Ketchikan, Alaska (& Misty Fjords) 2025
After a day sailing through the inside passage we arrived in the morning of June 10 at Ketchikan. A city of just over 8,000 located on an island in the inside passage Ketchikan is a very popular cruise port (we were one of five cruise ships in port this day). It was incorporated in 1900 as the first city in Alaska and is currently the sixth largest. Displaying many totem poles, old and relatively new, it was once a summer fishing camp of the Tlingit people and was known for its thriving salmon canning industry beginning in the late 19th century. As our ship approached the city there was beautiful scenery and a number of houses isolated in the forest by the water, which must be a picturesque place to live.
We have visited Ketchikan before and spent a day exploring this interesting town on foot:
https://baderjournal.com/2017/08/16/ketchikan-alaska/
So this time we signed up for an excursion to Misty Fjords National Monument about 40 miles away. Many people visit there by float plane but we did it by boat, a longer trip but quite enjoyable on a clear sunny day like we had. Leaving the ship we had to walk along the waterfront past a couple of other cruise ships to reach our cruise boat. In this area is an iconic arch welcoming visitors to Ketchikan, a sculpture of a bald eagle in flight called “Thundering Wings” carved in cedar by renowned totem sculptor Nathan Jackson, and a set of bronze sculptures called “The Rock” representing historic groups of residents of Ketchikan: a miner, a bush pilot, a fisherman, a native drummer, a logger, a frontierswoman and (on top) a Tlingit named Chief Johnson.
Misty Fjords is an area of more than 2 million acres in the Tongass National Forest that has been a protected National Monument since 1978. It was covered by ice for millennia and the receding glaciers carved long and deep fjords in the rock that today are filled with water and bordered by tall cliffs. The first European expedition to visit here, in 1793, was captained by George Vancouver who originated the current names used in this region. After leaving Ketchikan our boat sailed up the Behm Canal (actually a natural fjord rather than a man made canal) toward Misty Fjords, just as Captain Vancouver did.
This area has an abundance of wildlife, although we only saw a few. We saw whales spouting. Photographing whales is difficult because they mostly stay under water so you have to watch for them to spout.
We also saw a bald eagle on the rocky shore eating a fish it had dragged out of the water. This is, apparently, not a common sight since our boat captain later came out of the bridge to tell us that he had never seen anything like this before.
We sailed past New Eddystone Rock, a narrow rock more than 200 feet tall that is a remnant of the top of a volcano that erupted some 15.000 years ago. The base of the volcano extends more than 800 feet to the bottom under the water for a total height of about 1,000 feet. The tide here varies by about 20 feet and at low tide there is a sandy beach surrounding the rock (and we were told that this is a popular wedding spot when the tide is low). Captain Vancouver and his men stopped on this beach for a picnic breakfast on August 9, 1793. He named it for a lighthouse near Plymouth, England, that he thought it resembled.
Eventually we reached Misty Fjords itself, an area with high cliffs up to about 2,000 feet tall, water depth around 1,000 feet and numerous waterfalls running down from the top of the cliffs. We don’t know why this is called Misty Fjords. Perhaps on days with cloud cover and/or rain showers there is a mist that envelops the cliffs and mountains. But our day here was beautifully clear and sunny and there was no mist in evidence at all. That is not a complaint, just an observation, and we will take a beautiful day like this every time. Because the trip to Misty Fjords and back to the ship was so long we only had about 45 minutes in the Monument itself, but it was well worth seeing.
Returning to the ship, we sailed away around 5:00. We had another long day to look forward to as we retired for the night, so we will leave you here to look at some towel animals.
North (and West) To Alaska 2025
On June 8 we boarded the Holland America ship Westerdam in Seattle for a four week Alaska cruise. This is one of the larger ships we have sailed on, pretty much identical to the Zuiderdam on which we had our last world cruise in 2024. We were in a standard veranda cabin on the fourth deck but it had a double length veranda, big enough to stretch out on. You may recognize the title above as a distorted version of the title of an old John Wayne movie set near Nome, Alaska, one of our ports of call on this voyage.
We had been on an Alaska cruise once before, https://baderjournal.com/2017/08/06/, but this journey was much longer and took us to many new places. Only one of the stops on this original itinerary was later changed a bit, because of weather, but we went instead to someplace just as good. Altogether the weather, which makes all the difference on a voyage like this, was unreasonably excellent for almost all of our stops.
But before any of that could happen we had to get from our home in Virginia to Seattle, some 3,000 miles away. Rick’s sister and brother in law (Barbara and Brian) live in Portland, Oregon, and we had not been there in quite a while so we combined the cruise with a visit to Portland before (and after) Alaska. We decided to drive there because it is a beautiful trip across the country that is completely missed if you fly, so we climbed in our car early on May 28 and headed off.
We had driven across the country several times over the years, usually taking about 5 or 6 days to get there, but this time we built in extra time for two reasons. First, we wanted some wiggle room in case we had to detour to avoid wildfires, which seem to pop up often these days in the West, and second we have reached an age where somewhat shorter driving days are a must. We stopped for the night in well known cities (Terre Haute, Indiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Boise, Idaho) and smaller towns (St Clairsville, Ohio; Ogallala, Nebraska; Green River, Wyoming). Our experiences varied from very nice to mediocre motels and from the excellent Majestic Steak House in Kansas City to some much less memorable meals in much less memorable restaurants in more out of the way places. Of course, while driving across most of the country it is difficult to avoid seeing numerous McDonald’s and Subways where a quick breakfast or lunch can be had without losing much driving time, but in some areas these respites are surprisingly few and far between. Leaving Green River, Wyoming, for example, we decided to stop at the first McDonald’s on the highway for a morning coffee and a quick breakfast but that turned out to be about 85 miles down the road!
Anyway, we have only a few pictures from this driving portion of the trip. Notable was the countryside around Green River, Wyoming, filled with picturesque mesas and buttes (one just outside our motel room).
In Oregon we drove along the Columbia River into Portland. It is quite a beautiful drive and as we got nearer we had a very fine view of Mt Hood, looking particularly imposing because of its isolation from other mountains. During our visit to Portland we went with Barb & Brian to visit Mt Hood, which has a very nice lodge and restaurant near the peak. We had lunch there next to a window looking out on the mountain, where people were skiing and snowboarding nearby.
On June 7 we took Amtrak to Seattle and boarded the Westerdam the next day. It was a clear and sunny day and we had a view of sea, mountains and a small boat harbor from our veranda at the dock. Mt. Rainier loomed high over the cargo port and we watched Seattle steadily shrink as we sailed away.
As we went to bed that night we found that towel animals were back! Mostly missing in action since the pandemic we had one every night on this cruise. A good omen to end the day.
San Juan, Puerto Rico (USA) — 2024
After almost 5 sea days crossing the Atlantic from Cabo Verde we arrived in San Juan around mid day on May 8. We have been here several times before, twice since we started this blog. Our visit at the end of the 2018 world cruise can be see here: https://baderjournal.com/2018/09/12/san-juan-puerto-rico-usa/ and our 2022 visit at the end of the Africa voyage can be seen here: https://baderjournal.com/2018/09/12/san-juan-puerto-rico-usa/ . You can read and see much more about this port in those previous episodes.
The sail in to the bay of San Juan past the mighty El Morro fortress guarding the entrance is a particularly good one. Last time we were here we got up at the scheduled time to watch, but the Captain got us there early, before sunrise and before we got out of bed for the scheduled arrival time, and it was dark and very rainy anyway so there wouldn’t have been much of a view even if we had arrived at the right time. But this visit was entirely different. Our arrival was in the middle of a clear and beautiful day, despite a cloud cover (arrival scheduled for 3:00 PM, but we think we got there an hour or two before that). We went up to the top deck to get the best views of El Morro off the port bow.
As we approached toward the bay from the ocean side (left in the pictures) we had views of the other major fort in San Juan, called San Cristobal. FYI, we visited San Cristobal in 2018 and El Morro in 2022, with many pictures. Outside the walls down at sea level between the forts is a neighborhood called La Perla, a brightly painted shanty town left vulnerable to hostile ships as well as hurricanes, one of which caused a great deal of damage in 2017. In the picture of it you can see the signature red funnel of a Carnival ship docked on the opposite side of San Juan peering over the steep hill on which San Juan is built.
We rounded the edge of El Morro and sailed into the bay. Among other things we sailed past La Puerta de San Juan, a gate to the city through the walls. Built in 1635, it is 16 feet tall and bright red. This was the main gate to the city, through which all important visitors entered. A Latin inscription above the door translates as “Blessed is the one that comes in the name of God.” We also passed Casa Blanca (White House), built in 1521 to house the city’s founder, Juan Ponce de Leon. He died in Florida before it was completed, but his family lived there for more than 250 years. This is the oldest house in San Juan. Our pier was just at the bottom of the hill in Old San Juan, but we had a wide view of the interior of the bay beyond. We had visited the Capilla del Cristo, next to the pigeon park, in 2022, but this time we had a view of it from the water side. We tied up at the pier at the foot of the old town, allowing us to walk right into town from the ship without need for a shuttle, a much better location than the distant dock to which we were relegated in 2022. From our veranda we had a view of The Wheel, a large Ferris wheel that we understand was installed only about three or four months before our arrival.
Because we arrived late in the day there wasn’t time for any real sight-seeing or adventures, so our plan was to walk through the old town and return to the lovely restaurant and Anita’s gelato place that we enjoyed so much on our last visit in 2022. This was our first stop in the USA, which meant that we had to pass through customs here, much easier than doing it in Florida with crowds, lines and baggage. Before long we, along with Bill and Robert, were on our way. Walking through the streets of old San Juan is really one of the best things to do here because they are lined with colonial style buildings painted in a variety of bright colors.
Its a good thing we enjoy walking these streets because when we reached the restaurant we found that the entire street for several blocks had an electrical blackout for some reason. So much for our original plans! We walked on for some time looking for a restaurant that appealed. We walked along the street on top of the hill, where we saw Ponce de Leon and the Plaza del Quintro Centenario (built in 1992 for the 5th centennial of Columbus’s first voyage), both of which we had visited in 2018. We walked by one restaurant that had lobsters in the window.
We ended up (finally) stopping into a restaurant called La Mallorquina for a very late lunch. It is, we understand, the oldest restaurant in San Juan still in operation (although it changed hands and was closed for a few months for renovation about 10 years ago). It dates back to 1848, when it was opened by immigrants from Palma de Mallorca (the restaurant’s name means “woman from Mallorca”) and it still features Spanish food along with Puerto Rican. It was a very good choice, not only for its historical significance but also for its good food, very friendly staff and warm old fashioned ambience.
When we left the restaurant we headed downhill back toward the ship. We were almost there when Rick suddenly noticed that he didn’t have his jacket. He had draped it over the chair in the restaurant and hadn’t noticed it there as we left. So the two of us turned around and walked all the way back to the restaurant (mostly uphill). When we arrived our waitress brought it right out to us; she had apparently been expecting us. Not sure it would still have been there in some places we have been before. So we turned around (again) and walked back to the ship. Between the restaurant and the ship we passed an interesting building and an unusual palm tree shaped like a Japanese fan (we have seen these before but not often and this was a particularly nice one).
So ends our day in Puerto Rico, our last stop on the way back to Ft Lauderdale where this voyage, our longest so far, began more than four months earlier. It had many ups and downs, but the ups far outweighed the downs. I wish we could leave you with one final spectacular sunset, but since it was well after dark before we sailed away that is not possible. So instead, here is a picture of El Morro taken in the morning that shows what it would have looked like if we had sailed away during the day.
Mindelo, Cabo Verde — 2024
We docked in the bay near Mindelo on the morning of May 3. Dating to the late 18th century, Mindelo and the other islands in this archipelago were settled by the Portuguese, and today Cabo Verde (Cape Verde Islands) is an independent country. It was a beautiful day and there was quite a nice view of the town from our veranda.
In the bay was a conical rock island that has been turned into a lighthouse. And on a mountainside on shore was an old fortress.
We had visited here once before, in 2022: https://baderjournal.com/2023/04/26/mindelo-cabo-verde-2022/ . On that occasion we walked around the town (population about 70,000) on our own with Bill and Robert. When nearing the end of a long voyage like this one it would take something pretty special to entice us to book yet another bus excursion and nothing available here was on that level for us. We were scheduled for an early departure anyway, so we would have had to be back to the ship before 2:30, which would be a restricted time for an excursion. So we went into the town with Bill and Robert again and walked around. It is a nice enough city that doing this again was still enjoyable. There was a shuttle bus from the pier to the middle of the downtown seafront that dropped us off near a large statue in the water of what appears to be a sailfish. Before boarding the shuttle, though, we debarked from the ship near a long open building housing pipes that had a series of intermittent walls painted by the crews of visiting ships.
Mindelo is a a very nice walking town, open and airy with buildings painted a variety of bright colors and many flowers. Some areas could benefit from a little more maintenance but that is true of many, if not most, cities in our experience. We walked past the old (closed) public library, which has an impressive mural on one side of Cesária Évora, Mindelo’s favorite folk singer, who died in 2011. We passed the shocking pink People’s Palace, built in 1874, and also what appeared to be an outdoor storage area for floats used in Mindelo’s celebrated Carnaval.
Probably the most striking feature on the waterfront is a three story tower built in 1921, modeled on the Tower of Belem in Lisbon. It houses a museum but we just went inside and admired the view of the bay through the waterfront door.
The marketplace has a number of vendors, some outside and some under cover, selling everything from wood carvings to baskets to clothing. Of special interest were several large blue and white Portuguese style tile displays on the walls of the market buildings, depicting (we think) some historic scenes of this area.
We walked along for a while, then went into the Mindelo Cultural Center (Centro Cultural de Mindelo) facing the waterfront. Inside were some craft shops and, lo and behold, the public library! We knew its old location was closed but didn’t know where (or if) there was a new one. Robert stumbled upon it here by happenstance. It seems much smaller than the previous location, probably with a lot fewer books, so hopefully a larger home will be found eventually. Still, with its second floor on a raised platform inside the high ceilinged room, it was an interesting space. A variety of artworks was mounted in the building (outside the library) and, as at the tower, there was a nice bay view out the front door. While we were resting up to leave the building Robert took pictures of both of us.
As mentioned above we had an early departure today so we took the shuttle back to the ship to be in plenty of time. Before boarding we took pictures of some of the crew painted walls on the building across the pier.
That was the end of our visit to the last foreign port on this long voyage. We set sail in mid afternoon for our final port before reaching Florida again. It would take four sea days to get there. One last look from our veranda before we departed.
Banjul, The Gambia — 2024
After three more sea days we reached Banjul on May 1. The Gambia is a tiny country in northwest Africa whose land borders are completely surrounded by Senegal Not only does The Gambia have about the highest visa charges on this voyage ($145 per person, if memory serves), but you have to pay it even if you don’t leave the ship and step foot in their country. We saw a lot and had a very good time the first time we visited here in 2018, and you can read and see a lot more about this country in that blog episode. https://baderjournal.com/2018/09/05/banjul-the-gambia/ But this time we decided once again to forego the badly overpriced excursions, none of which really appealed to us anyway, and stay on the dock. We had thought about taking the shuttle to the market and walking around some of the city on our own (especially to see the library, of course), but we were warned this wouldn’t really be safe so we passed on it.
We had a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room. Sitting by the aft windows we had a very nice view of egrets and gulls in the early morning light sitting on a platform in the water to which our ship was tied up. Beyond that we watched commuters piling into open boats called pirogues that would take them to their places of employment.
From the ship we had a good view of the port area, which has a causeway over the water to reach the city. It was a pretty foggy day, but in the distance we were able to see the towers of a large mosque and Arch 22, a monument to the coup in 1994 that installed a dictator who ruled Gambia for the next 22 years. On the opposite shore was a large boat pulled up onto the sand and we also had a view of a street and houses located near the port.
In addition to the pirogues there were larger ferries at this port. One of them was named the “Kunta Kinteh,” which you may recognize as the main character in the book and TV miniseries “Roots.” Kunta Kinteh was an actual person who was captured and sold into slavery from the Gambia. There is also an island nearby that is named for him.
As in Ghana, a large vendors’ market was set up on the dock in front of our ship. You could buy just about any kind of African arts & crafts, from masks to carved animals to clothing to baskets. Bargaining was very much in order, but the vendors were friendly and not demanding. We went out on the dock for a while to explore the market.
Also on the dock near the ship was a group of drummers and dancers. They had a lot of stamina, performing pretty much all day with very little in the way of breaks (although the dancers took turns to get a breather). We saw one passenger who joined in the dancing.
The Banjul port is located up the Gambia River from the coast. The river is 700 miles long but we docked near the beginning, maybe a mile or two from the coast. But still, arrival and departure times here are always subject to the tides. In 2022 we had to skip this port on our itinerary because of the tide schedules. So when the tides were right we sailed away, probably around 5 or 6 PM. As we sailed down the river we saw pirogues by the shore as in the morning, probably bringing back the commuters they transported in the morning. We also passed a Turkish power ship. We have seen these before in Africa so they must be a profitable industry for the Turks. They sit stationary near the coast and provide electrical power for the local city. After that it was clear sailing into the ocean after our last stop on the African continent.
BADER JOURNAL 
