Alaska

Alaska
Glacier Bay Alaska

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Alaska Cruise

This is a collection of photos taken while on our Alaska Cruise in September. Laurie, me (Bill), Trisha, and Riley decided to escape with a cruise. It took alot of planning by Laurie and with the help of Josie our travel agent, it was a memorable trip. I was not able to include all the pictures we took because with the age of digital photography you can take as many pictures as you want and it's hard to get rid of some so you end up with a 1,000 pictures and we don't want to bore you like people used to with their home movies. I have also posted a series of pictures on Facebook which are more personal and include more of us but I thought I'd consentrate on the landscape here in this blog.

As we were flying into Seattle it was quite boring because of the cloud coverage but then Mt St Helens poked her head through the clouds.


We took a walking tour of Seattle where Ifound these two at the entrance to China town.


This is the entrance to the underground city of Seattle at Pioneer Park.

Riley and Trisha immitating the art on the buidings.

This is the gummy wall. Nobody knows how or why it got started but Trisha had to contribute to it.


Street performer at the Farmers market.


This is the original Starbucks located at the Farmers Market.


Art outside the Modern art Museum.

Downtown Seattle

Seattle Space Needle with a float plane flying past.

Riley and I checking the time on the ship telling us it's time to relax.

A view of the inner passage as we cruised past Brithish Columbia, Canada
This is the view we saw on our TV everyday. We never did see anyone sit in the hot tub.


Riley climed up the rock wall onboard the ship. He made it look so easy.

A glimpse of an Orka.
We saw plenty of whale snot being blown from the surfice but usually at a great distance from the ship. Unless you had your camera up and ready all the time you could miss one jumping. We did see one jump completly out of the water just like at Sea world but like most fishermen that was the one that got away and my camera only caught the ripple after he was back under.

I was able to get a couple of tails out of the water.



Here we are entering into the inner passage on our way to Juneau.

The U.S. Coast Guard Following us into harbor.




Our first rental car broke down while Riley was driving.

Downtown Juneau


Outside the Red Dog Saloon. I guess I need to read up on why it's so famous.

Juneau just before we left port.

Our ship the Norwegion Pearl tied up at dock in Skagway.

The town of Skagway, population 856. Grew to 10,856 after the tour boats docked.

The famous Red Onion Saloon and Brothel.

The girls were busting out to meet us.

A view of the hills just outside of town.


The White Pass Railway. This follows the path of the miners during the Alska gold rush.

The follage was just beautiful.

A tour guide at the Gold Rush Cemetery.

Looking West (I think) from Skagway.

Leaving Skagway Harbor.
The Morning as we entered into Glacier Bay National Park.

Just loved the golden sunrise

Another cruise ship following us into the park.

Carroll Glacier

Lampough Glacier, moves about 3 feet a day.

The Park Ranger said this was an eagle.

Reid Glacier

Marjarie Glacier

Now this was cool

We got to watch Margerie calf (break off) several times. When the ice cracked it made a loud sound which the local natives call "White Thunder". I think they said this glacier moves about 6 feet a day.

I couldn't get enough of the ice breaking off.

Grand pacific Glacier, your now looking into Canada. That's not durt but glacier ice that has carved the earth as it has moved.

Jones Hokins Glacier

I don't remember this glaciers name.



Leaving Glacier Bay


Entering Ketchikan Harbor

How would you like to have to climb these stairs every day.


Chief Kyan Totem Pole
Crane-Thunderbird-Brown Bear

Chief Johnson Totem Pole
Kajuk (fabled bird)-undecorated space (lofty habitat)-Raven's Slaves-Raven-Fog Woman

Raven Stealing the Sun Totem Pole
Raven-Sun-Chief's Daughter-Baby's face suggesting chief's Raven-ness-Chief


Raven-Fog Woman Totem Pole
Raven-Bullhead-Slaves-Fog Woman-Salmon-Base


Inside the Totem Heritage center


The salmon were running while in Ketchikan. You can't see from the photo but the river was solid fish. The man fishing could have just bent over and scooped out a fish.


Cold Creek Village
This is now just a bunch of shops but the original town was built on the river for easy access to the fish.

Riley and Trisha didn't care for the smell of all the dead salmon rotting on the banks of the river.


Morning as we enter the Outer harbor at Victoria, Canada


Park near Royal BC Museum



Legislative buildings


Scottish bagpipes


The Empress Hotel

The Empress Hotel at night

The Legeslative building at night