We arrived in Ketchikan mid morning and went to the Lumberjack Show.
It was very entertaining!
Then we went to the South East Alaska Discovery Centre.
The weather brightened up and we went for a walk along Creek Street, originally the brothel area. Every house was a brothel in the 19th and early 20th century.
Ketchikan is well known for salmon running in July.
We then hopped on the free bus for a tour round town.
Back on the boat for dinner and a show.
Today we cruised around Glacier Bay, a US National Park. Some of the Park Rangers joined our ship for a running commentary on what we were seeing.
We were very lucky with the weather again!
Margerie Glacier
The Johns Hopkins Glacier
We saw a bear walking along the shore line.
After lunch we went to a talk about the Park by one of the Rangers. Followed by a talk about the Tlingit people by Kevin, the Alaska Native Voices Cultural Ambassador.
The Rangers, and Kevin, then left our ship
We entered the Team Trivia Challenge with some of our group and won!
Off to a presentation about Ketchikan, our port for tomorrow.
A brighter day today, with some sunshine and blue skies. We went on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway. The railway was built in 1899 to take prospectors to find gold.
The route climbs from sea level in Skagway to almost 3000 feet at the summit, crossing the Canadian border.
We left the train at Fraser and transferred to a coach for the return journey. The views were spectacular, with deep snow all around.
The coach stopped at Liarsville, which was the basecamp for people heading up the pass to the Klondike to search for gold. Reporters stopped there and to avoid the perilous journey they made up stories based on what others told them, hence Liarsville.
We had refreshments and sat in the ‘Hippodrome’ to watch a performance by ‘locals’ from the past.
We then tried our hand at panning for gold!
Eventually we arrived ‘home’.
Today was the highlight of our trip. We had booked an excursion on a small boat to get closer to the whales.
We docked in Juneau and had a quick look at the town.
A coach took us to Mendenhall Forest where we hiked for a mile to view the Meldenhall Glacier.
Collin, our guide and driver plucked an iceberg from the lake.
Back on the coach Collin took us to our little boat for the whale watching trip.
Eyes peeled we sped along Stephen’s Passage. When whales were spotted Captain Mitch would slow down and stop.
We saw a pod of at least 6 orcas, several humpback whales (including a male, a female, and a calf) and sea lions resting on a buoy.
Emma, our guide, was very excited. She said we had been very lucky to see as much as we did.
A very exciting day!
