cruising. through alaska. part 4.

the cruise continues.

we might eventually wrap this up in the next couple of posts.

so far we've stopped in juneau and skagway.

the third stop was in hoonah, alaska, also known as icy strait point.

here we had booked a private whale watching tour. it was just for the six of us and promised three hours of whale watching.

even better was that per person the cost was less than that of the whale watching tour offered by the cruise company which had way more people.

i booked through glacier wind charters via email on their website. they run two boats, captained by dad and son, respectively.

we were sent out with captain shawn for their 10 am tour.

and it was, AMAZING.

yes, i'm using all shouty caps for that one!

we spent three hours with orcas and a large pod of humpbacks.

i was in heaven!

and took one thousand five hundred pictures.

#literally

so, i will try to limit what i share here.

the baby!

look how close they came!

onto the humpbacks!

fave shot of that day!

we saw them circling around to feed several times.

still not sure how many humpbacks there were...but i think there are at least six across here.

#dreamscometrue

our last port of call was ketchikan, alaska.

danielle had been dying to go ziplining somewhere during the cruise and i finally gave in at this stop. it's something i'd be wanting to do and it sounded like fun to do it with my adventurous niece.

we had a great time and i thought ziplining was exciting...and a little bit scary!

i didn't love when the trees shook a bit as you arrived on the next platform. eeeeeek!

at the end of the "tour" there was an option to be gently lowered down from the last platform or just walk off the platform and wait for the freefall machine to "catch" you...

i decided to be brave and go for it.

one of us is nervous.

yes, i literally just walked off this platform...and prayed!

we booked ziplining through the cruise, but it was this company.

taking a stroll through town post ziplining

ketchikan, alaska.

fave ziplining spots? i'd love to do it again!

cruising. through alaska. part 3.

the second excursion was set up for a stop in skagway, alaska.

here, my dad and sister booked a popular train ride and the rest of us booked a river rafting trip in an area called eagle preserve.

the river rafting portion of this trip was quite fun, but it took a lot of effort to get there: a ferry and then a bus ride at both the beginning and end of our trip. so our 6 hour excursion was really just a 90 minute rafting trip with four hours of transportation.

so, overall, it was a bit of a bummer, and this is the one excursion i wouldn't recommend booking again to other cruise goers.

but, during the cruise we did see lots of eagles, which was amazing. i had only seen one other eagle in the wild previously and this was quite exciting to see so many in their native habitat.

here are some of the pictures from our day!

we hopped on the boats on the edge of the bank and literally
bounced our way into the water, which was super shallow

our raft guide, evan

someone was cold.

I spy...

not bad, alaska, not bad.

terrible rafting selfie.

cruising. through alaska. part 2.

after a day at sea cruising past the hubbard glacier, we headed towards our first port of call- juneau.

we prebooked excursions at every port. i know that many cruise veterans will tell you to save money by booking once your off the ship, but, for me, i couldn't risk missing out on what was important to me.

in juneau i booked a full day photography safari of mendenhall glacier, tongass forest and a whale watching cruise.

one of the reasons i chose this trip was the small group size. several years back, in iceland, i took a large group whale watching cruise and was unable to see the one whale sighting we had because i was on the wrong side of the boat and blocked by a hundred other people.

we started in the forest. i was using my dslr and my ollo clip lenses for my iphone.

here are some of my favorite shots from the largest national forest in the us.

a quick stop to check out mendenhall glacier. the area was beautiful, but after the hubbard glacier, the portion of this glacier we were able to see seemed quite small. perhaps next time i can trek on one of the glaciers.

the last couple hours of the day were spent whale watching.

this had been my ultimate dream: to see whales in person.

i've been a lifetime whale lover, but had never seen more than what's to be found on tv and in movies.

we headed out in search of humpbacks, but first we found orcas- and i was thrilled. i don't even think i realized this was a species we might see in alaska. but we came upon this pod and they swam around the couple of boats that were lingering nearby.

there are restrictions on how close the boats can get to the whales, but if the whales come to you there's not much you can do.

except enjoy it!

i didn't get too many great pics of the orcas, but i loved seeing them!

after the orcas, we went searching for humpbacks in the area and found a female that's been known to be in the area on a regular basis. we could identify her by the details of her tail as the whale 'barnacles'.

we followed her around a bit and were keeping our distance.

until she emerged on the right side of the boat and surprised us and breaching practically on top of the boat. the captain and the guide had never experienced anything like it, so it was amazing to witness it!

of course we were all too stunned to get pictures of that!

have you had any great whale watching experiences? more to come in another alaska post soon since we went whale watching as a family later in the week!