertaining to read these texts for hours and hours, but they also create a soulful atmosphere of anticipation that guidebooks simply cannot.

Two additional resources I highly recommend are AFAR magazine and their online wanderlists, and Nowhere literary travel magazine. Both approach travel as a narrative, an experience, and something to bring you closer to the authenticity of it all.

May your many adventures be soulful.

Love,
me


Give Lane Letters some love. It's a gorgeous site. Christy's mission statement: Lane Letters is a space for those who live overseas or are redefining 'home,' have insatiable wanderlust, or simply want to learn how to thrive where they are, give back, and make a difference. 

A Love Letter to Alaska

John Muir wrote of Alaska: "Going to the mountains is going home."

Every time I travel I fall in love. Movement seduces me. My wanderlust is palpable, an insatiable ache. This is true for every vagabond soul I’ve met. I’ve been wandering long enough to not confuse this love with a naive crush on travel. My love is seasoned and unconditional. I love the bad days, the tired days, the beautiful days, the productive days, the rainy days.

Yet my soul spends too much time inside concrete jungles, offices, four straight walls. I’ve been craving a wild travel experience. I want endless space and crisp air. I fantasize about virgin land unexplored by man. I need pure silence. There was no option but The Last Frontier. Naturalist John Muir said Alaska is “hopelessly beyond description.” Author Miranda Weiss writes that “people move to Alaska to find themselves, but also to get lost. [They’re] in search of some indefinable hybrid of adventure, wilderness, and what I imagined would be a simpler life. I think we all wanted to know what we would look like in front of a backdrop of wilderness, who we would become once the fancy clothes and high ambitions were stripped away.”

Miranda moved permanently to Alaska as a young, recent college graduate. I traveled briefly to Alaska as a stressed out thirty-something professional. We arrived as different people with the same goal. We wanted Alaska to strip us down without apologies. We understood that the less control we took over her refiner’s fire, the more it would change us. She forces you to realize how small you are. She forces you to admit Nature is entirely self-serving, virtually indifferent to your existence. She forces you to question how you show up in your real life, how you define yourself inside your four straight walls. Miranda writes that “doctoral degrees mean nothing when your car slips off the road, when it’s moose season, or when the northern lights strike us all dumb with awe.”

We’re still sailing away and I’m already thinking about next time. I’m thinking about boarding a train to Denali. I’m thinking about floating in the turquoise Glacier Bay. I’m thinking about a motorcycle ride from Skagway to Carcross, stopping to wade my bare feet into every lake. I’m thinking about the layers I have left to strip away. As Muir said, “I had nothing to do but look and listen and join the trees in their hymns and prayers.” I’m going home changed. Everyone who lets themselves breathe in the energy of Alaska goes home changed. That’s her gift to anyone who understands how to receive it.

Your Land, by Mike Burwell 

This is the place that is given to you
because you have found it yourself
because you stayed long enough
to move your gaze fully to the south
because you returned at times
to accept the ritual: to care
and be cared for by rock
and bush, creek, and bird.
This is the place where your faze
took hold, found words and moods
for words, where others will come
for your small sound when you are gone,
to listen for the door you left
swinging, just out of reach
on immense hinges.

It’s your turn. Just go.

Love,
gail


I hope you enjoyed your virtual vacation. You can re-live each day of the adventure through my Live Voyage Report landing page. If you're interested in following other Live Voyage Reports, visit The Avid Cruiser website to see where the team is exploring now! Join me on my next journey via Instagram and Twitter @fourthirtyam.

This article was originally published on the Avid Cruiser Live Voyage Report website. 

Cruising Alaska, day eleven: Victoria, British Columbia on Star Princess

Victoria is known as “The City of Gardens.” It sits at the southern tip of Vancouver Island and it’s the western most point in Canada. Established as a trading post in 1843 in honor of England’s Queen Victoria, it’s the oldest city in western Canada. Locals are fond of saying they are “more British than the Brits.” Indeed the city does have a very British aesthetic. Victoria’s metro population is 80,000, with 350,000 residents in the surrounding area. Thirteen different municipalities have 13 separate mayors. As our tour guide bus driver said, “We believe everyone should have their own identity and so those provinces are unique with unique leadership.” Oh, Canada. I love you.

The Star Princess was only docked for a short time and so we rushed off for a quick half day ashore. Had we been here longer, we would have explored more highlights; such as Butchart Gardens, high tea at The Empress Hotel, Craigdarroch Castle, Beacon Hill Park, and I’m still interested to see inside the stately Legislative Buildings. As it was, we only had time for a bus tour and quick walkabout.

Victoria's vibrant waterfront, with the Legislative Buildings in the background on the left.

We booked our Victoria shore excursion through Princess, as we did the other excursions. However, unlike the excursions we’ve enjoyed in every other port, we cannot recommend this booking. We thought we booked the bright red, double decker, open-air, hop-on-hop-off narrated bus tours you’ve likely seen in cities all over the world. Those buses were actually on the pier when we arrived, but we were loaded into a closed-top double decker bus. We were later told by our tour guide, our ride is known as “Big Bertha” and has been in operation since the 1970s. One of the primary reasons we booked what we thought was an open-air bus was so we could take advantage of unique photography opportunities. We could not do that very well on this bus. An issue over which any tour company would have no control is the fact that Victoria was hosting a giant bicycle race of some sort today. Half the downtown area was closed to road traffic and a series of detours made the normal tour route difficult, or most times impossible, to navigate. The driver did what he could to take us to points of interest and simply talk to us about the rest of what we wouldn’t be seeing, but it was not time or money well spent.

We dedicated some of our walkabout time to researching the best way to take the tour we’d wanted. Victoria is beautiful and it’s big. It’s worth seeing the city on a bus tour like this. Here’s how you can do it successfully:

Summary: Skip the Princess booking. Find these buses and ride them about town.

The Star Princess docks in Ogden Port. A $10 shuttle takes passengers to and from The Empress Hotel and Ogden Port. You can take the shuttle back and forth as many times as you want, but that seems silly for such a short time in port. If you chose to walk, it’s 45 brisk minutes along the waterfront. When you disembark the shuttle in downtown Victoria, you’re right in front of The Empress Hotel and right next to a kiosk for the Gray Line tour company. That is what you want. It costs $32 (significantly cheaper than the Princess-booked excursion) for a 24-hour hop-on-hop-off pass. If you want to add entrance to Butchart Gardens, it’s $80. If you ride the bus on a full roundtrip loop, it takes 90-minutes. Within the 24 hours that your ticket is valid, you can get off and explore any of the 14 stops and get right back on to keep riding or to head to the next stop.

Live and learn. Now we know what this particular shore excursion is and is not. Hopefully our research is helpful to you if an adventure like this interests you.

Washington's San Juan Islands as seen from the shore of Vancouver Island.

Clan houses and totem poles in downtown Victoria, because we are still in the Northwest, after all. 

Tomorrow is a full day at sea on Star Princess as we make our way back to San Francisco. I plan to spend time reflecting on our itinerary as a whole and post a final wrap-up article. I can already sense that it’s likely to be a love letter to Alaska.

I hope you’re enjoying your virtual vacation. You can follow along on each day of the adventure through my Live Voyage Report landing page. If you're interested in following other Live Voyage Reports, visit The Avid Cruiser website to see where the team is exploring now!

Bon voyage…and love,
me


This article was originally published on the Avid Cruiser Live Voyage Report website. 

Cruising Alaska, day ten: Sailing Toward Canada on Star Princess

The Star Princess spent all day at sea, sailing south toward Victoria, British Columbia. We only have two more days onboard before we disembark in San Francisco. At this point in our itinerary the inevitable return to reality is starting to settle in. We’re looking back at our time on the Star Princess, reflective and relaxed. We’re realizing just how memorable our vacation has been…and…just how much food we’ve actually consumed. Yes. That. You knew it was coming. It’s part of the proverbial cruise experience and I can’t leave these Live Voyage Reports behind without an article dedicated entirely to food.

I wrote previously about how to stay active and fit onboard. It may seem as though this article is the counter argument, but not necessarily. You can indulge as much as you’d like on cruise ships, the legends are true. However, you can also find reasonable portions and healthy options. I bounced between indulgence and sanity throughout our trip, so I can discuss both with a degree of authority.

First, the important decision of Traditional or Anytime Dining. Princess strikes the perfect balance between autonomous Anytime Dining and the tradition of nightly dinner reservations (see also: smart casual suit coats, the same wait staff and table, many times the same dinner companions, etc.). Heather and I opted for Anytime Dining without hesitation. The Traditional Dining crowd tends to be older, but that wasn’t actually a factor in our decision. We selected Anytime for the likely reason anyone selects it: Freedom to eat what we want, when we want it, where we want it, or to opt out.

By far the most casual dining option is room service, which is entirely complimentary on the Star Princess. It’s tough to beat breakfast in bed or dinner in your slippers on the balcony. If you want breakfast delivered in the morning, simply fill out the card left next to the chocolate on your pillow after turndown service. You may also request fresh fruit that is delivered daily around 3:00pm. Hang these forms on your doorknob and sleep well. After one particularly long day of excursions for both of us and a long night of writing ahead of me, we decided to order a room service dinner. We were both pleasantly surprised by the food. The menu in the room is different than any we’d seen around the ship. Our best guess is that room service shares a kitchen with Shooter’s, the sport’s bar (think sandwiches, salads, and fries). If you’re in a comfortable, room service sort of mood, it hits the spot.

Cool ocean breezes and this view? I've spent many hours writing and eating on our balcony.

The most casual public dining options are located on the Star Princess Lido Deck. You have three choices near the outdoor Neptune’s Reef & Pool (four if you decide to drink your calories at the Mermaid’s Tail bar). Trident Grill serves quick burgers, hot dogs, and fries. It’s just what you’d expect from poolside food. A welcome realization for Heather and I, since neither of us eat red meat, was that Trident Grill also serves veggie burgers and chicken breast sandwiches. Next to the grill is Prego Pizza. You can request an entire pie delivered to your room for $3.00, or you can snag a quick slice poolside. Prego always serves pepperoni and margherita, then adds a special that changes daily. I noticed the specials are sometimes themed to our itinerary, such as the Glacier Pie yesterday (essentially a classic white with six different cheeses). The third poolside option isn’t a meal but rather an ice cream shop. I don’t want to talk about how many soft serve twist cones I’ve had over the last 10 days, so let’s just move along.

Trident Grill, The Mermaid's Tail, Prego Pizza. Quick and easy.

Drink up, sailor.

Horizons Court is also on the Lido Deck. Horizons is where the cruise ship buffet magic happens. Horizons is open from 5:00am to midnight. The amount of food prepared and served in Horizons, and the variety of food, is staggering. The Star Princess carries 2,600 passengers at full capacity and the buffet is, in fact, all you can eat. Beginning at 5:00am they cycle through 19 hours of continental breakfast, full breakfast, lunch, light snack, dinner, and another light snack. If you lose track of time on a cruise ship it means you’re relaxing properly and doing it right. Even if you hit peak performance relaxation and barely know what day it is, never fear, just make your way to Horizons and they will feed you. They’ll also do it with a smile. A handful of Princess staff know Heather and I by name at this point, particularly the breakfast staff. Finally, we were pleased with the amount of vegetarian options available, including non-meat proteins other than cheese, at all times of the day.

Nico, in charge of baked goods at the buffet, greeted me with a smile and "Hello madame, madame! I love your hair! Good morning!" Every. Single. Time. 

The next step up on the dining scale of formality is the International Cafe located in The Piazza, Deck 5. While it’s still grab-and-go, unlike the options previously mentioned, I wouldn’t recommend wandering into The Piazza in your swimsuit and wet flip flops. The International Cafe is open 24 hours a day. In my late nights spent in the nearby internet cafe, I observed a hip, young, beautiful crowd from 11:00pm onward. The International Cafe is also home base for specialty coffees. You can purchase these a’la carte per cup, but Princess wait staff also spent the first three days of the cruise up-selling passengers on a punch card that discounts your caffeine. Heather and I had lunch here and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a European delicatessen: cold pre-made sandwiches, paninis pressed to order, salads, croissants, sweet pastries, and tarts. I noticed yogurt parfaits, danishes, and oatmeal when I passed by early this morning. The unique bonus of the International Cafe is the setting. The Piazza is beautiful, always bustling with activity, and live string quartet music seems nearly constant. This is hands down a favorite for both of us. It feels familiar and very much like the dining experiences we favor at home and abroad.

Don't let its nearly-hidden, tiny corner of the giant Piazza fool you...The International Cafe is a must-eat destination.

Grab your panini from the International Cafe and enjoy the bustle of The Piazza.

Our less-casual restaurant experiences centered mostly around Anytime Dining dinners and a couple non-buffet breakfasts. Portofino and Capri are the primary dining rooms on Deck 7 and 6, respectively. Dinner at Capri is served 5:30-9:00pm, and Anytime diners can chose to eat at Portofino for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner after 7:30pm. They begin seating Traditional Diners in Portofino at 5:30pm. The menu changes nightly, but there is an “Always Available” section with dishes like salmon, pasta, and caesar salad. They always have vegetarian options clearly marked on the menu and the selections are excellent.

One thing to understand about these restaurants is the communal table concept. It’s likely, unless you want to wait it out, that you’ll be sat at a table for four, six, or eight guests. Conversations tend to center on previous cruises, previous trips to our current location, bucket list travel goals, and for some reason, the most random facts possible about your hometown. Sometimes people are delightful and it’s a pleasant evening, and sometimes not so much. It’s all part of the cruise experience. Just go with it.

The Capri and Portofino dining rooms are virtually identical and offer entertaining communal dining tables. 

The Crown Grill and Sabatini’s are small, upscale venues that require a $25 per-person cover and reservation. Heather and I went to Sabatini’s on the fjord / spa day. It was well worth the cover and the southern Italian menu was spot on. We discussed that if we replicated that dinner in Salt Lake City, we’d likely have spent $80 each, making Sabatini’s a great value. It’s easy to slip into the groove of a cruise ship and expect everything to be free, so the $25 can seem off-putting to some. We enjoyed six courses (including a whole Branzino in Crosta di Sale, that our waiter skillfully deconstructed table side to the sound of our applause). In true Italian style, we were left alone to meander through the meal at our own pace. Heather and I met on a group tour in Italy just over a decade ago and we were all sorts of nostalgic as each course rolled out.

Sabatini's was the dining highlight of our trip, hands down. 

Final word: There are lounges and bars all over the Star Princess. Seriously, you trip over them everywhere you go. Slow down and spend a moment. They each have their own vibe and it’s fascinating to see how Princess creates a series of little worlds on a single ship. One of my favorites is the Vista Lounge, a swanky 1940s Rat Pack joint with crooner tunes playing all day long. I’ve done a lot of my Avid Cruiser work in that lounge, and often times I was the only person in there. Until a ballroom dance class showed up. So it goes on a big cruise ship.

Every lounge has a different vibe. This is the Vista Lounge (very 1940s), my favorite.

Tomorrow we spend the day in Victoria, BC. We’re booked on a double decker bus tour of the city. It’s a bit touristy for our tastes, but then again, I secretly take these bus tours in nearly every city I visit across the world. My photographic memory loves to survey the situation and then set off to explore neighborhoods that seem interesting. Stay tuned and we’ll tell you what we find!

I hope you’re enjoying your virtual vacation. You can follow along on each day of the adventure through my Live Voyage Report landing page. If you're interested in following other Live Voyage Reports, visit The Avid Cruiser website to see where the team is exploring now!

Bon voyage…and love,
me


This article was originally published on the Avid Cruiser Live Voyage Report website. 

Cruising Alaska, day nine: Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska on Star Princess

Our alarm blared at 5:00am. Though I was up wrangling sea-bound WiFi and posting about Skagway until after 1:00am, it was no matter…time for glaciers! We quickly bundled ourselves in warm layers, grabbed our cameras, and set up camp on the balcony. A quick glance up and down the side of the ship revealed a similar scene on nearly every balcony. The Star Princess had begun her journey into the Tracy Arm fjord.

Turning into Tracy Arm Fjord, hoping to be able to get close to the glaciers!

Glacier Bay is the common destination for cruise ships to catch a glimpse of the icy behemoths. Tracy Arm may be off the beaten path, but the area known as “Little Yosemite” is worth the trek. The fjord is 29 miles long, but only 1.5 miles wide. The narrow cliffs rise up to an elevation of 3,000 feet. Shari Newitt, a naturalist on staff with the Star Princess, narrated portions of our scenic cruise through the fjord. Here’s what you would have learned if you were on our balcony with us: A fjord is any area carved out by a glacier and subsequently filled with salt water. The Tracy Arm fjord was created by an ice sheet so large it once covered all of Southeastern Alaska, Canada’s Yukon Territory, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. It could have held the entire population of the world on its surface and we’d still each have 10 feet of space all to ourselves. An ice sheet, in glacier speak, exists prior to the smaller ice field (i.e. the Juneau ice field Heather and I recently experienced). The glacier, then, is an even smaller piece of an ice field (i.e. the five glaciers I saw from the air and the Mendehall to which Heather hiked). From there you get down to icebergs and ice shards, respectively, through which our captain skillfully navigated all morning.

Sailing through iceberg, with 90% of their mass hidden below the water. Just hold your breath and cross your fingers. 

Our goal was to sail around Sawyer Island. We would either sail on the left or the right depending on the concentration of icebergs, and get as close as possible to the South Sawyer Glacier in the south arm of the fjord. It was clear by the time we reached Sawyer Island, there was no way for Star Princess to make it though the icebergs guarding the glacier. The ship slowed to a crawl and we buzzed with anticipation. Will we turn around? Are we done? Are we going back to bed? Will our captain pinball his way through it? How have we even made it this far? The ship started moving.

This is as close as we could safely get to the South Sawyer Glacier. Sawyer Island is in the foreground.

Doing my best to zoom in on the glacier and convey the electric turquoise color of its face.

A few facts for your ice literacy toolbox (depending on the cocktail party, one never knows when this will come in handy): A white color indicates a lot of air, cracks, and loose ice. Blue ice is the glacial motherlode. You want your glaciers to be blue, and many are a nearly electric turquoise hue. This means they are pure glacial ice with no air pockets. They have been rolled and turned to the point of incredibly density. As you watch the icebergs float past, it will appear as though there are streams of pollution in the water every so often. It’s almost like an oil slick, but typically yellow and grainy. In fact, this is most often minerals and even pollen floating near the surface. It can be freed from the melting ice or simply fall from the hemlock stacked on either side of the steep fjord walls. Calving is probably the most exciting glacier experience one can have. Calving is when skyscraper size chunks of ice fall from the face of the glacier and splash into the ocean. We did not see any calving this morning. We did, however, see the rarely-visited north arm of the fjord.

Pure ice is solid and blue. White ice indicates air pockets and loose ice. 

The Star Princess sailed right next to this iceberg, our captain confident and cool as a cucumber. Or should I say as a glacier?

The north arm of the fjord is rarely visited, because the water is rarely passable, making this the more illusive of the two glacial experiences. Our captain decided to go for it and we were eventually successful in reaching the North Sawyer Glacier! It is turquoise and massive and gorgeous. Later, over the ship’s broadcast system, the captain said: “It was a rare treat to make it to the north arm and see the North Sawyer Glacier. This will be a highlight of my cruising season. I hope you enjoyed that experience and for those of you who have traveled Tracy Arm before, you know how special that was.” I haven’t traveled to Tracy Arm before, but I do agree we had a special experience this morning.

Everyone was full of anticipation as we rounded the corner into the mysterious North Arm.

Victory! The illusive North Sawyer Glacier, described by our captain as the highlight of his sailing season.

After the fjord, and after 178 photos of ice, we enjoyed an afternoon at The Lotus Spa. We timed our spa day well after three full days of active excursions, an intentional decision when we pre-booked our treatments along with our excursions two months ago. My girlfriends and I always get a giggle out of the creative, usually pretentious, ways spas describe their treatments. Heather and I were recently booking a spa day for a friend’s wedding in San Diego and are still laughing at the “body mousse soufflé” that normal people call “lotion.” For the record, this is what happened to us today:

Heather booked the Thai Herbal Poultice Massage (75 minutes): “This treatment utilizes warmed muslin poultices of Thai and Chinese herbs that are steamed and applied directly to the body in a kneading action. This traditional ceremony has been practiced to soothe muscle tension and stiffness on key areas. Heat and herbs are absorbed by the body to help reduce aches and pains, increase lymphatic drainage, and condition the skin.”

I booked the Exotic Lime & Ginger Salt Glow with Massage (75 minutes): “An exotic exfoliation ritual that will invigorate and revitalize your body. Warm oil is dripped luxuriously over your body before our lime and ginger glow is applied. We then apply Elemis Exotic Island Flower Body Lotion, leaving skin replenished and vibrant. After rinsing away the salts you will receive a deep tissue muscle massage.”

The Lotus Spa & Fitness Center, including an adults-only pool.

The treatments were excellent with high-quality products and professional service. However, my girlfriends and I have turned spa days into an Olympic sport. We’ve had them all over the world and we know of which we speak when it comes to indulgent pampering. Keeping that in mind, the one thing I’ll say about my treatment: Princess needs to invest in a Vichy shower for its scrubs and wet body treatments. Rather than a ceiling-mounted track of warm shower heads raining down on me while my therapist salt scrubbed away, I laid on what felt like a combination astronaut slash camping blanket, a silver hypothermia baked potato crinkly thing. I then hopped in a shower and rinsed the salt away before returning to the massage table, now foil free and outfitted with a soft sheet. Vichy shower, Princess. Vichy shower. Trust me. One additional comment that actually relates to our previous review of the yoga classes. Efficiency rules the day at The Lotus Spa, just as it rules the yoga class. What does not rule the spa is a lush spa experience. This could be mostly remedied with a proper lounge, one in which guests find tea, water, fruit, magazines, plush chairs and ottomans, etc. Typically the genders are split with private lounges. As it is, the spa and fitness center are more or less connected and with no real space to decompress. The outdoor pool, with two hot tubs, is adults-only and a quiet place to relax; but there should be an indoor option. This is standard design for quality spas and more attention should be paid to this at The Lotus Spa. Our solution: Allow guests receiving spa treatments to access The Sanctuary free of charge on the day of their services. This is an existing infrastructure that can remedy this issue almost completely.

Peaceful surroundings at The Lotus Spa.

I hope you’re enjoying your virtual vacation. You can follow along on each day of the adventure through my Live Voyage Report landing page. If you're interested in following other Live Voyage Reports, visit The Avid Cruiser website to see where the team is exploring now!

Bon voyage…and love,
me


This article was originally published on the Avid Cruiser Live Voyage Report website. 

Cruising Alaska, day eight: Skagway, Alaska on Star Princess

The indigenous Tlingits called it Skagua, meaning approximately “the place where the north wind blows.” The gold rush stampeders mispronounced it Skaguay. and it has since been spelled Cquque, Schkague, Shkagway, Schkawai, and Skagwa. In 1899, someone in a Washington, D.C. post office ended the confusion, changing it officially and forever to Skagway. Nestled between the Taiya Inlet and the Coastal Mountains, this small town of 850 residents and 455 square miles sits at the northernmost tip of Alaska’s Inside Passage. It’s most known for being the “Gateway to the Klondike” and the 1897 launching point for those seeking riches in Canada’s Yukon Territory.

Skagway retains many original Gold Rush era buildings.

“Gold! Gold! Gold!” The infamous July 17, 1897 Seattle Post-Intelligencer headline announced the discovery of gold in the Canadian Klondike. Once stampeders reached Southeast Alaska, there were two possible routes to their goal, the Chilkoot Trail and White Pass. The two trails met up at Lake Bennett, near the headwaters of the Yukon river and 550 miles away from the gold fields. Chilkoot is a grueling 33-mile trail, including a final quarter mile climb of 1,000 vertical feet. Seeking an alternative route, many people opted for the White Pass. The trail was 10 miles longer, but the summit less steep. Pack animals were not allowed on the steep Chilkoot trail, but it’s debatable as to whether or not they should have been allowed on White Pass either; 3,000 horses died in just one winter season of trekking.

I cannot begin to imagine the engineering challenge of building a railroad in this terrain in the 1880s.

The gold rush era was also the height of railroad construction across North America. Michael Heney, who ran away from home at age 14 to pursue his dream of working on a Canadian railroad project, partnered with Sir Thomas Tancrede to build a railroad on the White Pass. Everyone doubted Heney’s seemingly-impossible plan to follow the Coastal Mountain range, but he’s known for exclaiming: “Give me enough dynamite and snoose and I’ll build a railroad to hell.” In an astoundingly fast 26 months, a narrow gauge railroad blasted through 20 miles to the White Pass summit. This involved an increase in elevation of 3,000 feet, steep grades of 3.9%, and cliffside curves of 16 degrees. Work on one of the tunnels happened in the middle of winter with temperatures reaching 60 below. Tens of thousands of men chipped and hacked their way through the granite mountain face, using 450 tons of dynamite along the way. The White Pass & Yukon Route was the northernmost railroad in the Western Hemisphere and took over $10 million to complete. In 1994 it was recognized as an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, an honor shared with the Eiffel Tower, Panama Canal, and Statue of Liberty. It is known as the “Scenic Railway of the World,” and for good reason.

The White Pass & Yukon Route Conductor.

A thrilling perspective on the narrow gauge WP&YR railroad.

The Brakeman was a total ham.

I spent my entire day clacking along this scenic railway. To be more accurate, I spent my entire day standing on the outside platform in between two train cars, wind in my hair, eyes wide in amazement. I realized later I’d captured over 230 photographs of some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen, particularly after we reached the summit and dropped down into Canada. Just when you think it can’t possibly get any more breathtaking, the antique train clacks and clatters around another corner and it does. The highlight of the day was Lake Bennett. Mid-way through our six-hour journey we arrived at this former crossroads of the Chilkoot and White Pass trails. In the old train depot we enjoyed a “miner’s lunch” of stew, bread, and apple pie (included in the price of the excursion). I expected the food to be passable, but I was unprepared for how seriously delicious it was. Perhaps it was the historic setting. Perhaps it was the hours of fresh air and inspiration. Perhaps it was simply the best stew ever made. I will say that this shore excursion was a highlight that rivals even the seaplane adventure of yesterday. I’m a bit obsessed with trains when it comes to modes of travel, I find them impossibly romantic, nostalgic, and even sexy. I’m also a mountain girl, so I’m biased to basically every aspect of this excursion. Regardless, I strongly recommend you book the White Pass Bennett Lake trip. There are many WP&YR train excursions that stop at the summit or at Lake Bennett, whereas we continued for another two hours along the 20 miles coast of the lake into Carcross, Yukon Territory. Astonishing beauty. Do it.

Bennett Station is now used to serve a delicious "miner's lunch" to travelers on the WP&YR trains.

I mean, seriously.

Lake Bennet is 20 miles long and the train ride alongside it lasted nearly two hours.

Meanwhile, Heather spent her day with orphaned and rescued animals native to Alaska. Kroshel Films Wildlife Center is a 60-acre wild animal preserve located 27 miles outside the town of Haines. To reach Haines, Heather and 19 other passengers took a 45-minute scenic, narrated ferry ride. Were they to have traveled over land, it would’ve taken 8 hours from downtown Skagway. Once there, they were guided through the preserve by Steve Kroshel himself and fellow naturalist and falconer Mario. Heather describes these two hours as an intimate experience, both unstructured and ideal for up-close encounters with the animals. Her favorite experience was feeding an organic banana to an orphaned moose named Karen. She was also excited by the informal nature of the grounds themselves. There were no signs, no uniformed staff, no trappings of familiar zoo environments. This is the private world (and private property) of an animal whisperer who literally talks to his beloved friends in a series of noises and clicks unique to each one. As Steve wandered barefoot through his property, which is only open for scheduled tours and private appointments, he shared stories of his childhood on a farm in Minnesota where his family also rescued animals. Heather said that without a doubt this off-the-grid excursion rounded out her Alaskan experience. She enjoyed her time with the whales – and our time at sea is clearly focused on experiencing those animals in their home – but spending time with Steve’s animals in their natural environment was a highlight of the trip.

Steve Kroshel introduces a linx to Wildlife Center visitors.

Heather makes a new friend. 

Steve, perpetually smiling, and Mario at Kroshel's Wildlife Center.

Heather said this shore excursion was a highlight of her trip, and a must-do for all animal lovers. 

Tomorrow at 5:00am we’ll be up with the sun and on our balcony for the five-hour scenic cruising of Tracy Arm Fjord. After a leisurely brunch, it’s spa time. Ah yes, spa time. We spend the rest of the day and the entire next day at sea on Star Princess. We’ll be in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on 01 June.

I hope you’re enjoying your virtual vacation. You can follow along on each day of the adventure through my Live Voyage Report landing page. If you're interested in following other Live Voyage Reports, visit The Avid Cruiser website to see where the team is exploring now!

Bon voyage…and love,
me


This article was originally published on the Avid Cruiser Live Voyage Report website.