North To Alaska

While you were working last week, my wife and I boarded the Holland America "Westerdam" for a once-in-a-lifetime cruise to Alaska.  We flew to Seattle on Friday, July 18th and spent the night.  Saturday morning we took a cab to Pier 91 and boarded our ship, along with 1800 other passengers and a crew of 800.  What is absolutely amazing is that this ship arrives home from a cruise around 4:30 a.m. that same morning.  They disembark 1800 passengers, refuel, reload supplies, embark 1800 new travelers and set sail again by 4:00 p.m. the same day!  The logistics is mind boggling.  The airlines could take a few notes.  We boarded around 11:30 a.m. and our luggage was delivered before 1:00 p.m.  Our first stop was Juneau.



 We spent our first day at sea and your first impression of Alaska is just how big it is.  The mountains are impressive, to say the least.  I've been in the Smokies, and we have traveled to the Grand Canyon, but there is just something unique about the Mountains of Alaska.

 

 

The first stop on our trip was Juneau.  Like several of our ports, Juneau is on an island, so if you're thinking of driving there, you will be disappointed somewhere along the way.  The only way into Juneau is by air or by sea.
We left the ship and took an excursion that promised we would see whales.  We were not disappointed.

 

Our first sighting was a school of Orcas.  Most of us grew up calling them "Killer Whales".  Actually, there has NEVER been a documented attack on a human by an Orca in the wild.  This is a full grown adult male.  He is around 35 feet long and weighs close to 30 tons.  Sighting these Orcas at this time of year is pretty rare.  Then the real fun began.

After a brief ride, we came upon a school of Humpback whales and they were "bubble net" feeding.  This is an extremely rare sight and a very complex maneuver.  Once the whales locate the bait fish, one of the whales circles the bait fish and exhales, creating a net of bubbles, which confuse and scare the bait fish.  The other whales gather at the bottom of the bubble net to prevent the food from escaping out of the bottom.  The herring  head for the surface and the whales follow from below, finally exploding onto the surface in a feeding frenzy.  The gulls are aware of this and are waiting for the fish to surface so they can feed on some of the bait fish as well.  We left the whale watching part of our excursion, returned to shore and took a short buss ride out to Mendenhall Glacier.

The Mendenhall Glacier is located about 12 miles outside of Juneau.  There is a waterfall and several hiking trails in the area as well.  While we did not see any, a bear encounter is a possibility on the trails.  All in all, this was one of the best excursions that we booked and our guide was just the best.  After the excursion, we headed back to the ship and ready ourselves for the next stops, Glacier Bay and Sitka.  See you tomorrow.

Skywatch Friday

North to Alaska

 

 An amateur photographer/hobbyist once asked a professional shooter what was the secret to making his photographs more interesting.  The seemingly abrupt answer was, "Put  yourself in front of more interesting subjects."  That may sound like a cop out, but there is great truth in those words.  While God can paint an amazing sky anywhere in the world, it is most beautiful when surrounded by amazing landscape.  I can photograph some beautiful sunrises and sunsets in my hometown, but they pale in comparrison to the landscape of Alaska.  My wife and I took a cruise to Alaska last week and I have to say, I can understand why someone would want to move there.  Southeast Alaska, which includes Juneau and Anchorage actually has a rather mild climate, not unlike Seattle.  In fact, Ketchekan is in a rain forest.  That's right, they get over 72 inches of rain per year.  While Juneau has the Mendenhall glacier and Glacier Bay is in the area, you have to go further north before that 72 inches of rainfall actually turn into ice and snow.  If you are thinking about a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, I would recommend an Alaska cruise.  You will wake up each morning to an amazing landscape.  For the children of the Lord, there will come a day when we will wake up in Glory!   Have a blessed week-end.

 



Wordless Wednesday

Say, "Cheese"

 

 



Ruby Tuesday Too

Red Salmon

If you noticed that I have changed my header photo you probably have already guessed that my wife and I took an Alaska cruise last week.  Our 40th wedding anniversary was in May and we decided to celebrate by taking our first cruise ever.  So prepare yourselves, this week you will probably be bombarded and bored with Alaska cruise photos.  I'll start small with it one photo.  This salmon design was stitched onto a large canvas bag in one of the souvenier stores we visited.  We didn't purchase the purse, but I found the design too irresistable, not to photograph.  Happy Ruby Tuesday all!