Hubbard Glacier

Towel surprise's

Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay......Gorgeus, Beautiful, Magnificent....okay you get the picture.

First thing in the morning I looked out the balcony and saw whales in the distance. Probably about 6 or more with their tails, or as they call it flutes, in the air, blowholes spouting and even a few jumps thrown in.

It was surreal to hear them in the distance spouting. 

They do have a naturalist and park ranger on board who will give you lot of information and point out highlights along the way.  At one point she spotted a bald eagle on an iceberg and if you can imagine in your head a cartoon where everyone runs to the side of the ship (to see what appears to be a small eagle because we are so high up) and the ship listing because everyone ran over so quickly it was almost a little comical image inside of my head. 

Fun Fact #2.  Why does the ice look blue?  When light hits highly compacted ice, long wavelength colors (reds) are absorbed, while short wavelength colors (blues) reflect back through the  ice to your eyes.  

With all the glacier viewing we didn't make it to lunch in time so decided to eat at the "International Cafe" for their Mozarella Pannini's and grilled vegetable salads.   While sitting in the Piazza drinking caramel lattes they set up a ring toss and if you could toss the ring over the champagne bottle you would win it.  Some people must of really wanted it because they came around about three timesp and it was a pretty big line. After awhile she kept moving the bottles closer just so someone could win them. 

Now if it was a wine bottle I might of gotten in line. 

Day #4 Skagway

Skagway is located in a narrow glaciated valley at the head of the Taiya valley inlet.  It is in the Alaska panhandle 90 miles northwest of the capital city, Juneau.

It is known for gold miners looking to strike it rich in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

But first things first. Fitness center stair master and Lotus Spa. It would be more relaxing in the quiet zone on the thermal beds if others didn't talk 100 miles an hour  like they just had 10 cups of monster coffee. Geez.  Did she not read the sign? 

Okay, now on to the first excursion. The White Pass &Yukon Route Railroad. 

It's called the "Scenic Railway of the World" linking Skagway with Yukon, Canada.

It's about 40 miles round trip and goes up to almost 3,000 foot elevation. 

When you get to the top you have to switch from the left side to the right side so equal viewing opportunities for everyone. How do you do it? You have to lift the back of the seat up and flip it to the other side so you aren't sitting backwards. It goes past an old, historical cemetery a little too fast.  I would definitely like to see that next time. ( See what I did there?)

It is a beautiful ride up with great views everywhere and nail biting ledges looking down but the only thing I guess that I didn't like is going back down is the same thing as going up.

So I tried to spend most of my time outside between the cars taking pictures because there you won't have the glare of the window and whatever those purple flowers were smelled unbelievable. 

  

Downtown Skagway

After that we walked into Skagway which is 1/4 mile from the pier or about a 10 minute walk.

It's like you are stepping back in time walking on the wooden sidewalks and you almost expect to see women dressed in petticoat dresses and men in top hats with pocket watches coming out of the western style storefronts.  It's known for the "Red Onion Saloon" which was a brothel back in the day. When we walked by it was a full house and I think they charged $10.00 or so for a 20 minute tour upstairs or in the back. We didn't have much time as we had to get back to the ship so took a few pics and picked up a couple souveniers and headed back.  We don't see the teens so much now that they have discovered the teens club. 

So we come back to eat dinner in the dining room with some friends and then head over to the entertainment for the night which was singing and dancing "a la Las Vegas Style". 

I go to bed and the kids don't come back till midnight. Something isn't quite right here.

Day #5 Juneau

 Juneau happens to be the state capital even though most think it is Anchorage. 

Fun Fact #3. There is no road access to Juneau. You can only get to Juneau by sea or air.

No working out this morning as we sleep in a little bit and are going on the Whale Watching 

Excursion. This the first day that looks to be pretty overcast and rainy looking. 

So off we go on about a 15-20 minute motor coach ride to the boat for our whale watching expedition. First we go past a few harbor seals hanging around some low levels rocks while some are just swimming around in the water. Then we go past some Stellar Sea Lions hanging around a buoy and watch the bully push one of them into the water while he struggles a good 5 minutes trying to get back on.