A Saliors Life For Us

Ok well I guess the accommodations were much better then what a sailor would get so a cruisers life for us! Yesterday Annie and I got back from a four Generation cruise to Alaska with my mother and Grandma (Meme). We boarded our "dam" ship (all Holland America ships end with -dam, so they leveling call them the dam ships) the Ryandam, Sunday September 16th from Vancouver BC. Here is just some of what we saw and where we went. Once I upload all the pics I will post the link for anyone who would like to see them all.

Annie playing on the veranda.
Juneau, Alaska the first stop after a day at sea. The weather was nice here. The town was smaller then I thought it would be. The naturalist that was on board said every 5 or so years someone brings up the idea that they should move the capital, but the never amounts to much expect for a very expensive election.

Second stop: Skagway. It was very cold here. It was rainy and a little windy. We had jackets but that was about it. The lovely hat Annie is wearing we bought there since her head was a bit cold. We first explored the town and loaded up on more Alaska gear.


While in Skagway we went to Liarsville for a SalmonBake. Liarsville was a mining camp that did amount to much. Dunning the Gold Rush reporters were sent to check it all out but when they saw how hard the terrain was, they decided to talk to people who had been there or heard about it down the grapevine. This is what the reporters published and it all turned out to be lies, hence the name of the camp. Funny how the role of a reporter never changed-they still publish lies at times. Anyway....the food was wonderful, and so was the entertainment. After the show Meme and I panned for gold (there was never gold there to begin with in the town's history-the gold I found they brought in from Canada. Funny I went to Alaska for Canadian gold), and then headed back to the ship.


A tradition in Skagway is that when a ship first comes to port they are allow to paint the ships name and logo on some rocks near the dock-seems another Elmer beat us there.

That night was our first formal night. Here are Annie and I looking pretty and ready to eat.


The next day we cruised around Glacier bay. Boy was that cold. I cannot remember the name of this glacier-once I find my map I will post it. The glaciers where so huge and amazing. The light would sparkle off them. We got to see the face "calf" and hear it fall into the water. It sounded like thunder. We saw several famous glaciers including the John Hopkins glacier.

Another view of a Glacier.

Annie playing with her phone in the room. I think she was calling her Daddy.

The last stop was in Ketchikan. This was our favorite port. My Mom and I are ready to move there. Well we would if a gallon of milk was not $4 and ground beef $8 a pound! It's an island and there are only 40 miles of road. So everything gets shipped in by barge hence the steep prices. But boy was it beautiful there! We explored the town in the morning picking up any last minute souvenirs.

After lunch we went to Totem Bight Park. Here there were 14 different totems, a clan house and some amazing views and trees. You have to see more of these! Here is one of my favorite totems.

Here is Annie giving Meme a kiss.
Here is our waiter Dedi with ours. Annie loved Dedi. She would smile at him and would look for him.

That night was our second formal night. When we returned to out room, Tony our room steward made Annie a towel dog.

It's nice to be back. We got the see so many cool things. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I will have the rest up soon!