In late June, Michael and I, along with Jim and Ruth (Michaels parents) boarded a Princess Cruise Ship from Vancouver, and headed for Alaska. I had never cruised before, but it was a really fun experience. We had a 7 day cruise, with 3 days in towns along the Inside Passage and then 1 day in Glacier Bay, and then another day in College Fjord (which were only accessible by boat).
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| View from the boat over some Islands of Vancouver |
Our first day was at sea. There was not much to see except for the Pacific Ocean and occasional Islands off the coast of BC. It was still a really fun day though, there is so much going on on the boat, that your day flies by. I did Zumba, line dancing, went to an art auction and won a piece of art, relaxed by the pool (rugged up under a blanket) and ate lots of delicious food which was available whenever I wanted.
Day two we docked at Ketchikan. It was only a short visit but it was the perfect amount of time to go wildlife spotting. We saw heaps of Bald Eagles and various other fish and sea animals. It was pretty cool to see so many eagles in the one spot. The tour then took us to some totem poles and we heard all about the history of these poles.
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| Me at Ketchikan |
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| Creek Street, Ketchikan |
Next stop was Juneau, the Capital of Alaska. We left Michaels parents behind and hiked up the Mount Roberts trail to the top of the Gondola overlooking Juneau, which provided some pretty amazing views of the city. We were then hoping to rent bikes and ride to Mendenhall Glacier which is just out of town, but there were none left so we caught a bus instead.
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| Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau |
Our last land stop was Skagway, which is home the White Pass & Yukon Rail route. It was an amazing train ride, one of the most scenic I have been on. We caught a bus through the mountains which took us to the British Columbia Provincial line and caught the train back down to the city. We saw our first Caribou, which was super exciting, but the scenery was beautiful.
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| British Columbia, Canada (the part that joins onto Alaska) |
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| White Pass Train, Skagway |
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| White Pass Train, Skagway |
The next two days we spent at sea. The first day was at Glacier Bay. It was a pretty rainy and cold day which didn't make it ideal situations for being outside, viewing the Glaciers but it was still pretty amazing to see. we even got to see the Glacier carve, which was loud and pretty exciting to see. The next day was College Fjord which were some more Glaciers, in a different part of Alaska. It was a beautiful day, which was great, and although it was still windy and cold, we were able to rug up and head for the decks!
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| Sunset, out of Glacier Bay |
The next 4 days we spent in Denali National Park. Denali (or Mt McKinley) is seen only by 33% of visitors, but we were lucky enough to see if 3 days out of 4. The National Park is huge, we went on a bus which took us 66 miles into the Park, as you are not able to drive past a certain point. It's a cool park because you can hike anywhere you like. You don't have to stick to trails, which to me, makes the park pretty unique. We saw Bears, Caribou, Moose, Muskrat...just see below for some of my favourite picks.
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| A Marmot! |
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| Jim and Ruth hiking in Denali |
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| Denali National Park |
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| Caribou, Denali Natinoal Park |
