Sunday and Monday were at sea days. We got into Ketchikan, AK, on Tuesday morning. It was quite misty. 
Our first expedition of the day was a city tour on "The Duck". We drove around town and then right down into the water and then right back out onto land. Our driver and guide were just delightful. 
Our second excursion of the day was zip lining. Thanks to Nella. Here I am all decked out and ready to go, I think. It was actually very fun. There were 6 different zips and 3 suspension bridges we crossed. We were any where from 80 to 120 feet above the ground all the time. 
Just coming in for a landing. We had two super fun guides. Hank and Rhet. Hank sent us off and Rhet caught us. 
Standing on the platforms waiting for your turn was actually more scary than the actual zip. 
Just before we took off Hank said "When you are about 1/2 way over look down to the right and you will see a bear eating some salmon. You have plenty of time to look and still get slowed down." Well one of us, me, didn't dare look and still got too slow to make it all the way across. Rhet had to come rescue me. I was about 20 feet from the platform. When he got to me he asked if I had seen the bear. I told him no. He said, "Do you want to?" I looked back and said "That's a long way back." He said, "DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE BEAR?" I said "Yes." He gave me a shove and I went zinging backwards on the line. We got to this point where we could see the bear and just hung out there for a few seconds then he had to back hand it all the way to the platform. It was an awesome experience. 
Totem poles just outside the lodge. You can't see it, but I am holding up the medal I (we all) got for surviving the zip line experience. I would not hesitate to do it again if I knew it was set up as well as this one was. 
Wednesday afternoon we arrived in Juneau and our first stop was at the Glacier Rainforest Gardens. Years ago a mud slide knocked all these trees down. A greenhouse owner thought of some way to make some money out of that. Many of these upside down trees have had their root systems (sticking in the air) turned into beautiful planters. It was so pretty. 
This was inside the greenhouse. They said they had a lot of weddings there during the growing season. It was so pretty, and smelled heavenly. 
Wednesday morning found us sailing up the Tracy Arm Fjord. You can see the glacier behind us. It was rainy and cold. But it was so nice to be together. 
Wednesday afternoon we spent in Juneau. This is the Mendenhall Glacier. We didn't have time to walk around to the ice so we just toured the visitor's center and got this close. There was a bear just over a little rise from where we were standing, but he was all hunkered up under some bushes and all we saw was his black hide. 
Thursday we were in Skagway. The ship you can see in the distance is ours. We were on a hill overlooking the city. It is a quaint little town. For less than 1000 year round residents, they have 4 churches. The LDS church was one of them. 
We took the train to the top of the Chilkoot pass. This is the trail that the miners had to go up during the gold rush. It's a narrow little thing. 
Beautiful scenery from the train window. 
This is another train that we saw. It gives you an idea of where we were. 
Friday morning at sea there was a med-evac. It was sad that someone was that sick, but it was also really cool to have the helicopter right outside of our cabin window. 
Saturday was also a sea day -- although we did spend 2 hours in Victoria Canada that night after dark. It is a city I plan to go back to -- in the daylight.Sunday morning we docked back in Seattle and had a few hours to tour the city. We went to the Space Needle and then toured Pikes Place Market. I wish I would have taken some photos of the flowers there. Absolutely gorgeous. The dahlias were my favorite. It happened to be my parents anniversary that day and Mom always had unbelievable dahlias. I had a little bit of a tender emotional moment thinking about my folks that day.
It was a wonderful trip. I'm so glad we were able to share it with our dear friends, Ron & Inella Bastian. It was good to go, but it was good to get home and see the sunshine. 
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