This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 While it has a bit chilly and overcast since we have hit Alaska, we are also very fortunate to have come pre-season to these ports — there are no crowds! To hear our excursion director, a port like Sitka could have 3-4 ships in…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today, we got to visit a National Park that can only be reached by ship, boat, or plane — Glacier Bay. This is a huge park — over 3.2 million acres of forest, inlet and shore, mountain peaks rising over 15,000 feet and, of…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today we visited Homer, AK, a small city on the Kenai Peninsula, around 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. It was actually settled in 1896 by a gold mining company promoter, Homer Pennock, who built quarters for 50 men. The gold mining turned out to…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today we visited Kodiak, AK, the second largest island in the US (second only to the Big Island of Hawaii). Of course, a large percentage of the island makes up the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge that is home to 3,500 Kodiak brown bears —…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 It’s been seven days since we left Japan, traveling across the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, and today we arrived in Dutch Harbor. No, that’s not the name of the town that you may have learned watching “Deadliest Catch” — it’s actually Unalaska…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today, we are in our final Japanese (and Asian) port — Kushiro which is a port city in eastern Hokkaido. This city has been an international trading port since early in the 20th century, as well as a reliable fishing port. Both of these…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Up to this point, our tour in Japan has taken place on the two largest islands that make up the country — Honshu and Kyushu. Today, we made the first of two port visits in Hokkaido, the northernmost island. And, as you might expect,…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 After a rolly polly last 24 hours at sea, we pulled into Sendai, Japan, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture in Northern Honshu. We’re only here for a short time, so rather than spend time in what is more or less an industrial city, we…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 After a sobering trip to Hiroshima, we were off to go to Kobe, Japan (yes, the Kobe with the wagyu beef). It’s actually quite a large city, but there was nothing in particular that we wanted to see there. So off we went to…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 We spent the day today in Hiroshima. While the obvious destination here is the Peace Memorial, there is actually much more to see here. We started the day visiting the island of Miyajima (Shrine Island), reportedly the home of the gods. Miyajima is a…
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