Week 47 - the cruise

We had a great time on our cruise. Alaska is such beautiful country. Here are some pics from our trip.

First stop - Ketchikan

We ended up going on a Duck Tour. I wanted to make sure we had a good seat so we got there a little early... I think we were able to have a good seat! I'm such a nerd.
Highlight of Ketchikan was the Salmon run. I had never seen that before. You can't see one thing in this picture but watching the Salmon swim up this fairly steep stream was amazing. We stood there and watched for a long time. And then we went and ate Salmon. Ha. I actually had the best Halibut fish and chips I've ever had. So good.
Much of the downtown was built upon these wood pilings and has kept much of the charm from late 1800s. We lucked out most of our trip and had great weather.
I love boats so hence the picture.
Second stop - Juneau.
This was our favorite stop. We rode up a tram to the top of Mt Butler and wandered around the mountain for a bit. One of those ships is our cruise ship.

Eric looking across the mountain with the binoculars. As far as wildlife, we saw a couple bald eagles. We were told the eaglets were recently born so the mother's stay in the nests and aren't out flying so much right now. We saw quite a few whales in the early hours around the ship but no bears. We really wanted to see bears.
We wandered around downtown and thanks to a local (always ask the locals where to eat!) we found this amazing crab shack. It seriously was the best crab ever. And the crab bisque was unbelievable. I don't think we ate anything else the rest of the day.

After we left Juneau, the ship went up a long tributary to see this glacier.
The glacier was huge. I know its hard to tell from this picture but our ship was quite far from this at this point. We did see a portion fall off into the water which was cool. The water was this amazing turquoise color with a hint of gray. But what was even more cool, were all the pieces of the glacier that had broken off and were floating all over this tributary. We had to run over many of them to get to the glacier. Titanic was running through my mind.
We were the only cruise ship that stopped up here on the way to the next stop. We were so glad to have had the chance.

Third stop - Skagway
We got tickets for a train ride up the mountains to British Columbia. The train tracks were built in the late 1800s for the gold miners. It literally was on the side of a mountain - just a tad freaky when looking straight down into the valley. We crossed some old wooden bridges and through two tunnels. The conductor was very knowledgeable and entertaining. Skagway was the town everyone started in before heading up to the Yukon in search for gold.

If you look closely you can see the train ahead of us on the mountain.
We also stopped at this old brothel turned restaurant. I think Eric enjoyed it. ;)
And this? well, its silly and I'm silly so we took it.
We were glad we spent the little extra and got a balcony in our room. We spent a whole lot of time out here relaxing and watching the scenery. The blanket was definitely necessary with the sea air.
We learned a lot about cruising. We liked most of it, got frustrated with some of it. If you want to hit Alaska, call me and I'll give you some pointers. We both did get a bit nauseous one day and the nausea stuck with me all the way home. Rats.