Georgia’s Cruise to Alaska Part 2 [PHOTOS]

Yesterday I posted some pictures from my cruise to Alaska thanks to YMT Vacations.  Today I have some more pictures of the ports we visited.

We left Ketchikan on Monday evening and traveled through the night and woke up in Juneau on Tuesday.

The small city is the capital of Alaska, but there aren't really any paved roads in or out of the town, but they have an international airport. (International because it flies to Canada 100 miles to the north...)

Despite its size, Juneau was probably my favorite port that we visited in the seven days we were in Alaska and British Columbia.

We were only in the city for a few hours, but my husband and I made the most of the time!  My parents decided to go on a whale watching tour, which sounded really cool, but we decided to just stroll around the town and take in the sights.  And maybe, just maybe eat some delicious food....

We stumbled upon a place called Tracy's King Crab Shack.  And a shack was exactly what it was.  And it was packed!  I snagged a table while my husband ordered us 2 lbs of fresh Alaskan king crab legs and 2 Alaska Brewing Company Summer Ales.

It was an absolutely perfect afternoon.

After our crab feast, we got back on the ship and settled down on the balcony of our stateroom to experience a "float-by" of a glacier.  We traveled along a Fjord to finally end at a glacier.  We were originally supposed to travel through Glacier Bay to Sawyer Glacier, but the captain said that the water was too icy for the ship to travel through.  So, we ended up going to this glacier with a name that began with an "I" - I never did get the whole name...  Anyways, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced.  Not only the travel time (4 hours), but the views were some of the most stunning I've ever seen in my life.  (And my pictures don't do the scenery any justice...it was so much more beautiful in person)  As we sat on our balcony, 100 feet from the ship were mountains that went straight up, way into the sky.  We saw waterfalls, sea lions and icebergs!

As we inched closer to the glacier, the temperature continued to drop.  By the time we got there, it was really cold!  But it was worth it because the view was amazing.  These pictures are from our stateroom's balcony on deck 9!

The definition of a glacier is a moving river of ice - how cool is that?

After the glacier, we continued on to Skagway, Alaska.  We arrived bright and early Wednesday morning.

Skagway is an old gold rush town and the main street has been preserved to look much like it did in the 1850's.

The Red Onion Saloon was once a brothel way back in the day!

My husband and I decided to go to a salmon bake out in the wilderness of Skagway.  We took a yellow school bus about 15 minutes outside of the little town into a camp next to the Skagway River.  The camp is set-up to look like it did when the gold rush was at it's peak.  It's called Liarsville.

Why, do you ask?  Well, the reporters from the Seattle Times that traveled hundreds of miles to report on the gold rush made camp in Liarsville, but wrote stories of the Klondike and the pounds of gold people were finding in the relatively easy commute from Skagway up the Klondike.  Well, the reporters were liars.  They decided that it was much easier to just stay in Liarsville and "report" on what was happening 500 miles to the north!  The trek up the Klondike was extremely treacherous and the gold that people were finding was not the riches as the paper had reported...  Hence, the name Liarsville.

We enjoyed fresh Alaskan Salmon, BBQ chicken, Caesar salad and blueberry cake!  Yum!  The camp is home to three really big dogs - and they are very friendly - except when it comes to bears.  I was talking to a woman that works (and lives) at the camp and she said every morning, before anyone walks out of their front door, they let the dogs out to chase off the bears!  Yikes!

The pooches were so cute!

More pictures to come throughout the week!

If you would like to book a cruise to Alaska (or anywhere else) contact the great folks at YMT Vacations!