Well, we took the trip, my wife took some photos and at least one of my readers lives in Alaska, so I will write up our trip. Before our cruise, we stayed in Vancouver and Victoria there in B.C., Canada. My two ladies (wife and daughter) wanted to go to the High Tea at The Empress in Victoria. Please see photo (I was one of the very few fellas there):
The famous Butchard Gardens of Victoria (not looking very adventurous so far, eh gents?). I asked where were all the poppies? In France I saw poppies AFTER they flowered (you know, when, oh, never mind)... They told us when the flower stops flowering, they yank it out and plant another that IS in bloom.
First port of call: Ketchikan, Alaska (famous for having the liveliest waterfront in the state and for all the rain it gets) is below. Our tour guide sounded JUST LIKE Sarah Palin, is there such a thing as an Alaskan accent?)
Photo above is Mendenhall Glacier, near Juneau. Why are all those people carrying umbrellas?
Alaska / Yukon border, near Skagway (jump-off town for the Klondike Gold Rush):
Above photo is of a glacier at Glacier Bay National Park. Yes, you can hear cracks and booms as ice breaks off and falls from the glacier into the sea.
By chance the next day, we cruised past perhaps 20 Humpback Whales, these guys did not show their tails like the ones you always see when the pros take the photos. You can see this whale's exhaled spout:
Mama moose and her approx. one year old calf (Denali National Park):
Below are caribou (reindeer) near Fairbanks, Alaska. Not a whole lot to see in Fairbanks, and they told us it can get to -50 degrees F in the winter (at a tourist trap there was even a FREE special "experience -40 degrees freezer" you could check out, at -40 F, your mucus freezes instantly when you inhale). But, go to Fairbanks if you want to have the bragging rights as to whose has been the farthest north (alas, not so in my case, a friend of mine in the USAF when younger stuck his toe into the Arctic Ocean at Barrow).
My wife and I made the same trip back in 2005. A great trip and very relaxing. Thanks for the pictures.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Alaska photos. I have a lot of Alaska photo albums, thanks to my mother who was born and raised in Anchorage. My grandfather spent a number of years in the 1930s working a claim at the Lucky Shot Gold mine near Talkeetna. Still have some of nuggets... As one would imagine, it was a radically different way of life.
ReplyDeleteenjoyed the photos RM
ReplyDeleteRocky and Jena, Alaska sure is beautiful, but now that it is mid-September, I wonder how it is starting to look now. They did tell us that Alaska has very seasonality in its population.
ReplyDeleteThanks donpaulo for the nice words about the photos. Now if our daughter will email me the ones of the bald eagle in the tree and the orcas...