The Great Alaska Cruise

Well folks we've done it. Mike and Bea went off to sea..... to see exactly what?
Southeastern Alaska of course a place you can only visit by boat, cruising or on the Alaska Ferry system.
Our choice was the MS Amsterdam a beautiful ship by any standard with all the comforts of a 5 star hotel and the food ranging from scrumptious buffets to fine dining and best of all room service at no extra charge. This we made use of every morning of the cruise by having our breakfast in our room looking out over the ocean or the beautiful coast line gliding by. The cabin was right aft of the Navigation bridge and thus I got to rate the nav crew's performance. ( only kidding of course) It is amazing how these experts handled the 61,000 tons ship in some very tight quarters.
Enough of the ship though, let's talk a bit about the landscape and the tours we did,boat rides to canneries and a salmon hatchery a float plane flight of the Taku Glacier and 5 of its counterparts and the highlight of the trip Glacier Bay.Hubbard and Turner Glaciers are actually advancing and threating to close the channel to Yakutat. What that will mean is that the river will reverse course after filling up a lake and run south into a different bay. So what you say, well the salmon from the Yakutat river will no longer be able to find their way to their spawining grounds and unless the local hatcheries introduce samon to the newly formed lake and river, this species will die out. We cruised to within 1000 ft of the Ice walls and heard the thunder of the calfing process and did actually see some huge chunks of ice break off into the water.
If you melted the ice and drank the water you would be drinking 5000 year old water because that is how long it takes for the ice to reach the sea. Seeing all this beauty makes you humble and you really want to make sure we keep nature so generations after us can enjoy it as well.
The towns along our route were small and fun to walk. It was interesting to note that jewelry is a bigger item than salmon for the local merchants. The stores there are the same ones you might find in the Carribean and that's where they ship their inventory after Sept 30, when the last cruise ship departs for longer days and warmer climates.
Highlights in Juneau were the tram to MT Roberts the governors mansion. Sitka boasted St Michaels Russian Orthodox church and too many shops which mom like and made me a bit grumpy (imagine that)
Ketchikan is a fun town to walk and shop but we only had a few hours there though we did visit Creek Road built on stilts and saw the salmon run up the river.
Last not least Victoria BC. we were late getting in due to rough seas but did get to enjoy HIGH TEA at the Empress Hotel and a stroll through this quite European town.
Alas it is over now and though mom did not gain weight I am now paying for the sins of eating a bit much.
All in all a great and relaxing trip, one we really enjoyed and would recommend to all of you.