Alaska Part 2

The three days we spent at sea couldn't have been more perfect, but we were excited to go exploring at some of the ports. We cruise WAY differently than other people, meaning we are cheap skates and don't buy shore excursions. It would be fun but it's a little overpriced...$500 to go zip lining or $1,200 to ride a helicopter to a glacier and to a dog sled camp? No way Jose! Actually, I may have begged Landon for about five minutes before I came to my senses. Ha!

Our first stop was Skagway
This town is exactly how you'd picture Alaska--quaint town, surrounded by huge mountains and the ocean. Beautiful. We decided to walk through town and see what we could find.

After about a mile we saw signs for a Gold Rush cemetery and decided to check it out. There was also a small hike up to a waterfall.

Then we walked up a huge hill and looped around back to the cruise ship. Did I mention it was pouring rain this whole time? Yeah, we were SOAKED. But it was quite the adventure and we loved every minute :)

Our second stop was Juneau
This is such a cool city because the only way to get to it is by boat or plane! You can't just drive to Juneau. Crazy huh? We followed city maps to "Mt. Roberts" hike. Yep... we climbed a mountain! It was a little steep and a little muddy, but it was worth every minute.

The view was unbelievable.







Most people take a tram to get to the top of the mountain... we just hiked it :)

Our third stop was Ketchikan
Even though we were really sore from the day before, we decided to hike Deer Mountain... which was 1,000 ft higher than yesterday's mountain. It was beautiful and again totally worth it!

Unfortunately when we got to the top there was no view... just clouds! But it was still awesome to say we hiked 3,000 feet.

After each day at port, we would come back to the boat, eat our weight in food and pass out for a few hours in our stateroom. We'd finish off our day by eating dinner in the formal dining room, going to a show or hot tubing. One night we even watched a movie "under the stars" on their huge TV screen on deck. Perfection.