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The ship sailed last night from Skagway to Juneau. Room service brought us our breakfast around 6am. We were off the boat by 7am.

Today’s adventure started in a bus that took us to the Mendenhall Glacier. Apparently I got glaciers and icebergs mixed up because a glacier is not a big piece of ice out in the ocean. That’s an iceberg. A glacier is a giant pile of snow and ice — this one was in a valley between two mountains. The Mendenhall Glacier is receding, which means its melting faster than its growing. We stood relatively close to it and took a million pix. In the visitor center we got to hold 200 year old ice from the glacier. There was also a giant natural waterfall next to the glacier. We have seen 100 natural waterfalls in the past 2 days. Before this trip I think I had seen about 3.

A bus picked us up from the glacier and took us to a boat where we went whale watching. This particular outfit guaranteed we would see a humpback whale which I thought was a bold claim, especially when they told us that they don’t use sonar and rely on visual sightings. Within 5-10 minutes we were seeing whales surface and spouting water into the air. A few minutes later we saw our first whale surface and a tail go up in the air. It was stunning. I got some amazing shots. Out boat was 55 feet long, the same length as the whales. At one point we watched one go right under our boat.

The boat took us to an island for lunch. The main course was grilled salmon pulled right out of the water. for those who didn’t like salmon, they also had grilled chicken. For lunch, Mason had 3 dinner rolls and a brownie.

After we got back to the boat we took a 2 hour nap. Nobody really knows what day or time it is anymore anyway. I’m writing this at 9:30pm and it looks like an overcast sunny day right now.

When we woke up, Mason and I went. Ack down to the sports bar to watch game four of the Thunder/Spirs series. Tonight there were only two or three other groups of Okies.

After the game we had dinner on the boat again and then caught a comedy show. The comedian told a few jokes I remember hearing as a kid. He was okay and it was a free and harmless way to kill 30 mins.

Morgan is at a black-light dance party. Mason is shooting hoops in his Thunder wear. Susan is reading in bed. I am sitting on our room’s deck, watching more snow-capped mountains pass by.

On day seven, we hit land in Skagway, Alaska. The “tourist” part of town is about seven blocks long and looks like an old western movie set. Each building is painted a different color, and each one makes their living by selling to cruise ship tourists.

After walking around town a bit, we had lunch at the Red Onion Saloon. The Red Onion was, back in the day, a brothel. Now it’s a combination restaurant and brothel museum. All the waitresses were dressed as old western madams.

After lunch we boarded a bus that took us to a train. The White Pass – Yukon Route takes you from sea level to 7,500 feet in about 12 miles. The train cars are full of windows and you could even stand on the platforms in between cars, which we did. When I am finally able to upload my pictures you will see a hundred or so pix of snow-capped mountains. The pictures will not do the scenery justice. The train ride took us to Canada and back. I think we were within 20-30 miles of the Yukon Territory. Along the way we saw the original paths taken by those in search of gold a hundred years ago. We also saw several graves.

Our next stop was in Lyrewood, where after we were treated with snacks and a show,!we got to pan for gold. At least they didn’t BS us — the pans were prefilled with dirt and minor flakes of good. Morgan found 3 flakes of gold worth $8-$10 each. Mason found 10. From there, it was back to the boat.

Morgan is having a blast at Kids Club, watching movies and making crafts. Mason is shooting hoops on the top of the cruise ship.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not but I played $40 in slots on the ships casino and lost it all in about 3 minutes. I’m definitely done with the ship’s casino.