Checking out the glaciers...

On the day that we stopped off at Juneau, we had to be back on the ship by 12.30 as the captain would be taking us for a cruise up close to a glacier by mid afternoon. The itinerary stated that we would visit the Tracy Arm Fiord and the Sawyer Glaciers, but a storm warning for that area, saw the captain change the plan to Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Fiord.
I've written a little about this wonderful afternoon in my Overview blog post, so this post will feature more of the photos that we took that afternoon.
The ship just seem to glide quietly along and DH and I were just taking it easy; me crocheting, with him watching TV. Then I looked up from my crocheting and noticed ice floating in the water. We were sailing in the fiord.

These ice floes just kept on coming so then we took up vantage points on the balcony and got the cameras and binoculars out ready. Even though most people were on their balconies, chattering excitedly, it was still so quiet and peaceful in the fiord.
The steep walls of the fiord were so interesting to look at as well...there were lots of waterfalls...

Trees clinging to the slopes...

The misty rain 'produced' a number of rainbows as we sailed along...

After a while I noticed that the ice floes were getting larger...and some were quite oddly shaped :-) And some had patches of blue.

Our ship wasn't the only one in the fiord that afternoon...

And then I noticed that many of the ice floes were decidedly blue in colour, not just patchy...

We soon saw smaller glaciers...they were 'perched' up high and had streams flowing from them...

As the ship sailed on, we could see a much larger glacier in the distance...

As we neared this larger glacier (Dawes), the captain started to turn the ship; 360 degree turns so that everyone of the ship was able to get a good view...to say we were awestruck would not be too over the top! And the blue colour! That explained the blue ice floes.

 I believe the ship got within 1/2 mile of the glacier...we could see all the fissures/crevasses in the ice.

 And just a few favourite photos to finish off this post.

A quick overview...

I'm back! I'm back home in Brisbane and I'm back in Blogland after a little break. 

I know some of you have been waiting to see photos from our Alaskan cruise, so in this post I will just quickly give an overview of some of the places we visited. I plan to do more detailed posts as DH and I go through all the photos we have on our SD cards...it's a few! 

Boarding the cruise ship...

The first and second days were sea days...just sailing along.

The next day was our first stop...Ketchikan. There were 3 other cruise ships moored at the same time as ours...so lots of tourists descending on this town...

The next day we stopped for the morning at the town of Juneau...

The next photo shows some of the buses parked ready to take people from the cruise ships on excursions to the local attractions. We had chosen not to pre book for any of these, instead opting to get a shuttle bus into the town from the dock and 'do our own thing'. Ironically a number of excursions had been cancelled due to the weather.

Yep! It was raining. The girls and I went up in the Mt Roberts Tramway...it was a bit windy and the 'car' blew around a bit as we neared the top.

That afternoon turned out to be wonderful. The itinerary for the cruise was to sail the ship into an area of glaciation. The weather caused a change of plan as there was a storm in the planned area. But the Captain took us to another area. I will write a post just on the glacier/s but will share a few photos now.

Mid afternoon, I looked out of our cabin and saw blocks of ice floating by...

As we continued sailing we noticed the floes had become larger...

It was getting colder too so I gave the family a laugh when I got my hat and scarf out of my suitcase...I hadn't needed these items before this on the holiday!

Eventually I got my gloves out too...the family may have laughed...but I was at last warm! 

The first glacier we saw...

A glacier meets the sea...

The next day the ship docked at Skagway...another charming town. The next photo is at the dock...not the charming town.

It was rather windy at the dock...and cold!

The township was a 10 minute walk away or you could take the shuttle; we did the latter. We were delighted to find that it wasn't windy in the town and we walked around there for a few hours.

We even found an old steam engine near the town hall building.

Luckily, it wasn't part of the train we would catch that afternoon. But more about that in a later post. 

So that's just a short introduction to the 3 Alaskan towns we visited.