Anderson Family Big Holiday Adventure: Day 4 Icy Strait Point

Day 4

Monday 16th June

Icy Strait Point

So we didn’t have anything planned for Icy Strait Point and on the first day we realised that the port was really small and it was an excursion port. We went to book a whale watching trip but they were all fully booked so we thought we would chance going on the port and seeing what they had available. This was our first tender port too so we needed to be up and out early for the tender if we wanted a trip! Temperature supposed to be 17 degrees C and sunny!

Amy said she wanted to go on the helipad so Amy and I headed out for the coffee and hot water and went for a wander too whilst Colin had his shower

Amy and I on the Helipad

Our view from the Helipad

It was only Amy and I and another guy who took this photo of us but it was a bit bright

It is only Amy and I on the Helipad now as Amy was spinning around pretending to be a helicopter, I’m sure they were having a giggle on the bridge at us!!

A porthole was we were walking down the passageway on deck

Taking Amy down the sneaky passageways on deck to the back of the ship

Amy doesn’t like the back of the boat as it is too noisy for her!

Beautiful scenery xx

Just to orientate ourselves as we head back to the room with Colin’s coffee and my hot water!!

We are using one of the boats that was hanging around on the muster station deck and is being lowered down into the sea outside our window. This is great being self-sufficient with our own tenders on board and I presume they double up as a lifeboat but don’t want to find out that!

Love all these portholes over the ship to see what different views we get out of them

Amy is wearing her Del Sol t-shirt, nail varnish and necklace that changes colour in the sun, woop woop!!!

Ok here we go with our times to return by!

After queuing for 10 minutes here we go onto the tender boat, the tenders hold 100 people at one time

Ahead is Icy Strait Point dock and small port, certainly agree it looks very small

Side of the ship

Icy Strait Point ahead

Size of the tender compared to the ship!

Out the back of the tender

Our first glimpse of wildlife a seal popping his head up and down

A few people keeping an eye on everything up on the bridge

A few people standing on the Helipad

Nice blue skies today J

Woop woop we have found the one shop at Icy Strait Point

Wow and we have spied a Bald Eagle

So the plan to get a trip booked on shore has not worked as it looks like Royal Caribbean has this port all wrapped up with payment for any excursions by using your seapass card! There is an independent company and they normally hand around the security gates. We headed to see if the independent company had any spaces and we thought our luck was in as 4 people were missing from his tour so he was giving them 5 more minutes to arrive and if not we were on the tour, they were already 25 minutes late! There had been a sighting of a whale in the bay near our ship already so that was good we might spy one there if we don’t get on a trip. Our luck was out as the people appeared just as their half an hour was up oh well never mind!! Amy decided she wanted to go back on the ship and go to kid’s club and Colin and I were going to walk the mile and a half into Hoonah the nearest town with a whopping population of 800 people.

We head back to the ship to drop off Amy

Back on the tender, what a great view of the ship

Nice bottom!!

So we have dropped Amy off, queued in a very long queue for a tender and we are heading back up the gangway when we spy loads of starfish on the beach

Colin and I start walking along the pavement to Hoonah when we spy a Bald Eagle in the tree, wow my zoom on my camera is good!! Beautiful bird

Ooops think he has spied us, let’s move on ha ha!!

Colin is in his element with his binoculars, I’ve got my camera and we are having a lovely walk along the shoreline to Hoonah

Then we spy another Eagle but this one is brown sitting on the edge of the cliff, what a backdrop! Later on we asked a ranger and she told us that they are juvenile Bald Eagle’s, they take 4 years to reach the white head and black bodies

We walk a few more steps and there is another Bald Eagle, wow we are seeing loads and we have only walked 5 minutes

We were trying to get a selfie with the Bald Eagle I had just photographed but it is the tiny spot on the tree branch just above Colin’s head and just above the cloud!! Oh well that didn’t work as it is too far away!!

Massive rock with trees growing on it now that is something

These birds are impressive

We walk past a shipyard with quite a few boats in dry dock

Power walking!

What a cute display of flowers in their oven

The Office Bar

Unusual benches

A well camouflaged Juvenile Bald Eagle on the marina wall

A cute little weasel thing but it wasn’t cute for long as it came out of the rocks just below the Eagle on the rocks

Yes you have been spied matey but it has scarpered into the rocks and into safety!

Look out he’s flying straight for us!!

Loads of birds circling

A little island across from the marina where there are gravestones

The view where the Juvenile Bald Eagle is still sitting at the front of the picture on the left well camouflaged and a few proper feathered Bald Eagles further down the wall

What a great day for sightings of Bald Eagles they are even turning up in the ship’s photo

Hovering just before the plunge for fish

Some of the houses along the main street leading into town from the ship, a few of the houses look derelict or just in some need of TLC!

Nice houses up on the hill

One of the seven denominations churches that are represented in Hoonah

Hoonah City Hall

And a few totem poles along the way too

Oh yeah another place of worship

Fish yard where the fish are brought once caught

Colin has decided after all to go to work today and head to the office, ha ha!!

Alaskan White Beer, don’t mind if we do

A beer and roasted salted monkey nuts, what else does anybody need!!

Our view over the bay and here is a fisherman just taking in his catch

We have quenched our thirst and heading back to the port again when we pass a cool waterfall

Heading back to the ship

Awh how sweet I presume this is male and female as they mate for life

We have been fascinated by the Bald Eagles that we have seen today

View through the rocks

We were standing on the decking at port and we saw a fin of a whale and then its tail, wow it was near the ship, amazing to see!!

Colin and I went on the nature trail next, when we were walking along we heard someone tell their tales of whale watching tour saying they had to wait absolutely ages to see anything then they saw a tail and blowouts but not very much at all, so glad we didn’t go. Also the bear watching trail which cost a fortune they only saw 2 bears. The whale watching tours guarantee a refund of $100 if you see no whales but they sound as if they wait around for hours for you to see one, bit boring really!

Out to sea

The pebble beach

Nice seeing the different sizes and different colours of the mountains

Heading into the forest

That is where we have just been

Colin asking the Forest Ranger about the Bald Eagle's

So another trip we tried doing with Amy in the morning was the ZipRider but Amy was under the weight restriction and even with eating her entire cruise of cookies she still wouldn’t have made the weight allowance. Colin and I hummed and hayed all day about doing it and eventually we decided to do it!! It is a once in a lifetime experience to go on the world’s longest and highest ZipRider, eeeek!! But it did cost a fair bit of dosh tosh!!! Here is Colin getting weighed and then tagged and bagged to be able to ride!!

The Ziprider!!!

So our time slot is 3.30pm for the 8 mile/45 minute bus journey to the top of the mountain

The bus takes us past a Bald Eagle’s nest which can reach up to a ton in weight, wow

And then we see some amazing views

The forest area that the bear tours go to seek them out

And then a 5 minute walk on dirt track to the top of the ziprider

standing at 1300ft high, taller than the Empire State Building

So here we go!!! Wowcha its high up!!!

Cool as a cucumber!

Oh dear don’t look down and don’t over analyse it Ange just DO IT!!!

Colly is strapped in now it is my turn, pretty cool sitting down to enjoy the experience!!

So this is the only thing stopping me going all the way down for the 90 second descent going at the fastest speed of 60mph!!

So they release 6 of us at a time and then the countdown starts, 3 …….. 2……… 1…….. GO!!!!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I am the purple blob behind Col!!

Still a bit to go but ……

look how far we have came down!!

Nearly there

Landing!!!

Yeehah both of us have made it down!!

Look how far we have came down, WOW!!

My hair was a bit windswept with going at 60mph down the hill, you can see the hut at the top of the mountain just above our heads that is where we started, eeeek!!!

Colin was on photography on the way down and I was on filming so at least Amy could see what it was like! We both felt it was going to be scarier and more exhilarating that what it was but it was really good and we are so glad we did it to say we have been on the world’s largest ZipRider!!

We are walking back to the gangway so we can get back on the ship to collect our little sausage!

We get back on the ship in plenty of time so we head to the Crown And Anchor party, the loyalty program that Royal Caribbean have, very good loyalty program at that!

The Radiance of the Seas orchestra are playing and we also get some ……

Raspberry Champagne, oh yummy!!!!!

Clever ice sculpture of the crown and anchor symbol

Amy made a dreamcatcher at kid’s club, cool!

Family shot of us leaving Icy Strait Point from the Helipad

Stunning snow-capped mountains

The bridge behind us!

Looking out to our next port of Juneau tomorrow!! Alaska’s capital city, looking forward to Juneau as we are going to see Mendenhall Glacier and doing Mount Roberts Tramway, busy day!!