College fjord in Prince William Sound

More glaciers and beautiful scenery in college fjord. The glaciers are named after Harvard, Dartmouth, etc...

Prince William Sound seemed even more spectacular than Glacier Bay - the mountains are steeper, and the glaciers as tall, or taller as they enter the water. We saw lots of wildlife, including puffins and other birds, otters, seals, etc...

It was a great last day of the cruise.

Glacier bay and the cruise ship Statendam

Entering Glacier Bay -- lots of haze from fires in BC
At Margerie glacier
A much smaller boat cruises by Margerie glacier - gives you a sense of scale!
A bit of glacier calving at Margerie glacier


I haven't talked much about our cruise ship, but it was very nice. It's one of the smaller cruise ships of the Holland America Line (HAL) called the Statendam. There were about 1300 passengers. We had a 4 person stateroom with a queen bed, a bunk, and a couch which turned into a single bed. We were very comfortable, and had an ocean view room facing the coast. We didn't spend much time in our room - we were usually in the library, the crow's nest, or on deck watching the scenery and spotting wildlife. The boys split their time between the kids programs (Club HAL) and the pool. The food was generally very good, even in the buffet, but we preferred the restaurant. There were a lot of other kids around, so the boys had a good time. I tended to go to bed early with the boys and get up early to work out in the gym, so Mike had to enjoy the entertainment on the ship by himself, but he thought it was mostly good, although often geared to the retirement age set. We would definitely consider doing it again, although it will be a while, given the expense!

Juneau: Eagles and humpbacks and orcas, oh my!

From Mt. Roberts -- a bit hazy due to the fires burning in BC.


Orca pod, including a baby which still had some orange to it's white spots, meaning it was only a few weeks old.

Humpback whales performing the rare behavior of "bubble-net fishing"

In Juneau we started the day with a whale watching tour. We started off with a sighting of two bald eagles. Then we saw something which our naturalist said was an incredibly unlikely event -- bubble net fishing by humpback whales. Humpback whales are normally solitary creatures. Mike and I had seen a few from the ship the night before. However, about 5% of humpbacks know how to do this form of fishing. We saw 3 groups of 6-9 humpbacks coming together to go after the herring which were in great abundance in the bay. They would create bubbles to push the herring together, then one of the whales (a female) would start "singing" (we could hear it through a hydrophone, quite an amazing sound!), which would push the herring to the middle of the "net" then the whales would rise up with their huge mouths wide open, swallowing more than 15,000 gallons of water, along with a lot of herring. Then they would breathe on the surface for a bit before diving to do it all over again. One of the most amazing experiences of my life -- I had seen this behavior on tv before, but never though I'd get to see it. We watched them for about an hour, and I probably took 300 pictures. To add icing to the cake, we also saw the pod of orcas with the baby. I'd say we got our money's worth on this whale watching trip! Later we rode the tramway to the top of Mt. Roberts which gave us a great view of Juneau and the port. Juneau itself was fairly unremarkable. Unfortunately in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway the ports are dominated by Caribbean jewelers who have followed the cruise ships. We stuck with the local shops and bought a few trinkets along the way.

More pictures from Ketchikan (Last Tuesday)

Watching the Salmon swim upstream


At the lumberjack show

In Ketchikan

Totem poles at Saxman native village in Ketchikan. Terri and Brandon dancing with the Tlinglit in the Beaver lodge.

Brandon in beautiful Stanley Park and on board our ship as we leave Vancouver.

The cruise is over -- lots to catch up on

Was too busy and internet was too expensive on the cruise ship to post. We had a great time, definitely the trip of a lifetime. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures in the next few days. Starting with Stanley Park last Sunday, we wandered through the beautiful gardens. We then walked back to our hotel via the Vancouver gay pride parade (entertaining and an experience for the boys), and somebody called my name -- it was our neighbor from Austin, Jack! It's definitely a small world. From there we headed to our ship to begin our cruise. The weather was beautiful and warm in Vancouver. The first night of cruising was uneventful. The highlights of the trip included seeing amazing humpback whales and orcas in Juneau, a fun visit to a native village with totem poles and a lumberjack show in Ketchikan, and a ride on the Klondike train and visit to a gold prospector camp in Skagway. Perhaps the most spectacular part of the trip were the visits to glacier bay and Prince William Sound, where we got close to some massive glaciers and saw lots of wildlife. We just landed in Seward where we will be staying for a couple of days, then on to Anchorage. I'll post more details of our trip when I'm on a faster internet connection.