We left the British Columbia coast and continued on to Alaska. At 6:30 AM, we docked in Ketchican. The weather was good and the temperature in the high 60s in the afternoon.

We docked in Juneau at 7:15AM - another partly cloudy day, but luckily still no rain. After breakfast, we go ashore to take the tramway to the top of Mt. Roberts, 3,819 feet above sea level . At the top, we walked the nature trail through an alpine meadow.

The Nieuw Amsterdam dropped anchor at Sitka around 9AM. There are no docking facilities for cruise ships in Sitka so we had to use a tender (lifeboat) to go ashore. We didn't get to shore until late morning. Since our tour wasn't until mid afternoon, we walked through town and ate lunch at a hotel. The Russian church here actually is a reconstruction since the original burned down.

The ship was due to cruise the face of the Hubbard Glacier around 9 - 10AM. So, when I woke up at 6:00 (hours after dawn), I threw on some clothes and went up on deck to look. Oh My Gosh!!!! I ran back down to the cabin, woke Dave up, grabbed the camera and took the first picture of several rolls that morning.

In the morning we experience our only rainy weather, some sort of record, I'm sure. We docked in Valdez early - not a particularly quaint town since it's claim to fame is that it is at the end of the Alaska Pipeline. The other major fact is that its current location is four miles from the original which fell into the sea in the 1964 eathquake/tsunami. We took the morning bus tour north, up Richardson Highway, through the mountains, to Worthington Glacier. On the way, we stopped at a couple of waterfalls by the road. They were actually formed when the road was built.

Very early in the morning we dock in Seward. Disembarcation starts at 8AM and we have to be out of our rooms. Since we aren't catching a plane or other public transport, we are in the final group of about 30 people. Dave had to go to the airport to pick up the rental car, so we didn't actually get on the road til late morning. We had coffee and pastry with the fisherman on the left. It is, again, a lovely day - almost too warm.

Back on the Seward Highway toward Anchorage, again we stop frequently to enjoy the scenic beauty. We scan the mountains for goats and Dall sheep which are numerous in the area. Easier said than done, however. But finally we watch several groups climbing around rocks high above us at Beluga Point.

Unfortunately, our last full day in Alaska. Breakfast at the resort involved berries and baby greens. We packed up ans set out, again, for Talkeetna - it's only twelve miles but about 70 years back. This Saturday was the beginning of the famous Talkeetna Moose Dropping Festival. The 5K run was nearly over by the time we arrived and parked on the airstrip (dirt and gravel, but no trees.). The flyer given to us by the parking guy warned that we had to be gone by 5:30 when the airstrip would reopen.

Sadly, we packed up in the morning and flew back to reality.

Alaska, unlike most places we have visited that were on our must-see-someday list, is still on the list. Put it on yours, too.