ALASKA - WHAT A RUSH!

When we went north to Alaska a couple of weeks ago, it was for gold of a

different sort than the historic kind.

It was our 50th - Golden -  wedding anniversary.  We always wanted to see Alaska, so in preparation to celebrate, we planned "our kind" of trip.  It was to be the whole month of August.  We had tickets for Alaska's Marine Highway: the sleek ferry, and routes to remote places all mapped out, with breathing room for being flexible; just us and our SUV.

Family schedules and events changed all that.  We joyfully celebrated those things, and opted for getting to Alaska "anyway" via a cruise ship with the time we had left.  The "herd mentality" we call it, is not our way of doing things, but eventually we got excited.

Our port was home: Seattle!

Our cabin was one of these, on level 9, with a balcony to starboard:

Fair weather and good-bye to our fair city:

After "moving in", I looked for unusual photo ops as we got acquainted with our vessel:

My favorite peak, Mt. Shuksan, from a new perspective:

First night out.  A very good omen!

Two hours later than moon-rise, and that much further north, it was still

this light.

Low-lying fog settled in a phenomenal fashion:

(There are 4 more blog entries following this, of our Alaska trip)

KETCHIKAN

Maybe the residents of coastal towns paint their buildings so outrageously colorful because

nature's palette is grey with rain nearly every day of the year.

We scurried to an historic place immediately after disembarking, avoiding the main street tourist shops.
This is Creek Street, the infamous district where "women of negotiable affections" had their places (over 37 of them at one time), practically stacked one on top of the other:

 Creek street window:

The real adventure from Ketchikan was our little bush plane outing to a remote inlet several islands away from Ketchikan with the hopes of spotting bear at a fishing place.

But how could our pilot spot anything, I wondered, when I tried to look over shoulders, through the soggy, foggy windshield:

Because of engine noise, we couldn't talk, but I saw by Dick's charades that he was trying

to find out how I was doing and whether I had motion sickness.

I couldn't have put my 2 thumbs up any faster!

 It was exhilarating from the rushing skim across the water, to take-off, to flying high and higher!

Forty-five minutes later we put down in a secluded inlet and were picked up by our guide for a

short drive through the woods to a trailhead:

We hiked to a lovely river and small waterfalls, and - yes- bears, fishing!

In spite of salmon a-plenty, this one looks disgruntled,

for good reason: he couldn't catch anything:

This big guy almost looks like a beloved dog posing for a portrait.

Our guide's silent hand signals and a glance at his side-arms of pistol and Bowie knife

warned otherwise:

 

Our float plane coming to pick us up:

TO JUNEAU AND BEYOND

We get all claustrophobic when crunched in the slow-moving sludge of shoulder-to-shoulder tourists along main street shopping places.

To show we were in Juneau, I took these photos, trying to avoid the crowds:

 Juneau, like the other Inside Passage Alaskan coastal towns, is built right into the rocky hillside

and can only spread upwards from the harbor:

Just a photo op:

Off of main street:

BEYOND Juneau was our adventure!

We took a small boat trip up the Tracy Arm Fjord to see the glacier at the end.

The steeply-sloping hillsides were running with water as if they were

massive green sponges being squeezed:

"Fjord" is exactly the right word.  Though this was Alaska, it reminded us

exactly of what we have seen in Norway:

The waterfalls look casual from a distance, but are actually power-packed as they enter the water:

It was sleeting.  The small boat was rocking.  The captain took us within reaching distance of this waterfall.

The stranger who took this photo was, of course, not familiar with my camera.

All these reasons mean this picture is fuzzy:

Astoundingly blue icebergs began to appear as we neared the glacier, even though we could

not yet see it:

First sight of the Tracy Arm Glacier, a wild, walled,

rugged one as compared to the sloping Mendenhall Glacier:

I had hoped to see a seal on an iceberg.

Ha!  Oodles of them - what a surprise!

Just one of hundreds:

  We were close, and experienced several calvings:

The blue ice is the most wondrous sight: