The view from our balcony. After a choppy day/night on the Pacific after leaving Seattle, we awoke to this stunning view as the fog cleared with the morning sun.
In Juneau, we took an excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier.
Juneau, my first experience on mainland Alaska wreaked of "tourist trap". It was filled with souvenir and jewelry shops. I desperately searched for an authentic experience, and after getting turned around a few times, I dined at the amazing Tracy's King Crab Shack. The king crab legs and crab cakes were INCREDIBLE and the employees were fun to talk with:
We stopped in a little town called Ketchikan, the salmon capital of Alaska. There were tons and tons of salmon in the streams, but not all of them were faring well in their journey towards mating areas. Lots must have accidentally jumped out of the water during their journey, because there were dead salmon everywhere:
The most beautiful scenery of the trip was our sail through Tracy Arm Fjord. The water was pristine, the air crisp, and the icebergs abundant. Check out this glacier! Funny story: As we approached glacier and got as close as we could, a huge piece of it cracked off and crashed into the water. This is called calving. Everyone on deck started cheering. I was near a member of the crew and mocked the crowd, "Woohoo! Global climate change at work!!" The dude got a kick out of me:
What's up with the telephone booth usage at the Victoria, BC port?
Mr. Blogsky has already deemed this post "boring" so I will end with that ;) I'll return to my regularly scheduled blogging with lots of wedding recaps and planning stories soon!
p.s. This post is in no way an endorsement of Alaskan cruises. I enjoyed the people I was with and the sights were beautiful, but did not like the inauthenticiy of the ports towns, the claustrophobia that accompanied being stuck on a ship for days, the rough Pacific seas, and the cheesy ship activities, etc.
In fact, I think this image belongs on AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. It sums up the on-ship experience:
