Glacier Bay

When we booked our cruise, we chose the one we did because our ship cruised through Glacier Bay.  It was spectacular.

This was Margerie Glacier; by far the bluest and most stunning of all the glaciers.

It was taller than our 14 story ship.

This one is what gets called a "dirty glacier."  Lots of dirt and rocks mixed in with the ice.

We spent a good portion of the afternoon on our friend's private balcony.

Lindsey, Ben (with his eyes closed, sorry Ben!), and Alexis.

Bryan and Tanner.

Just hanging out, watching for whales.  We saw lots, actually.  Over the course of our cruise, we saw orcas, sea lions, and lots of humpback whales.

See the tiny little splash?  This is the closest I came to photographing one of the many whales that made it's appearance.

So a little back story regarding our new friends.  On the second day of our cruise, we ended up sitting in a hot tub with some people that looked about our age.  We chatted, and really hit it off.  Alexis and Tanner make amazing art.  Alexis' brother Ben works for Apple, and his girlfriend Lindsey is at Yelp.  We kept bumping into them, and finally just started meeting up. 

We met up for some shuffleboard.  The wind gusts and ship rocking really challenged our technique.

But we still had fun.

Mushrooms

When we were hiking in Skagway, I starting noticing lots of mushrooms. I was fascinated by the variety, so I started taking pictures.  I was wishing I had a little mushroom guide book, but I didn't, and I still haven't done any research to discover what all of these types of mushrooms are.

Such strange beauty in fungus.

Skagway

It was overcast when we arrived in Skagway.  We had grand plans to get cheap train tickets and ride the twenty-some miles to go hiking on a glacier.  I had even borrowed appropriate boot wear attachments from friends.  But when our thrifty plans were spoiled by a hefty price tag, we pulled out the iPhone and discovered there was non-glacier hiking nearby.

So we headed towards Lower Dewey Lake.

The salmon were spawning, and consequently, dying.

This King Salmon was already dead. He was at least four feet long.

Death on one side of our path, and beauty and life on the other.

It was a good hike.  For me, anyway.  It was a rude wake-up call to how out of shape I actually am.

The little raging stream was perfect.

We arrived at Lower Dewey Lake, and it was still and quiet.

We had a little picnic lunch.

I sat by the lake for an hour, while Bryan (literally) ran up a couple of miles to see if he could make it to the upper lake.  But we were on a time crunch, so he had to turn back before he arrived.

Our time crunch was getting back to our port, and meeting up with the old bus that took us along a bumpy old road to the Liarsville Gold Rush Camp.

We even had a little show portraying what gold rush fever would have been like.

Then we learned the technique for gold panning, and got to pan for our very own gold!  We each found a few flecks.  Nothing to write home about.

Then we had a feast.  Fresh grilled salmon, reindeer sausage, and of course beans and cornbread.

Our bus driver dropped us off at the edge of the small town, and we wandered back towards our ship.

We stopped in at the Skagway Brewing Co. pub.  Good beer, actually.

We went hiking somewhere up there.

This cool old building was covered in driftwood.

Ready to get back on our ship.  See the blue glacier?

We had a beautiful sunset while cruising back down the channel.

Skagway was beautiful.