Alaskan cruise: Juneau/Tracy Arm

So in Juneau, we decided to take a bus and go see Mendenhall Glacier, which apparently is one of the only glaciers you can actually drive to. So we find the rickety old bus that goes there and get on. The first thing we saw when we got off the bus was a baby black bear!

It was so cool! It was up in a tree and really close. I was a little afraid because where a baby bear is there's gotta be a mama bear close by. But there was a forest ranger there, so I felt mostly ok. The glacier itself was AMAZING! I seriously have never seen anything like it before.

I was just so amazed by how huge it was and the blue ice. Plus, there were chunks of ice that were floating down the river below the glacier that were just huge. They had a visitors center where we learned a lot about the formation of glaciers and the wildlife in the area. They even had a chunk of the glacier in there that we could touch. They said it was probably about 200 years old!

Then we went on a little hike down to a waterfall that was near the glacier. We had an even better (and wetter) view of it.

And here's the waterfall.

I really loved seeing the glacier. I think that was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.

Then we went on the boat up to Tracy Arm to see another glacier (Sawyer Glacier). Tracy Arm was really beautiful. There were steep cliffs and tall waterfalls around every corner.

I think this was was even bigger. We saw several other glaciers on our trip, but these two were the closest ones we were able to see. Pretty incredible.

And I loved how blue the ice was. It was so pretty.

Seriously, I had never seen anything like this before and it was just so incredible.

Alaskan cruise: Ketchikan

Our first stop was Ketchikan, Alaska. The first thing I noticed (besides how rainy it was) was the amount of bald eagles flying around. It was really neat. We even saw a nest with a mother eagle feeding her babies.

Ketchikan also supposedly has the largest collection of totem poles in North America.

We decided to take a boat tour to the Misty Fjords, which were about 40 miles away from Ketchikan in the Tongass National Forest. They were beautiful! It was also FREEZING, so I probably drank about 3 cups of hot chocolate and ate 2 bowls of clam chowder on this tour. :)

 On the way there, we passed this cool rock formation called New Eddystone Rock. It apparently is a volcano plug for an underwater volcano right there. When it spewed up it was so cold that it solidfied into this rock and plugged up the volcano.

 It was very misty. Hence, why it's called the Misty Fjords. :)

 But there were just really steep, tall cliffs with long, skinny waterfalls running down them. Every turn was just another amazing view.

 And the clouds were so low, it just looked mysterious. It kind of reminded me of New Zealand.

When we were done with the Misty Fjords tour, we hiked to a totem pole to see it up close and to a fish hatchery.

We also saw Santa there (I'm pretty sure Ketchikan is close to the North Pole!), but he left before I could get his picture.

Alaskan cruise: Seattle

Before we got on the ship in Seattle, we had a few hours to explore around Seattle. We decided to visit Snoqualmie Falls. Our good friends from our old singles ward had moved up to Washington a couple of years ago, and made the trek over to Seattle to hang out with us for a few hours. It was so fun to see them and their cute kids! We all got wet from the Snoqualmie Falls mist.

It was beautiful!

And huge!

We then went to Ivar's Fish Bar on the Seattle waterfront for some fish-n-chips and some clam chowder. Yum!

Then Shawn and Kristen dropped us off at our ship.

We also had a few hours to spend in Seattle when we got back before heading to the airport. We went to Pike Place Fish Market to watch the flying fish and to the waterfront piers, and of course Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. It is a fun place! Here we are testing our luck at the love meters.

They have all sorts of crazy stuff in there. :) If you have not been, you should really go next time you are in Seattle!

Alaskan cruise: The ship

Last week Matt and I went on a cruise to Alaska. It was amazing! It was so wonderful to get away and relax and see some gorgeous country. We sailed out of Seattle and stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria (BC). I will do a separate post for each port.

The ship was great. We were on Norwegian cruise line, which the one thing I really liked about it was that you didn't have an assigned meal time or table...you could go whenever you wanted. The first item of business was to figure out what we were going to do in each port!

They had these great lounges with some funky chairs that were great for watching the scenery as we sailed along since it was so cold outside. We spent a lot of time just sitting and looking out the window trying to find wildlife and looking at the beautiful scenery. (We ended up seeing fish, whales, dolphins, bears, seals, otters, eagles, and other birds.)

 

And what's a cruise boat without some shuffle board! 

Compared to other cruise lines I have been on (Carnival and Royal Caribbean), this boat didn't seem to have as much to do. That may have been due to the fact that it was cold, and so the outdoor activities weren't as prevalent. But we just had fun relaxing and taking in the beauty.

And you gotta love cruise food! Matt was obsessed with the sampling of cheese plate. He ordered it every night! And ate it with grapes. He says we are going to have a cheese party soon. It really was pretty good.

One of the nights they had a chocolate buffet where there was just a whole ton of chocolate desserts. It was pretty amazing.

And lots of cool chocolate and ice sculptures. Don't worry, they also had a gym and we walked a lot in the ports. :)

Here we are on dress-up night. You could either eat in a fancy dining room, a more casual dining room or the buffet. Or order room service. We did all of them at least once. The food was all pretty good, but for the record, Norwegian's was my least favorite of the 3 boats I've been on.

 

And every night we would come back to our room to find a different towel animal. It was nice being so pampered.

One of the nights, they had a Michael Jackson show. This lady was pretty amazing. We loved it! We also went to a circus, watched some game shows, and listened to a pianist and guitarist while we were on the boat, but the MJ lady was by far our favorite!

The scenery we sailed by was just incredible. My favorite were the glaciers. I have never seen anything like it before. I was amazed at how big they were and the blue ice.

This is when we sailed up into Tracy Arm to take a look at Sawyer Glacier. Pretty awesome.

And there were huge chunks of ice floating in the inlet for a really long ways away from the glacier.

See how blue the ice is?

It was just really beautiful. I feel like we didn't DO a whole lot, but we really saw some amazingly beautiful country.

It rained every single day we were there and was cloudy and cold, but this one night made for a pretty great sunset. At 10:30 p.m. The sunrise was around 3:00-4:00 a.m.

Lots of times we would just pile on the layers and chill out on the deck. It was cold, but great!