Alaskan Cruise!

#48 - Take a vacation to Hawaii or somewhere outside the US (Done July 2009!)
Yes, I realize Alaska is one of the 50 states...but it's not considered part of the Contiguous US (or lower 48).  :-P  So I'm counting it as somewhere outside the Contiguous US!  :-D 

Our cruise was from July 17-24th.  We left the day before and flew into Anchorage, unfortunately we arrived so late in the evening we just crashed at the hotel.  We never did see any live moose or bears on our trip.
7/17 - We took a five hour Alaskan Railroad train ride to Seward to meet our cruise ship!   The scenery was beautiful, we viewed several glaciers, and enjoyed Alaskan beer.  We boarded the Celebrity Millennium around 6pm and set sail at 9pm!
7/18 - 1st day of cruising.  Karen and I actually hit the gym in the morning.  Yay us!  Then we came upon Hubbard Glacier around 2pm.  It was breathtaking!  The blue blue ice was amazing and impressive.  Definitely a sight to behold.  This was also our first formal dinner night on the cruise.
7/19 - We arrived in Juneau, the capital of Alaska.  Karen and I took a 9 mile bike ride glacier view and brewery excursion.  The bike ride was very enjoyable, its been years since I was on a bike!  The ride took us to Mendenhall Glacier followed by a trip to the Alaskan brewery where we had 45 mins to drink as much beer as we liked.  That was a good day.  :-)
7/20 -   Docked in Skagway, the gateway to the Klondike.  Karen and I started off by hitting the gym, then onto land for some light shopping.  At 1pm we went on our rock climbing/rappelling excursion.  The weather actually cooperated and it didn't rain us.  :-)
7/21 - Arrived at Icy Strait Point where we rode the world's longest and highest ZipRider Zipline.  Exhilarating!  There wasn't much to see at Icy Strait so after our excursion we headed back to the boat for a nap and then to our 2nd formal dinner on the cruise.
7/22 - Arrived at our final port Ketchikan, Salmon capital of the world.   Ketchikan was the best place for shopping in my opinion.  There was tons to see and do.  We took a boat wilderness exploration and crab feast excursion here.  On the boat we pulled up a crab pot and learned about Dungeness crab.  Followed by an all you can eat Dungeness crab lunch!  This crab was delicious, I think I polished off 2.5 crabs.  That evening Karen and I selected the Olympic Restaurant for our dinner that evening.  The Olympic is the sister ship of the Titanic and the Olympic room contains the original paneling of the Olympic ship!  It's a very fancy four-course dining experience.
7/23 - Last day of cruising.  3x's the charm, Karen and I again hit the gym in the morning (#44 - working out).  This was by far the sunniest and warmest day, we spent most of the day on the deck reading and then in Shelly and Howard's room drinking.  :-)
7/24 - Arrived in Vancouver and caught our flight home!

I also managed to finish 2 books on this trip.  :-D

Click on link below to view all the pictures.


by cfreund