Alaska... a breath of fresh air

HALLIE EPHRON: This summer my husband and I took a long-anticipated trip to Alaska. We flew to Sitka and boarded a small cruise ship (40 passengers) which, for 8 days, meandered along Alaska's Southeast Inside Passage--the web of waterways in the part of Alaska that dribbles down alongside Canada's British Columbia.

It was, as the cruise company's name promised, an Alaskan Dream--the perfect cruise for people who hate boats, hate crowds, aren't up to jumping in and out of kayaks and rappelling down glaciers, but want to get up close to nature, learn a little history and local culture, while indulging in fabulous food and breathtaking scenery. This miraculous combination travel agent Carla Plaster-Camp (The Escape Artist) found for us. 

I was celebrating my birthday. A big one. So I decided to gild the lily, burn a ton of frequent flyer miles, and fly first class (Alaska Air, Boston to Sitka via Seattle). My first time. When I found out how much extra it costs, I opted for first class one way only.

Can I just tell you, flying first class is pretty fabulous. The stewardess knew our names. Sadly neither of us are big drinkers but we could have gotten truly plastered. 

Here's breakfast on the plane. Melon cubes (unlike in fruit cocktail, each one tasted like real fruit), artistically arranged. A truly delicious scone. Followed by a delicious (really) omelet. And later, lunch.

And yes, the seats are comfy and no one minds if you recline. You're SUPPOSED to recline. 

On the boat, our room was tiny, a full-sized bed and just enough room to walk to the bathroom... which they call a shoilette. It's a broom closet-sized space with a toilet at one end and a shower head at the other, and in between you pull a curtain unless you like to shower and pee at the same time.

Every space is used. So under our bed were... big honkin' rubber boots. Mystery writer that I am, I immediately thought there was a body under there. Maybe a passenger who (for some reason) had failed to disembark?  Freaked me out.

Our ship was small enough that it could go where those big floating hotels can't. Here's my husband bird watching from the bed. We saw common murre, murrelet, tufted puffin, horned puffin, pigeon guillemot, Pacific loon, black oystercatcher, glaucous-winged gulled, black-legged kittiwake, willow ptarmigan, a ton of bald eagles and ravens.

We had glorious weather--8 days sun. Spectacular sunsets. And walks through what felt like Pacific rain forest.

And there were whales. Orcas went gliding by. But the Humpbacks were the big deal. Lazing along. Breaching. And most extraordinarily, bubble-net feeding. Here's an explanation of what they're up to. 

The glaciers were this amazing iridescent blue. And in case you don't think the glaciers are shrinking, they told us that last year the glacier completely covered the rock face at the water's edge.

We acquired some new vocabulary words.

And watched a sports fisherman weigh and gut a 250-poud halibut. (He'd caught two of them.)

Which brings us to food. It was spectacular. Alaskan king crab. Halibut. Cod. Salmon. Shrimp. All caught in local waters and prepared by an  head chef. There were fresh-baked cookies each day at 3. And cocktails to die for. 

Bidding a fond adieu... I hope we'll be back.

What's your BIG TRIP when you have that BIG BIRTHDAY?