The third port we stopped at was in Skagway. One of the best things on our trip was the helicopter ride. We took a 20 minute flight up to the middle of a glacier. They gave us ice boots with metal cleats on them and we took a walking tour. The bottom picture was taken from the helicopter obviously but it looks like we getting close to the ground when actually we are still very high up. The dark lines on the ice that look like tire grooves are actually streams of boulders that the ice has pulled off the mountainside as it slowly crawls out of the mountains. I will post another picture that show just how big those boulders are that make up the lines.

This shows the size of the boulders a little better. Another cool thing we got to do on the glacier was drink some of the water that was flowing just under the ice. The ice looks dirty on top but it is crystal clear underneath. The tour guides estimated that the water we were drinking was frozen prior to the year 1700 and prior to the industrial revolution which brought so many pollutants to the air and water. This means it was really good water! Of course, there is probably a three hundred year old bear terd thawing in the ice right above where we were drinking, but oh well. Another fascinating fact a tour guide told us was how to catch a polar bear.

First of all you chop or drill a large hole in the ice. Then you go to the store and buy a bag full of peas, not frozen or canned peas, they have to be fresh. You then take the peas and line the egdes of the hole with the peas. Then you wait very patiently. Finally when the polar bear comes to take a pea you kick him in the icehole! ;)

The second place we stopped was Juneau. In the morning we went to see the Mendehall Glacier. It is hard to describe how incredible these things are. They are just massive. The deep greens in the mountains and bright blues from the glacier are so contrasting. Any picture you take is usually pretty good.
After seeing the glacier we then took a bus back to the outskirts of town where we ate some fresh grilled Salmon. Amy and I don't usually even like fish unless it deep fried and battered but this was pretty good.
The picture that is sideways shows how fun it was to get back on the boat. I took the picture from the boat and the line went all the way to shore, through the covered entry and all the way up the gangway.

Cruisin'

Our cruise to Alaska was amazing! We really loved it! We did so many things that it is hard to pick a few to tell you about. These pictures are from Ketchikan where we went ziplining through the Alaskan rainforest. The lines are stationed in the tops of very tall trees and you go from platform to platform in these trees. Not only was it fun to be zipping around, the scenery was spectacular. Later that day we went to this lumberjack show where they compete at various logging tasks using axes and chainsaws. Some of you may have seen these guys on ESPN. They put on a pretty good show.

There are so many pictures we would like to post to show everyone but we realize they are just probably not quite as exciting for you as they are for us. Here are a few anyway.

Seattle

Unfortunately we are back from our vacation and I guess we should post a little bit about what we did. I have to admit I'm feeling a lot of pressure to post with Tom and Dani's new blog ticker:)
As for our vacation we spent two day in Seattle prior to getting on the ship. We really enjoyed our time there especially because it was sunny and 75 degrees for both of the days we were there, which is really unusual.
The first day we were there we ate at a great place right on the water. We ate some fantastic fish and chips and clam chowder. It is so good when it's fresh. In the evening we went to the space needle and watched the sunset. It is a little crowded at that time but it was still fun.

The second day we went to the Pike Place Market, as pictured above. This is not your typical flea market/swap meet, it is in my untraveled opinion very unique. It is a couple city blocks long and is filled with lots of handmade jewelry and art as well as high quality products from overseas. There were also tons of flower shops selling huge arrangements of fresh cut flowers for 10 or 15 bucks. The main attraction of the market is the fresh fish. One shop in particular draws quite a crowd. Anytime someone buys a fish they throw it clear across the place to the person at the counter who then filets the fish and throws it back. As you can imagine not that many people buy fish so there are always a hundred people standing around and the poor fish throwers are saying; "You all know we're open right!" Eventually they talk someone into buying a fish and everyone gets entertained. I will see if I can post a video of this.

Lastly we went to the locks and watched them move ships in and out of the higher lakes out to the ocean inlets. You can also watch the salmon jump up the fish ladders when it is the right time of the year, but we didn't see any when we went.

Seattle is a great place to visit if anyone gets the chance, I would highly recommend it.