The Trojans Defeat the Huskies

Having missed the season opener, we had to settle for attending the Washington game as the first game of the home season. Lucky for us, it ended up being a good game and we enjoyed rooting for the very young (but very eager!) Trojan team.

Ketchikan Can!

The residents of Ketchikan (http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/) call it Alaska's "First City" - not because it was the first to be settled, but because it's often the first stop cruise ships make heading northbound to Alaska. It is also very proud of its heritage as the salmon capitol of the world. Fishing is big business here. Even the bears do it.

Juneau Icefields and Mendenhall Glacier

This is what Mendenhall Glacier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Glacier) looks like during the summer. It's a vast sea of ice that appears to be flowing from the Mendenhall Valley into the water. To the right, just out of the frame of this picture, there is also a waterfall. So pretty.

So cold. I thought my nose was going to freeze and fall off. Brrr.

I Know Juneau...

Juneau is the only state capital that is only accessible by water (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneau,_Alaska). Its 65 miles of road lead to water, ice and wilderness. Neat little factoid.

Sunset for Skagway

Leaving Skagway, I just had to take this picture. This sunset was the embodiment of peaceful.

Small, Small Skagway

Skagway is small, really small (http://www.skagway.com/), with a population of approximately 800. This is Broadway, the main street. You can see all of the buildings from here. Despite its tiny size, though, it hosts more than 700,000 visitors per year (mostly on cruise ships), and one shopkeeper told another couple on the cruise with us that, last year, the jewelry stores alone took in $30 million, and the shops in the town combined took in $96 million during the five-month tourist season. ::gasp!::

Alexandrite: The Coolest Gemstone on Earth

Since the cruise ship did not offer much by way of activities and entertainment (see previous post), we resorted to going to the shopping talk for entertainment. Normally, these shopping talks are somewhat boring, but their constant references to jewelry as an "investment" cracks us up. This cruise was no exception.

We actually did learn something, though. We found out about this naturally-occurring stone, Alexandrite (http://www.palagems.com/alexandrite_russia.htm), that changes color from green to red depending on whether it is exposed to artificial light or sunlight. Sounds neat, right? We're naturally curious, so we went to check it out at the local jewelry shop at our next stop. It's cooler than they described. The jewelry store we visited took a big ring from inside the store and walked with us outside so we could see the transformation ourselves. Very fun.

The downside? It's just as expensive as a diamond. Ouch.

Inside the Inside Passage

It looked like this for the entire inside passage. Shortly after we took this picture, Alpaca spotted some Orcas (Killer Whales) in the water, but we didn't get a picture of them.