Return to Alaska - The Delayed Cruise

 In July of 2022 we began a two-week Land and Sea tour package with UnCruise.  You can go back and check out those blogs if you'd like, starting here.

Unfortunately we both caught COVID towards the end of the first week, and canceled the cruise part of the package. We'd not purchased travel insurance, but UnCruise was kind enough to give us a full credit for the cruise, to be used before the end of 2023. 

One thing that we'd learned on the 2022 trip was that July was not the best time for us to visit Alaska. It is the peak of their travel season, and we found it too crowded for our taste. We'd taken our first UnCruise back in May of 2017 and really enjoyed it, so we decided to book our make-up cruise for May, and had no issues with getting the ship and cabin that we wanted. 

Travelling from San Antonio, Texas to Juneau, Alaska in a single day and arriving early enough to board the cruise is impossible, so the first day of our trip was flying from Texas to Seattle, Washington, where we spent the night.

5/14/2023 Sunday - We caught the 5:30 hotel shuttle to the airport. Airport security has become so variable. In this case the entire security line was held up for about ten minutes, and then we were marched two-by-two past an explosives dog. As we have come to expect my carry-on was pulled for hand-checking after going through the X-ray machine. It's always an adventure when a TSA agent starts manhandling expensive optics and cameras!  In spite of the extracurricular activities we got to our gate in plenty of time, then made the flight to Juneau.

The view from the airplane window was spectacular as we made our approach into Juneau. 

We found our UnCruise drivers immediately, and after picking up luggage were hauled to UnCruise Headquarters building on the waterfront. On the way our driver took us on a brief tour of Juneau, pointing out the few Alaskan-owned businesses in the vicinity of the cruise ship docks while noting that virtually all of the businesses selling "Genuine Alaskan" merchandise were owned by the cruise lines themselves.

After a short check-in we were told to be back at 5:00, which left us about 7 hours to kill! We got a Juneau city map and walked to a small city park (Cope Park) where we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather and the rushing stream. We walked by the Governor's Mansion on the way to the park.

After exploring the park we slow-walked back toward town, stopping at the Sandpiper Cafe for lunch. It was a popular local spot and we enjoyed a decent, if expensive meal. 

We then continued back toward the UnCruise terminal with several hours left to kill, finally deciding to just sit and read in a hotel lobby for a while. We walked around a bit more and found that UnCruise had a small hospitality suite in a nearby building, so we hung out in there until it was time to board.

Finally 5:00 came and we boarded our ship, the Wilderness Discoverer.   

Captain Keith greeted each passenger as they got to the dock. Keith was the Captain on our 2017 cruise as well, but he turned out to be the only crew member that we recognized. 

We'd booked Cabin 403 which we'd had in 2017, and we recognized it immediately. It is one of four cabins on the upper deck which are the largest on the ship. That being said they are very different than the cabins we've seen pictures of on the big cruise ships. Much smaller and simpler. 

Cabin 403, Wilderness Discoverer

UnCruise specializes in "Small Ship" cruises. A great demonstration of what UnCruise is about was apparent at the dock in Juneau.  The Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas was also in port. It is 1141 feet long, 160' wide, and has 18 decks. It has over 2000 cabins with a capacity of almost 5000 guests and 1500 crew. Simply put, it is enormous!

Ovation of the Seas with Wilderness Discoverer in the background

Our view as we departed

The Wilderness Discoverer is 174' long, 54' wide, with 3 decks. It has 34 cabins with a maximum capacity of 76 guests, and 35 crew. Our cruise wasn't full, with about 65 passengers, including a few singles. Our ship  looked like a tender next to the Ovation of the Seas. 

Wilderness Explore and Wilderness Discoverer in front

of Ovation of the Seas

Once onboard and settled in we had a brief orientation. As it was wrapping up Orca's were spotted and we all went outside to watch them. There are always crew stationed as look-outs for wildlife, and when spotted everything stops to allow viewing. The spouts from the Orca's looked cool in the evening light. 

We had dinner, followed by a more extensive orientation, introductions of staff, etc. It had been a long day and we were tired so were in bed by 10:00. It was still pretty light but we slept ok. 

Next: Glacier Bay National Park

Still Celebrating - Rockport, Texas Day 4

Early Wednesday morning we hopped on the ferry for another visit to Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center.  The birding was a little slower today but we had a wonderful walk across the marsh.

American Avocet

Black-necked Stilt

Forster's Tern

Yellow Warbler

Beyond the boundary of the birding center itself is a trail/boardwalk system that leads to a different parking area a couple of miles away. About 2/3 of the way there is a birding tower in a small island. 

Looking towards the birding tower.

It is a lot of fun to walk out to the birding tower.  You can just barely see it on the horizon.  The boardwalk is quite low on the water and the birds can be very close.

We often see Reddish Egrets here.  They are known for doing a "crazy dance" while feeding. It is thought that they are trying to startle prey items into revealing themselves. It can be quite a sight seeing them running and weaving through the marsh, with sudden stops and changes in direction. 

Over here?

Maybe a little shadow will help

Under here?

I think I see something

Success!

Another fun tidbit about Reddish Egrets is that about 10% of them are white.  This is not just a phase, but is permanent. They feed the same way, and have the same pink bill with a black tip.

Reddish Egret - White morph

On the birding tower looking towards Leonabell.

We had noticed that the barricade was gone at Paradise Pond and drove there.  Turns out, they had just moved the barricade down a little ways.  The only open trail was just the very short entrance.

We saw a few birds, including a striking Scarlet Tanager. 

Scarlet Tanager

Another favorite restaurant in this area is Butterchurn.  It's a buffet with home-style cooking.  The food is excellent!

Another afternoon of relaxing then off to Linda Castro, Goose Island, and Big Tree.  The birding was very slow this afternoon and the weather was a little warmer.

Our last full day was spent hitting all the birding hot spots around the area.  Rockport is having a big growth spurt with lots of RV resorts popping up.  Some with hundreds of rv spots. 

We started the morning at Goose Island since we had only visited here in the evening.  From there we drove to Big Tree then birded the area until time for lunch at Los Comales Mexican restaurant.

Gray Fox at entrance to Goose Island State Park

Loggerhead Shrike

Red-tailed Hawk

Tricolored Heron

Since we had been hitting it hard all week we spent the rest of the day enjoying our adorable little Airbnb.

We got up early the next morning, packed, and headed back home.  

We had spent a wonderful week eating at our favorite restaurants, visiting all our favorite birding spots, and relaxing in "our" backyard.

There were absolutely no regrets exchanging our travel trailer for an Airbnb! This will certainly become a new Springtime tradition for us. 

 

Still Celebrating – Rockport, Texas Day 3

The next day we made it out to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  We've been visiting Aransas for 40 years now and have always enjoyed it. Except when the mosquitos are trying to carry us away!

It was a good day for birding and we saw plenty of birds.

The very first bird that we saw was this fierce little falcon, called a Merlin.  They are known for being much tougher than their small size would indicate. Their main prey is shorebirds and small songbirds so things were pretty quiet in this vicinity!

Merlin

The refuge had received far more rain than we'd seen in our part of Texas, and all of the fresh water lakes were full. 

Blue-winged Teal - male

Redheads and American Coots

We saw what must have been the same three Whooping Cranes that we'd seen the evening before. The next day it was reported that the final family of Whooping Cranes had left the refuge. Hopefully we'll see them again next year. 

Whooping Crane family

Lunch was at Shempy's.  It's a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has wonderful fried shrimp.

We had another relaxing afternoon of reading in the backyard then a short drive out to Goose Island and Linda Castro Nature Sanctuary. We continued to find migrating Warblers here and there, but not the large numbers we had hoped for. They were still fun to watch. 

Hooded Warbler

Kentucky Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler 

Prothonotary Warbler squabbling

Next - A return to Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center

Still Celebrating – Rockport, Texas Day 2

On our second day we headed out to the Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas.  We always visit here at least once on every trip.

We saw almost 70 different species of birds on this trip with 10 being lifers for this location.

The weather was perfect.

It was fun to see American Avocets in both their breeding plumage (most of the birds) and their non-breeding plumage (only a few).

American Avocet - Breeding Plumage

American Avocet Non-breeding Plumage

The Birding Center seems tailor-made for bird photography, with the ability to get close to the birds with the sun at your back. We always get a lot of great pictures. 

Black-necked Stilt

Forster's Tern

Laughing Gull

Snowy Egret

We saw three different Rails while we were there. Rails are notoriously sneaky birds that spend little time in the open. But the long boardwalks and grassy edges makes it a little easier to find them.

Clapper Rail

Sora

Virginia Rail

There is (was) a very nice birding boardwalk close to the birding center called Charley's Pasture.  It was destroyed by hurricane Harvey but is slowly being rebuilt.  There is a very short boardwalk completed now and hopefully more will be completed in the coming year.

Long-billed Curlew

Another birding site in this area is called Holt Paradise Pond.  We always stop there but this day there was a barricade across the entrance with a closed for construction sign.

After a nice lunch at Arandas Mexican Grille, we enjoyed an afternoon of reading in our backyard.  That evening we headed back to Linda Castro's and Goose Island where we saw a few more migratory birds using water features. 

Hooded Warbler

Northern Parula

Swainson's Thrush

Our final stop was at Big Tree (part of Goose Island) where we had three Whooping Cranes fly over. Our understanding is that this was the last family group remaining on the peninsula. All others had started north. 

Next - Aransas National Wildlife Refuge