Hello Everybody!
Finally able to post again ...
It's hard to believe we're already at Thursday and just a few more days to go. Yesterday we went to the itty bitty port town of Skagway, AK and walked through a few shops and then took a 6 hour tour that covered 140 miles out into the Yukon territory where the gold rush took place. We went into Canada and back out again. We learned so much history and had the most fantastic views. This whole area is so breath-taking that even the pictures we took will not be able to come close to just what we've seen. We kept hoping to see lots of wildlife but we only saw an eagle and a few mountain goats. We went to Emerald Lake and other stops along the way. We got back to Skagway and went to a little restaurant by the water for fresh halibut and salmon. Philip said it was the best salmon he's ever had! We got back on the ship, rested a bit, ate, and went to a comedy show by the Second City comedy troupe out of Chicago. We are still so fouled up with the time difference of 4 hours and the sun setting at 10pm and rising at 3:30am. Even though we have a room darkening curtain, I think our bodies know we should be up and at 'em so we're awake pretty early.
Today we cruised Glacier Bay and it was the most magnificent weather and day overall. In fact the captain said a little while ago that it was probably the prettiest day of the whole season since May! A few park rangers from Glacier Bay got onboard early this morning and gave us lots of info over the loud speaker throughout the day to keep us informed about what we were seeing. We stayed out on one of the decks for several hours with cameras and binoculars in hand hoping to see some animals! Well guess what...WE DID!! Philip spotted 2 bear along the shore and even with the binocs, they were small, but nevertheless, we saw bear! We saw lots of otter swimming by and lots of seal lions were lying on several areas we passed. At last....what we had been waiting for.....WHALES! We never saw one jump way up in the air like you see at Sea World (I was praying as hard as I could and had my fingers and toes crossed) but we saw their tails and lots of spray from the blow holes. At one point, it almost looked like the dancing fountains at Disney because about 6 of them were blowing one right after the other. The glaciers were very interesting and we learned lots about them as well. We finally ate dinner in one of the dining rooms and they gave us a cake and sang "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" since they knew we were celebrating our anniversary. We went to a show called "Sharkbait" that was a couple of guys doing amazing juggling, etc acts. Then we listened to the Showband playing some tunes. It's 9pm and the sun is still shining but we're getting tired. I think we're going to go hear another group play some music and then go to bed.
We get to Ketchikan tomorrow morning at 6am and so we're planning to head down the gangway to see the sights just after 6!
As I said, it will take so long to upload pics with this slow dial-up from the satellite so I'll do that next week.
Everybody, start planning now to come up here and I PROMISE you will not be disappointed! This scenery is just breath taking! God is so awesome and I continue to be in awe of His handiwork over and over.
Signing off...we haven't been to the ice cream area in the last 5 hours, so we're behind
schedule :-)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesday, 7/14
Hello All!
We are having the time of our lives! All of you MUST do this Alaska adventure. We obviously made it from Seattle to the ship with no problems. We sailed away from the dock at 4pm Sunday and since this ship, Norwegian Pearl, is their newest ship, everything is very nice. We have a balcony room so we have been enjoying all the beautiful scenery (just unreal) as often as we want. We didn't see the sun until today but has it definitely been a gorgeous day!! The water has been very smooth and unless we knew it, we wouldn't have known we were on a ship. We had clouds, cool temps, and lots of wind yesterday so we stayed inside most of the day roaming to and fro. We saw schools of dolphins and a few whales passing by the ship and that was quite a sight. We have, of course, been eating and then when we get tired, we go eat some more. And did I mention that often...we eat! We have enjoyed lots of good music, quiet spots to just kick back and look out the giant windows around the ship to admire the beauty the Lord created. Today we pulled into Juneau at 2pm and a few minutes later we were off the ship and treking to new adventures. We got a city map and enjoyed seeing the state capitol, state museum where we learned lots of history about our 49th state, and even Gov. Palin's house. You'd be as surprised as we were to see that there is no security or fencing....just the mansion right smack dab in a little community of small houses. We saw the trampoline and tire swing in the backyard...but no Sarah. We shopped a little and when we thought we'd either drop or burn up in our layers, we headed back to the ship for guess what.....DINNER! Did I mention that we've been eating a 'little'?? We saw an eagle here and there and the most beautiful snow-capped mountains. It's as if God took a little extra time in these parts and did some incredible work as He carved the mountains and trees. We'll be leaving here at 10pm and headed to Skagway with expected arrival time of 7am. We're now 4 hours behind NC time so needless to say, waking up at 5am and feeling tired by 8 at night but feeling the need to keep going here and there til 11 or so ...is just part of the week.
Since the internet service is slow as it's dial-up, we will wait until we get back home to load pics. We've taken lots and lots so there will be plenty to see. We'll try to post another update in a day or 2.
Go ahead and make plans to come up here because you will NOT be sorry!
We are having the time of our lives! All of you MUST do this Alaska adventure. We obviously made it from Seattle to the ship with no problems. We sailed away from the dock at 4pm Sunday and since this ship, Norwegian Pearl, is their newest ship, everything is very nice. We have a balcony room so we have been enjoying all the beautiful scenery (just unreal) as often as we want. We didn't see the sun until today but has it definitely been a gorgeous day!! The water has been very smooth and unless we knew it, we wouldn't have known we were on a ship. We had clouds, cool temps, and lots of wind yesterday so we stayed inside most of the day roaming to and fro. We saw schools of dolphins and a few whales passing by the ship and that was quite a sight. We have, of course, been eating and then when we get tired, we go eat some more. And did I mention that often...we eat! We have enjoyed lots of good music, quiet spots to just kick back and look out the giant windows around the ship to admire the beauty the Lord created. Today we pulled into Juneau at 2pm and a few minutes later we were off the ship and treking to new adventures. We got a city map and enjoyed seeing the state capitol, state museum where we learned lots of history about our 49th state, and even Gov. Palin's house. You'd be as surprised as we were to see that there is no security or fencing....just the mansion right smack dab in a little community of small houses. We saw the trampoline and tire swing in the backyard...but no Sarah. We shopped a little and when we thought we'd either drop or burn up in our layers, we headed back to the ship for guess what.....DINNER! Did I mention that we've been eating a 'little'?? We saw an eagle here and there and the most beautiful snow-capped mountains. It's as if God took a little extra time in these parts and did some incredible work as He carved the mountains and trees. We'll be leaving here at 10pm and headed to Skagway with expected arrival time of 7am. We're now 4 hours behind NC time so needless to say, waking up at 5am and feeling tired by 8 at night but feeling the need to keep going here and there til 11 or so ...is just part of the week.
Since the internet service is slow as it's dial-up, we will wait until we get back home to load pics. We've taken lots and lots so there will be plenty to see. We'll try to post another update in a day or 2.
Go ahead and make plans to come up here because you will NOT be sorry!
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