Last Alaskan Trip Post

So I have shared most of the scenic pictures from Alaska, but here are just some random pics of things I took just because I had a new digital camera and could.

Remember in Tennesse there were Runaway Ramps? Well apparently in Alaska trucks don't runaway, they just escape :)
Not sure I have seen very many kayaks in Texas?Just in case Steve said he didn't relax on our trip.Yes those are dollar bills. Don't know when they started this trend, but evidently people don't mind giving up a dollar to be part of the scene. We did not leave our mark on this place.
Better be careful, you never know who will just snap your picture because they think you might remind them of someone else.
Wish I knew how to carve watermelons, I can hardly carve a pumpkin.
Our attempt to do the teenage thing and take our own picture on the bus. For some reason theirs all look a lot better???
Steve thought it was ironic that we say "watch your head" and the boat said "mind your head". Didn't you think along with me that Palin was popular in Alaska?? Maybe not so much??

Whidbey

After we disembarked the cruise ship, we returned to the airport, rented a car and headed toward Whidbey. My Brother Brad had told us that it would be a nice place to spend the night and kind of debrief before heading to his house. Steve's mom had generously given us money for our birthdays so we used it to stay at a bed and breakfast. It wasn't a tradtional bed and breakfast in terms of the house. While the room was adequate, it didn't have any comfortable seating. But it did have a GREAT view and had comfortable seating outside. They had a very freindly cat, Rocky, that Steve really enjoyed.

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)