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An Intimate Form of Sea Travel

A virtual tour with Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT

How did we travel through the labyrinth of watery passages of Southeast Alaska? You'll see the answer in the boat in the middle of the picture at the right. That is a ship called The Sheltered Seas.

Compared to the usual way people visit the Inside Passage, which is with Goliath ships in the picture below, our form of travel was like little David. It is run by Cruise West and carried about sixty passengers on a "Days Afloat, Nights Ashore" plan. This meant we stayed in hotels two nights in Ketchikan and Petersburg and one night in Juneau before flying on to Anchorage for another six days, all organized by Cruise West. (I should add that if you don't like the idea of changing hotels every couple days, Cruise West also has small ships of 90 to 105 people in which you sleep on board.)

Unless you have loads of time to drive to Alaska and/or have the time and energy to research all the things you can do when you get there, from our perspective, this is the way to go! Letting someone else do the organizing was a new experience.

Of course, being a person who doesn't feel compelled to arise with the sun, I had previously been put off by the idea that I would have to have my luggage packed and ready to be picked up by 7:00 or so in the morning. Yet on this trip I was always out of bed in time -- and rested. Must have been the lack of stress in having someone else take care of travel details. Or it could have been that the sun is up most of the day anyway in that latitude and I got fooled into thinking I should be up and about.

Continue the tour with You Can Walk to Glaciers Near a City

© Copyright 2000, Revised 2002, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT