Alaska , The Wild Frontier

This last may, my mom Diana and our friend Judy Q

and I took a Holland America Cruise to Alaska.

We sailed out of Seattle on the Oosterdam

and headed to Glacier Bay National Park.

On the way up the channel we saw whales, eagles,

sea lions, sea otters and a bear on shore.

The glaciers are incredible,

"Big, Blue and Cold"

Our first onshore stop was Juneau, were we took a bus

tour to the Mendenhall Glacier and Visitors Center.

A few Juneau highlights and then

a trip up the mountain on the tram.

Just to be clear here,

"I HATE HEIGHTS !!!!!!!

AND I REALLY HATE HEIGHTS THAT MOVE !!!!!"

But it was Beautiful !

OH...................see that thing way down there pass

the tower leg? That's Our Ship !

After the ride back down, we decided it was time

for lunch, and what better place then the

RED DOG SALOON.

I guess I should back up a bit to the title

"The Wild Frontier"

I have to admit, the only wild thing on this

tip was the lunch at the Red Dog Saloon.

I had Caribou Pizza ( that tasted a lot like pork) and

the Honky Tonk piano player was great.

What a fun day in Juneau.

We sailed all night and the next day we were at Sitka.

It caused quite a stir when the ship's "Life Pods" started

unloading. There are no dock to handle the big

ships so the pod were our ride to town.

Walked around for a while had coffee and

a bit to eat and the caught our tour bus.

The weather was perfect on this trip.

St. Michael's Cathedral was a highlight, built by the

Russians. The artifacts inside are incredible.

Then stopped by the Sheldon Jackson Museum.

Would have liked to spent more time at both.

The fallowing day as the ship pulled in to Ketchikan in

the early morning, I took this picture.

It was so quiet and float planes in every color were

lined up. You could see the stores starting

to turn on light and open doors.

It was just a perfect morning.

That all changed. Three ships pulled into town all at

once and about ten thousand people took to the streets.

Not us, we took Old Dan and Joe and went for a

slower tour. "Already planning to go back"