Okay, where was I? It's only taken 4 months to have another look at this.
We took an amazing cruise to Alaska in September to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary. It was just phenomenal. We aren't in love with the cruise lifestyle, though we would do one again, but Alaska is so beautiful! It is very similar to BC, but I love BC, so what's not to love about Alaska.
In Juneau it was
pouring. We wandered around the city for a while and eventually found the State Museum. Every port in Alaska is filled with awful tourist shops near the dock that are owned by the cruise ship companies. You have to wander much farther to find anything of interest to see. None of the descriptions of the port provided by the ship mention anything to do other than their excursions and their shops. It left a pretty bad taste in our mouths.
Anyway, Juneau. After being soaked by a passing bus, I changed my clothes and we went on a whale watching expedition. It was so awesome! We saw at least 7 humpbacks and many playful sealions. A young humpback was doing impressive tail thumps and waving his pectoral fin in the air. Wow!
Next stop was Skagway. It was a gorgeous morning with mist rising off the water and the mountains had received a dusting of snow. We planned to go hiking but got pulled into a tour by a local guide. We were so glad we did! We got a lot of history of the very interesting Gold Rush town and had a spectacular bus ride up the White pass to where the prospectors headed into the Yukon gold fields. It is really amazing any of them made it considering the gear they would have had in the late 1800s. The jagged mountain peaks were spellbinding.
We next sailed into Glacier Bay and spent the day looking at calving glaciers. The thunderous sound of ice hitting water has to be experienced to be believed. It was pouring rain again and very cold but we bundled up and stood out front on the deck to see nature's performance art. While we sailed to the next glacier, we went inside to dry our gear before the afternoon's viewing. I had to dry my long johns with the hairdryer in the room. The second glacier was at least as stunning and we laughed to see a lone bald eagle sitting on an iceberg, also enjoying the show. He sat there almost as long as we did.
Our final stop was Ketchikan. We took a sea kayaking tour in the morning where we saw bald eagles, sea stars, sun stars, a menacing bull sealion (who wasn't pleased our boats were too close) and a humpback whale who surfaced then was feeding about 50 metres away from us. I was panicky but Theo thought it was awesome. Once I was back on dry land, I agreed it was awesome. In the afternoon, we took a float plane tour of the Misty Fjords National Monument. Wow! They were some mighty misty fjords. So beautiful. And I was very proud of how calm I was my first time in a float plane.
All in all, an amazing trip. We're definitely planning to do more kayaking this year. And another trip to Alaska has been added to my lengthy "places to go" list. Next time I want to see Denali National Park!
