August 12-14 Haines, AK to Juneau, AK
Up & at ‘em early on the 12th as we needed to get in the ferry line by 7:30am for our 9am departure. We have reservations on the Alaska Marine Ferry for our entire trip south to Prince Rupert, but all the ferries have a 1-2 hr. advance show time. When we got to the terminal Steve went inside to pick up the tickets. After more than 30 minutes I thought I should check things out to see if they were reviving him or something. Certainly there was no crowd of people going inside so I just couldn’t imagine what was going on this time. Turns out that the nice woman at the counter could re-do our ticketing to save us more than $150. It was certainly worth the time spent. Besides the only other thing to do was to wait in line with the other vehicles for the 7:30am boarding. At boarding time we were efficiently loaded on the ferry named M/V Malaspina sailing to Juneau. The Malaspina holds 500 passengers & 88 vehicles. We enjoyed watching the land crew load the container trailers while we waited patiently for our turn. All the ferries in the Alaska Marine Hwy are named for Alaskan glaciers. The Malaspina was the first commissioned ferry in the AMH system & has since been re-outfitted twice. We thought it was lovely, very large & well appointed for public transportion. There are different types of seating arrangements throughout the ship from airline style seating to tables & chairs. There is a study area where a passenger can utilize at a desk separated by dividers. There is a children’s play area, a restaurant, movie theater, outside walkways, cocktail lounge, & just about any amenity that we could envision. (Note: we’re not your typical cruise ship passenger, so we don’t have much to compare this with!) An additional nice thing about the ferries is that passengers can bring their own food on board. Although most ferries have staterooms for sleeping, many people bring their own sleeping bags & air mattresses & just rack out on the floor. The cruise is remarkably quiet & very comfortable. The water so far has been calm although we did have lots of rain from Haines to Juneau & for our entire visit in Juneau. It’s disappointing to see the skies so clouded over these beautiful port cities & towns but we are in the Southeast of Alaska now & that is Alaska’s rainforest so we shouldn’t expect much else. During our cruise we saw several bald eagles flying overhead & around the ferry & we also saw a pod of 6-8 humpback whales! Pretty exciting! They are so beautiful diving in & out of the water.
Our arrival in Juneau was about on time. It’s not an issue if these ferries leave or arrive exactly on schedule. Much of the schedules depend on the current tides. The city of Juneau is a beauty! It reminded us of a little San Francisco. It is nestled at the foot of the Juneau Mtns. & the harbor appears to be all around the base of the city. When you are downtown all the city streets go uphill from the harbor, but it was certainly very manageable walking for us. While in Juneau for 3 days we visited the Alaska State Historical Museum which had an especially lovely presentation of the bald eagle. We also took a self guided tour of the state capital which was lovely & impressive considering the short history of Alaska as a state, & we walked around the grounds of the governor’s mansion. Steve, of course, inquired as to the whereabouts of Sara & since the legislature is out of session the answer was that she is in Wasilla, her home town. We enjoyed a particularly delicious & entertaining lunch at the Hanger Restaurant on the wharf. I had fabulous halibut tacos which I would love to have again someday. We were seated by the window so we had a spectacular sighting of all the float planes coming & going into the Juneau harbor and they docked in slips right there on the wharf by the restaurant. There were also multiple cruise ships coming in & out of the harbor. It is a great spectator sport! While in Juneau we camped at the USFS Mendenhall Lake Campsite in the Tongass Natl. Forest. The Tongass NF is the largest national forest in the world. The campsite was located next to the Mendenhall Glacier which we could view as we drove into & out of the campground. What can I say? Another spectacular view!
From Juneau we took the fast ferry, Fairweather, on Aug. 14th to Sitka. The Fairweather is a beautiful ship & seem luxurious by comparison to the Malaspina. It is a catamaran ferry & has been in service for 4 years. The dock hands meticulously loaded the big vehicles such as ours and gave each of them special care & attention. We enjoyed a very smooth & rather fast trip along the Inner Passage to Sitka. The regular ferry takes 8 hours while the fast ferry took just 4 hours.
