Juneau, Alaska

On Monday morning, we arrived in beautiful Juneau. This is the view as we walked off of the ship and headed into town. It is hard to believe this small, quaint town is Alaska's state capitol! The Mount Roberts tramway treks up the mountainside every 5 minutes, but it was too foggy to see much of anything from the top.

Gorgeous view of downtown. We had a little time for shopping before meeting our bus for our day's excursion.

Posing with the Silver Star in front of a crab pot.

The Red Dog Saloon's floor is covered in sawdust and the walls are covered with pictures, money and animal heads.

Chocolate and caramel dipped marshmallows on a stick from the Alaskan Fudge Co.!

We couldn't pass up a photo opportunity with Alaska's most well-known resident, Sarah Palin!

After a short bus ride to the pier, we boarded the Saint Marie for a 2 1/2 hour amazing Whale Watch tour.

Before spotting any whales, we found lots of Harbor Seals relaxing on the rocks!

Aaron Island

Point Retreat lighthouse on land with Sea Lions hanging out on the bouy.

It wasn't long before we spotted the stars of the afternoon.

Our Captain heard about a group of Humpbacks who were Bubble Net Feeding so we passed up several solo whales to watch this amazing scene.

Our guide said they only see this once or twice a season, if lucky, and we were lucky!

We witnessed 15 Humpbacks dive down deep into the water, come back up together blowing bubbles, trapping herring in the bubbles and once at the surface, opening their mouths wide to feed on all of the trapped herring. The pictures don't begin to do the experience justice. The first sign would be the seagulls crashing down to the water in a circle, then we would hear a huge rush of water and then flukes, fins and heads of whales reaching the surface with amazing force. It was spectacular!! We were able to watch for 30 minutes before having to move on to follow enviromental protection policies.
It is certainly something we will never forget or probably see again!

Then it was on to Orca Point Lodge for our Salmon Bake late lunch. The lodge sits on a small island and I believe it only has 1 resident, the caretaker of the lodge. All employees travle by boat each day to go to work.

The Saint Marie

We were greeted by our wonderful chef and the amazing smell of salmon on the grill.

Our lunch...fresh-grilled King Salmon, rice pilaf, corn, rolls and brownies for dessert.

We had about 45 minutes to collect shells and play in the tidepools before getting back on the boat.

Our last stop on this amazing tour was Mendenhall Glacier. We were blown away by the sky blue icebergs floating in the water.

The Mendenhall Glacier, a hanging glacier with more shades of blue than this picture can show.

We were disappointed to only have 45 minutes to spend here, but we made good use of our time taking photos and visiting the Visitor Center. We got to touch a piece of the glacier's ice, but wished we had more time to walk the path that takes visitors closer to the base.

A very busy day, but an experience of a lifetime!

At Sea

We spent quite a bit of time at sea getting from port to port and there was plenty to do to keep us entertained. We spent much of the first day on the deck, viewing the amazing beauty of Alaska. This was the first hanging glacier we saw along the way, with the Holland America Westerdam in view.

We ate lots of ice cream cones at the Sundaes Bar.

We spent most nights either in the Vista Lounge or Princess Theater watching the evening entertainment. We laughed out loud with comedian Carlos Oscar, weren't so impressed by the illusions of Alexander and watched the Golden Princess dancers perform Motor City and British Invasion. We also spent time in here playing BINGO, but no winners in this group! It was so nice having the Curtis family and Frank and Marilyn with us too!

Lazy afternoons playing cards or Bananagrams in lounges throughout the ship.

Or just staring out into the ocean for any signs of wildlife.

We spotted several whales, otters, porpoise, bald eagles and flying fish along the way.

We had some lazy time watching movies and ventured up to the gym once or twice to burn off some of our buffet meals. The girls attempted the Kids Zone a few times, but seemed much more entertained with some freedom on the ship.

We all love Food Network, so it was fun to go watch a cooking demonstration by the ship's Executive Chef Jeremy Snowden.

We got to tour the galley and even have a cookbook signed by him!

Fine Dining

Almost every night, we started the evening at Canaletto's for our 6:00 dinner seating. George and Shane treated us like royalty every night, starting off with singing and cake to celebrate my parent's anniversary.

It was a nice time to catch up on the day's events, try new foods and fill our bellies way to full.

Sunday Formal Night

Throughout the week, we ate tons of fruit salad, delicious soups, plenty of fish, vegetables and meats all prepared to perfection.

We always managed to save room for dessert though! Allison loved her cookie sandwich and tried several different sorbets with Papa.

Taylor fell in love with this Princess Love Boat Dream chocolate mousse dessert and Matt was predictable with his Cheesecake and strawberries request every night.

We were amazed to learn that Shane and George work 10 months straight/7 days a week to support their families in the Phillipines, yet gave us their full attention every single night. We will all be in for a rude awakening when we return home and everyone asks "What's for dinner"?

Setting Sail on the Golden Princess

I think the girls' smiles say it all...we were so excited for our cruise adventure and they couldn't believe this would be their home for the next week!

View of Seattle from the 15th deck Sports Court before setting sail.

My Mom and Dad had a Mini Suite with a balcony and it was the perfect spot on a perfect Seattle day to hang out and watch the ship set sail.

View of the main pool and hot tubs. Unfortunately there wasn't any sunbathing once we set sail towards Alaska, but we still spent plenty of time bundled up out here watching movies, playing games and swimming.

The kids were so excited to have their friends, Tanner and Holden on the same cruise!

Watching movies from the hot tub...I think they could get used to this! One of many Alaskan Ales Matt and Dave shared during the week.