Part of a continuing saga...you can find the previous parts here:
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5

Alright, now with all of the physically demanding activities behind us we move on to the more sedate pastime of glacier watching.

So basically what happens is they have a person on board, who basically narrates what path the boat is taking over the loud speakers (and tv channel for the front deck), she tells you when they think they're gonna see whales, when they are coming up to important glaciers, and a little history of the area like how it was named and stuff. Meanwhile, you are basically responsible for keeping yourself busy, warm and dry. As you can imagine any area cold enough to boast glaciers is a tad bit chilly, and windy. So we were pretty bundled up, and basically killed time circling the boat, playing ping pong, and eating at the buffet.

Ping pong on a boat at sea, more fun than you think.

This actually reminds me of something that bothered me. With the changing demographic of guests you'd think that by now they'd have an arcade or video game section for people who enjoy those things. The only places like that on the boat were supposedly for 17 and younger. You know what I mean right? Kind of like a lame mini dave and busters. But I digress....

So basically each day culminates in one natural wonder of a glacier flavor. Never before in my life was I even aware of the term "tidewater glacier" but now I'm a freaking glacier expert....and not to shabby at ping pong either.

Here's a good story, so we're killing time and looking at the Margerie Glacier because....well the boat is right in front of it and not going anywhere. And we're hearing white thunder (sound chunks of ice make when hitting the water....very loud actually), and seeing how nature makes ice cubes and it's all cool....so we decide why not grab a picture of us grinning like idiots in front of some frozen water?

So I look around and ask some kid (teenager) to take the pictures, figuring he'd be able to know how to work it and stuff more so than some drooling 98 year old w/ dementia and bad head lice. So look at this picture...keep in mind we're in Alaska, on our honeymoon, on a boat probably about 500 from a gigantic chunk of ice....Jen's face says it all:

What the f**k are you doing?

Now aside from my hair (which looks quite bad), notice something wrong with the picture? There's no freakin' glacier in it.....just proof that stupidity knows no age. Thankfully we moved on down the boat where I spotted a man with two cameras around his neck, and I knew that I had found the man we needed.

You can tell Jen's happy because she doesn't have that "die you moron scum" look in her face :)

So basically after that I just took a lot of pictures of things that were interesting:

The next day we arrived at College Fjord, and headed up through there until we got to Harvard Glacier where the boat proceeded to flip a 180 very very slowly (took hours) so everyone could get a good picture.

Harvard Glacier...on a very cloudy day.

Not sure which one this is, but it looks cool.

The next day we arrived at our final port, Whittier Bay. Here is a picture of it:

This is Whittier...all of it

Now starts the f'd up ness.

First, the trip from Whittier to Anchorage is taken on a bus, on the only road out of town. Now I don't mean a normal two lane road, it's a single lane road that until recently was a train tunnel...and still is every other hour or something crazy like that. Driving through that thing in a tour bus is reminiscent of that boat/tunnel scene from Willy Wonka (the original version).

So here's the rub. The scenery between Whittier and Anchorage is arguably the most impressive I have ever seen in my life. Now I'm not a big sight seer, and honestly a mountain is just a mountain to me, but the views on this trip are hands down impressive.....from the bus.....which never stops and pulls over to let you out or take a picture. It's 9am, and the cruise boat kicked us out like people who hadn't paid their bill in weeks so they could pump and dump everything for a whole new load of vacation seeking people. We've got nothing but time...and here we are cruising through the coolest shit I've see up until now and we're not going to stop even once.

So we arrive at Anchorage, and for some reason Princess Cruise scheduled us on a 11pm flight. So we basically kicked around downtown Anchorage for 8 hours, which while there were some enjoyable bits....passed very slowly. We did find a place called the Sleeping lady which had great beers, and the coolest bartender I think we've ever met. And on the plus side the airport in Anchorage boasts free wi-fi...which is really cool, and would have been even cooler if I had a laptop. Surfing the web on a palm pilot is doable...but not the most fun. Plus without VPN I didn't feel safe putting any passwords in. We did buy some coffee though....

Remind me again why I married you?

Needless to say the flight back sucked....screaming kid, and trying to sleep in a plane. We got home at around 8:30am the next day central standard time, and drove home.

So that was our honeymoon. Skagway was the most fun for me, and Anchorage actually was a pretty cool city. Buffet's are great, but beer is super overpriced. I think if we went on another cruise, it would be something we'd want to do with friends, or once we have a larger family. It's really kind of a group activity thing I think.

Later,
D and J

------
Our honeymoon pictures can be seen here, and a slideshow is available here.