Alaska - Day 1, Anchorage

So what'd we do besides sail around in a big ship?  Adventures via Alaska: zipline, kayaking, whale watching, atv-ing, riding in a helicopter, going on a train ride, visiting glaciers, countless waterfalls, dog sledding, and don't forget the puppies!  Lotsa fun.  My brother-in-law lamented the lack of skydiving - I totally agree, that would have been gorgeous!  (Although with their typical weather pattern of rain/fog it probably isn't often so friendly to such an activity.)

Photographic proof provided, with maybe a little commentary:

Alaska - Day 1

I flew from SFO to Seattle, WA, and then to Anchorage, Alaska.  The views from the plane window coming into to Anchorage of the snow covered mountains were gorgeous!  I lamented that my camera was up in my bag in the overhead bin... 

Anyway, all that time I spent trying to shove warm clothes and a ski jacket into my checked bag - then I get outside in Anchorage and what does the driver of the bus transport to the boat say?  Heat wave, she's totally melting.  It was about 20 degrees warmer than usual, low 80s.  Lol, so much for all that useless luggage.  At least I also packed some t-shirts!

And that was the beginning of everyone saying how unusual the weather was.  Normally it's foggy, or rainy, etc.  The bus ride took us through some spectacular views....

Kite surfing - an adventure I didn't try!

This picture on the right was of a tunnel - one lane.  And the only way through the mountain.  It's used by cars, trucks, buses, and trains.  All shared by timing.  Something like trains on the half hour, Northbound vehicle traffic on the :15, Southbound on the :45, or East/West, whichever, I don't remember.  If we had been late, we would have had to wait an hour on the bus for the next window of getting through.

One the other side of the tunnel was the port at Whittier with our cruise ship docked.  The bus driver told us how this was a secret port used in WWII, since it was nearly always hidden by fog.  Hidden by fog - today?  Nope, gorgeous!

An added bonus to that one-way timed tunnel managing traffic, was that a bunch of buses arrived at the port at about the same time.  Made for a long line to get processed to get on the boat.  But minutes after I got in line by myself, I found someone who was super excited to see me!  The rest of the family had gone a few days early to do inland Alaska before the cruise, so it was fun to unexpectedly meet up before getting on the ship!

Bubba & me

The boat!

 First thing we did was check out the view from the balcony room:

Then we checked out the "kid place" amenities.  It was pretty much Bubba's favorite place for the entire cruise!

I was bummed on the bus ride in that I sat on the wrong side of the bus to see all the waterfalls, but little did I know how many more waterfalls we would be seeing!  With all that snow melt run off, almost everywhere we went were waterfalls, great time of year to go to Alaska!  And the beautiful scenery began before even leaving port!

Brother-in-laws new go-pro toy, get used to it. :o)

The "sunset" that first night was breathtaking.  It was worth the whole trip just for that.  I say "sunset" because the sun never actually did set that night.  It did go below the horizon, but it never got completely dark.  It's weird being light out at midnight - we were in Alaska for almost the longest days of the year!  Apparently the the locals have a midnight baseball game on Summer solstice in the daylight!