What beautiful photos! This last mountain one looks like a postcard!! The flowers are beautiful, too!

Oh, oh, OH!!! Just breathtaking, Kate! I've never seen delphiniums so blue before!

What gorgeous scenery!!! Thanks so much for sharing. When I see you again, I want to see ALL your photos!

Again, welcome back!
Marcia

WOW. The mountains are gorgeous. It's an amazing planet we live on, isn't it?

Maureen

The first photo of the mountains just takes my breath away. I've never seen such magnificant mountain photos Kate. Looks like I have a new destination to add to my list of places to see on my dream vacation.

I'd love to know what they feed those delphiniums, the ones I grew in NH never grew like that! and the meadow is just gorgous.

Thanks so much for sharing your photos Kate.
Marion

Oh man-Oh-man!! Kate, I woke this evening after just about an hour of sleep...for no reason! I was sitting on the patio wondering what could help me doze back off, and then I thought ALASKA CRUISE!! I want so bad to go. The photos are simply breath taking. The blue blue blue delphiniums. Oh my! my Dad used to grow delphiniums in Michigan. I have never seen any so deep and rich in color. I take it, that's you in the photo?? WONDERFUL to put a beautiful face with your name, my beautiful friend!! Thanks for giving me something to dream on. stunning mountains.....sigh.zzzzz

I found this painted in the middle of a very elaborate sun dial along the pier in Juneau! I thought it was just for me!

If anyone wants to see more photos of Alaska, I've included a link to the album.

Our cruise began and ended in Vancouver - a very, very pretty city with gardens and parks everywhere. We visited the botanical garden there and saw at least a dozen hummingbirds on 1 plant. There were swarms of them every where. I didn't see any hummers once we got to Alaska though.
The ports we visited were Juneau (did you know you can't drive there?!?), Skagway and Ketchikan (the best stop). One whole day was spent touring Glacier Bay National Park - one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The morning we entered Glacier Bay around 7am, the ship was surrounded by a thick fog. (First picture below)
By 9am the fog had lifted and we had a viewing window - it was narrow but still very pretty. (Second picture)
Then in about 15 minutes the whole fog bank dissolved to reveal huge and beautiful mountains. It was like something out of a movie! Absolute magic.

Here's a closeup of one of the glaciers. Can you see the ice falling off? First there is a huge cracking, popping noise, then a few moments latter the ice breaks off and falls. Everyone says "ooooohh!" just like it was fireworks.

The glacier ice is blue because it's so compressed. It really is blue and even the ice bergs that come from the glacier retain that color. They take a long time to melt because of the density of the ice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kate's Alaska Album

Oh crap Kate-you are keeping me awake!! lol

What cruise line? Did you get a cabin with a balcony? I got to go check out your album, I am dying to go!!

Yup, that's me in the photo. I only weighed 95 pounds before the cruise, but the food was so plentiful... ;~))

We sailed on Holland America and we did have a balcony cabin on Deck 5. It's the smallest of their balcony rooms but we were very glad to have it. The Alaska cruise is all about the scenery and the daylight hours are so long that the balcony was used a lot. Just about every morning we either had breakfast delivered to the room or we went up and loaded up a tray to bring back to the room. Then we sat out on the balcony to eat and sip coffee.
However, if my only option in the future was to do the trip without a balcony, I would still do it. Lots of places everywhere on the ship to get a good view of what's passing by.

Holland America was wonderful. Excellent service and better food than we expected from a cruise. We haven't really enjoyed cruising in the past - only did it a couple times but thought we would never do it again. Then this family thing came up and we ended up going with a group of 8. It was so much fun we decided to book another cruise while we were on board! LOL I still can't believe it! We are planning now for a February cruise on Holland America out of San Diego that goes down to Mexico. VERY reasonable rates and way less costly than Alaska.

DH and I are also thinking about a short 3 day cruise next October 2008 just to sail on HAL's newest ship the Eurodam. A 3 day sail out of Ft. Lauderdale to Nassau. Should we make it a Garden Webber's cruise??? Wouldn't that be fun? We have a GWeb member over there (Bradisha) who would probably be happy to show us her garden. This ship will mostly be making much longer cruises, even some cross-Atlantic ones, so I'm not sure why they are doing this little one but I would like to take advantage of the opportunity. Especially for a 3 day cruise I would be happy with any size cabin, I think.
Kate

Kate, welcome back! Bless your heart, I think you really do blend in with the beauty; you belong---your smile shows it and---your nic in Juneau is a heavensent sign! lol. Thanks for sharing your album. Hope to see you at the Solstice bopper (picture in that post is soo funny!) Swap.

Kate, that was some fantastic trip!! I think you have inspired everyone they need to book a cruise to Alaska right away.

You fit in so perfectly with those blue delpheniums - I know you hated for everything to end. What wonderful memories you will have for a long, long time. Hope my hubby gets to realize his dream of going one day.

Off to view your album.

Ginny

Awesome photos! I would love to go to Alaska someday. such a beautiful place. The wildflowers are gorgeous!

Your pictures of Alaska are AMAZING!!! what an exciting trip for you! Towering ice glaciers, prestigeous mountians and beautiful perrenial beds to boot!! Can a trip be any more striking? I submit that it cannot!! Hope you enjoyed it! I love your picture of the "Rocket" Ligularia!!! It is one of my favorite yellow perennials!!! Great photo album!!

I visited a friend in Alaska in August 27 years ago and still remember how amazing the flowers were. I even bought some local seed packets but they never grew to look anything like the ones I saw.
Their summers are very short but intensely colorful.
My DH who's never been there wants to do a cross country trek and end up there next year. A cruise would be fantastic at the end-if we're still speaking after that much driving.

At least on a big boat there's plenty of room to get away from each other! ;~))

I think we had people boarding at each stop along the way so I believe it would be easy to do what you are thinking about. What a great trip that would be!

Kate
I was so glad to see your pictures
We leave for our Alaska cruise on Aug 30th We leave out of Seward and end up in Vancouver
Juneua and Ketchikan are also 2 of our stops.
Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
We also have a balcony cabin and after hearing what you said I am glad we will.
Did you spend much time in Vancouver ? The ships docks Friday morning and we don't leave until Sat night. I was told if we don't go to Buchard Gardens they will "un-master gardener" me lol.

One big question , it looks like I will have to go get a new camera since ours decide to stop working(better now than in the middle of the trip) what is the optical zoom on the one you used. The "broke one" was 4x.
I want to make sure I get great glacier shots as we cruise by.

Thanks so much

Karla

Karla - I think you'll find Butchart Gardens is in Victoria, BC not Vancouver. Kind of confusing since Victoria is on VANCOUVER ISLAND. Buchart at 55 acres is largest of many gardens in the City of Gardens. You may want to start Google search for transportation and schedules to/from Vancouver-Victoria or you may wind up Un-Master Gardened.
ron

thanks lakeron

I knew it was over on victoria but I never though to look into getting there now what a great suggestion thanks. they do have a :tour: but it starts at 8 am and I don't think we will be off the ship by then.
Trying to figure out if we should go friday or sat
off to google

karla

Karla,
There are ferries over to Victoria and the Gardens and a trip should be easy to arrange. They say you need 1/2 day at least because it will take you at least an hour from Vancouver. I'm terribly sorry we didn't have time to do that. Good thing I'm not a MG! I liked everything I saw about Vancouver.

My camera is a Canon 4 megapixel digital. 5.4 - 16.2mm. I like the 3x optical zoom but of course wanted more. Right before the trip I bought a 4x telephoto lens on eBay that really gave me some nice pictures. I would recommend a telephoto since the distances and views are so overwhelmingly large. Great for seeing wildlife on the shore too.

Best suggestion: invest in the highest power binoculars you can afford. You'll use them constantly for wildlife viewing. We were sorry we didn't have two pair along because we kept handing them back and forth. Actually we did bring two pair but I gave one to my brother and SIL to use.

In Juneau, if you are looking for a restaurant try The Twisted Fish just a little ways to the left of the ship's dock. The crab legs are huge and FRESH. Look off the pier behind the restaurant for the harbor seal and her pup. Seriously cute.

In Ketchikan, walk up Creek Street and find the store with the Ray Trout fish and raven designs. Great t-shirts and cards. Before you get back on board your ship in Ketchikan, stop across from the pier at the Artic Bar for a cold beer. Be sure to go out on their patio and take a picture of your ship. If you watch The Deadliest Catch, look for one of their boats in the harbor - they were giving tours earlier in the season but weren't there when I was.

It's expensive but try to do one of the helicopter or float plane trips. Seeing the sights from above is amazing.

Will you be anywhere near Haines? The jet boat ride into the eagle preserve was a highlight for us. We ferried over from Skagway to catch that trip.

Have a great time!!!!

Wonderful scenery, powerful images of the mountains, glaciers, and clouds. No matter where you go in the world there is true beauty to see; all you have to do is open your eyes.

An Alaska cruise has just been added to my list of vacations.

So glad I could be a bad influence!