We decided to celebrate our 30th anniversary with a cruise to Alaska.  Our journey in life together began at Bell Island Fishing Resort, which was 45 miles from Ketchikan, Alaska.  We had not been back to the area for 25 years and we were curious to see how it had changed.

     We flew into Anchorage and it didn't take long for our adventure to start. A strong earthquake had just occurred and there was a lot of activity related to that. Our ship's departure was delayed because the train tracks leading to Whittier needed to be inspected.  Finally all the passengers arrived and we headed out on a misty evening toward Prince William Sound.  The long hours of daylight in early June allowed us to enjoy the views well into the evening.  

     We awoke to the spectacular scenery in College Fjord and spent several hours viewing the massive glaciers.  The sight of the calving glaciers was mesmerizing and we tried to time our photos so we could capture the splash into the bay. Glacier Bay was our next destination and we started our morning with a treat when a pod of Orca's traveled through the glass still water next to the ship.  More spectacular glacier viewing filled our day.

     We arrived in Skagway and took time to explore the shops in town where we found a new diamond for Debi's wedding ring.Then we boarded the White Pass and Yukon Railway for a trip up the mountains to the site of the famous Klondike gold rush.  We had taken the trip 30 years ago and we were pleased to see that little had changed.  The views on ride up the steep valley were spectacular and we were amazed that the gold miners could have survived there in the harsh conditions of winter.  We finished the day at a gold mining exhibit and got to experience the rush of finding gold flakes in our pan.

     Juneau was our next destination and we had a delightful afternoon exploring the area at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.  We found a nice accessible trail that followed the shoreline of the iceberg filled lake.  We also explored the trail that followed the salmon spawning stream that emptied out of the lake.  It was common to see bears in the area, but we didn't get that opportunity.

     We were looking forward to visiting Ketchikan again. We had spent a lot of time there when we worked at Bell Island and were curious to see how it had changed.  We also hoped to finally experience the beauty of the Misty Fjords National Monument, which was up another channel east of town.  Unfortunately a strong storm with 55 mph winds hit as we arrived and our tour boat had to cancel the trip. We were disappointed, but made the best of the situation and spent the rainy day exploring Ketchikan. It was no longer the bustling fishing and logging center that we had known and  now a lot of the business revolved around the cruise ship industry.  We enjoyed talking to sport fisherman who were trying to catch the salmon in the stream at Creek Street, right in the middle of town.  We also explored the shops along the boardwalk at Creek Street.

     We cruised south into the inside passage and headed towards Canada.  We were surprised to see a man in a small boat playing "Oh Canada" on a trumpet as we passed by the small village of Alert Bay. It made for a nice memory of our entrance into Canada.

We continued down the inside passage and were impressed by the captain's skills as we navigated the tight passage through Seymour Narrows.

    Our cruise  brought back many memories of  the adventures of our younger days and we were pleased that we were able to find new accessible adventures that we could enjoy in our older years.