Vancouver
We took a walk around town the day before our departure.

This clock ran on steam power and at 9:00 pm put on a show with whistles rather than chimes.

Seaplanes were taking off and landing as we departed.
Our guess is that the yellow pile is sulfur.  If you have better information let us know.

And we are underway for our Alaska adventure.


The Millennium
Our home for the first half of the trip.

Great food whenever we wanted it.


Along the way
Narrow channels between the islands along the coast meant we could get a good look at the forest and streams.

Other times we were further out and could see mountains covered with snow.
 
Most of the folks on board were thankful that we only spent one day in the open ocean.
The waves weren't as big as on our Antarctica trip but were impressive none the less.

Ketchikan
A stream through town had thousands of migrating salmon.
A little further along they were swimming up this rapid.
 
Jim caught a couple of them in midair.

And occasionally there would be one in the shallow water along the edge.

Totem poles and other native American carvings.
 
We decided to go kayaking and saw a bald eagle before we got to the kayaks.

A small flotilla of six boats each with a crew of two and two guides set out.

Another eagle posed for us on the rocks.
Terns would swoop in to investigate our group.
 
We came back to a picnic lunch and took a walk along the shore.
 

Juneau
Jim and Linda took a plane ride and came back with some spectacular pictures of glaciers and wildlife.
   
While they were doing that we took a hike.
It was billed as The Guide's Choice and we were quite pleased with the guide and her decision as to the trail to explore.
It was a rain forest and unlike our experience in Washington we had rain for much of he five miles.
Lots of puddles and waterfalls.
   
Toward the end of the hike we saw our first glacier of the trip, the Mendenhall, from several vantage points.
 
On the right you can see water rushing over the rocks as it emerges from under the glacier.

As we came down the mountain the guide remarked that there was more ice in the bay than she had ever seen before.

Just before we left we saw this young black bear enjoying a salmon.
Our guide wasn't concerned, apparently bears think salmon taste better than tourists.
 
And back in town we saw these fantastic creatures.


Skagway
We joined a jeep caravan at the port for a trip to Carcross in the Yukon.
The markers over the road are for the snowplow drivers to let them know where the road is under the drifts.

The unusual design of this bridge was dictated by the fact that the materials all had to be brought in on the road at the left of the picture.

This wasn't our first trip to the Yukon.
We drove there in 1971.

We saw lakes that  freeze to the bottom every year so no fish survive.

We did get off the paved road
   
This is the world's smallest desert according to our guide.

Cant see it?  Here are closer views.

The town of Carcross about 30 miles from Whitehorse
 
The other way to get over the mountains.

Along the way.
      
     
Back in Skagway.
   
One of the ladies there to entertain the miners passing through town.

Snowblowers are built on a larger scale if you want to keep the train running through the winter.

Salmon were migrating even in a little ditch on the edge of town.
The pinkish white dots are their eggs.
    

Icy Strait Point
   
Some of the sea life we saw along the shore.
     
This one could easily be mistaken for a long extinct trilobite

One weird rock!

There were two whales spouting in the harbor.

The tribe's Council House

A couple of boats hauled out for repair --- or forever.

We saw an eagle feasting on a salmon and several otters crossing the road during our wildlife tour.
Apparently there are bears on occasion if the gun the guide's assistant was carrying wasn't just for show.
He spent his time carving a moose call.
 
The packing plant wasn't operational but the process was explained with signs and realistic fish replicas.
   

Hubbard glacier
As we approached we could see there were two large glaciers at the end of the fiord.
The one on the left had a lot more rock on it's surface.
It was sunny and there wasn't a lot of floating ice so the captain could take the ship closer than usual.
 

 
At every scale there was beauty.

It is a great place to visit.
From this one spot we counted 11 small glaciers as well as the two major ones.

The tracks on this glacier were formed where small glaciers from side valleys came together to form this large one.
They carried rocks along their edges that were collected together in ridges as the ice moved along.
 
Lunch on the aft deck as we left.

The crew had collected a sample of the glacier which they put on display by the pool.
A closeup view shows the bubbles trapped in it.

For 3D views put on your red/blue glasses.
You can make some by coloring a piece of plastic with red and blue markers as evenly as you can.
 
Here is another way to see the glacier in 3D this time without using special glasses.
Concentrate on the glacier not the mountains behind it for the best effect.
Some people can even see it in 3D using just one eye as their brain makes sense of two views.
  It doesn't work for everyone though.

Seward
Here we visited the Sealife Center where they have displays of the local sea invertebrates, birds, and other animals.

 
From there we took a boat ride around rocky islands where we saw puffins, sea otters and seals.  
For pictures of them check the wildlife page.