R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 63

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Ketchikan 1

Today is Part 1 of a two-part Fun Photo Friday series of Ketchikan favorites. Hope you enjoy the show.

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Ketchikan’s Totem Heritage Center

Time to hit the local bus for a side trip Ursula was dying to make. She had her sights on a very specific museum owned and operated by the city of Ketchikan. This particular museum is dedicated to that indigenous art form known as the Totem Pole. Today I present to you the awesome Totem Heritage Center. But let’s take one last look at the navigation bridge of the Ovation of the Seas before we hit the bus:

Crew hard at work on Ovation‘s navigation bridge

It didn’t take long for the bus ...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Arriving Ketchikan

Ketchikan was a one-shot deal on these two off-season Alaskan back-to-back cruises. It was a substitute on Cruise #2 for the previous cruise’s Sitka visit, as weather made Sitka an iffy docking proposition. As Ketchikan is one of our favorite Alaskan destinations, Ursula and I were not disappointed at the substitution. The weather this morning alternated between sunny and drizzly. The picture below, for instance, was taken just 59 minutes after today’s lead photo above:

What a difference ...

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Skagway Favorites 2

Getting a Leg Up on the Restaurant Competition

Staring next week I’ll show you Ketchikan, which was the substitute for Sitka on Voyage 2 due to expected weather. As for today, it’s Fun Photo Friday. And, as with last week, this week displays nine favorites from our back-to-back voyages to Skagway during the off-season.

White Pass & Yukon on the Wall White Pass & Yukon off the Wall Off-Season Foliage 1 Off-Season Foliage 2 Reflecting Colors vs… … Mirroring the Subject Kirm...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Skagway and Our Favorite Jeweler

Today I’m going to do something that I seldom do beyond the occasional restaurant review or, in the case of our hideous experience with a certain innkeeper in Talkeetna and a related and equally hideous response from TripAdvisor (Be forewarned: don’t trust anything you read on that corrupt site), the very rare lodging review. Today, further down the page, I’m going to review a jewelry store. Not just any jewelry store, but rather a tourist destination jewelry store (I know; alarm bells are g...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Enjoying Picturesque Skagway

Most of the Skagway photography I showed you last week was taken on Voyage 1 (Monday, 27 September 2021), and it was cloudy that day. All of today’s images were taken eight days later (5 October 2021) during a much sunnier visit. And rather than giving a lot of longwinded commentary, most of the sights you see today will be self-explanatory. With one major exception. That is a brief word on the Red Onion Saloon, which I promised last Wednesday to tell you about.

Corner of 2nd and Broadway...

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Skagway Favorites 1

On most Fun Photo Fridays I usually present somewhere between four and six favorite photos. Not so with Skagway. There are a lot of fun shots you can do here. So, today and next Friday you’re going to get nine each. I’ll also be presenting some with commentary before assigning the rest to a photo gallery/slide show at the end.

Watery Reflection Dancing on the Ovation‘s Hull One Heck of a Snow Blower! Looking Back on Chilkoot Inlet

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Skagway Architecture, Trains, and Stuff

As you’ll recall from Monday’s article, we’re doing a photo tour of Skagway, Alaska over this week and next. Most of this series will concentrate on the sights in and around this charming town, which Ursula and I just adore visiting. But Wednesday of next week I have a special treat, as I’ll be reviewing our favorite jeweler, who replaced our previous favorite here in El Paso when that jeweler decided to shut down the family business after 103 years. Meanwhile, let us begin where we left off...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Strolling into Skagway

Fall foliage hits Skagway

Skagway, Alaska is a beautiful destination even in the off-season. Over the next two weeks I’ll be showing you the town over two visits. The first, aboard Voyage 1 aboard Ovation of the Seas, had us arriving here on Monday, 27 September 2021. Our next visit on Voyage 2 was eight days later, Tuesday, 5 October. That extra day was the result of a weather-related change our our itinerary, in which the captain substituted Ketchikan for Sitka.

Ovation of the Seas in Sk...

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Sitka Favorites

Crescent Bay, Sitka

Time for one last Fun Photo Friday look at lovely Sitka before we head off to our next destination aboard Ovation of the Seas during the off-season in Alaska. All the photos in this week’s series were taken on one visit during our back-to-back cruises, as Sitka was dropped for Voyage 2 because of weather concerns. Over the next two weeks I’ll be covering our two stops in Skagway, as there is much to see and a lot of shopping to do at that stop. Meanwhile: