The best cruising was the time spent in Glacier Bay. Did you know Glacier Bay is a national park? Further, it is a World Heritage Site, “the principal recognition given to natural and cultural areas of universal significance.” The only way to reach it is by boat or plane.

When a cruise ship enters Glacier Bay they take on at least one Park Ranger, who gives a running commentary on what there is to see.

Obviously, there are glaciers. Since these touch water, they are all “Tidewater Glaciers.” The park includes around 12 that calve into the bay. That was the downside to our time in Glacier Bay; we didn’t see any glaciers calve.

I got lots of pictures of glaciers.  Lots of water and ice and wildlife.  It’s hard to convey the real beauty of the place and how awesome such big glaciers are with these little bitty pictures.

Clicking on the picture above opens the slideshow.  Take a look at the captions on the thumbnails before enlarging them.  For some reason the captions didn’t carry over.

Have I mentioned I’d love to go back?

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This was Day 5 of my 2007 Alaska Adventure.  We stopped in Skagway, and took a train trip to the top of White Pass on a narrow gauge railway, “The Railway Built of Gold.”

It was a thrilling ride. You can’t really relate to just how steep the railway is until you’re riding along and looking waaaaayyyyyyy down. A 10’ roadbed doesn’t seem very wide when a fall would be so far!

I took a lot of pictures. The good news is the ones on the way up to White Pass turned out pretty well. The bad news is the ones I took from White Pass back down to Skagway were messed up, and every file read “Error”. That’s the first time I’ve had that happen in all the years I’ve been using digital cameras. And it’s the last time I buy a memory card from some unknown on eBay!

Oh well! If I’d known, I wouldn’t have stayed out on that little platform outside the car freezing my fingers and other parts of my anatomy. I’d have sat in the much warmer coach car and just watched the sights go by.

It’s another trip I’d do again in a heartbeat.

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Going to Alaska was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Seeing whales in their natural environment was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. September 18th, 2007 found me fulfilling both dreams.  Combining the two made a day I’d repeat in a heartbeat if ever given the chance.

This was the first shore excursion Dad and I took.  And we got right back on the water!  I think we both agreed it was one of the best excursions of the trip.

Not surprisingly, I took more pictures on this day than at any other time. There were whales and seals and eagles and beautiful scenery just about everywhere you looked. It was almost a surreal experience; I just couldn’t believe I was really seeing all those things at last!

I picked out 45 of the pictures to make this slide show - too many Kodak moments to choose between!  If you’ve ever been to Alaska, you know how beautful it can be.

As always, click on the picture above, and it will open a new page with the slides index page. The first picture is at the top left. There are 3 pages of slides, so don’t forget to move to the next one after you get to the last slide on a page.

Most of the pictures were taken in the Auke Bay area, north of Juneau, Alaska.  There’s a limit on the number of characters I could put on the captions, so I couldn’t get too wordy.  The pictures will just have to speak for themselves!

Also, though the little camera I was using doesn’t take the best videos, here’s one I took of the Stellar Seals, just to give you an idea of all the NOISE they were making.

It’s an area rich in wildlife. And boy, I’d love to see it again!

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I have two days worth of pictures here.  We were mostly just cruising the first couple of days.  A pretty smart idea actually, because I suspect most people were tired from all the hurry and bustle of just getting to Seattle and boarding ship.

These pictures are September 17th & 18th, as we were crusing the Inside Passage, headed towared Juneau.Day 3 we spent cruising the Inside Passage, and on Day 4 we made it to Juneau, Alaska. As in previous entries, just click on the picture above, and it will open a new page with the slide show.

I would soooo love to see Alaska again!

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