Cruisin' Alaska: Part 2

 Port #1: Juneau.  We took a bus ride from the ship to Mendenhall Glacier.  There is a huge glacial lake and a fall that runs into the lake.  It was amazing to see how calm the lake was even with a massive flow of water falling into it.  There were also a lot of chunks of ice from the glacier floating in the lake.  We were so busy taking in the views that we somehow missed seeing the baby cub that some folks saw on the trail.  Actually, I was probably talking too loud on the trail in an attempt to protect us from the bears (that was the advice of the bus driver). 

 We love the mega-zoom on our camera.  Isn't the blue ice awesome!?!

Random shot, back on the ship we found life-size chess!
Port #2: Skagway.  We took a train into the mountains and it was incredible!  I will admit that I got pretty scared on parts of the ride; like when we were on a wood bridge more than 1000ft. above the valley floor and as we rode the tracks that seemed to barely hug the side of the mountain.  It made for great views that's for sure!

I loved seeing the changing colors of the season though the weather felt like it was winter!  We didn't get pictures of the town of Skagway.  There was a small downtown area with lots of touristy shops filled with t-shirts, jewelry, and tchotchkes.  Since we were at the end of the Alaskan cruise season, most of the stores had end of season 50% sales which made souvenir shopping very reasonable.

We met a lot of awesome people at each port and on the ship.  One of the first questions people would ask us was if we had ever cruised before.  We found out quickly that we were among some seriously avid cruisers.  There was a retired man who had recently returned from a 30-day cruise to Australia.  Another couple had already been on the same Alaskan cruise the week before and loved it so much, they stayed on the ship for our cruise the next week.   At the Seattle airport, I met 2 retired sisters that were getting ready for, get this, their 70-DAY CRUISE!  Isn't that wild?  They were going to China, Thailand, Vietnam, and a half-dozen other places and weren't going to be back until December.  I can't even imagine cruising for that long.  As much as I enjoy cruising, I don't think I could handle the food for that long.  It would be a great way to see the world though!