Working on the bucket list

[spincast]

So, as the old joke goes about the wife who comes down at midnight and sees her husband holding a beer and looking sad at the kitchen table (husband --remember that day 20 years ago your Dad caught us in the back of the car, and he said "Well, you're gonna marry her or you'll have to kill me" and she says.. "yes, I remember" and he replies, I would have been out for good behaviour today, ...)

This year is our 20th wedded together (about 8 more before that as practice)....

and when we married we had 0 money as I was 5 years into opening my busness and had just bought a house, so our honeymoon was paying for our family and friends to come to the wedding in a small inn in Bracebridge...

so we decided to put our honeymoon and 20th together and start working on our bucket list --- this year was a cruise to Alaska. We booked a 7 day cruise leaving Seattle going to Juneau Alaska, Glacier National Park, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria BC.

I cant remember the exact distance of the cruise, but it was in between 2500 and 3000 miles. I do remember one of the stats was the deisel motors used 50,000 gallons of deisel a day and there was also a gas turnibe that consumed a similarly mind blowing amount of fuel a day....Anyway to say Alaska has scenery is an understatement. So, I will try and let some of the pictures we took convey the sense. Unfortunatley these are taken with point and shoot cameras, so they are nowhere near as spectacular as the eye or some of the photos we see in the Photography forum here.

If you havent been to Seattle, its incredible. You fly in over the rockies and all of a sudden there it is. This is the view from the ship as we set sail. Note the mountain in the background

and this is what you see when you watch one of the crusie ships sail away.

we sailed for a day and a half, the second day in force seven on the Beaufort scale. Made for some interesting walks.

Glacier bay National Park is amazing:

The Reece Glacier - longer and taller than our cruise ship, at first I thought we were only a football field away, then I realilsed we were over a mile away

The Iceberg in the foreground on the shot below on right hand side is about the size of a tractor trailer.

The scale of the landscape is outstanding

 

 

At various point along the cruise if you look the whales are everywhere. They are very hard to capture on film, but one morning 1 saw 9 sightings in less than an hour, the closest probably only 150 yards from the ship

You can watch your progress on your TV and at various points on the ship. This one is actually from the last day when we are on our way back

 

Juneau has a great back yard

with a population of only 30,000 approximately, when the cruise ships come for a visit, the polupation can nearly double. Our ship was the smallest with just under 2000 people. Rumour had it the large Princess ship and the Norwiegen Pearl could hold about 7000 each. Thats our prop wash in the foreground as we pull away

 

It gets to the point where you say, oh, another one of those? And quit taking pics. At one point a young young one (head wasnt white yet) flew over the pool deck when we had a BBQ on the go. It took about 5 minutes as he just sailed along,

but as much as you stop taking pics, you never stop watching

 

and they watch you

 

Junea also has the Mendenhall Glacier just up the road. We went for a raft trip down the river, and there were some houses along the side of the river. I asked the guide how much these would cost approximately. He said, oh about 600 K. He then turned the raft around and said - because every morning you can sit on your deck with your coffee and look at this

and you can kayak / canoe / raft in this

 

Did I mention the scenery in Alaska is awesome? - Sailing out of Juneau:

and into Sitka the next morning:

For sheer beauty, Sitka won it for me:

some nice shacks too

I took a 4 hour charter just a few minutes from where this was taken. There were 4 of us and in three and a bit hours we boated 6 and lost 4. Nothing spectacular, but they were a lot of fun

These guys have learned that if they follow a charter boat, they can get an easy lunch. this guy dogged us and another boat the whole time we were out

Next stop was Ketchikan, which didnt do quite so much for me. But we did take a cruise on the Aleetian Balad, which those of you who watch the deadliest catch may recognise as the boat that was hit by the rogue wave on film and flipped on her side. They take you out a bit of a nature tour.

 

waiting for lunch to swim up the channel

some selections from the lunch buffett

 

 

what all the exitement is about on the deadliest catch

bringing in the dungeness

some box crabs - no meat on these babies

and some entertainment

 

 

some perspective

as I said - the glacier dwarfed us

some people were back on the 4th trip. They mentioned that this time as compared to a few years ago we had to go much further up glacier Bay National Park to see the glacier.

This one is pretty much gone

And that ends my story. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

[kuhaman]

Wow, talk about scenery!!!

[lookinforwalleye]

Very nice Alaska is on my bucket list too!!!

[asdve23rveavwa]

Fantastic Rick!!! What an amazing trip! Yeah you only fished for four hours, but, the scenery and majesty of that area of the continent are breathtaking!!! Glad that you two had a great time, look forward to hearing more about it on our next fishing adventure!!

[NAW]

Amazing trip, and great pictures. I would love to do a cruise line that one day.

[vinnimon]

Unbeleivably spectacular scenery,and happy 20 th anniversary to you and and the mrs'

[misfish]

Im picking my toung off the ground.

 

Fantastic

 

TYFS.

[Terry]

that really is Fantastic

[irishfield]

Very NICE Rick !!

[Live2fish85]

Great report, I hope to one day get out to Alaska and B.C. Those are some remarkable pictures even if it is just a point and shot camera. Thanks for the post I enjoyed it, know the wife will have to listen to me talk about going there once again lol.

[lew]

Never been up that way but have always thought I'd like to take that cruise some day. Your pictures are amazing and thanks for taking us along on your trip.

 

Happy 20th too !!

[danbouck]

Awesome!

 

One day I want to take a trip like that, it's on the bucket list

[Gregoire]

Thanks for sharing that was awesome.

[lunkerbasshunter]

happy 20th! That is some great pics you got there.

 

Cheers!

[TDunn]

Awesome trip!!!

TDunn