Rocky Mtn High

Can you say ROCKSTARS? That is exactly how we felt today, thanks to our friend, Jim Binkley. Jim is a 3rd generation riverboat captain, and the family tradition is still being handed down to kids, grandkids, nephews and nieces. Jim's grandfather worked on boats on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio Rivers, but came up to Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush in 1898. He started a boating company to transport equipment and supplies to the miners. Jim's father also took to the river, and in the 1950's his parents started a riverboat tour company. The family built several sternwheel paddleboats and later actually cut them in half to expand them for their growing business! The Riverboat Discovery has grown to a thriving riverboat tour company and has been passed on through two more generations. Jim picked ... read more

This morning we were up early and disembarked in Whittier. Not much of a town here - mostly industrial. There are no homes in Whittier - there is one old high-rise military barracks and everyone in town lives there. It was rainy and cold and a little depressing. Having to leave the ship - our home for the past 7 days - was hard, even though we knew we had more adventures ahead of us. We boarded a bus for our ~300 mile drive up to Denali, and met our driver, Dan, who was a music teacher. Dan was an interesting fellow who liked to sing. He said he got bored giving the same old safety speech every time he drove, so he wrote a song which he then proceeded to sing for us. Hmmmm, this ... read more

Rose early today to get up to deck and get a couple of good seats for our Glacier Bay transit. It is COLD today (48 F), but the sky is a clear blue and the sun is shining, and the glaciers and surrounding mountains are just beautiful. A thermos full of hot water, some tea bags, a couple of blankets and we're good to go. We enter Icy Straight pretty early in the morning, and the transit is gorgeous. We spot sea otters, bald eagles and eaglets, and later on in the day, are followed by a pod of porpoises and have a small humpback playing next to the ship, breaching over and over again. The day could not be any more beautiful (well, a little warmer might have been better!), and later our cruise director ... read more

Woke up to another beautiful day as we come into Juneau, Alaska's capitol. Juneau can only be reached by air or water, so it is interesting that they chose this to be the capitol. It is the largest state capitol by land area, and the only one that borders a foreign country. Today we are heading out for another bike ride - this one near Auke Lake. The van picks us up and we head north up near the Mendenhall Glacier. The highway runs for a number of miles in either direction, then abruptly stops. We unload near a little chapel on the lake, a very picturesque place and I'm sure very popular for weddings. Our guides take us on a pretty (and fast!) ride along a trail all the way to the glacier. We stop ... read more

Days at sea are always fun and relaxing. We had plenty of time today to explore the ship and get our bearings. Deb signed up for "boot camp" in the fitness center - the first day was today and the 2nd will be at our next sea day later in the week. We had massages scheduled, so enjoyed being pampered and getting all of the "travel tension" worked out so we could relax and enjoy the rest of the trip. We discovered that they serve "high tea" each day from 3-4pm, so took advantage of that. It was Cecil's first time at tea, and he really enjoyed the fresh, warm scones and clotted cream. I hope nobody was counting! :)... read more