After beating our bodies up hiking around Whistler, we headed to the port of Vancouver to hop about the Nieuw Amsterdam ship from Holland America. This was my 3^rd family cruise with the Jennifer’s immediate and extended family. We are one of those rare families where all the in-laws get along. This included, my brother and sister-in-law, their kids, and parents.

Holland America

The cruise was a round trip up the Alaskan coastline. Passengers disembarking joked, or maybe seriously, stated they had rain all 7 days. We hoped for the former as we boarded. The ship was the one that we first cruised together on, but it had be tastefully renovated.

Our goal for the first stop was an ice cave in Juneau. Unfortunately, everyone we asked said any cave that would be accessible already melted. The idea of hiking up a muddy trail without a reasonable probability of success didn’t thrill us. It was also raining, so we opted for a tamer suggestion, a photo with the fire weed. Our taxi driver was a bit perplexed by us and crowned us the most interesting ride of the day. Unfortunately, with the rain came the clouds, so we didn’t get a great view of the glacier.

Fire Weed, Anchorage

We had some time to spare and decided to do some window shopping. We found a set of Turkish lamps, which we really liked. There was one problem, actually over 4,300 problems. The lamps were priced at over $4,300. Of course, the “artist” said he would work with us and came down to $3,700. A quick internet search put them at a price of $300-$400.  Clearly, we weren’t buying anything from this establishment, but we decided to go back and see just how far down they would go. Very quickly the price dropped to $1,500 and perhaps closer to 1K. We guessed one sucker was all they needed to make their profit for the week.

Turkish Lights, Juneau

Our second excursion was to Skagway where most of the family joined us on a trip along an old miner’s trail. Of course, one could hike it, but it was a lot more fun to take a train, which we did. The scenery was breathtaking and although the train’s narrator was not the best, the rich history still shined through.

Ghost Bridge

White Pass

In between Skagway and the next town, was a cruise past Glacier Bay. There were a number of glaciers we were going to see, with reportedly the last one being the best. Holland America was kind enough to give us a special spot for the shoot, a crew bow one deck below where the passengers stood. This meant we wouldn’t have to fight the photobombers which was much appreciated. However, as luck would have it on the first glacier, the sun popped out and we dashed for the aft of the boat hoping we could get an unobstructed view.

As I set up the camera, Jennifer did her quick conversion to being a bride that impressed the woman next to her enough to state “guess you’ve done that more than once!”

We ended up happier with this shoot over the others.

Glacier Bay

Our last port to visit was in Ketchikan. We didn’t try for a photo shoot here, as nothing really stood out other than going on a deep sea fishing trip, so we did some shopping and again prices discounts from the asking price ranged from 80 to 90%. We decided to get a cool pendant of a topaz stone that they called Northern Lights. We figured it would be a nice addition to our next photo shoot in the on board Casino.

Typically, casinos do not let you take photographs, so this was our one shot to get a casino photo. Even Papa Derow joined in.

Holland America Casino

One last note, we were very impressed with the Alaskan sense of humor. We guessed if you live that long in the cold and dark you have to have one. Here are a few shots of the numerous laughs we had.

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