I'm going to apologize in advance for the length of this post. We had a fantastic time on our trip. In fact, Mat had such a great time that he was ready to move to Alaska! The pictures we have don't do the beauty justice! We spent the first day cruising down the Alaskan coastline. Monday was another day at sea, but we spent a lot of time in a National Park called Glacier Bay. We were able to sail up fairly close to some beautiful glaciers and watch them calve. (watch HUGE chunks of ice fall off into the water)
What you can't tell from this picture is that this glacier, the Marjorie Glacier, rises about 200 feet above the water. It was absolutely amazing.
On Tuesday we made our first stop in Skagway. We took an excursion with the entire family on a train up the White Pass & Yukon Route. This was a trail that was used during the Alaskan Gold Rush. Once we arrived at the top of the mountain we took a bus into Canada to see the Yukon Suspension Bridge. Heights are not my favorite thing (especially heights that don't feel so sturdy!) but it was a neat bridge. After the bridge we headed back into Skagway and to the Jewel Gardens. During the summer months, Alaska has very few hours of darkness each day. Gardeners are able to grow record setting plants such as a 23-foot corn stalk and a pumpkin that weighed over 1,000 lbs! We didn't see anything like that at the Jewel Gardens, but they were beautiful.
Wednesday was spent in the capital city, Juneau. We spent the morning out on a boat doing some whale watching. We saw humpback whales, sea lions, sea otters, and bald eagles. The population of Juneau is about 30,000. The bald eagle population is about 20,000! We were able to spend some time in the city before heading back to the boat. We headed towards the capitol building and took a tour. It was a very small building. The halls were lined with pictures taken throughout Alaska's history as well as newspapers from when Alaska became a state.
Thursday we made our last stop in Ketchikan. The only thing we had planned for the day was a Lumberjack Show, so we had a lot of time to spend in the city. At first, it seemed just like any other tourist town, but we talked to some locals about where to eat and saw a completely different side of the city! We left the harbor area and headed further into town. We found Creek Street, which is actually just a boardwalk of old shops along the creek. It was beautiful. From Creek Street, we took a tram up a mountain to the Cape Fox Lounge. We had a wonderful view of the city and some delicious seafood chowder! The Lumberjack Show was very touristy but a lot of fun. We saw axe throwing, log rolling, and a race up a 20 foot tall tree.
Another one of my favorite things from this trip was all of the wildlife and scenery that we saw as we were sailing along the coast. We saw bears, bald eagles, humpback whales, dolphins, and even orcas. The captain would come on and tell us which side of the boat the animals were on and then slow down the boat so that we had the opportunity to spot and watch these animals. The last night, we were out on the deck watching the sunset and there was a pod of dolphins feeding in the wake of our ship. It was a wonderful ending to a great trip!
Here is a slideshow of some of our pictures.
