Victoria Canada

Well our last day at sea included a stop at Victoria Canada. Once again we were only going to be there 4 hours, which was not near enough time. We had scheduled an excursion to Buchart Gardens. Unfortunately, we only had about 15 minutes or so before it got dark and then we saw the gardens by light. We had 2 hours to see 55 acres of flowers. Good thing I was on a scooter. Steve wasn't all that into the gardens, so he would sit and wait for me while I would take off on the scooter. The gardens were very pretty and I had fun experimenting with my new camera and taking pictures of flowers. Unfortunately, when I went to take a picture of what I thought was the prettiest of the gardens, my batteries died and I did not have anymore with me. So here are some of the pictures I took, along with a really fun video of some people I enjoyed watching dance at the gardens. Especially watch the guy on the left with the black shirt and tan pants...he was really getting into it!








So why is it we call them restrooms and in Canada they are washrooms??

Ketchikan

So our last Alaska port was Ketchikan. It was actually my favorite, but unfortunately, we got the shortest amount of time there and by the time we did the Seaplane excursion, we only had about an hour to explore. But here are the pictures of the town and the views from the seaplane.




This was my favorite picture I took of the trip. It was from our landing on Misty Fjord and I love the reflection in the water.



How would you like this to be your rug in your den?
And then look who I found vacationing in Ketchikan! Who knew?

Tracy Arm

One of the neat things about our Alaskan cruise is it was sponsored by In Touch Ministries, so that everyone on board was a believer (or a friend or relative). It was just nice to know that you didn't have to worry about anyone getting drunk (they didn't serve alocohol) or about bad language, etc. One of the neat things was when we made it up Tracy Arm to see Glacier Bay they were talking on the loud speaker so that we could all hear, and they said we should all praise God for His creation and began singing "How Great Thou Art". I videoed what was going on and you can hear the singing and then you can hear Steve excited to have a bald eagle siting. Unfortunately, you really can't tell it's an eagle. Just thought on this Lord's day it was appropriate to post the video. You will hear Dr. Stanley speaking to us as well. Not sure what happened when the camera goes sideways, but....oh well.

Glacier Bay

Tuesday was our day cruising Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. It was the most serene of all the days, just because our cruise speed was very slow and for hours we saw all sorts of ice bergs. Some people spotted orca whales, but unfortunately, not us. We did see one seal swim close to the ship and another sitting on an ice formation. Also saw a couple of bald eagles, but couldn't get them on camera. It was also our coldest day, so hot chocolate tasted really good and also the split pea soup they served us on deck :)

Skagway

This was our first cruise. We enjoyed all the decandence and just being spoiled. We especially enjoyed the formal 5 course dinners. We had the same table partners all week and enjoyed getting to know them.
It was fun coming back to the room every night to see what kind of towel animal Mulyanti had made for us.
Our second port was Skagway. Definitely not handicap friendly as there were several railroad tracks to get over and then wooden sidewalks. We took a 2 hour train ride into Canada and then returned by bus here are just a few pictures from the trip:


This is a snowplow, that is still operated in the Winter.




We stopped on the way back at Liarsville, it was called that because the newspaper men would come there to cover the Gold Rush but instead of actually covering the news they would wait till the gold rushers returned to camp and report their stories as news. This was the one thing on our trip that definitely was not worth the money ($41.00 each)

Juneau

So after sailing all day Saturday and half day Sunday, we landed in Juneau. Sunday morning we had a worship service with Dr. Stanley before getting off the ship to enjoy Juneau. Steve and I had reserved a Whale Watching excursion that took 4 hours of our shore time. We were hopeful to see whales, but could not have imagined what we were going to be blessed to see. It is called bubble netting. Most whales do not spend time in community, so sitings are usually of a lone whale, but there are times they come together in an effort to feed. You can read about the interesting process here: www.alaskawhalefoundation.org/education/bubble_net/bubble_net_feeding.html
Here is the best video I was able to take, wish we had been closer:

I had wished we were this boat as they were alot closer to the whales than we were. Seems like they could have taken turns?? As it was each boat was only allowed 30 minutes and then they were suppose to move on. Our driver dropped a microphone in hopes that we could hear the whales, but there were about 5 other boats in the area so there was too much noise.
The brown building is the state capital building, one of the few without a dome. No, we didn't see Sarah Palin.

Alaska Day One

(Steve checking us in for our trip)

So we are back from our amazing Alaska adventure and have 1200+ pictures to show for it. No...I will not post them all here, but will spend the next few days giving highlights of each day.

We began our trip in Seattle arriving the day before our launch and staying at the Sea-Tac Marriott. We were able to get two $200.00 vouchers by delaying our flight for an hour and a half, which we didn't mind doing. Friday morning the bus picked us up at 10:30 a.m. and it was off to the cruise.

Immediately we were taken back at the size of the ship! It was huge! We sailed on Holland America's Zaandam. When we boarded our ship the room wasn't quite ready so the first thing we got to do was enjoy our first of many buffet's. It was all everyone had told us it would be...way too much food to choose from. We then checked in our room and within 30 minutes our luggage showed up.


We then set sail at 4:00.
We had signed up for the early dinner at 5:30 p.m. and were paired with two other couples. The Crawfords were from Columbus, Mississippi. Sammy was an associate pastor of a Baptist church who had been at the same church for 30 years and his church had given him the cruise as a gift. The Mayers were from Michigan and ran a 1400 acre gladiola farm. We really enjoyed getting to know both of these couples during the week.We enjoyed our welcome from Charles Stanley. We returned to the room to find chocolates on our bed and our drapes pulled. Steve was the first to figure out that the rugs in the elevator were going to indicate the day of the week. We both commented that we were amazed how well we slept the first night. Must have been the rocking of the boat. Stay tuned tomorrow for a look at our port in Juneau.