Wrinkled Thoughts

Sage and I had the opportunity to accompany the Knudsen Brothers on (possibly their last) an Alaskan cruise! Big thanks goes out to them for a) letting us come b) being the stud performers they are and putting on 4 great shows… and c) letting me rebuild their website (www.sixrealbrothers.com )

For those of you who don't know who the Knudsen Brothers are (they are now called "Six"), you are missing out on one of the best singing variety stage acts on the planet. They rock. Here's a few photos from their shows on the ship.

Anyway, as I said before, we went to ALASKA! We flew into Juneau to catch the boat. Did you know you can't drive a car into or out of Juneau? It is completely land locked, so the only way in is via plane or boat.  

Our stops on the trip included Icy Straits and the little town of Hoonah, Ketchikan, Vancouver BC, and Juneau. In Hoonah, there was a guy pulling dungeness crab right out of the water and putting them directly into the steamer… So, of course I had to have one! It was the best crab I have ever had… and a nice old local lady taught me how to properly "clean" the crab so that I don't miss any meat. Holy cow! You get twice as much meat with her cleaning method. It's a secret, but if you want to know how it is done, just ask me. Here's a few shots I took in Hoonah. The bald eagles are like pigeons up there…

Our next stop was Ketchikan. I was super jealous stepping off the tender boat to find a lady fishing from a bridge over the creek in town and hooked into a 15lb salmon! But I kept walking and walking and walking… for a bout 7 miles round trip actually. Curtis and his brother Lynn took me on a GREAT hike up Deer Mountain (pictured first below). The lower part of the mountain is almost like a jungle, complete with ferns. Then, about half way up, you get to a lookout and can see the ocean and land out in the distance below (picture of Curtis and I). As you go higher, the trees get sparse and at the very top it is like an alien landscape like nothing you've ever seen before. a must do if you are ever in Ketchikan.

After Ketchikan, we sailed down the inside passage to Vancouver British Columbia. Sailing in the ocean, watching whales and dolphins with beautiful green mountains on both sides of the ship was truly awesome… even if we had to brave the 50 degree weather up on the top deck. Here's a panoramic shot I took of us traveling the inside passage.

Vancouver British Columbia was our next stop… Okay, technically, Vancouver BC is in Canada, not Alaska, but it was cool just the same. Curtis and his brother Owen took Sage and I on a cab ride to the Grouse Mountain resort. In the winter, the resort has skiing. In the summer it has all kinds of other stuff. We saw people parasailing off the top of the mountain, a bird of prey show, a bear sanctuary, a lumberjack show, and lots of larger than life tree carvings that were absolutely amazing. Oh, and we also saw this dork. If I ever dress like this, SHOOT ME. Here's a few of the shots I took of Grouse Mountain. The picture of the white capped mountain is Mt. Baker. It actually sits in  Washington state USA.

Quite the amazing trip… can't wait to go again and see everything north of Juneau.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 at 12:14 am and is filed under Exciting Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.