Cruising through Alaska

What a trip! After the rough start, things got so much better.

This was the first time we had gotten a balcony. It was nice to be able to see some things without having to fight people for space.

The seas were calm. If anyone had problem with motion sickness, they must get sick just walking. The only movement I could feel was the engines. We were on the second highest deck so I was a little worried about that.

The weather was great. In fact they were having record heat and I got sunburned after one hour in Juneau. I don't even do that at home.

We zip lined in Ketchikan. What a neat experience. The guides were super nice and helpful. They knew how to work with people. We were with another family and the mom was nervous. We also saw a bear on the drive up to the zip line.





I bought the photo they took of me so I'll have to scan it when I get home to post. You end this particular adventure with a 250 foot slide. Dan picked up a lot of speed and almost went to the end.

In Juneau we went on a helicopter ride to a glacier to dogsled. I had never been in one and I can't wait to do it again. I got to sit up front with the pilot on the flight there. WOW!





At the dogsled our guide had raced in the Yukon Quest and had 40 of his dogs there. When the dogs hear the helicopters they get excited because they know they get to run.





In Skagway we had a small bus with two other couples and drove up to Canada to catch the train back. Our train car only had eight people so we got to sit anywhere and saw so much.






Did you notice how sunny all those pictures are? That's the first real sun all those places have had since last summer. They were thrilled. I just wanted a little relief. It was 87 in Juneau for goodness sake.

When we got to Glacier Bay I got my wish. It was in the 40's and foggy and we were worried we wouldn't see anything. But the fog lifted and there were lots of icebergs. It took us longer to get to the Marjorie Glacier but it was worth it. In the hour we were there, we probably saw 15 calving events. That's when the glacier breaks off and falls into the water.





When we left the bay we saw about 15 humpback whales and a few otters. Add that to the bear, mountain goats and eagles I had already seen and we were doing really good in the wildlife department.

I have lots more pictures but figured I could right more details about each day later. Who wants to write a big blog while on vacation! We still have another week to go!