David Willett

Sailing Up The Inside Passage on the Alaska Marine Highway System ⛴

From Bellingham, Washington to Haines, Alaska

We met Ray & Shirley at the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry Terminal for our 3pm check-in. Then we sat in line until 5pm while they loaded the ferry with trucks, cars, campers, boats and commercial vehicles.

A chance meeting aboard with Durango friends Steve and Dora Lee

The Alaska Marine Highway System operates along the south-central coast of the state, the eastern Aleutian Islands and the Inside Passage of Alaska and British Columbia, Canada. Ferries serve communities in Southeast Alaska that have no road access, and the vessels can transport people, freight, and vehicles. AMHS’s 3,500 miles of routes have total of 32 terminals throughout Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington. It is part of the National Highway System and receives federal highway funding. It is also a form of transportation of vehicles between the state and the contiguous United States, going through Canada but not requiring international customs and immigration.

M/V COLUMBIA IS THE LARGEST VESSEL OF THE FLEET. THE VESSEL IS 418 FEET LONG AND 85 FEET WIDE, WITH A SERVICE SPEED OF 17.3 KNOTS. THE M/V COLUMBIA IS DESIGNED TO CARRY 499 PASSENGERS AND 63 OFFICERS AND CREW AND HAS A VEHICLE CAPACITY OF 2,660 LINEAR FEET, WHICH IS EQUAL TO APPROXIMATELY 133 TWENTY-FOOT VEHICLES. THERE ARE 45 FOUR-BERTH AND 56 TWO-BERTH CABINS, AS WELL AS 3 WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE CABINS.

Amenities include observation lounges with comfortable chairs, a covered heated solarium, a snack bar, a full service dining room, a movie lounge, showers, coin operated lockers and laundry, writing and quiet lounges, and a toddler’s play area.

Walk-on passengers are welcome to sleep in lounge chairs, hang hammocks or pitch tents (using duck tape instead of tent stakes) to secure them to the deck.

On our first day we saw 2 pods of seven Orcas. One group was feeding on a freshly killed sea lion.

Ketchikan

On day number two, having a six hour stop in Ketchikan, we decided to get off and explore town, 2.5 miles from the ferry dock. Unfortunately Ketchikan is incredibly touristy. In addition, three huge cruise ships disgorged their passengers that same morning. There were some nice gifts and nice views, but lots of “Authentic Made in Alaska” (China) native art and souvenirs, fast food joints, etc.

The ladies enjoyed poking around the gift shops, we all enjoyed the history, diverse population, the refurbished “red light” district, Creek Street (“Where men and salmon came upstream to spawn”) and a quick lunch before returning to the ferry.

Surreptitiously sipping whisky in Ray and Shirley’s cabin

Dinner with Steve and Dori in the scenic dining room

Onboard we met a national park ranger, Mike Thompson, who had worked all over Alaska. Over dinner he suggested quite a few scenic towns, campsites and backcountry roads which were not on the main tourist trail. We will report on them later on the trip.

Eldred Rock Lighthouse, nearing our destination port, Haines, Alaska

The view from our campsite, Haines Alaska

North to Alaska 🐾

From Colorado to Bellingham, Washington

Along with our good friends Ray and Shirley Yang, Sally and I are embarking on a land and sea voyage to Alaska.

Starting separately, we will meet Shirley and Ray for dinner with friends in Spokane Washington, then later again on May 17th at the Bellingham, Washington Alaska Ferry Terminal to load our campers on the ferry for the second leg of our journey.

After three days of coastal marine sightseeing, we will disembark in Haines, Alaska where we will connect to the Alaska Highway and begin our driving tour of Alaska and the Yukon.

Please visit http://davidwwillett.blog to sign up for email notifications as I post updates.

Leaving Fort Collins, we camped the first night on Bear Lake.

Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake on the Utah-Idaho border in the Western United States. About 109 square miles (280 km2) in size, it is split about equally between the two states.

The south end of the lake, in the area of modern-day Laketown, was the location of a rendezvous in the summer of 1827 and 1828. Mountain men, including Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger, gathered at this location, along with trade goods suppliers, and American Indians from several different tribes. The mountain men and Indians sold their furs in exchange for various store goods and supplies, and several weeks were spent reveling in assorted amusements and liquor.

We spent the second night at Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park, Utah.

The state park is the site of North America’s highest single-structured sand dune which is approximately 470 feet (140 m) high.[A] The park encompasses 4,800 acres and features the Bruneau Dunes Observatory, where visitors can use a telescope for stargazing.

On our way to our friends, the Millers in Spokane, we drove through the lovely Northern Idaho and Western Washington countryside.

Mother’s Day dinner, remote campsite, Northern Idaho

Miller family hike, Palisades Park, Spokane amid blooming Camas

Millers, Yangs and Willett’s, Cedars Floating Restaurant, Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

After a stop with daughter Julie and family in Seattle, we meet the Yangs at the Alaska Ferry terminal in Bellingham on May 20th.

Sourdough Belgian Waffles

More Sourdough Experiments….

From the top: Italian focaccia with tomato and rosemary, Italian ciabatta, Belgian waffles with warm berry sauce, flatbreads with scallions and garlic, Italian focaccia with tomato, mixed olives and rosemary, French sourdough boule with olives, parmesan and thyme, rustic german pumpernickel with fennel seed, rustic French fougasse with parmesan and herbes de Provence

“When it’s Springtime in The Rockies 🎶”

Delicious Sourdough Bread

My first delicious boule of made-from-scratch sourdough bread!

Wonderful crispy crust with a moist and chewy center. Instructions can be found in Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa. Visit her website The Clever Carrot for recipes and more!

DIOR ✨

From Paris to the world

Dior: From Paris to the World surveys 70 years of the House of Dior’s enduring legacy and its global influence. A selection of more than 200 couture dresses, as well as accessories, costume jewelry, photographs, drawings, runway videos, and other archival material, will trace the history of the iconic haute couture fashion house, its founder, Christian Dior, and the subsequent artistic directors who carried Dior’s vision into the 21st century.

Christian Dior, the art gallerist who became a celebrated couturier, generated a revolution in Paris and around the globe after World War II. Dior created haute couture expressing modern femininity, completely shedding the masculine silhouette that had been established during the war. He conceived sophisticated designs featuring soft shoulders, accentuated busts and nipped waists that marked the beginning of an epic movement in fashion history that would eventually lead to Dior successfully becoming the first worldwide couture house.

The chronological presentation, showcasing pivotal themes in the House of Dior’s history, will focus on how Christian Dior cemented his fashion house’s reputation within a decade and will highlight how his successors, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons, and Maria Grazia Chiuri, incorporated their own design aesthetic.

This exhibition is organized by the DAM and curated by Florence Müller, the DAM’s Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art and Fashion. It features exhibition design by internationally renowned architect Shohei Shigematsu, principal of OMA New York. Following its run at the DAM, this exhibition will travel to the Dallas Museum of Art.