I fear no good can come from this! We have only just skirted the bottom edge of Alaska and it has only wet my appetite more. This place looks amazing! In my head I’m already planning a bike trip up here! I’m sure work wouldn’t miss me for another few months.

A bit about this leg of our trip…

For the first part of our trip we are on the Royal Caribbean ship – Explorer of the Seas – with 3,500 other guests of which around 1,000 are part of the Stampin’ Up! contingent. So there are a lot of people here with a common connection – they are a stampers or they’re the plus one of a stamper. Over the years I have made many friends on these trips so it always good to catch up with them and to meet and get to know more new people from around the globe. And Yes I have a knack of finding other motorcyclists in most groups, so there is never a shortage of stories to tell.

One of the things with these cruises is that you are allocated dining tables. While many see this as frustrating and would rather sit in their own clicks, this is a great opportunity to meet other people and we have an exceptional table with four from the States, two from Canada, and us. This has been a highlight for us as we have enjoyed getting to know everyone and the opportunity to explore each other’s cultures, and world view. And to have a good laugh.

The cruise that we are on heads from Seattle up the inside passage to as far north as Skagway with off boat excursions in Juneau and Skagway in Alaska, and Victoria in Canada before returning to Seattle on Friday 27 July.

Juneau

Sunday

It’s hard to believe that we are in Alaska. This morning we pulled into the port of Juneau, named after one of the first inhabitants who were up there looking for gold. Juneau is a cut-off town with only about 50 miles of tarred road network, so they say there is only three ways to get to Juneau – boat, plane, or birth canal.

When packing for the trip we were told that typical expected temperatures would be 8 to 15 degrees Celsius. However today was unseasonably hot at 24 degrees C so all those additional layers that took up valuable shopping space will not be needed … well maybe they’ll come in handy for the bike ride later.

Today’s activity included whale watching – well technically we went for a nice boat ride around the beautiful harbour of Juneau, as the whales clearly didn’t get the memo. It was a bit disappointing not to get a better showing from the whales. We did see a small pod of Orcas and a single Humpback but they were just gliding passed.

Looking back at Juneau

From the whale watching we went out to the Mendenhall glacier to have a walk out to it and have a closer look. It’s scary to think that when the visitors centre was opened in 1962 the glacier was up against building; now it is about a mile away from the centre.