Wordless Wednesday- Butterfly

Various Random shots

As serious as we seemed on the excursions, we did relax on the cruise and have some fun.....

Ketchikan

The last stop where I took photos was Ketchikan, Alaska. We had a very early excursion on a boat that was filmed in the television series on the Discovery channel..."The Deadliest Catch." The tour guides were experienced fisherman that had actually "crabbed" in the Bering Sea and taught us how crabs were caught and we also heard lots of stories from their adventures. Here's a picture of the crab pot when they brought it up...not too many crabs, but look at the octopus!!
Some of us held the crabs...
Some of us didn't....
We saw other creatures from the sea.....these are "Rock Fish"
While out of the ship, we spotted an eagle...
and the eagle's nest....
and here we are with the crew....

Good Times

Skagway...

It was a busy day for some of the group in Skagway. The morning brought an early morning train ride into the Yukon .....it was a 3 hour ride full of twists, turns, tunnels and scary bridges! Here are some pictures from the ride.... You can see another train below us...
The train took us high above Skagway, but it was clear enough that we could look down and back into the distance and see the town and the big ships...we were again, very blessed to be able to see this!! The high altitude mountains had also just received their first snowfall the night before our train ride. Again, blessed.... can you see the cruise ships????
In the afternoon, a group of very brave souls went ziplining in the rainforest! They made them walk some dangerous paths, just to get them used to the equipment.

Glacier Bay

We woke up on the morning of visiting Glacier Bay, and it was extremely foggy (6am). John went back to bed, figuring the whole day might be a bust..... Luckily, the fog cleared up and it was perfectly clear by 8am...hooray!! It was still overcast, but at least the fog had cleared up!!
Our favorite glacier that we saw was the Marjerie Glacier. Our ship stopped in front of the glacier for an hour. (Notice how the sun came out, just for us!!)
This is the Marjerie Glacier..it's the most active glacier in the area...we saw it "calve" a few times in that hour. So fun to hear the cracking and booming and then see the ice break off and fall into the water....
We also saw this glacier that had a freshwater river running through it that created a snow cave....really beautiful!!!
Some of us had a hard time being patient for an hour and staring at the glacier, so we needed to paint our nails......this polish changes color in the sunshine!!!
We needed to get a few photos in front of the glacier so, here they are....The Peterson 6
The Peterson 6 and the Mackey 2 = FUN
Here are a couple more pictures from Glacier Bay....oh, how I LOVE my camera!!!
and here's Grandpa Phil, just taking in the sights...
and here's the most beautiful thing that I saw in Glacier Bay..... it was worth the walk around the ship to capture this photo!!
Onto Skagway tomorrow!!!

and yes, we drove Andrew back to college yesterday.....his sophomore year has begun!!

Juneau

As one of our excursions in Juneau, we went whale watching in Auke Bay. It was a rainy and foggy day but little did we know that it would turn out to be an AWESOME day. 5 humpback whales were spotted and the boat approached them, trying not to disturb their feeding. The naturalist explained that they were doing something called "bubble netting" to catch fish. They usually do this only a few weeks out of the year, and today was our lucky day to see them do this!! The naturalist also explained that there are only about 20,000 humpback whales in the world, and only 200 of those know how to do the "bubble netting" to catch fish. We couldn't believe that we were getting to see such a rare thing...... She explained that the whales all blow bubbles to scare the fish into a certain area and then the whales swim from the bottom to top of the water with their mouths wide open.....what a sight!! They did this over and over.....
We also saw some Steller sea lions relaxing on a buoy....
the second half of the excursion involved seeing the Mendenhall glacier....we didn't spend much time here...spent most of the time whale watching.....(sorry for the blurry picture)
Andrew and Ben had a fun excursion that day too...but of course, no pictures...... they rode bikes down a mountain and had a guided tour of nature along the trail.......

Stay tuned tomorrow....Glacier Bay!!!! Here's a sneak peek....

The Ship

We cruised Alaska on Princess Cruise's ship..."The Golden Princess". It was a HUGE boat...and when you're talking about being in the middle of the ocean, I felt very good about being in a BIG boat!! The cruise ship measures 900 feet long, is 190,00 tons and holds 2,600 passengers and 1,100 crew members....BIG!!
We really enjoyed this ship....it has so many wonderful amenities......
2 theaters (shows put on every night)
1 movie theater
4 pools
a nightclub
themed bars, lounges and various restaurants
sports deck with a basketball court, shuffleboard, miniature golf course, giant chess board
many hot tubs
boutiques
internet cafe
library
Spa and fitness center
and much more!!!!

Here's a picture of the giant movie theater screen that is right next to one of the pools. Anna and the boys sat in the hot tub and watched a movie one afternoon! You can see people in the hot tubs in this picture....that's just how big the screen is....GIANT! and obviously when we're in a port, movies are shut down and all of the stores on the ship shut down too....
Here's a picture of our room....perfect for just the 2 of us.... the kids had an inside room
with double bunk beds.
Here is the back of the boat.....the enclosed area above is the night club, but during the day our kids borrowed games from the library and played those games in that area...it had a beautiful view!!
The last photo is of one of the outdoor pools ...it's the one by the movie screen. On the opposite end of the pool are 2 food areas....one is the pizzaria and the other is a grill that serves burgers, brats, chicken, etc. You just walk up and order the food...it's all free!! The other end has the ice cream shop. Order cones, shakes, etc... a teenage boys dream!!!! Yes, Andrew gained 8 pounds on the 7 day cruise, and Ben gained 10!!!!
Here's John on our balcony.....just relaxing.....

Vacation....

I'm Baaaaaaaack.....had a fabulous vacation with my family on an Alaskan Cruise....IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!
We flew into Seattle and spent a few days there before the cruise. We visited the Space needle...
Went to the famous fish market.....
and visited a Museum of EMP.....(Museum dedicated to Science Fiction, Music and Pop Culture)
and really enjoyed the view from atop the Space Needle....
Stay tuned tomorrow for more pictures.......