Alaska Cruise 2009

Alaska Cruise 2009

In 2009, I booked a cruise from Seattle to Alaska.
It was a good deal for a one week cruise with stops in Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria.
Had always wanted to go on this cruise but never had the chance until then!

The ship was from the Celebrity cruise line.
I got a nice balcony room at the rear of the ship.

It was cruise season and there were a few ships all leaving at around the same time.

Beautiful misty morning out in the inland sea, off the west coast of Canada.

The first stop was Ketchikan, Alaska, after a whole night of sailing.
It is very small town with a town center and surrounding areas of outdoor activities.

 Locals said this stream is used by salmon swimming upriver to spawn during July.
I was too early to view it, unfortunately.

The next day, the ship sailed towards Hubbard Glacier.
It was really cold, even in June.
Ice and snow was still around and it was raining, a cold rain.
I stood at the bow for over an hour, together with lots of others, as the ship got closer and closer to the glacier.
We actually got really close to it.
The Captain had a boat lowered and retrieved a piece of floating ice.

 Near the glacier, there are occasion sounds of thunderclaps or ice falling into the water.
In the above photo, you could see some ice falling into the water.

 Hardy souls braving the freezing weather to view Hubbard Glacier!

Our next stop was Juneau, Alaska.
Similar to Ketchikan but due to its location, there are no direct roads to Juneau from the mainland.
Cars have to travel to Juneau by ferryboat first.
Outside of cruise ship tourist season, Juneau is very quiet and the population dips way below.

I signed up for a forest zipline tour which was fun!
The tour group takes u on zipline runs through the forest.
Here are some pics.

After Juneau, it was time to turn back and we stopped at Victoria before setting back to Seattle.
Victoria has a very British feel to it, being an old British colonial town.
 Some people went to Butchart Gardens which I highly recommend.

I had been there before so I just wandered around downtown and heard the unfortunate news of the demise of Michael Jackson that day.

Thanks for reading and hope you like it!