Sitka & Ketchikan, Alaska

Our next two stops were in Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska. By the time we made it to Sitka, Andrew was completely exhausted which put a damper on our sight seeing in Sitka.

Sitka was the capital of Alaska when Russia still owned it. So there is a lot of Russian influence in the area. The churches and artwork were interesting to look at but Andrew was having none of it so back to the ship we went. (I have to admit, we all were tired though.)

An eagle perched atop a church tower in Sitka.

In Ketchikan, we watched a lumberjack show and picked up some smoked salmon to bring home with us. Tom and I had visited Ketchikan about 12 years ago and the city seemed to have changed a lot from what we remember. We only had a four-hour stop here though so we had to make a quick pass through the city.

Kaitlyn said one of her favorite things about the cruise was dressing up every night for dinner. I have to admit, the kids looked cute and it was nice to see them in something other than shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops. Of course, dressing up was Andrew's least favorite part of the trip.

Kaitlyn posing on the veranda.

Sue and Andrew enjoying cocktails before dinner.

We had so much fun on the cruise. It was nice to get out of the RV for a week. Re-entry into the real world was a little challenging too. I was depressed the day we got back to the RV and I had to think of what I wanted to eat and then actually fix it myself! (Oh, OK. Tom probably fixed it for me but I'm sure it was hard on him too! LOL)

The one benefit of driving the RV to Seattle to catch the cruise was we were home in 45-minutes while Tom's sisters weren't even at the airport yet! And, an hour and a half later, we were done with five loads of laundry (washed, dried and put away)! I'm not sure the rest of the family had even boarded their flights yet.

On the down side....they have been home for a couple weeks now and we still have ten more days to go before we get HOME! I can't wait to get home.....

Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

A close second to our whale watching experience was our next stop at the Hubbard Glacier. We spent the day slowly cruising into the bay and then spent several hours looking at the icebergs and finally Hubbard Glacier.

Sometimes it was peaceful and other times, huge chucks of ice broke free of the glacier and spilled into the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful. When my nephew, jack, gets his flip videos uploaded, I'll add a link so you can see the icebergs in action.

Kelly & Andrew at the Hubbard Glacier.

The Hubbard Glacier ice wall.

Ice calving off the glacier and spilling into the ocean.

We also saw some seals sunning themselves on an iceberg. Another iceberg was empty but it had a huge patch of red stained ice. Whatever was there must have made a nice lunch for something. I took a picture of the scene of the crime but I won't post it. Just focus on the cute (living) seals below.

Three seals hanging out on an iceberg.

Another seal on yet another iceberg.

Being summer in Alaska, the sun didn't set until 11:30 at night and then it started to rise at like 3:00 in the morning (I wouldn't know about the rising part, I'll just have to take my niece, Teresa's word for it!) Here's a shot I took before heading to bed one night:

An Alaskan sunset.

Juneau, Alaska

It may seem strange to schedule an Alaskan cruise in the middle of this extensive RV trip across the US. Well, I suppose it is but we didn't really plan it this way. Of course, if you read this blog regularly, you may have notice that we don't usually plan too far in advance.

I like to think of this cruise as a happy accident that sort of collided with our Crazy Bus Tour. When we found out that the cruise was definitely a "go" and the dates were confirmed, we just planned out last route out west to coincide with leaving from Seattle on July 9th. So in some ways, this last leg of our journey had a little more structure to it but we still tweaked our path along the way.

As I mentioned in our last post that this trip of a lifetime was a gift from Tom's Mother, Sue. We joined her and Tom's other two sisters' and their families for a 7-day cruise on the MS Westerdam from Holland America. Here is a snap shot of the itinerary:

As you can see, our first stop on the cruise was Juneau, Alaska. We lucked out with the weather again. It was 85 degrees and sunny the day we were in Juneau! We totally thought it would be cooler out on the water so we wore jeans and lugged our coats with us when we got off the ship. Big mistake but who would have thought it would be that warm?!?

We signed up for a photo safari excursion. Basically, it was a combined hiking and whale watching trip guided by a professional photographer who gave us tips on how to take better pictures. Our guide, Cam, was fantastic and a lot of fun to hang out with for five hours.

Tom & Kaitlyn at the Mendenhall Glacier.

First we took a mile hike through the forest to the Mendenhall Glacier. Of course, we forgot the bug spray and quickly found out that the mosquitoes in Alaska are the size of small birds! The scenery was gorgeous and the hike was fun. We saw a porcupine waddle across our trail but we couldn't get a good pic for you. Sorry!

That was the only wildlife we saw on the hike other than birds. Cam said we might see a black bear and if we do, not to panic and stay together as a group so we look bigger and more intimidating to the bear. Right. He also said if we were to encounter a grizzly bear we should slowly walk away and let him use his bear spray. Right.

Those two strategies seemed to have a lot of holes in them but we hoped for the best and hiked on. Andrew kept trying to run ahead and all I had to do was remind him to let us know if he saw a bear and he would come right back to hold my hand. Nice.

After the hike, we jumped on a boat in hopes to see some whales. We lucked out again because we came upon a group of five or six whales who were bubble net feeding which is apparently a rare phenomenon to observe in the wild.

Whales bursting to the surface while bubble feeding.

So from what I understand, bubble net feeding happens when a group of whales work together to trap a school of herring so they can eat them. One whale circles around the fish and releases a curtain of bubbles about three-fourths of the way around the school of fish. The herring won’t swim through the bubbles. Then, another whale makes a load noise scarring the rest of the fish into the bubble net. The fish start swimming up to the surface and the whales swim under the trapped fish. Then they swim to the surface with their mouths open catching a lot of the fish and finish by exploding out of the water as a group.

The pictures don’t do it justice. It was an amazing thing to watch. We were able to see them do this five or six times. We also watched them swim along the boats and flap their tails at us.

Whales swimming in Juneau.

We also saw eagles flying around everyday while we were on the cruise. Here is a pic we took while we were whale watching:

An eagle watching us watch him.

I asked the kids what their favorite part of the cruise was and they both said, "the whale watching!" I think I would have to agree!