To celebrate our first completed trip around the big yellow thing as a couple, we went up to Alaska on a cruise on Holland America's Oosterdam.  It was also the last 'big' trip we'd be able to take for a while, since BabyJ is less than 90 days away... so we made it a larger trip than it might otherwise have been.  We had a fantastic time, and we're already kicking around ideas about going back!  :-)

The trip was a "round trip" out of Seattle.  We drove down out of the hills, and stopped for a bit at the Issaquah Farmer's Market, to pick up some flowers for church.  Then, we continued to Seattle, and made our way to the Cruise Ship Terminal, which is fairly close to Safeco Field.

We made our way to the ticket desk, where they took our picture.  After a short wait, word came that we could board the ship.  It all went very smoothly.

The terminal can handle two ships at a time, and both moorings were in use.  The "Sapphire Princess" was next to the Oosterdam... it would follow us pretty much the whole trip.

Once on board, we went up to the observation deck.  Seafair was in full swing, and the air show was going on... while everyone was waiting on the Blue Angels, the Patriots actually flew closer to our ship.

We watched them loading supplies and baggage, and talked with folks on the deck with us.

We weren't disappointed: the Blue Angels made a good showing

 
We then made our way to the Life Boat Drill.  Fun Stuff... but I suppose its better to be safe than sorry.

After scrambling with everyone else to get back to the room and stow the vests, we were back up on top for the departure.

We enjoyed the scenery of the Puget Sound on the way out, then went to the "Welcome Aboard" show. 

After the show, the Sunset was SPECTACULAR.  We were heading into a cloudy and overcast week, so we really enjoyed the view! 

The next morning, we were at sea... not much to see but open water.  We walked around the ship, and checked things out.

The ocean was fairly calm... 1.5 to 4 feet.  Not too bad at all, especially for a ship 975 feet long!

It was pretty windy, so we didn't spend too long on the deck - which was very clean and very well maintained.

We stayed a good distance from shore, but occasionally, a island or two would get close enough to be closer than "the horizon"

It cleared up as the day went on, which was pretty nice.

 
The sunset, once again, was awesome!

The Princess ship made for a nice scene as the evening faded into night.

 
Morning saw us in much calmer waters, and not too long after breakfast, we docked in Juneau.

Juneau was overcast and foggy, with a light drizzle... sort of normal for the most northern state capital in the USA.

 
This unassuming blue building is where Alaska Airlines got its start.  It served as the hanger for float planes... something the Alaska Airlines doesn't have anymore.

We stopped by a hatchery during our tour of the city... it was a lot like hatcheries back home, so we weren't as excited as the folks from Georgia were.  :-)

From there, we went to the Glacial Gardens.  When the owner of a nursery was clearing his property after a landslide, he rented an excavator that was pretty new, and he was warned it would cost a lot if it got damaged.  About an hour before he was going to load the rig on a flat bed and return it, he moved one last rock.  The rock slid, and a tree it supported fell onto the radiator cover, causing several thousand dollars worth of damage.  He wasn't too happy, so he grabbed the tree with the excavator, and plunged it into the ground.  The resulting stump made for an interesting platform to plant flowers on... and the rest is history.

They had some AMAZING displays of flowers, and a great trail through the landscape to an overlook... it was a fun visit.

The jewel of Juneau, though, is the Mendenhall Glacier, which is about 15 miles out of town.

A river of ice, the glacier flows into a lake that formed as the glacier has retreated, which it has been doing for about 250 years, since the end of the "mini ice age", which ended in the 1800's.

 
In the Afternoon, we  got back on board, and we sailed off into the night.

 
The next morning, we were closing on Yakutat Bay, which is still home to several tribes of Tlingit Indians.

It is also home to the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska: Hubbard Glacier.

Shortly after entering the bay, a Native Pilot boat boarded a guide, and quite a few of the passengers made their way onto the bow of the ship, which is normally closed to visitors, because of the winds experienced there.

 
We spent some time on the bow, then went on to several other decks, trying to find a place that was warm, and had a good view of the glacier.

We ended up going to our own veranda balcony... it had good protection from the wind, and had as good a view as we could get anywhere else...

The blue ice of the glacier is very stunning.

The Face of the glacier is some 500 feet above the water, and the wall extends another 600 feet or so below the surface.

Several times while we were there, large portions of the face calved off. 

You could hear cracking ice reverberating in what the local natives call "White Thunder"... it was a very accurate description.

 
The glacier was pretty spectacular!

We stayed about 1-2 miles from the face for a couple of hours... then we headed off for our next destination.

 
The weather was very nice, and after we ate, we went to the show, which was "Drew and Angela", a magician duo who apparently are husband and wife.  They did a great job.

When we got back to our room, we enjoyed the towel elephant, and especially the sunset.

It was an awesome way to end the day, that's for sure! 

 
The next morning saw us pulling into Sitka, the ancestral home of the Tlingit Indian Nation, and the capital of the region when it was under Russian control.

The city doesn't have a deep enough moorage for the ships, so they had to use a life boats as tenders to get us ashore.

It was an interesting ride.  The bay was quite calm, so there were no "issues"... :)

Our guide took us to the Sitka National Historic Park, which surrounds a Tlingit fort built to defend against a Russian incursion after they had been run off by Tlingit fighters about a year earlier. 

The Russians used conquered Aleut Indians to tow their ships into the bay in order to use them to fight, as the winds were blowing the wrong direction.  One of these boats managed to hit the Tlingit ammunition dump, which left them unable to defend the city.

The park now houses totems in an effort to preserve them, and the histories they depict.  It was a very interesting stop.

 
From there, we went to a show put on by a Russian Dance Troup... only they weren't Russian, and they were all women.  :-)

They put on a great demonstration of the style and the history of Russian influence in the region.

 
St Archangel Michael Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church sits prominently near the center of the city.

Originally built in 1844, it suffered a devastating fire in 1966, which burned a considerable portion of the city.  Most of the icons were safely removed, and after the Cathedral was rebuilt - using the original plans - they were returned to their original locations.

It was cool to see the bell, one of the original bells used in the church steeple, with Russian writing on it.

 
This is Castle Hill.  When the Russians came here, the Tlingit tribal capital long houses were here on this hill.  The Russians, after they retook the city after being chased away by the Tlingits, built the home of the Russian Governor this hill, which gave the hill its name.  It was on this hill that the formal hand-off of territorial ownership happened after the USA purchased the state for $7.2 million.

From the hill, you can see the statue of "Skagway Bill", a Sitka native who was among the most famous of the early Klondike pioneers.

You can also see the Russian blockhouse, built to keep the Tlingits at bay after the Russians retook the town.

 
After visiting with the Park Ranger for a while, we walked down the hill, and back to the landing for a ride back to the boat.

Its amazing how large the ship is when you're outside of it...

Once everyone was aboard, they started putting the boats away. 

They hoisted them up very easily... it was nice to see the process worked, in case we'd ever need them for real!

Shortly after that we left for Ketchikan

 
While we were eating, I heard a large slap, like something had fallen into the water.  I looked out the window, and saw a big area that had been disturbed.  While I was trying to figure out what had done that, a whale breached, and when it hit, it made the same sound I'd heard. I got my camera ready, and hoped it would happen again. 

It was an awesome sight!  Its hard to imagine the power it would take to get so much weight that high out of the water!

We kept watching for more, but we didn't see anything, except a pair of flukes... seems a mom and her calf were passing us by..

We went to the show, a ventriloquist.

 
The sunset after the show was SPECTACULAR!

The water color held an incredible contrast to the sky...

Even after the sun had set, the clouds held on to their coloring for quite some time... we were quite a ways up, and it stayed light until well after 11.

 
Morning found us arriving at Ketchikan... my favorite town in Alaska.

I'd NEVER been to Ketchikan where it wasn't overcast... and nearly every day I've spent there its rained at least a PORTION of the day.

But on this day, it was wall to wall blue sky!

 
Shortly after docking, we strolled ashore, beating the crowds off the ship. 

We walked out to Creek Street, which was at one time the city's "red light" district, but now is home to trinket shops.  The boardwalk is a great location to watch salmon, which were just starting to begin their run up the river.

We walked the length of Creek Street, which merges with "Married Man's Trail" at its far end.  Just as we were leaving, the crowds showed up. 

We met a Inuit logger who had a dog named "K D", which is short for "Klondike Dog".  She was 12 years old, had some wolf in her, and weighed 115 pounds.  In the 20 minutes we were sitting next to them on a bench, they must have raked in 20 in tips stuffed under her harness.

We took a local tour out to Saxon village, which is a Tlingit village just out of town.  They have a long house that is closed to the public, but there is a park in the front of the longhouse that houses several totems... some of them quite old and historic.

We stopped by a shop where a Tlingit elder was teaching younger men the art of totem carving.  This shop carves totems on commission, much like the carvers of old.

It was very interesting to watch him work... while answering questions from those of us visiting the shop.

All to early, we had to leave Ketchikan to head down to Victoria.

As we were sailing, we went to a towel folding demonstration, where we were shown how the cool animals we saw at night on our beds were created.

The day ended with another AWESOME sunset.

The next day, we went to the "Disembarkation Seminar", where they ended with a salute to the crew.  The various folks who helped us during our trip came on stage... including Honky Dory, the waiter in the Lido Restaurant who seemed to always remember everyone's name.

From there, we played another game of Chess (we ended with a record of 2-0-1). 

During the game, we managed to notice another whale.

After the game, we sat and watched the scenery, and before too long, we were pulling into Victoria.

 
The weather was awesome.

We took a bus tour of the city, and then went to Butchart Gardens

Once the home of the Butcharts, who owned a limestone quarry, and the concrete factory it supplied, the gardens now are an extension of the owner's wife's passion for flowers.

Still owned and managed by the family, the gardens have been expanded over the years to encompass the quarry and grounds of the plant.

Privately owned, the Gardens are home to an amphitheater, on which a band that played an odd mix of music (sort of a blending of country, pop, and folksong, all in the same song).

 
The flowers were incredible!

The smells in the quiet air of the evening really made you want to stay there MUCH longer than we had time for!

The blooms were so colorful and so large... it was amazing!

Literally miles of walkway snake through the gardens... set up in a mix of English influence with a local Northwest flair to its design... it was quite spectacular.

On the way back to the ship, the Parliament building was out in all its glory.

This is one place that's not very far away from us... we'll be back here sooner rather than later... I'm sure of it.

Our arrival in Seattle was, once again, hailed with GREAT weather...

We signed up for "Express Disembarkation", where you carry your own bags off the boat. We surprised that there wasn't a lot of other passengers with us.

After we left the ship, we noticed the piles of food and water staged to be brought on board for the next passengers.

We were whisked through customs, and with one last look, we got into Gar (parked right outside the terminal), and drove home.

What a great vacation!  Now we need some rest to recover from it... :-)

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