Alaska: Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada

Prince Rupert

Initially we were under the impression that you could only get off at the port if you had a passport.  Well Dustin & I didn't spend the money to get passports for this trip so just planned on staying on board the ship, this was the shortest port visit by far - just 2 or 3 hours.  About an hour before everyone needed to be on board we found out that at long as we had our driver's licenses we could visit the city.  Dustin and I left the boat and leaving the kids behind with Grandpa we explored the little bit of the city we could see in the short time frame.  It was beautiful, hilly and green!  There was a walking tour that we did a part of but really we just enjoyed walking the bit of town that we could.  We did get a picture of a totem and an old steam roller.

Alaska: Skagway

I know it has been FOREVER since i posted.  Here is one of the last posts that corresponds with our Alaska Cruise - last summer.  Yes, I know, it's been over a year since we took that trip.  I know, I know, I know.  Life got crazy, I did some rethinking about the blog and have decided to finish what I started and continue on.  Anyway, back to the trip....

Skagway, Alaska.

It's pretty cool.  The whole city is a National Park because this is where people came for the Klondike Gold Rush.  This was the starting point of all the expeditions.  Skagway is a small but very beautiful town.  Most of the town still looks like the town as it was built back at the turn of the 20th century.  The buildings are wonderfully maintained and have that charm of living in the time of the Gold Rush. 

There is a narrow gauge train that runs from Skagway called the White Pass Railway.  We didn't ride the train but we did get to see one of the snow plow trains that would help clear the tracks.  David was excited because we have a picture of this train in his train book.

Dustin & I did make sure that David was able to complete the Junior Ranger program here.  He was even able to get be an Alaska Adventure Ranger because he visited 3 Alaskan Public Lands.  He visited the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, Mendenhall Glacier, & Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.  We were pretty proud.

Alaska: The Tracy Arm & Sawyer Glacier

We left Juneau early so that we could head back down our route to go into the Tracy Arm.  This is what The Alaska Cruise Handbook says about the Tracy Arm:

     "Many ships enter Tracy Arm around 6am so they can get to Juneau for a port call in time for passengers to go to their shore excursions.
     "If yours does: get up early!  Then entrance, particularly that first right angle turn is truly spectacular, as the light can be exquisite at that time of day.
     "Traveling up Tracy Arm is like going back through geologic history.  The fjord's dramatic walls lose their vegetation until they become bare shining rock, shaped and ground smooth by the ice.  In many places the mountains plunge vertically into the water, which is more than a thousand feet deep.
     "Muir was genuinely moved by the power and the beauty of the glaciers, and he was able to communicate some the this enthusiasm to his companions.  Once, when they had the narrow and ice-shoked channel, they turned yet another corner and found what he had come to seek, the glacier itself.  While Muir stood in the canoe, sketching the glacier, several huge icebergs calved off, thundering into the water of the narrow fjord.  'The ice mountain is well disposed toward you,' one of the native paddlers said the Muir, 'He is firing his big guns to welcome you.'"

Traveling through the fjord was wonderful.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful.  The water was this amazing blue-green color.  The best part though was that it was the only time during our entire cruise that there was no noise.  The fjord is off limits to unnecessary noise.  There were no announcements over the intercom and there was no music played on deck.  We saw many, many icebergs of various shapes, sizes and closenesses to the boat.  Only one cruise ship is allowed in the fjord at a time, so it was only us there.

 North Sawyer Glacier - we didn't go down to see the South Sawyer Glacier

Alaska: Juneau & The Mendenhall Glacier

July 5th we spent in Juneau.  It was still cold (kind of) a little rainy but not windy.  It was very mountainous with lots of views of little stream coming down off the mountains.  The town was really neat and had lots of interesting shops along the main street.  I stopped into one that I had read about and picked up some Glacier Silt Soap.  It's pretty cool stuff.

Yep, those steps are metal!

We got to see a sea plane land.  It was pretty cool!

I had really wanted to take a shuttle up to the Mendenhall Glacier.  David, Dustin, Danielle and our David wanted to see it too.  Sharon, Drew and Matthew stayed in town and did some more shopping/exploring.

 Nugget Falls - we didn't have time to walk over there and still get back on the boat on time.

Mendenhall Glacier

Here is some information about the Mendenhall Glacier from The Alaska Cruise Handbook

"If there is ever were a reason for the 'See it before it melts,' motto used by some travel agents, it is this glacier.  Very accessible - just 12 miles from downtown...it has dramatically sped up its retreat back towards the Juneau Ice Field.  Between 1980 and 1999, Mendenhall retreated an average of 90 feet per year, then startled biologists by dramatically speeding up - losing 300 feet in 2000, and more than 600 feet in 2004.  What's particularly scenic is that is regularly calves small blue icebergs - the size of trucks and houses into Mendenhall Lake, creating a spectacular foreground.

Alaska: Happy 4th of July from Ketchikan

Ketchikan is the Salmon & Totem Pole Capital of Alaska

Our 4th of July was cold, rainy and windy!  Ketchican was beautiful!  The 4th of July parade was vetoed because of cold, wind and rain.

We all had matching shirts for the 4th of July.  The little boys were in red, Dustin & I were in dark blue, David & Sharon were in light blue, and Danielle & Drew were in white.  Somehow I never ended up with a picture of our family or all 8 of us with our shirts.

Ketchikan is hilly and right on the water!  Green, green, green and very interesting!  Dustin and I opted to take the walking tour of Ketchikan while David, Sharon, Danielle, Drew and our David went shopping and to the Science Discovery Center.

                             Original Sign @ The Ketchikan Daily News    Easier Sign to Read

 This creek (that's what it's called) often will have seals come right up to about this point to catch fish, during high tide anyway.  We didn't get to see any seals but it was pretty cool!

 The Salmon ladder (pictured right) helps the salmon get up past all the rocks and white water (pictured left and below).

 This was the Associated press telegraph machine.  The building was closed so these pictures were taken through the window.

 There were totem poles EVERYWHERE!  We really enjoyed finding them around the town and reading about each one.  Dustin & I also made it over to the Totem Heritage Center.  It was really cool to read about how, why and who made the totems.

Dustin & I found this sign to be very funny!