My first pictures are leaving the port of Seattle taken from our balcony!
Our first port of call was Ketchikan. Bill went on an excursion on one of the Bering Sea crab boats as seen on the Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel. He had a extraordinary adventure and it was everything he had hoped it would be (without the big waves crashing over the ship). Barb went on a hike in the Rainforest Sanctuary and learned a lot and saw many eagles and got to feed the reindeer (anything with wildlife makes Barb happy) - also some salmon jumping! At the end she met a master carver of totem poles and you can see his work in the pictures below. Of course shopping was necessary to make the visit complete!!
Our next port of call was Juneau and we only had about half a day here so we did our excursion to go whale watching but alas we had NO time for shopping. Boo hoo! The whales were magnificent and of course the pictures don't show it at all. Of course when I am looking through binoculars and they look so much closer and I'm telling Bill to get the picture (it just doesn't look the same as what I saw). The pictures are of the tails flipping which we didn't see in Maine and then we had three swimming together. The one that we didn't get was a mother and baby jumping simultaneously. A wonderful day but I will never get enough of watching them.
On our way back to Juneau from the whale expedition our bus driver stopped so we could take pictures of the famous Mendenhall Glacier. What a beautiful sight - you can see it right above the tree line.
We only had half a day in Juneau because we were off to see the Sawyer Glacier but the fiord was too full of ice and we couldn't get close enough so the captain announced we were going to the Dores Glacier. Going up the fiord was wonderful and then icebergs start floating by the ship and finally you are there with the glacier at the end. Breath-taking and after you see it and take a zillion pictures the ship has to turn completely around to go back out of the fiord - also breathtaking.
Skagway was the third port of call and our excursion was the musher camp and dog sled ride (not on snow but fun just the same). The dogs were barking and jumping and ready to run - there were 15 dogs to pull us and they loved it and so did we. By the end they had had their workout but were still loving the attention and of course Barb had to extend her thanks and appreciation to each of them. We then had a sledder tell us all about sledding and what is involved in the Iditarod. After that we could play with some of the pups. A great stop. There was also enough time for shopping in Skagway! Yeah!!!!
Port-au-Prince, Canada was our last port of call. We had not planned an excursion on this stop so we just walked around the town and did a little more looking and shopping!
Now a little about life on the ship. First a picture of the Norwegian Star and a few shots inside the ship - unbelieveable all the first class accommodations. Living in the lap of luxury for a week. We enjoyed different restaurants each night, the casino was a lot of fun and the shows were very entertaining especially the crew's talent night - we laughed until we cried. We also enjoyed late night concerts by an exceptional quartet in the lobby area.
The windows on the back of the ship are the grand dining room where they held the Chocolate Buffet on Thursday night at 11:00 pm. You have never seen such beautiful chocolate and so much of it along with ice sculptures. A beautiful sight that didn't last very long.
The end of the day was always fun when you went back to your cabin and found a new little friend to greet you. I even went to a demonstration class on how to make these darling animals. Do you think I will be able to reproduce them for my grandchildren??? Certainly will try!!!
I will leave you with some beautiful scenes of a a magnificent state and we only saw such a tiny bit of it. We highly recommend that everyone say yes if you ever get the chance to go up North to Alaska!!!!
1 comment:
So glad your're back. The pictures probably don't do justice to what you actually saw, but I enjoyed every one of them. The Alaskan King Crab certainly is an unattractive fellow, I guess only a girl king crab (or are they called queen crabs?)would be attracted to him. Really did enjoy your cruise. It sounds like you had a wonderful experience. Love, Dillon.
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