Alaskan Cruise July 1-8, 2011

Right after the Buffalo Stampede, we headed home to start preparations for our Alaskan cruise.  Noah's sister & brother-in-law drove up from Texas to go on the cruise with us...however, you won't be seeing any photos of them here, because they're really camera shy!

Our cruise sailed from Seattle on July 1st, but we took a few days to drive there instead of flying.  On our first day out, we toured Yellowstone yet again (can't get enough of that place) & saw some of the sights:  Old Faithful, some pools (including my favorite, Sapphire Pool, at Biscuit Basin), and luckily, lots of great wildlife.  Here are a few highlights for you to enjoy:

These are bacteria mats near some of the hot pools in Biscuit Basin.  Love the colors!  It was an extremely windy day, so taking photos was extra challenging.  Here's my best shot of Sapphire Pool.  The wind actually helped me with this one, as it blew all the steam away just long enough for me to get a picture of the water:

After we left the Biscuit Basin area, we came upon a huge herd of buffalo...including a lot of calves.  We spent quite a while watching & photographing them.  Most of them were still losing their winter coats & were in various states of molt.  Here's my favorite shot from this sighting:

After leaving Yellowstone, we headed north out of the park & stopped for dinner at Chico Hot Springs.  We spent the next day driving through Montana, Idaho & Washington, arriving in Seattle in the evening.  The next morning, we  headed for the cruise dock & boarded the ship:

Here's Noah & I up in the dining room after having lunch.  There's the Space Needle behind us.

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, Alaska:

Ketchikan is in a temperate rain forest & averages 137 inches of rain per year, so...of course, it was raining the day we visited.  Surprise!!  Noah & I went canoeing on Ward Lake in the Tongass National Forest.  Here are our canoes waiting for us to climb aboard:

And here we are IN our canoes:

After we canoed across the lake, we had some hot chocolate & wandered around in the forest for a bit.  It was REALLY wet & green, especially compared to Wyoming:

The next day, our ship cruised up the Tracy Arm Fjord, so we could get a look at the Tracy Arm Glacier.  Here is my best photo of the glacier taken from the front of the ship:

Equally fascinating to me, were all the little icebergs that were floating everywhere.  They were the most incredible shade of blue & many of them had the coolest shapes and patterns.  I tooks lots of photos trying to capture their beauty.  This is the best I was able to do:

Later that day, we docked in Juneau and headed up to a summer dogsledding camp.  The camp was run by four Iditarod hopefuls.  They run tours to keep their dogs in condition during the snowless months AND to raise money for racing.  When we got to camp, we boarded a 6-person wheeled golf cart hitched to team of 16 Alaskan huskies:

After the dogs pulled us around for awhile, we had a few tutorials on dog care & the Iditarod race.  Then we got to hold some 13-day-old puppies.  Mine never woke up!

Our next port of call was Skagway & I think we saved our best outing for last.  Once off the ship, we took the ferry from Skagway to Haines.

From Haines, we drove up into the Tongass National Forest (again) to go river rafting through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.  Here we are right before boarding our rafts:

We rafted the river for about an hour and a half and saw LOTS and LOTS of bald eagles.  However, getting photos of them was NOT easy.  Here's my best effort:

This guy was sitting by the river fishing. 

The Chilkat River was really beautiful and peaceful.  This was one of the best days of the cruise by far.  Don't know if I can capture it in a photo, but here goes:

Skagway was the last stop on the cruise.  We had a day at sea & then it was back to dry land.  We drove back via Oregon, Idaho & Jackson, Wyoming, so Judy and Dale (Noah's sister & brother-in-law) could see the Tetons.  On our way out of Yellowstone, we were lucky enough to stumble upon a great grizzly bear sighting.  A large boar was out in plain view digging for grubs on an open hillside.  Here's my best shot of him:

Our trip was great, but I was happy to be back home.  We've still got more adventures in store before I have to go back to work next month...so stay tuned.  I promise, the best is yet to come.  Thanks for reading my humble blog...hope you enjoyed it & come back again soon.  Talk to you again REALLY soon...I PROMISE.  Until then...

Love,

Buckskin Lily