Green Alaska

There are many things to enjoy on a cruise, fabulous food, exotic drinks, lazing by the pool, going to classes or movies or demos or tours or shows. You could exhaust yourself pretty quickly trying to do it ALL. I took advantage of some of these events, and enjoyed them very much. But I also enjoyed our stops, getting off the boat and exploring Alaska. We stopped at Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria B.C. Each of these towns had it's own personality, but what they all had in common was GREEN. Alaska is lush, almost rainforest like. Here are some of my tourist shots to celebrate that color.  

This is in Juneau, our first stop.  In the background of this shot is the Mendenhall Glacier.  We took a van tour and since our group was so big, we had the whole van just to ourselves.  Our tour guide, Annie, was just a stitch.  Cracking jokes, driving us around, telling tales of the old days.  She's lived in Juneau 35 of her ?? years and knows it well.  What I appreciated most were the little slices of life that seeped through her story telling.  No script, just her own bubbly personality, and tailored to our questions.  "Well if you want to know about that, let me just take us here for a few minutes," and off the main tourist-infested track we'd go.  

Here's most of our group; we're minus my mother-in-law aka The Boss, and my aunt and uncle The World Travelers who opted for a purchased through Holland America tour.  (By the way, we were on the MS Rotterdam.)  Just for the record, from left to right are my brother-in-law Trouble, The Engineer, me (yes, actually brave enough to finally show my face) hugging YellowBoy, my nephew Mr. Independent, my fabulous sister-in-law Patience, her daughter Engineer In Training, then you probably recognize Jake and behind him is The Engineer's cousin Mr. Casino, next is Language Man, my other nephew, and last but not least my father-in-law, The Advocate.  Annie took this picture.

Two days later we were in Sitka.  Wonderful town of friendly people.  We saw the Russian Orthodox Church which has been there since (gotta check the brochure, brain rot), and then headed to the "totem park" aka Sitka National Historical Park.   

 A leisurely hike through the lush forest 

led us to many totem poles, 

The Boss was able to come on this one

a bridge where we could watch the salmon run, 

and a chance to hike pretty far out into the bay during low tide.

A day later, more green was found in Ketchikan, as well as more salmon running.

                         

Our last stop before returning to Seattle was Victoria, B.C.  Our wandering around town took us to this (appropriate for summer color school green) buoy. 

 I was by no means ready to return, but alas, all good things come to an end.  I know I cheated and made you watch my vacation pictures, but all is fair in alphabe-Thursday.  Check out the other great posts related to the color green, and feel free to join us.  Jenny Matlock is our fab hostess over at off on my tangent.