Ketchikan

Or should I say Kitsch-ikan. No that's just mean. It was absolutely the shopping port and we knew that so we saved most of our souvenir buying for this stop. Cheaper and a bigger selection. It was pretty honky tonk but it was an actual functional city much like Juneau. Tourism is big but it is really a fishing town. I was wise to choose the Alaskan Chef's Table as my activity for the day. Oh my. Deliciousness.

This was the final port and we had already been on vacation for a week together. Most of you faithful readers know that Michael and I don't get a lot of time together (understatement!) so we aren't used to being together every night and every day for such a stretch. We hadn't fought at all, but I'm a pretty firm believer that if you don't do something apart once in a while you run out of stuff to talk about. So in Ketchikan we went our separate ways. He went ziplining (shocker) and I went for a fish feast in town and did a little shopping.

The Alaskan chef's table was divine. Much of what you would expect form Alaskan cuisine, it was all fish. Crab legs (from the Wizard!) King white salmon which is absolutely delicious. I never

knew such a thing existed and the chef said he wasn't surprised. It is really difficult to get and extremely expensive. The chef was most impressive. He was ridiculously cute and his name was Ryan Hendricks. 24 years old and is just now starting formal chef's training. He has great talent and can make a sauce that would make my keyboard palatable. Seriously, remember this kid's name he'll be a reality star one day. He has the looks, charm and talent.

Michael's zipline tour was a bit disappointing but I'll leave him to tell you about that.

When we both returned we went up up and away in a sea plane to the Misty Fjords. Well at least we tried to. The plane tour was running late due to mechanical problems (yikes) and then once we finally did make it onto the plane the starter didn't work. Part of this tour is to water-land in the fjords and let us walk out onto the pontoons of the plane, like this:

That's me hanging on for dear life.

That's Michael not hanging on at all.

Now if the plane would have initially started then failed when we stopped in the middle of nowhere...well we would have missed our boat for sure. That would have SUCKED. well when the first plane didn't start we switched to another and took off. The following pictures are through the glass windows of a 6 passenger plane that was built in the 1950s (we found that out AFTER the flight)

When you say you're in the middle of nowhere and you're really just a couple of miles away from somewhere...I mean anything, you really are exaggerating. I have never felt so isolated as I have in the Misty Fjords and at the Hubbard Glacier. Even on a ship full of 5,000 people you felt small and insignificant. The same is true at the fjords. You were truly just out in no man's land. The expanse if Alaska is one of its marvels. It goes on and on and on.

Then we got back and saw this:

Aw yeah.

Alaska to be continued

I have lots more to say about the trip and more awesome pictures. Hopefully I'll have time to get them up tonight. Stay Tuned!

Time Bandit

I can't believe I saw the freaking Time Bandit!!!!!

Juneau

What a lovely little town. It's nice to visit functioning cities. Skagway was a theme park. Juneau was an actual city where people live. Of course tourism is a huge source of revenue but it wasn't set up specifically for tourists.

What a shit show of a day though. Firstly I'll tell you that the weather has been ridiculously beautiful. Today the sun came out again and I didn't even need long sleeves. We ate outside in town and relished every moment of sunshine.

We strolled into town about 9ish and poked around had tea and coffee and shopped a bit. Then we ventured back to the ship to drop off some things before heading to the helicopter tour of the Mendenhall glacier. Leave the ship to meet the guide and ...ummm...guess what. We effed up. The tour left at 9am and we thought it was leaving at 11:30. Shite. So we went back on the boat only to discover that the tour desk was closed and we had to talk to someone outside. Back off the boat (keep in mind we have to scan our cruise card and go through security every time. they must have thought we were nuts) to find out that the tour had been cancelled anyway due to weather. PHEW that could have been a nearly $400 mistake. Back on the boat to drop off the cold weather gear we needed for out tour and back out to Juneau for lunch. Now, had we shown up for the tour at 9 like we were supposed to we would have known early on that it was cancelled and booked something cool on our own like a sea plane ride, but no, we blew it. We had a wine tasting back on the ship at 3 and didn't want to risk being late. Which we ended up being late for anyway since the line to get back on the ship was like 4 miles long. Thank goodness the weather was good today and we just chilled in Juneau otherwise it would have been pretty frustrating.

We found an out of the way bar and got a beer and watched the seaplanes take off. then we took a tram to the top of a nearby mountain and strolled around up there. Saw a bald eagle that had been shot and rescued. They are very impressive birds.

All in all it was a decent day in Juneau. I am hoping for the improbable, a third straight day of awesome weather. Michael will be one soggy zipliner if we get rain tomorrow.

Skagway

Meh. Skagway is what the cruise folks want I guess but it was a bit Disney-esque. We went kayaking (that's where we saw the bears) so we only spent a few hours in town. We managed to find a great brewery and had a few beers off boat. It was so nice to get off the stupid boat.

Most of you know our last cruise pretty much sucked. Really bad boat and the cheese factor of the cruise in general was nearly intolerable. This cruise is much better and I wouldn't change a thing about our vacation, but the cheese factor is still there. The bars/entertainment is all geared to the old folks. When you get off the boat in a port they have crew members dressed in costumes and they want to take a picture with you. And then there is "formal night" I hate formal night and on this cruise it just seems extra wrong. I just hiked through the tundra and saw huge mountains and bear poo and you want me to put on a gown? No thank you. All that said the cruise is the way to go if you are going to AK. The Hubbard glacier is generally not accessible by anything smaller than a cruise ship and to have come here and missed that would have been a crime. The food on board has been good so far and we have managed to find some people that are nice.

Kayaking was completely amazing and we ended up with a beautiful day. The guides were saying they hadn't had a day this good all season. The forecast called for rain and high winds but the forecast was wrong. Not only was it dry but the sun came out and apparently that is a rarity. We'll be taking a helicopter to a glacier today. Cross your fingers for good weather.

Da Bears

When I came to Alaska I was excited to see the wildlife but what I really wanted to see was grizzly bears. There is something about the danger that really fascinates me. so today we really got our money's worth. In fact every day we say, "If I had to go home tomorrow it would have all been worth it."

Yes I took that. zoom lens was on but the bears were so close to the bus I probably would have gotten great pictures without it.
Momma bear and her cubs.
and a couple of bald eagles for good measure. More awesome pics to come. I can't believe the beauty we have seen. It's just staggering.

Massive Ice

A little seal!

Falling ice