Monday, October 18, 2010

Alaska

Nick and I went on a cruise to Alaska with Nicks co-worker and his family. We left from Seattle on September 24th and headed towards Juneau, Alaska. On our way to Juneau our ship encounter bad weather and 30 ft swells; so at 2:00 am the ship turned back to sail to Alaska via the inside Passages through Canada. Since we had bad weather the first night and had to turn back we weren't able to go to one of our scheduled ports and all of our port times got shortened a bit. This was a huge bummer...but at least we were still alive. lol

On Monday, September 27th we arrived in Glacier Bay. It was 46F, overcast,and scattered showers. This was one of the coldest days on our trip. Glacier Bay was so beautiful! There were water falls everywhere and the water color was amazing. Our ship got really close to the glazier and we were able to watch big chunks of ice the size of houses or even bigger fall off and crash into the ocean. The sound of it sounded a lot like loud thunder. It was pretty awesome to get as close as we did.

Tuesday, September 28th we arrived in Juneau Alaska. In Juneau we rented a car and drove to Mendenhal glacier. Here we all went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall and to get a closer look at the glacier. After Mendenhal glacier we drove to the chapel by the lake. What a beautiful place to have a church. You could sit in the benches and look out the window at the Mendenhal glacier and the lake.
Our next stop after the chapel was the the shrine chapel. It was very cool and a little creepy too. This shrine was for all of the victims of abortion. I loved the look of the vegetation there. There was moss covering everything and lots of large plants and trees, it felt as if you were in a rain forest. The shrine was almost on a little island, but was attached to land by a little dirt path. Although this place was very beautiful I think it could definitely creep you out given the right circumstances. I would never want to be there at night or alone, what can I say I am a chicken.
On Wednesday September 29 we arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska. In Ketchikan Nick and I walked around and were able to see some fish ladders. We also lucked out and were able to catch the tail end of the salmon run. It was really cool to see all of the fish flopping around trying to make it up stream. After walking around we went on a sea plane tour of the Misty Fjords National Monument. I was super excited about this since I had never been on one before. To add to the excitement I was going to be able to sit right next to the pilot. After take off we started hitting some really crazy fun turbulence or at least I thought so at first. At first I really enjoyed having my stomach drop constantely, but about 10 minutes into I realized that the swaying of the plane and the constant dropping I was starting to get sick. Unfortuntely for me I didn't think of taking Dramamine before going. My nausa kept getting worse, and I started to panic inside when I couldn't see anything to throw up in. I just kept thinking to myself oh man, I am going to throw up all over and this poor pilot is going to be right next to me the whole time. Not to mention that everyone is going to have to smell my throw up the entire flight. Finally I realized that I was going to have to speak up and ask him over my headset if he had anything for me to throw up in. To my relief he and some barf bags. A few minutes later I was pucking my guts up in front of everyone on the plane...so embarrassing. After flying for about 45 minutes we landed in a misty fjords, what a relief to be able to stand on the dock there and get some fresh air. Unfortunately for me after about 10 minutes it was back to the airplane for the flight back and boy was I ever dreading it!!!lol On the way back I threw up again, good thing he had barf bags or that experience could've been so much worse.
After the plane tour we did some shopping in town and then got back on the ship to sail to Victoria Canada. We arrived in Victoria, B.C. on Thursday September 30. It was dark when we arrived so we weren't able to get very many good pictures. We also didn't have very much time to spend there so we just walked in town and went into some shops. The buildings there were so cool. I wish I had good pictures of them to share with you, but I don't.
Friday, October 1st we arrived back in Seattle. We ended up doing some more things in Seattle, but I will post them in a different post.















































I will be adding more photos to this post when I get a chance to look at the rest of them.