North to Alaska Day 4

Captains Log, Day 4

Welcome to Juneau Alaska!

We were up bright and early and off on with our day.  We did not have one second to waste today.

The day could not have been more perfect!  Well, one small thing.  More on that in a bit.

Our excursion for today was a Whale watching tour. We saw Orcas, Humpbacks, Seals and Eagles.  It was truly a beautiful day.  My mom was asked some funny questions by some people from India.  Good thing my mom is a good sport because I'm not sure I would have been so accommodating.  She was asked if her teeth were hers.  She said Uh, yes.  I bought them.  They got the joke.  It was awkward but funny afterwards.  We spent some time talking to them.  They had questions for my mom about her farm and such.  My Gracious mom just answered all the questions and some were personal, about money and such.  It was nice talking to them.  The only sour note was because of the length of our excursion and the short time our ship was in port, we had NONE, ZIP, NADA time in Juneau to look around or shop.  THE HORROR!  That was a little frustrating because Mom and I needed a magnet from there and I also would have got a shirt of some kind with Juneau on it.  Oh well.  First world problems eh?  Juneau is the capitol of Alaska but as we were driving through to our boat we saw no capital building. We thought that was strange.

Then when we were leaving port we were going up to the Sawyer Glacier.  OH as we were leaving there were people swimming in the sound.  SWIMMING IN ocean water in Alaska. NUTJOBS! 

Going up to the Glacier was just beautiful!  We were hoping to see a bear or moose along the shore but no such luck.  So many waterfalls and just beautiful county.  It was amazing how the captain maneuvered that ship  around in that narrow space.  It was really beautiful.  AND cold!  On our way up there after lunch we went back to our room to hang out and get on some warmer clothes to go out on the forward deck to see everything, Mom all of a sudden yelled ICEBERG!  We thought she was either being funny or crazy.  She was neither!  There was an iceberg.  We saw lots of ice floating.  That was a bit disconcerting.  I thought if they play the theme from Titanic I'm taking my coat and sitting in a lifeboat!  Any way the glacier was amazing and just beautiful to see.

On to a buttload of pictures!  These are a fraction of what I took and it does not do it justice.

 

Eagle as we got off the ship on our way to our tour.

Orca's!  Do you see the baby in the middle?

The Humpbacks.  They stayed and played for a long time!  They are very vocal.  I didn't know that. They were so pretty.

He did this several times!

I think he was showing off at this point because everyone cheered when he did it.

I think there was 5 whales in this pod.

Our Eagle on the ice.  Just floating by...

Me on the whale watching tour.

Auntie on the whale boat.

The seals.  I still want to know how that one got up in the rafters of that thing.  The one closest to us kept falling off.

On our way up Glacier bay and we started seeing lots of this.

Sawyer Glacier.  AMAZING!

I was a girl scout, I was READY for anything!  My mom is in the background.  We had several people around us giggling.

My precious Auntie and my lovely Mama.  Sawyer Glacier.  Aren't  they just cute!

Me and my mama.

This is in the elevator headed back to our room.  We were frozen and so windblown.  It really was a red letter day.  Just amazing.

Peace

North to Alaska Day 3

Captains Log Day 3

Ketchikan

The day started very early with mom getting up to pee at about 4:30 AM and pulling back the curtains and letting in the VERY BRIGHT morning sun.  VERY BRIGHT.

I dozed off and on until about 6:30 and got up and got the morning going.  Mom and I went to breakfast and Auntie had hers in the room. We headed out right on time.  We checked out a store before heading to our tour spot. WE were on time, however other's were not and they waited for them.  It was a tad irritating because it effected our time later.  TICKED US OFF!

40 minutes was a lot of time of ours to waste folks! We didn't even get to shop at the sanctuary store afterwards because of it.  Not impressed with that part.

Our tour guide was a young man named JJ.  He talked about how he could not wait to leave Alaska.  He was a cute kid. 

 

Mom and Auntie and the Jewel!

We were warned about what we would do if we saw them.  NO gum, snacks, drinks besides water, NOTHING.  Guess who had gum in her mouth the whole time? 

 

Sapsucker's marks on a tree.

 

Bear claw marks on a training tree

Eagle

There was lots of salmon running in this creek.

Bear paths in the estuary.

I just KNOW there was one back there watching us.

Bear prints.  They are there.  We just didn't see them.  It was a very warm day.  The guide said it was just to warm out at the time of day we were there.

An Alaskan Pygmy Mountain Lion

Salmon

A young Bald Eagle

The very funny reindeer.

The midnight sun. Actually it was about 10 PM.

After our tour of the rain forest and the estuary we walked around town a little bit and did some shopping. Ketchikan really is a cute little town.

After we got back to the ship we had lunch and rested a bit.  We then went and checked our pictures that we had had taken so far.  Boy oh boy I need better spanx.  lol  I will cherish this time so much so I will just take the pictures as is, it is how I look. 

We saw orca's off the side of the ship again.  TWICE!

I was leaning against the side of the railing and it had wet paint on it.  I was just so upset, it was my new hoodie from my anniversary.  They acted so fast and took it and got the paint out.  I was so appreciative.  They were so good to us.

We had a lovely relaxing dinner.  Then Auntie and I went to see the show, it was a comedian Michael Summerville.  He was funny! It really was a wonderful day.  It was a great first day in Alaska.  It is so beautiful.  I am a bit surprised at how beautiful it really is here.

I know I'm using the word beautiful a lot but there just isn't a word that I have found that works as well.  Have a great day!

Peace