ALASKA - DAY 6

Day 6 was our last day visiting an Alaskan port so it was a bit of a sad day. We also were only going to spend until mid afternoon there due to the fact that we needed to sail quite a way down the Inside Passage towards Seattle in time for disembarkation. The last Alaskan port of call was Ketchikan. 

We spent the first part of the morning wandering around the port town. It had a similar feel to Juneau and Sitka as it was based on the water and just set into the hillside. There were lots of sea planes flying around and there was a huge marina section with the boats all lined up. 

Then just before we had to go back onto the ship we went to watch the great Alaskan lumberjack show. It was fantastic! They had four lumberjacks who were competing against each other. One team was supposedly the Americans and the others the Canadians. They did various challenges and competed at a crazily fast pace. I almost didn't want to look for some of it! They put on a great show building up 'rivalries' and little pretend arguments so it was highly entertaining. 

Our favourite bit though had to be the log rolling competition. For this they had one member of each team competing and it was best out of three. However just before they were going to compete the 'American' team brought out a new member to compete....it was the 'Canadian' team members Dad! Apparently he is 65 and still competing in log rolling competitions. He was so good. It was so close but in the end the son won, by 2-1. 

I put up a quick 14 second video on Instagram of the most painful part of the contest...

                                                                           

I also managed to get my photo taken with the lumberjacks afterwards. Just ignore the very stupid expression on my face! 

Once we were back on board the ship we spent the afternoon lazing around in the crow's nest watching the Inside Passage of Alaska go by as we headed back down towards Canada. The evening was the final gala night so we spent some time getting dressed up. Not quite as fancy as the first night but still we scrubbed up pretty well! (We did forget to take a photo in a nice spot though so you've got one from the end of the evening in our room with the camera propped up on the table! Sorry!)

So there we go, the last Alaskan day! The next post will be the stop in Canada and the day we flew home all rolled into one!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

On Friday and Saturday Macintosh had his girlfriend Penny over to stay whilst her owners moved house. Obviously this was a source of great excitement for them both!

Now I don't have any other pictures to show you. I think we were too busy enjoying spending time with them. But I do have the funniest story to share....about Penny. See we have a little routine at nighttime where Macintosh goes outside for his last toilet break whilst we are busy getting ready for bed. Usually he pops outside, does his business, he trots back in and goes straight to his bed. 

Well on the night Penny was here that didn't happen! The two of them would go outside and distract each other completely to the point where Andrew had to go outside. Once they'd finally done their business Macintosh trots in through his doggy door as usual and starts to walk to his bed. Penny suddenly sees that Mac is inside and decides she needs to follow him, so she starts running. Now because Andrew came outside it looks as if the back door is open, except that he shut the screen door behind him. So Penny goes running at the 'open' door hoping to follow Mac only to hit the screen door super hard. She goes flying backwards, looks up at Andrew bemused and shaking herself off goes in through the doggy door. 

Obviously Andrew and I are in stitches, once we've checked she isn't hurt! Apparently though according to her owners this isn't the first time its happened! Seriously funny!
H

ALASKA - DAY 5

This day was probably my most favourite day of the whole cruise. Those of you who know me well will know that I love the actress Sandra Bullock. In particular I love one of her films The Proposal. Now in this film both Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds fly up to a little place called Sitka, Alaska. It looks totally picturesque and amazing and I have always wanted to visit it. So you can imagine my pure excitement when our cruise ship stopped for the day in none other than SITKA!! I must have been slightly unbearable to live with during the trip as I may have mentioned that we we going there rather a few times!

The ship didn't dock at Sitka due to the piers not being able to handle such large ships. Instead it moored up a little way out and we were ferried across to the mainland on the little lifeboats from the ship. I must admit it was pretty exciting and oddly calming to know that our lifeboats worked well!

Our first port of call for the day in Sitka was the other reason that I was so incredibly excited about going to Sitka. Just outside the town of Sitka there is a place called the Fortress of the Bear. Its a rescue centre for orphaned bears. In Alaska if they find an orphaned bear currently they shoot it because they don't have the facilities to look after it. Thankfully this volunteer organisation created this little sanctuary for orphaned bears. Their aim is to take in the orphaned cubs and prepare them for re-release into the wild. As this isn't yet allowed the current bears they have living in the sanctuary will be there until they die, or perhaps transferred to a zoo. But they hope that one day the laws will change and they can prepare the newer bears for re-entry into the wild.

As they have these current bears for life they have had a high level of human interaction and so are the most AMAZING bears ever! We took a bus up to the sanctuary and got to spend some time just watching the bears before the founder came across and explained about how the place got started, the plans they have for it and most importantly he told us all about the wonderful bears.

They have 5 brown bears there. Two are brothers and the other three are all family too, two brothers and a sister. They were rescued in their families and were slowly introduced. The two brothers in the photo above loved to play with each other, especially in the water. They were super fun to watch. There are also 3 black bears. These aren't native to Alaska but were found near a prison facility at different times. They are smaller than the brown bears and were Andrew's favourite. 

My favourite were the brown bears, in particular the guy below. His name is Balloo. He is awesome! He was totally food obsessed. They had taught the bears to do a few tricks, simple ones like standing on their back legs on command and waving, but they also taught them to ask for more food by putting their hands together. When Balloo saw the founder come out he literally sat down and just kept asking for more. It had me in hysterics because he just reminded me of Macintosh who is literally that food obsessed! 

I mean look at him, your heart literally melts at the sight of him doesn't it! Mine does! If I could have smuggled him out of there without being caught or killed I would have done. I would have a pet bear in a heartbeat if I had a chance of survival! And maybe even if I didn't...

Anyway, whilst feeding the bears some of the local bald eagles appeared out of the trees circling and watching the meat. Whilst in Juneau our glacier tour guide had pointed out just how many bald eagles there were. They were like pigeons, you could see them just sitting in the trees or circling overhead. All you had to look for was a white golf ball in the trees and you knew it was the head of a bald eagle. They were everywhere. The sanctuary founder played with the eagles too. He threw the meat up and they would swoop in a snatch it with their talons. They were rather scary but incredibly fast and graceful. It was hard to photograph them in flight. I got one but its not the greatest of qualities. 

After an insanely good coffee and cake (that we didn't photograph because we ate it so fast!) we went for a wander around the town of Sitka and onto their National Historical Park. This was once home to a Tlingit people and was then taken over as part of the Russian territory. It was interesting to wander around and learn about the history but we didn't get as much walking done as we wanted as the rain and fog set in pretty hard.

After we were pretty much as wet as could be we went back to the ship to dry off and have a late afternoon tea. The ship left Sitka before dinner so we took up residence in the crow's nest and watched us sail out of the bay and further down through the Inside Passage towards the next port. I may have spent a lot of that time going over and over all that we had seen and the bears and how awesome Sitka was. I'm surprised Andrew didn't throw me overboard! Guess at 30 you really are old and wise enough to know better...
H

ALASKA - DAY 4

Finally on day four we left the ship! Overnight we travelled from Tracy Arm up the Inside Passage towards the capital city of Alaska, Juneau. It was to be our first stop and we had a whole day to explore. We obviously got up early and got ourselves off the ship at the unearthly hour of 7:30am! It was obviously pretty deserted apart from those Alaskans going to work and the few cruise ship tourists that were knocking around.

We immediately found an independent coffee shop to grab coffee whilst we had a quick walking tour around the town centre to orient ourselves. It was a pretty quirky place and we were enjoying wandering around. The rain was intermittent at this point but rather refreshing considering California hasn't see any in a while!

Of course lots of the Alaskan towns in the Inside Passage are pretty cut off from mainland Alaska so its almost easier to use a seaplane, if you have one. Juneau had plenty of seaplanes around it so we spent quite a while just watching them. It was Andrew's birthday after all, so I allowed him to do it!

Around 9am we had a coach booked to take us to Mendenhall Glacier which was a little outside Juneau. Having seen a glacier the day before I was better prepared for what to expect but still excited to see it because they really are stunning.

As you can see the glacier was just an incredible blue colour again and there was just so much ice. Its still very mind boggling to me to think that its actually moving. I can't get over that. There was an amazing information centre at the glacier that gave us lots of useful explanations about how it moved. But it also told us that the glacier has been receding for years due to global warming. There were pictures from back in the early 1900s showing it further out across the lake. Such a shame.

Once we'd finished up there we were driven back into downtown Juneau and we had dinner at the famous Red Dog Saloon. It was a crazy place with a saw dust floor, lots of taxidermy everywhere and waitresses dressed in crazy cowboy era costumes. But the food was good and there was a musician playing comedic music which really set the tone!

For the afternoon we went up into the hills of Juneau for a mini hike. The rain had really set in by then so we knew we wouldn't get far but we couldn't resist heading up into the trees towards the waterfalls. It was just so beautiful and we miss seeing the colour green so much that it had to be done.

Once we were about as wet as we could handle it was time to head back to the ship. Amazingly just as we were getting back to the ship we saw yet another sea plane and this time it was coming in to land right by the ship. Obviously this meant another stop so that we could look at it and be amazed! 

Juneau was such a cool spot and we were amazed to see it. We didn't take as many photos there as we wanted due to the rain which was threatening to break our camera the longer we left it out of the bag. But it was a cool place just nestled into the hills with the water so accessible and useful to them. We would definitely recommend you visit it!

Now onto day 5....
H

ALASKA - DAY 3

Hello, so here is a brief report of the third day of the amazing adventure that is the Alaskan cruise. First I just want to say on here THANK YOU to Hannah for this incredible surprise! I couldn't believe it initially. I was very excited to break the news to my friends here only to realise they all knew before me! Had a great birthday travelling up to and around Seattle and setting out from port before celebrating onboard!

So on with the third day;
We woke up to see actual Alaska slowly passing us on both sides as we sailed up the Inside Passage on our way to Tracy Arm. To describe this is pretty impossible in my bad english. The very still water reflecting the mountains on either side of the ship as we sailed along was incredible.

Here is a map for people that like maps so you can see roughly where we went.

After breakfast we walked several laps of the ship spotting a few puffs of water in the distance of nearby whales. We then settled down on the deck chars to do some holiday reading whilst enjoying the peaceful scenery.

We then headed up into Tracy Arm towards Sawyer glacier. This is a true fjord carved out by the ice. The solid granite rock carved into smooth curves by the ice. A hanging glacier in the distance coming down from the mountain. As we headed up the Arm we passed several large icebergs that had broken off from Sawyer Glacier, sometimes these can block the ships up to the glacier but today it was fairly clear with just small chunks of ice.

After an hour at the Glacier head, we turned back down Tracy Arm and set sail for Juneau, the next day's port of call. 
A