Cruising the Inland Passage

When we arranged our cruise, we opted to fly to Seattle and take the "motor coach" (bus) to Vancouver. Of course ships leave from Seattle, but to get the specific date and tour we wanted, this was our choice. We actually arrived in Seattle the day before and stayed in a lovely hotel, because we did not want to worry about airline delays or tight schedules. We spent some time the next morning in the SeaTac Airport waiting for our turn to be called.I'm cheating with the chronology a little because this picture wasn't taken at the Vancouver dock, but it does show our ship, the Zuiderdam--along with hubby and his two sisters.
Holland America really knows how to take care of its guests. My father-in-law celebrated his 82nd birthday and, without our saying anything, he was brought a birthday cake and fussed over and sang to.
The dining room option was nice. They had two formal nights when we dressed up, but the food every night was fabulous. This picture is a little dark because of the light from the window (stern of the ship), but that's okay because I didn't ask permission from the family to put their pictures in here anyway. If a dining room was a bit too...serious....there was always the more laid-back buffet, or the grill, or the taco bar, etc.
This cruise took us up into what is called the Tracy Arm. It was just beautiful with the glacier and all the mini icebergs. The ice in the bottom of the glaciers is very blue because of the pressure from above. Something about the way the crystals change and oxygen is forced out.
Our first shore excursion was in Juneau. Of course we had to visit the Mendenhall glacier. There is a trail that leads clear out to the ice, but we didn't have quite enough time to walk it. All the pictures can be bigger with a click, if you enlarge the one below, you can see some people in a canoe. If you enlarge the glacier above, you get a much better look at the blue ice.
We had to take our whale-watching dinner cruise. That was very exciting because we saw humpbacks bubble-net feeding. The person narrating the trip said she had been doing these excursions for three years and this was the first time she had seen that behavior. Hubby and I were lucky enough to have seen it before on an earlier trip, but it was just as cool the second time. We also caught a very young whale playing near the surface. It wasn't at all shy and gave us a lively show. It is, however, very difficult to have the camera pointed at the right place at the right time. Hubby did get a little video of the youngster.

I think that's enough for today. I'm driving back home tomorrow, then I'll have some time to share some more of our trip.