Glacier Bay

I think today is the kids favorite day so far. They spent over 3 hours in the pool on the Lido deck as we coasted around and around Glacier bay. There is something like 15 glaciers feeding into this bay and our ship, a little smaller than most of the big cruise ships, could get right up close and personal with a number of the glaciers. Our captain must have sailed us around in a 360 past the 2 glaciers up the top of the bay at least 15 times. We spent a long time there.



From the deck chairs on the Lido deck I could see through the opened roof the amazing jagged mountain ranges, and I could see the glaciers as we passed through the glass windows that lined the entire deck. So with one eye on the kids and the other out behind them through the windows it was quite a relaxing day.

A national park ranger from the Glacier Bay National park boarded early in the morning and spent the day describing the sights. We were able to get a stamp to go into our National Park passports – as we collect the official stamps as well as pins. Speaking of collections, I can't wait to put the alaska sticker on my map of the US.

All in all, a lazy day by the pool – with glaciers for a backdrop. Doesn't get better than this.


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Do you know Juneau?

Juneau was our first port of call. It was a little overcast and we needed warm jackets to cope with the wind and the temperature. We had been sucked in with the shopping talk on the ship and promises of free charm bracelets, charms and other free souveniers to visit a number of high end jewelery shops when we arrived.



We had our coupons and brochures ready and we had a plan. So 2 charm bracelets, a whale tale, and a 2ct Saphire later … we jumped on a bus and went to see the Mendalhall glacier. Denny in particular loves travelling on buses and trains, so the 15 minute trip was just long enough to keep him happy.

At the Mendalhall Glacier information center they have a small diorama of the surrounding icefields that have created the glaciers. We took the walk down to the viewing area and snapped lots of photos. There was a great waterfall just to the right of the glacier and plenty of large, stunningly blue icebergs floating around in the lake below the glacier too.

While waiting for the bus to take us back into town, a large C class RV pulled in. It was built on a crew cab truck so had 4 proper seats in the truck part instead of the normal 2. With both our kids still in car seats/booster seats for the next 4 years at least, we are always interested in other RV alternatives that still provide a safe seating environment for the kids.

Ironically, the people in the truck were Aussies too. They had purchased it from a company in Oregon, of which I have already forgotten the name. I need to look it up. It had a hefty $140,000 price tag however … so we will continue looking.

So Juneau to us was mainly jewelery shops, the Mendalhall glacier. A few interesting facts – you can only get to Juneau by sea or air. There are no roads in. Juneau is the capital of Alaska. We drove past the now famous Governor's house. Didn't sight Sarah Palin at all, but their were plenty of Sarah souveniers around!