Skagway

 On our stop in Skagway, we took a train up into the White Pass Mountains to check out the beautiful scenery.  It was unbeliveable to wind through the gorgeous peaks, water falls, tunnels, and glaciers, often following the paths of those on the Klondike Gold Rush.  I spent most of the trip out on the train balcony, soaking in as much of the scenery as I possibly could. It was a gorgeous,cloudless, sunny day which allowed us to see the peaks of the glaciers that are usually hidden by fog and clouds.  It was a highlight of our trip for sure!

Juneau

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 I told my kids that I wasn't coming home from Alaska until I saw a whale, and lucky for them, the whales really delivered while we were in Juneau.  We saw 24 beautiful humpback whales on our whale watching expedition, including a mother and calf, a breaching male, and a group of 13 who were bubble-net feeding.  It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and feels so unreal.  Again, the scale in Alaska just feels so different with all these gigantic mountains and the ocean surrounding you.  It felt difficult to even comprehend that a tail fluke of one of those whales was 15 feet across.  I kept my eyes open the whole rest of the trip and spotted several other whales from our ship over the course of our week - probably totaling near 50 throughout our trip!  It was a long awaited bucket list item for me that I was so glad I had the opportunity to see!

Ketchikan

Ketchikan was our first port on our cruise. It was a cute, quaint little town with lots of shops and a beautiful river running through it.  Fortunately for us, the salmon were running and it was so cool watching them swim upstream from the ocean and leap up the falls to get to their spawning grounds.  We could even see them leaping out in the ocean as they were getting ready to make their journey.  Unfortunately some didn't make it, and we saw evidence of that along the way, as well.  Tom and Sara even saw a black bear come and do some fishing while they were at the river.  

We had a super tasty lunch at the Alaska Fish House of Halibut, Salmon, and Cod that was probably my favorite thing I ate on the whole trip.  We also saw harbor seals swimming around the boat in the harbor.  It was a great first stop!