An Alaskan adventure

Homer and Judy Graham

In August 2004, Homer and Judy Graham of Costa Mesa, accompanied by

Mike and Mary Lee Hoffmann of Banning; Steve Graham of Grand Island,

Neb.; and Sandra Graham of Anton, Colo.; flew to Vancouver, Canada

and boarded the Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner “Vision of The Seas” for

a combination Cruise-Land-Tour of Alaska. We were very fortunate to

have Gene Hovatter and Bobbie Thomson of Mission Viejo -- both

fun-loving people -- join us at our dining table. Bobbie is in her

70s! She proceeded to clean house and win all of the Ping-Pong

tournaments, both male and female. She proudly displayed all of her

trophies each time we met at the dining table.

Our ship made many interesting portage stops along the Inland

Passage in Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau, Icy Straight Point and Hubbard

Glacier, and we departed the cruise part of our trip in Seward.

At our first portage stop in Ketchikan, we took in the Lumberjack

show. Boy, those loggers can really use an ax with exact precision.

In Skagway, we boarded the White Pass & Yukon Route narrow gauge

train up the “Scenic Railway of the World built in 1898 during the

Klondike Gold Rush.” It climbs to the 2,865-foot summit in just 20

miles of breathtaking sights.

White Horse Pass was the main route used by gold prospectors

before and during the building of the railway to get to the gold

country. Most of the prospectors had no idea how to load a packhorse.

As many as 3,000 horses died along the trail trying to make it over

the pass with their bulky, overloaded packs.

At Macauley Salmon Hatchery in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, we

were very privileged to see thousands of spawning salmon. After

hatching and swimming out to sea, they always return to the exact

place of birth to lay their eggs and then die. We boarded the Glacier

Flight and flew over five of Juneau’s ice field glaciers. Standing at

ground level, you can’t tell just how awesome the glaciers are.

Glacier Gardens, nestled in the heart of Southeast Alaska Rain

Forest, is a spectacular florist’s delight with all of the brilliant

colors and different arrays of plants and flowers. Because of the

extra hours of sunshine, the blossoms grow enormously. They dug trees

out of the ground, including the roots, and replanted them

upside-down. With the dirt left in the roots, they planted many

biological species and myriad types of flowers on top of the roots.

Icy Straight Point is a new stop for the Cruise Liners. It is a

very small fishing village trying to get into the mainstream of ships

making regular stops. Hubbard Glacier is where they stopped the ship

and let it circle around for about three hours just to let everybody

get a chance to see the calving of the glacier.

It is during calving when a large section of the glacier breaks

off and falls into the sea and makes a tremendously loud noise. It

reminds you of thunder.

We took a tour bus out of Seward to Anchorage and Denali National

Park, where we had a spectacular view of Mt. McKinley with all of its

splendor and beauty. It has two separate peaks, about 21,000 feet and

20,000 feet, about two miles apart, and all kinds of wildlife. We

took a bus tour out into Denali National Park, and a grizzly bear

walked between two buses just as though he owned the road.

Later that evening, we went whitewater rafting in the Nenana

River, which was one of the highlights of the trip. Departing Denali,

we boarded the glass-domed train cars, the Wilderness Express, for a

scenic and smoke-filled ride to Fairbanks, where a massive forest

fire burned.

Then we all flew back to Orange County.

* JUDY AND HOMER GRAHAM are from Costa Mesa.