Day 5 Juneau

 I have tons of pictures of Juneau so this will be hard to decide what to share. We started off with the Jensens on a tour to the Mendenhall glacier. It was a short bus trip out there and we only had about an hour to see it all so we hustled out there. There was a nice trail that went all the way out to the falls.

 This was the first bunch of little icebergs (Growlers) we saw in the water. They weren't really all that small.

It was hard to pick just a few pictures to share.

After the glacier they took us to a salmon hatchery. It was really interesting to see it up close. It was on must see list too. Salmon spawning season had just started so it was neat to see them all coming back.

 This was the salmon ladder they had to jump up. It takes them any where from 2 days to 2 weeks to get all the way up. They make them do it because it helps them strip the fat off and its part of the spawning process.

 Those fish could sure jump!

This was the goal after all that jumping.

After the visit to the salmon hatchery we went to a salmon bake. We had heard that was a must do. It was a little chilly outside but with the hot chocolate to drink it was perfect. It was an awesome meal. They had a sweet glaze to put over the grilled salmon that was super good.

After lunch we split up and the Jensens did a tram ride.

They had a great view from on top of the mountain.

We had a float plane trip reserved for the afternoon. The weather was getting iffy and they had cancelled alot of the morning flights so we had a 45 minute delay while we waited for the all clear. That really got my nerves going for sure since I don't love flying to start with.

Finally we were good to go. I had to sit in the back right beside the door because my legs were too long on the side to fit comfortably. That left me nothing to grab onto because I was terrified I might grab the door handle by mistake. It was a pretty rough ride at times...also nerve racking for me. After all that I have to say it was the coolest thing ever and I am so glad we did it. The views were incredible as we flew over 5 glaciers!

 Ready to go!

Pictures will never do it justice but it gives you kind of an idea of how beautiful it was. I have to admit though I was happy to land too. Landing on water was pretty fun too! Yup I would definitely do it again.
So back on the ship we had a nice dinner of course and went to a show. The 8pm comedian, Kevin Hughes, was full in 2 seconds so we played some cards and waited for the second show at 10pm. They had to close the curtains in the lounge to make it dark even at 10pm. I was wishing we could sleep in the next day at this point but nope we had Skagway coming.

Day 4 Ketchikan

We were so excited for our first day in Alaska. We arrived in Ketchikan early, before 6am, and Mendis and Jeff were off first thing to go salmon fishing. They had a fabulous time and caught 3 fish each which was really good. The salmon season was just barely getting started. 

They were out there at least 4 hours and had a blast. They saw whales, porpoises, eagles, and maybe even an orca (they weren't sure).

Shelie and I took our time and had breakfast in the dining room and everything then we were off to go explore. We were looking for a duck tour to take but the times were off with what we wanted and it worked out to go off on our own anyway. We walked and walked and walked.

Creek Street. The old restored district that had it's hay day during the gold rush.

The "Married man's trail" or back way into the brothels at Creek Street

Killer stairs back there by married man's trail.

This is what we found at the top of the stairs.

Come to find out when we got to the top we could have taken this venicular for $2 instead!!

More Creek Street. Of course the mint green building was Dolly's place the most popular brothel!

So Shelie and I did some shopping after being tourists. Then we thought it would be fun to wait for the guys at the dock when they returned from fishing. We waited and waited. We waited for more than an hour then thought we better get back onboard because the ship was leaving at 1:30 sharp. Just when we thought they would be flying them to Juneau to meet us they arrived back. Just in time to grab lunch while we set sail again.

The view from the ship was constantly changing.

 We had a fun afternoon lounging around. Luckily we woke up in time for dinner.This was our night to celebrate our anniversary.

We took our cake back to our room and it took the rest of the cruise to eat it all. It was so yummy.

 That evening they decorated our door with this sign and balloons. Princess was awesome!! The next day they moved our sign and balloons inside our room to enjoy. It was a nice touch. That night we decided to play some cards with the four of us so we searched for an open place. The card room was blocked off with some sort of red carpet private reception that oddly enough we weren't invited to?

We settled for the atrium. We had alot of fun listening to the accordian player and violinst play Hotel California while we played. It was actually kinda good...who knew!

Day 3 Sea Day

Today was a leisurely day at sea. I didn't know how much I would come to enjoy those. It was nice to sleep in a bit then have a yummy breakfast and lunch. We spent lots of time looking at the ocean because since we were in the inside passage it was constantly changing. After lunch I had a pedicure which was awesome. Sometimes it was hard because my feet are incredibly ticklish so I don't get many of those ever. We met up with the Jensens and crossed our fingers that they would win a prize from their treasure hunt. You had to get a stamp from 9 different places on board and then they drew the papers out for prizes. We didn't enter but they did but they didn't win anything. We figured if they did it would have been a bottle of wine or something anyway.

That evening it got really foggy. It was so cool. They kept blowing the fog horn and everything. I LOVED it except for worrying that we might run into someone else of course.

That night was formal night at dinner:

Yummy little dessert!

 It was Jeff's special day for his birthday so they brought him a fabulous cake and sang to him. They put a sign on his door and balloons and everything. I thought it was pretty cool. 

It took days to eat it all.

After our yummy dinner we got our portraits taken. Not a fan of pictures but they all turned out really nice so we got these two to keep for a small fortune.

After dinner and pictures we went to the show. This one was called "Do You Wanna Dance" and was music and dance through the years. It was probably my favorite one. Then after the show we went to the Explorers Lounge and listened to a band called Soul Provider and watched people dance. That was more fun than it sounds actually. Some of those old folks can really cut a rug out there. After the music they had a trivia game that we were waiting for. It was TV Tunes. Well heck guess who won? We did. We got 19 out of 20 TV theme songs right. So what does that say about us really? The only one we got wrong was the theme from the Bionic Woman and who can blame us on that. So guess what our fabulous prize was...ready for it...a carabeaner. Yup we didn't even get the pen. It was obviously just for the fun of it all and we really did have a great time. A lovely day!