Saturday, August 27, 2011

Part 5 - Juneau and Ketchikan - Whales, Salmon and a Bear!


I've got to work to get this done, but I really want to share all of our adventures, so these final posts about our cruise may be a bit more abbreviated than the past.....sad as it is! :)

Saturday:
Saturday was Juneau day and Whale watching day!

The town of Juneau, the capital of Alaska, was bigger than Skagway, but also very cute.  We took a shuttle bus to town and did a little shopping, then back to the ship to meet our guide for our Whale Watching adventure.





We met our guide and got on our bus to head to the dock where we will board our 12 person boat for our 3 hour whale watching trip....first we stopped to get a quick photo op at Mendenhall Glacier - we would return there after the boat ride to get up close and personal with the park.

Nice roommate pic, and nice Rahn family pic...but we just couldn't get the large group pic going....makes me laugh!
...and add a horse....just wasn't going to happen, so we gave up and got back on the bus to get to the whale watching boat. :)
Mendenhall Glacier  - pic taken after the boat trip when we were closer to the glacier
On the boat - and below Rina with Captain Shawn looking at a book that was published by the naturalist that was on board.

Rina enjoying her time on the water....
Whales - photos by Don





During our Glacier stop, we were wandering around for a few minutes and came upon this guy just hanging out in the tree.  There were rangers nearby, so we weren't worried. :)







 Pirate Deck Party:
That night, they had their pirate night and deck party - lots of fun and of course a show - Mickey ziplined in and saved the day







Sunday:
Ketchikan day...We docked in Ketchikan and didn't officially arrive until about noon - Don and Katie had a 12:10 meeting time for their Salmon fishing trip and Rina, Carleigh and I just wandered the town for a few hours.


Creek street was a cute little area that used to be full of bordello's and now converted to shops  - built with wooden walkways over creeks where salmon are frequently seen swimming upstream.


Katie and Don's Salmon fishing experience:
 Katie was the only child/girl on the boat with 5 other men - 6 people total - and she caught the most fish.  She caught 3 and everyone else caught 1 each. :) Don was proud!!










That night we were back on the ship and before dinner we went to the nightly show - it was Michael Harrison - Ventriloquist and comedien - he was great!! Lots of fun!!



Then we had to have another shot at Karaoke - this time all 4 girls sang!!

Tonight was also semi formal night, lots of fun pics:

After a great dinner and lots of fun - to bed and sad about our last sea day tomorrow.

A full day at sea and then back to Vancouver and back to reality......