Day at Sea

At Sea

Today we were at sea!  The kids had a great time participating in make your own pizza lunch, wacky tacky night, and the amazing arial show in the showroom!

Pizza making!

While waiting for the pizzas to cook we looked out the window to see some animals swimming along side us!  We think they were baby orcas!

Enjoying our personal pizzas!

We noticed a lot of custom painting on board our ship and wondered how they keep it looking so bright and pretty.  They are constantly repainting and touching up the paintings by hand!

As part of wacky tacky night, the kids had their faces painted!  Madelyn was a cheetah, Carson was a tiger, and Aubrey was a puppy!

Can't remember why Aubrey was so upset!

I really liked the colors on our ship!  The row of cabin doors in our hallway!

Towel monkey attacking a cheetah!

Skagway

3rd port day: Skagway

Today was the coldest day of our trip, it was 54 degrees out and it was quite windy!  Jon and I decided to get off the ship on our own to see what there was to do in Skagway before we got the kids off.  We found that there wasn't a whole lot to do in Skagway.  One thing Skagway is known for is the White Pass Train.  We were unable to ride the train because you cross into Canada and must have a valid passport!  But we were able to go into the old train station and look around and mail Grandpa Arnold a birthday post card with a train on it!  We also walked down to wooden sidewalks and just looked in the windows of the old buildings.   

They have a "smart bus" that drives you from the ship into town and then you can take it to this gold mine, old graveyard, and a garden.  We were told the gold mine would be a great place for the kids, but after being told another bus would be back in about 30 minutes and we were off the bus we realized it was a tourist trap!  We ended up just waiting for the bus to come back and get us and then we took the kids to pick out a t-shirt before heading back to the ship!

Once back on the ship we went to the Blue Lagoon for a snack to tide us over until dinner!  I would have to say that was to worst service we received on the ship, but the kids had fun as we had a great view of the helicopters that were landing and taking off every 15-20 minutes from the helipads just off the docks!

All the sidewalks on the main street were made of wood!

Couldn't resist taking this picture!

One of the church buildings we saw on our way to the gold mine.  I think that's the smallest meeting house I have ever seen in person!

The front of one of the White Pass trains.  It was used to carve through the ice!

This sign was found in the window of almost every store on the main road!

Waiting for the Smart Bus!  Seems like we waited forever!

Playing with our silverware!

Madelyn's bracelet collection, its become quite colorful!

We decided to let the kids decide if they wanted to eat dinner in the formal dinning room with us or have dinner at the buffet and go to kids camp!  Tonight Aubrey decided she wanted to get dressed up and go to dinner with us, but opted to go swimming before dinner!  She is quite the fish and played on the slide and in the pool for about an hour!

She loved the water slide!

In the formal dinning room we were seated at the back of the boat with a great view of the water trailing behind us!

10:30 pm and it's still light out!  Sunset was usually between 10:30 and 11:00pm!

Perfecting her form on her ice cream cone!

Can't go to be without a sweet treat!

Juneau

2nd port day: Juneau

Our time was very limited in Juneau, so we were quick to make a decision on what to do when we got off the ship.  We decided to go to Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching!  I was a little hesitant to go whale watching with the kids because when Jon and I were in high school we went whale watching and I got sick!  But I think this port was the highlight of our trip!  

Mendenhall Glacier was so beautiful!  The pictures just don't do it justice!  The blue colors of the glacier are amazing!  

 After 45 minutes at the Glacier, we were taken to the dock for the whale watching!  

The day was fairly overcast, but the was no wind and the water was calm and smooth!   

When we headed out on the boat our tour guide, Chelsea, told us we would be looking for Humpback whales.  She said they occasionally see Orcas, but only about 10% of the time.  Not too long after we headed out we ran into a pod of 10-12 Orcas!  They were beautiful!  Chelsea said the one that appeared to be the alpha male had a dorsal fin that was probably 6 feet tall!  It was hard to get good pictures of them, but they were amazing to watch as they just swam near our boat!  

 The fin to the right was the one believed to be the alpha male

Can you tell how much fun they are having?

 Once the pod of Orcas left we turned around to find a Humpback!  It was quick to do a terminal dive which allowed us to see it's tail!  Another magnificent animal to watch as they swim through the water! 

 We saw three different Humpbacks before we had to head back to the docks so we could get back to our ship!

 Our marine animal expert!

 We saw this bald eagle as we were headed back to the docks.  I didn't realize how tall bald eagles were until Chelsea pointed out that those green signs are 4 feet by 4 feet!

 They have graffiti Alaska, so sad in such a beautiful place!

 We have seen several sea planes since we have been in Alaska!   It is really fun to watch them take of and land in the water!

After we got back on the ship we had lunch and then headed to "Slime Time"!  The kids went with their friends from camp and had a great time!

We were supposed to sail from Juneau to see Sawyer Glacier, but conditions didn't allow for the ship to take that course.  The Captain made a decision to go to another Glacier (I think it was called Dawson Glacier). On the way to the glacier it was neat to see all the pieces of ice in the water and the amazing color of the water!  So beautiful!

 This ice looked like an alligator going after a whale!

 A few of the waterfalls we saw!

The Glacier!  While I don't think it was a beautiful as Mendenhall Glacier, it was neat to see the boat go up to it and then do a 360 degree turn and cruise back out!