To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.
John Muir
It wasn't by choice but chance rather that our family was able to visit Alaska via cruise this July.
It was a family affair.
Chelta's 92 year old father wanted all his kids to go. Back in the day....like, way back in the day....he put himself through dental school by going up to Alaska from Seattle, each hand holding a trunk full of samples and sold door-to-door all summer long along the small fishing towns of southern Alaska. He sold blankets, suits, clothing and coats for Utah Woolen Mills a fine clothier operation based out of SLC, UT. He did this for 4 years. He left his family without means to communicate with them throughout the time he was gone. He would wire money periodically. He met some extraordinary people, but mostly had to deal with the extreme feeling of isolation while trudging around in the rain in a suit knocking on doors facing immense rejection.
Surprisingly, as long as I have known him, his most fond and most consistently retold stories are those of Alaska. To me, it seemed that experience was so intense that it 'marked' him indelibly, like a tatoo on his soul. Unlike most tatoo's, this was not one that resulted from a drunken stupor....rather he earned his over time....grinding out an existence with nothing, and overcoming all the obstacles and not needing the world to know.....only he did...which was enough.
So, for the pat 20 years or so I have used a full palette of colors to paint and re-paint the stories he told, the faces, the scenery, the rain, the faces and details on the canvas of my mind.
Now, here we were... actually GOING to Alaska, to brush up against some of those often talked bout places and to finally match those "mental paintings" with reality of seeing, breathing, and stepping on the soil of those same towns....at least a few of them.
It was a fantastic journey. Much had changed. As is with almost all good "secrets" , we hope they don't always get "found". Well, these towns probably needed to be found or they might not even be there, but they couldn't escape the inevitable "commercialization". However, everything just "inches" from the "touristy" storefronts, jewelry stores and other traps was ALASKA... the real stuff. Wow, and the real stuff was incredible.... other worldly.... I spent hours just watching the passing scenery from the top of the ship. There was so much mystery and raw power emanating from the wilderness. Every time I saw these blanketing clouds creeping over the mountains my mind conjured up fantastical images a la "Lord of the Rings". The images triggered my imagination and I embarked on a thousand possibilities.......
Later, we had an excursion in Juneau to go canoe up to a glacier..... It was spectacular. We couldn't get too close due to possible calving, which would have been not a good thing for us in a small canoe. The odd feeling of both immensity with beauty at the same time was extraordinary. The blue color of the ice was so unusual.
On the way back from the actual glacier we came across an amazing chunk of glacier floating in the water that was made of the absolute most beautiful "blue" that I have ever seen. It looked like some kind of special effects fake prop for some movie, but it wasn't! It was just this awesome chunk of glacier that was "glasslike" and so so so blue that you cannot even believe it.
I wanted to get close enough to touch it and it was just perfectly smooth ice. It was one of those things that I knew I probably wouldn't see again as there were many other glacier chunks but were the normal white/blue that you typically see. This one was so different from all the rest.
Very very cool ice....
There were times when I thought it was too weird to be on this huge ship invading these fjords to see the wilderness.....the irony was that I wouldn't have seen near the expansiveness of Alaska without a ship that could do that, yet at the same time I wanted the ship to get the heck out of the place and just leave it be.... leave this mysterious place in its' own silence.
There were two seascapes that captivated me the most. On both occasions I just happened "into" them. One was the first night out, I couldn't sleep.... I got up and it must have been about 2am and I went out on deck 7 and sat on a reclining lounger and just spent time listening to the wind but mostly got lost in the "midnight blue" of what was in front of me. I was immediately glad that I didn't have access to any music for a change.... it was just me and that incredibly eerie cool space. I soaked and soaked......
A second time I woke early and went up on deck to see this scene awaken my senses.... it was hard at times to see where the sky actually ended and the water began. It was a perfect stillness and so beautiful it filled me with emotion.
Cruises for cruising sake I don't think are for me.... but cruises as a means to an end of seeing, feeling and experiencing some of the most intense scenes Alaksa had to offer ? Oh yeah, I am all in. Thanks Dad... You probably will never know how much more I got out of this generous gift you gave besides reliving your stories and seeing the paths you trod, but oh so much more.
Thank you for filling my vessel
