Whales, Glaciers and Rainforest Trails - Adventures in Alaska

Cas earned - by being in the top 8% of his sales force - an Alaskan cruise with colleagues from all over the world this summer.  His trip included a plus one, and fortunately I beat out the contenders (my dad being the most vocal) for a spot on the Regency ship leaving Vancouver and ending up in Anchorage.

The scenery was stunning, the company was delightful (his CEO and top executives along with some fun couples that work in his group throughout the U.S.), and the cruise ship was so luxurious we're ruined from cruising again (we were in the smallest room and we had a balcony).

We left our home Tuesday morning, and unfortunately, Collin woke up before we left.  He was furious with us for not taking him, though we continually explained that it was a work trip with Cas, no children were allowed, he would be at art camp with his best friend, etc.  He kept arguing that Alaska was his favorite state and he was going to put himself in our suitcase.

So our Uber arrives and Collin is trying to get inside.  My mom has to physically restrain him while he's crying hysterically, kicking and screaming.  Then Maya sees that my mom is - in her eyes - hurting her brother and starts hitting my mom.  So my mom's 12 days starts with both kids physically assaulting her and throwing a tantrum.  At least there was nowhere to go but up!

We landed early afternoon, starting our trip with a day and a half in Vancouver.  We connected with a couple we had met in Florida in May and took a few mile bike ride around Stanley Park on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

Stanley Park totem poles -

We were not the only ones enjoying Stanley Park -

We then headed to an amazing Indian food restaurant with our biking riding friends for the start of our weight-gaining week and a half of feasting!

On Wednesday, we walked around the Vancouver Harbor, taking pictures by a "minecraft" style Orca whale for Collin -

Then late in the morning on Wednesday, we boarded a bus for Granville Island, where we walked through the shops and enjoyed the cool weather. That afternoon, we bid farewell to Vancouver and boarded the cruise ship for Alaska.

After dinner on the ship, we walked over to an enclosed viewing deck piano bar.  Around 10:30pm, we had some wine and watched the sun finally set (though it stayed bright most hours of the day)!

Our first full day was at sea, and Thursday morning we attended a business meeting, and then I spent the afternoon lounging, feeling slightly queasy as I got my sea legs, while Cas explored our great ship and connected with folks.

Day two of the cruise had us arriving in Ketchikan.

We disembarked from the ship and then headed to another tour bus for a go-kart tour of the Tongass National Forest followed by lunch with a crew from his company.

We traveled overnight and woke up Saturday morning for a 6:30am transfer to a smaller boat while still at sea.  The second boat took the U.S. contingent to the Tracy Arm Fjord.  We were told to wear lots of layers and standing outside on the ship, passing icebergs and glaciers, I needed all of my five layers of clothes!

Photo opp at Sawyer Glacier - the sun came out right as our small boat reached the stopping point near the glacier -

Between the glacier and Juneau, we had our first up-close encounter with humpback whales -

We also saw a black bear along the shore but needed our binoculars to see him with any level of detail.  By noon, our small ship took us to the Juneau port to meet up with our cruise ship, take a short nap, and then head out on afternoon excursions.

The small cruise to Tracy Arm was something they surprised us with on board, after we had already selected our activities.  It was a great morning trip, getting us close to glaciers and whales that we wouldn't have seen on the large cruise ship.  But unfortunately, the activity we picked for Saturday afternoon in Juneau was called "Whales, Glaciers and Rainforest Trails."  Since we had experienced two of the three that morning and were low on sleep, we not-so-enthusiastically headed to our afternoon tour.

It turned out to be a great afternoon though.  It was Cas' boss' boss' boss, his daughter and us - just the four of us - on a short hike to see Mendenhall Glacier, along with our very enthusiastic and verbose tour guide, Phil.  

Then we boarded an exploration vessel for whale watching.  And we saw them bubble net feed, something that our tour guides assured us was unusual and they were almost as excited as we were!
(From google - Bubble Net Feeding is a unique feeding technique employed by Humpback Whales, in which a group of whales swim in a shrinking circle blowing bubbles below a school of fish. This shrinking column of bubbles surrounds the school of fish forcing them upward. The whales spontaneously swim upward through the bubble net, mouths wide open, catching thousands of fish in one gulp.)  My video must be too large to load, but you can trust me that we were excited!
We passed by some sea lions lounging and headed back to port -

We hit up the company hospitality tavern for the evening, but called it a night pretty early after our very early morning start - 

Sunday morning we woke up to our favorite day of the trip.  We got to sleep late and as we stepped outside, it was sunny and gorgeous!

We shopped for souvenirs, enjoyed a salmon bake on the cruise, and met on the dock at 2pm for our helicopter glacier tour.  I was quite nervous about the helicopter, but we could not have had a better day.  In fact, it was so clear that our helicopter pilot, a very young 25-year-old named Kyle, said it was his first time flying.  And he wasn't joking - it was his first time flying this route and going to these glaciers, as the pass is normally too cloudy for the helicopter tour.  Still wish he had shared this after we landed safely back at the base!

Kyle kept us safe as we followed the other two helicopters with our group and took in scenery like this:

When I think of our Alaskan vacation, the breathtaking scenery from this day is what comes to my mind.

We hiked around the glacier for 45 minutes, walking by huge crevices that could swallow a city bus, and of course, posing for pictures -

Our final stop along the cruise was to Sitka, a small island where The Proposal movie was set.  We participated in a bike and hike tour in the morning -

After a lunch in the town, we passed through some souvenir shops but thankfully we did not come home with a wolf pelt, just posed with one -

In the evenings on the ship, we'd normally eat dinner with a group - like some of the couples who work in the same group as Cas in California, Atlanta and Philadelphia - 

And sometimes hit up the dance club with DJ HeebeeJeeBee (who voluntarily names yourself this?!?)

My favorite spot was the viewing deck bar where we listened to piano players while staring out at scenes like this - 

Our ship docked at Seward, and we took a train on Wednesday morning to Anchorage for the continuation of amazing scenery - 

We wrapped up our last day, spending the night with one of Cas' former co-workers who moved to Anchorage with his family and whose wife who works for oil and gas in a position in Alaska.  We had a great time catching up with his family, and hope to return with our entire family some day.