Alaska - A Month Long Adventure - Trip Report - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Wonderful day. The glassy surface of the water is just amazing. I love the photos of the shoreline-- the colors of the rocks, algae, earth and flora are so varied and wonderful. I love all the birds, too, especially the little round one who visited your railing. I'm terrible at bird identification-- maybe Terri will know what it is. It's not her field, but she tends to know these things! She helped me out with birds on the Panama Cruise. Also really enjoy seeing more photos of the ship.
Just did a bit of searching and think the little bird is a savannah sparrow.
I've been "saving" your trip report so I could read several posts all at once and get completely sated on your pictures. Just gorgeous! Love them all. The pic of all the coats in the hall is just the kind of quirky pic I like to do scrapbook pages of. Do you make photo books of some of your pictures? Looking forward to lots more.
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Wonderful day. The glassy surface of the water is just amazing. I love the photos of the shoreline-- the colors of the rocks, algae, earth and flora are so varied and wonderful. I love all the birds, too, especially the little round one who visited your railing. I'm terrible at bird identification-- maybe Terri will know what it is. It's not her field, but she tends to know these things! She helped me out with birds on the Panama Cruise. Also really enjoy seeing more photos of the ship.
Just did a bit of searching and think the little bird is a savannah sparrow.
Laurie - I think you're right on the bird.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a lovely relaxing day. Once again, superb photos.
It was a very nice day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ccmom
I've been "saving" your trip report so I could read several posts all at once and get completely sated on your pictures. Just gorgeous! Love them all. The pic of all the coats in the hall is just the kind of quirky pic I like to do scrapbook pages of. Do you make photo books of some of your pictures? Looking forward to lots more.
Hi Sharon - yes, I do make digital books, and some of them I have printed - just for our own coffe table memories.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Another great day!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
What a great relaxing day. Great pictures again!
Thanks, Deb.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Just relaxing, cruising around a bay in AK on a boat with some cocktails sounds good to me!!!
You know what they say, "Someone's gotta do it ..."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
For a relaxing day you had some beautiful scenery and such calm water!
It was both calm and relaxing.
Finally starting to catch up on sleep - crashed yesterday. Hoping to get back on a normal schedule soon.
Wednesday, May 22nd: A Change of Pace, Visiting Wrangell
No kayaking or hiking on today's agenda - the anchor was up and the engines were on shortly before breakfast. We were headed to the small town of Wrangell, 155 miles South of Juneau. Wrangell sits on Wrangell Island, and you need a boat or airplane to get there. It has a strong cultural history, with the Tlingit people having settled here long ago.
The time stamp on this photo says 3:48am:
A little later, as the sun comes up over the mountains:
Fun with Roy ...
The water begins to get browner as we get closer. The Stikine River flows into the ocean at Wrangell.
We cruised until noontime. While we were cruising, the guides gave some informal talks on Tlingit art, and some of the folks made some paintings.
Wrangell in the distance - fishing and tourism are the main means of support in Wrangell, with a population of 2,300+ people.
Wrangell looks like any small town, with a few eccentricities. It gets visits from the small cruise ships, but has been spared the full on "Cruise-Shop" explosion. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed much of the downtown area in 1950s. I can only imagine the historical significance if the original building were still standing today.
Someone at Stikine Drug has a sense of humor, or perhaps is a Disney fan:
There was an option to take a group walk and visit to Chief Shake's Tribal House. We opted to set off on our own - this was a good opportunity to get out, stretch our legs, and just enjoy the town of Wrangell. (We also knew we would be visiting another village in the coming week).
One of the first things we saw, as we walked along Church Street, was the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. This is the first Catholic parish in Alaska, established in 1879. This church building itself was built in the early 1900's, and has recently been refurbished:
As we walked, Lou took some photos of flowers and an eagle:
We went to the Wrangell Museum, and spent almost 2 hours inside. It's a small, but very well done museum. They have a good movie on the area, regular exhibits, and even a nice showing by a local artist.
Since photos of exhibits in museums don't often show the story, I just took a few to remind myself of some of the interesting facts about Wrangell.
The Wrangell area was discovered by the Russians in the early 1800s. They established a large base for fur trading with the Tlinget people, who had lived here for thousands of years. They then leased their fort to the Hudson Bay Company, owned by the British, and by 1850 the areas' otters and beavers had been decimated. Wrangell came under US control in 1859, when the US purchased Alaska from Russia.
An interesting quote from Wikipedia, "Having been Tlingit territory and then under the jurisdiction of Russia, Great Britain, and the United States, Wrangell has the unique status as the only Alaskan city to have been governed under four "flags"."... and, both Spanish and French explorers also had a look at the area.
We liked this museum because it didn't just display artifacts from the past, they had done a nice job of telling small stories and giving you a glimpse into life in Wrangell.
(I think they meant the movie played one and only one time in Wrangell ...)
A close up look at a Totem:
They had bears in the museum - this one was in a glass case outside the Ranger's office. We had a nice talk with the Ranger - she told us lots about the area and suggested some walks to take.
We walked through town some more, visited a few shops (there were only a few - which was nice), and found the small Totem Park. While only housing half a dozen totems, the park is nicely done.
Walking back to the ship - a look at the cost of fuel here. While there's not a lot of driving to do on the island, people can take their cars onto the Ferry when it stops by several times a week:
Time to head back to the Ship. They wanted us all on board by 5:30pm - we had arrived in Wrangell just before lunch, and left the boat after a delicious lunch of grilled hamburgers. It was nice to have 4-5 hours to walk around on land, and we couldn't have had more perfect weather.
Dinner tonight was a treat - Crab Legs. They were delicious, and messy!
The sky decided to light up as we cruised in the evening, and there were more people outside taking photos than I had seen since the last time a whale showed up:
Coming up Next: Loving all the scenery and culture, But isn't it about time we see some Wildlife?
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Another great day! Scenery is beautiful. I'm a little surprised how many blooms there are in the church picture. My garden still doesn't have that much colour.
I can't believe you're up at 0 dark early every morning but that first shades of blue scenery shot is lovely
I just found your report and it is amazing. I am loving the entire thing! Thank you so much for sharing this with us, and your photography skills are wonderful.
The morning and evening sky shots are wonderful. I remember hearing about Wrangell and wishing we could stop there. Very nice to pull up right at the pier and be able to wander on your own. I like the simplicity of the meals on board-- I'd have been very happy with those potatoes and the corn at dinner!
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Pixie Dust
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Once again, superb photos.
Deb
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