Butte Montana... so interesting

Well, what can I say.. Butte Montana must have been, at one time, the most exciting and rich cities in the north west. It's history is silver mining and the city is built on a huge hillside. The old town is stunning with house after house after house that is/was so grand in its day... huge pillars, several stories, turrots.. and the photos I took were only a small part of it...

The downtown is historic and grand and it looks like it is being refurbished slowly but surely. We really enjoyed our stop here and felt that it would be a great place to spend more time.. one day.. to soak up the history of this gem of a city...

Life must have been good!

On the road again.. and heading homeward!

We landed in Seattle at 7am and were off the boat, had picked up our truck in downtown Seattle, and were on the road again by noon.. We travelled through Spokane and Coeur de Lane (??spelling??) and then headed southeast to Montana.. We were quite blown away again by the scenery.. rugged mountains turned into dry and fertile plains where Washington apple orchards littered the horizon...the scenery changed almost every hour and it was so very beautiful.

We headed for Missoula Montana to spend the nite but when we got there, we couldn't get a hotel as everything was absolutely FULL.. busy summer and the Sturgis weekend coming up created more traffic and more demand.. we found a small campsite in a small town off the road and got in a good nite's sleep.. off the luxury of the cruise and the reality of sleeping on an air mattress on the ground... ah.. but Life is Good!

Our travelling partners... such a nice bunch of folks!!

This page is set up to introduce our great friends that accompanied us on our cruise. We really enjoyed this trip and it was made extra special because of the nice folks that we shared our week with. On one of our "dress up" nights, it took the camera along and got some nice pics of our crew.

The first couple is Bill and Barb Henning. Bill is the physical education teacher and Barb is early childhood special ed teacher at Windom elementary school. They are a fun couple and Barb especially likes to keep Bill on his toes with her extra sharp wit and comments. She made us laugh and was very entertaining to all.

The second couple is Jeff and Sherry Shirkey. Jeff is the chief of police in Windom and Sherry is a kindergarten teacher at the school. Another nice couple.. kind of quiet but I have to say Sherry always has that look in her eye that she could be enticed into a bit of mischief at any time. It was kind of funny as she had to accomplish something new on the trip.. and her "new things" in her life for this time was raw seafood (sushi) and her first full beer that she ever drank.. and a great choice in Alaskan Summer brew.

Couple number three is ... blah blah blah... so nice.. well, Julie is and I'm so glad she keeps me around to humor her.. we loved the trip...and I love her...

The last couple is Dan and Terri Jones. Terri has long been Julie's bestest friend and they have travelled together often and have spent many hours bonding and being...just Jewels and Terri. Dan is a fun guy.. probably the biggest Dude on the ship .. a gentle giant and interesting and fun to be with...

I must say that although we are such an attractive bunch.... WE SURE SUCKED AT TRIVIA!!!!!!! but.. Life is Good!

Ketchikan.. my favorite port!

Ketchikan was our favorite port of call on the trip. A lovely city that, although it's the rain capital of the USA normally, we hit beautifull sunny skys and such a pretty place. It bill's itself as the salmon capital of the world and no wonder why.. salmon literally jumping out of every bit of water around...

The salmon were heading upstream for spawning and they were everywhere. In addition, the city was so nice and quaint with houses and vehicles in the downtown which were run down and covered with moss, beautiful shops and Creek Street which was the tourist trap with it's shops and the main attraction, the refurbished brothels from the gold rush days.

Although the downtown homes were somewhat run down, there were literally miles and miles of beautiful homes along the shore of the ocean as we sailed out of Kethchikan on day 5 of our trip. Life is Good!

Damn.. forgot my camera so no pics of Skagway.

Day two saw our port of call being Skagway. Skagway is a lovely city.. not so tight and enclosed as Juneau, and so very interesting as this was the centre of the Gold Rush of the 80's with the White Pass trail and the Chilcoot trail to the Yukon. Again, lots of shops and bars and just a great city with the mountains and ocean. We enjoyed this port a lot and it's too bad I didn't get some pics.

Anyways... the next day was probably the high light of this cruise. We cruised 26 miles into the Tracy Arm Fjord where Princess appears to be the top cruise line for getting into this wonderful scenic area with it's ice floes, huge rugged mountains and the huge Sawyer glacier at the end of the trip. I took a LOT of photos on this trip and the ones attached are only a small portion of the majestic scenery we encountered. We also met another cruise ship exiting the fjord just as we were arriving at the glacier.

The photo I took of the gang was just calling out to be photo'ed as everyone was in their colorful best this day. So nice.. so very very nice.. the water here is 1000 feet deep right at the base of the rocky shores.. Life is Grand!

Juneau.. our first port of call!

Our ship departed Seattle at 5pm and at noon the next day, we were docked in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. We didn't plan any shore excursions and just wandered the streets of Juneau. It's so interesting that there are at least 4 cruise ships docked at each port in Alaska on a daily basis meaning that there are over 10,000 tourists tramping around on the city streets each day in the summer. Talk about HECTIC!!!

Our first stop was the world famous Red Dog Saloon where I had to get my photo taken with a sad look as my glass of Alaskan Amber was drained. Sawdust on the floors, ragtime music, and dollar bills stapled to almost every open space in the ceiling with peoples names and the date that they visited inked onto the dollar bills. Juneau was a bit of a surprise. The capital city has a small population of about 25000 people. The city is small, full of diamond and jewellery shops, and caters to the 10,000 visitors in their short summer season.

The weather was lovely, and although we didn't plan a busy day, we enjoyed the city and were back on board by 6pm to enjoy our lovely meal. I must say that cruising certainly spoils a person as far as being served and looked after. This boat has 7 swimming pools, a casino, several clubs and cinemas, entertainment every nite, hot tubs, great food and lots of good company.

Ahhh.. Life is good indeed!

I'm way behind on this trip! Seattle and Alaske Cruise!

I think getting to Seattle early was just what the doctor ordered. We were both really tired from all the travel and I guess we were overwhelmed from all the fantastic scenery we have expereinced. A couple of days in a nice old hotel a couple of blocks from Pike's Market were exactly what we needed.

We wandered the streets of Seattle, experience some of the food and drink at the many great restaurants, and stumbled through the market a couple of times.... careful not to get trampled by the hordes of people. Saturday came and we checked out, taxied out to tht cruise terminal and boarded the Golden Princess. It's amazing how efficient they are at off loading and then loading 2600 passengers onto this ship. We took no more than half an hour after getting to the ship until we were on board, our suitcases delivered, and in a surprisingly spacious and nice room which would be home for the next week.

Our friends from Minnesota arrived shortly after us and I was soon taking photos of the lovely ladies with the space needle in the background.

Off to Alaska!!! Life is Good!