Windwalker Winery Cruise to Alaska June 2004

Arnie and Paige Gilpin, the owners of the Windwalker Winery in Fairplay California, came up with the idea of a wine cruise to Alaska. After a lot of planning, over wine of course, the roundtrip cruise on the Regal Princess from San Francisco was agreed upon. 

We met in San Francisco on June  5th and boarded the Regal Princess .  There were more than 20 couples on the cruise, some we knew and some who were new to us.  

We headed out of San Francisco at about 4:15 pm and passed under the Golden Gate Bridge about 4:30

wow!

Saturday night and Sunday were fairly rough due to the "Westerly Force 6 strong breeze" and the broadside swells in the Eastern Pacific.

However, once we docked in Victoria, British Columbia, at noon on Monday everyone felt refreshed enough for a tour of the beautiful city.

I should mention that since this was a wine cruise, and Arnie and Paige were VERY generous with their wine, we felt the need to cleanse ourselves periodically of the fine wine.  In the spirit of thiw moment, Fast Eddie suggersted that we  do a pub tour of Victoria and consume a wee bit of ale at each stop. We met at the Fairmont Empress Hotel's Bengal Lounge to plan our adventure. 

(Stop #1

The Sticky Wicket (Stop #2)
 

(Stop #3)

(Stop #4)

(Stop #5)

(Stop #6 or 7)

It was then time to return to the ship for dinner and of course some wine (by now we were about "beered out"). We departed Victoria at 7PM and enjoyed a good nights sleep.

Tuesday was another cruising day as we sailed past the Queen Charlotte Islands toward Sitka, Alaska

We disembarked in Sitka at 11AM on tenders, since the ship was anchored out in the harbor and we spent the day walking around Sitka, visiting landmarks and even hitting a pub or two - surprise, surprise

We left Sitka shortly after 7PM and sailed during the night, arriving in Haines on Thursday morning. We knew that although Haines was a pretty town, there wasn't a lot of sightseeing available there but there was a high speed catamaran that ran regularly to Skagway.  So off we went at 60 mph on our way to Skagway.

In Skagway there was a nice downtown,

and a lot of things to see

a lot of tourists

of course a pub

and a railroad

So after a beer and a meatloaf
sandwich it was off on a fantastic railroad adventure

The trip was over entirely too soon but it was worth every minute of the ride.  We went from sea level to snow at 3000 feet at White Pass Summit in 20 miles of track in 90 minutes and saw countless waterfalls and vistas.  

It's amazing that a 110 mile railroad could be built in this part of the world in just 26 months between May 1898 and July 1900. The path to the Klondike Gold fields was open! This is one ride I would take again in a heartbeat!

We took the catamaran back to Haines and were treated to some beautiful scenes along the way

Up at 5:30 so we wouldn't miss anything in Tracy Arm.Tracy Arm is the remnant of a glacier that scoured the earth and created a bay whose waters are more than 1,000 feet deep while leaving sheer mountain walls that soar thousands of feet in the air.  As we progressed through Tracy Arm we saw waterfalls and baby Harbor Seals and chunks of floating ice which culminated in the Sawyer Glacier, at the head of thefjord. Using the stern and bow thrusters the Captain was able to turn the ship several times close to the glacier.  After several hours we headed north to Juneau Harbor.

We disembarked shortly after 1PM in Juneau and discovered a very nice, although very tourist oriented city, complete with stores, tourist attractions, bars and a brewery.

After looking around town and having a beer at the Red Dog Saloon, we rented a taxi and headed to the North side of town where we found the Alaskan Brewing Company, makers of  oneof my favorite brews, Alaskan Amber Ale.  Believe it or not, they were pouring samples of their beer at the brewery, and so as not to offend them, we agreed to sample their many fine beers.  We greatly enjoyed the tour of the brewery and the friendliness of the people and even took some souvenirs with us that helped make the Alaska Brewing Company a legend among Regal Princess passengers (more about that later)

Our taxi driver then took us to see the famous Mendenhall Glacier, just outside of Juneau  before taking us back to downtown Juneau

When we arrived back in town I headed back to the ship while Norma took a tram ride to a scenic park overlooking Juneau

At the park Norma enjoyed the totem display (complete with spirits)
and the wildlife

.

At 10PM on Friday June 11th, the Regal Princess headed out of Juneau (yes it's still that light at 10:30 andjust as light at 3AM) for the 1300 mile trip back to San Francisco - which gave us a chance to put our Alaskan Amber Ale souvenirs to good use.  The Regal Princess had announced a scavenger hunt construction project contest that sounded perfect to us.  All we had to do was build some sort of container that could float a case of beer across the swimming pool and decorate it to get the judges attention.  The prize?  Well, a case of beer, of course

!

We feverishly spent the next day planning, cutting and taping Styrofoam in an attempt to make our entry look like a beer ship

.

All the hard work paid off and at a grand ceremony in the Princess Show Lounge, we were crowned kings of the beer ship
 (B.S. Windwalker)

After that it was all downhill  or down latitude, and we arrived in San Francisco early Tuesday morning, gathered our stuff, found the truck and headed back up the hill.  We figure it took us about two days to get our land legs back and two weeks to dry out - what a great trip!