Alaska Cruise Specialist

Alaska!  I hadn't been back from our Alaskan cruise for a full 24 hours, before I started looking into flights to head back to that amazing state.  What unparalleled natural beauty!  What we saw and experienced on our 7 day cruise was just the tip of the iceberg...ha.  As we glided through British Columbia and into southeast Alaska, the landscape out our balcony stateroom just kept getting better and better!  We almost didn't want to sleep, afraid to miss seeing something spectacular.  

Though, we did sleep, and pretty darned well!  What a delight, to wake up and peer out the window from bed, only to have my husband shout from the balcony, "Whale!"  It happened several mornings on our cruise, and was a sure fire way to get me bolting out from under the covers.  We saw Humpbacks, Orcas, and Pacific white-sided dolphins---all from our balcony while gliding past green islands, and snow-capped mountains, depending on the day.  

The epitome of the journey for us, were the excursions we did on port days.  I almost didn't book the helicopter ride over and onto Mendenhall Glacier.  What a MISTAKE that would've been!  It was surreal.  The magnitude of the glacier, the coloration of the blue ice almost glowing at us on that cloudy day, the crystal clear water we got to drink straight from the glacial stream.  Talk about a life-changing experience!

Snorkeling in Sitka, where we were able to see the chubby orange and purple Sea Stars, was also quite the experience.  An unplanned hike afterwards led us into a beautiful forest area, complete with salmon spawning ground!  We were there in late September, so the salmon run was coming to an end, which meant there was a "lovely" stench of dead fish in the air.  Not our favorite smell, but the Seagulls gathered 'round were huge fans of their easy pickings...and the size of their bellies proved it!

I'd be remiss to not mention the whale-watching tour in Juneau, where we got closer encounters with Humpbacks AND Orcas--all under a double rainbow!  I will never forget the unbelievable moment we captured on camera, when the prism of rainbow colors was seen in the spray of water from a whale's spout!  

Oh, Alaska.  You have my heart.  Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Endicott Arm...thank you for the glimpses we got of one of the most wild and beautiful states.  You whet our appetite for more, and we certainly hope and plan to be back to do more exploring!