Jacob's Road Trip Ramblings ... The Alaska Frontier

Our first cruise stop was Skagway. In my opinion, this was the best stop of the three, for reasons I will share momentarily. Skagway is a tiny town of about 850 residents (400 year-round), and the local industry is actually tourism. They see around 700,000 tourists in their port every year, and I can see why. We all piled into a helicopter out the fjord and around to the glacier. This in and of itself was amazing because not only do I love flying, but it was also my first experience in a helicopter. After about 20 minutes of flight, we got out on the glacier with our steel-studded boots and climbing poles. This was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. A huge field of glacial ice spread out before us in brilliant blues and whites. Given the season, there was clear, cold water flowing through parts of the glacier itself. These small streams had actually bored huge tunnels straight down to the bottom of the glacier. We all carefully leaned over to get a look at the amazing sight of the water disappearing into a mass of brilliant dark blue. Where we were standing, the glacier was more than 200 feet thick, and a mile and half across.



While less eventful, Juneau was still very interesting. We got off the ship, took a tram up the mountain, and looked out over the beautiful view of the harbor and surrounding fjord. There was also a bald eagle that was in captivity being cared for due to injuries. She was an amazing bird! We saw several bald eagles on our trip, and it was easy to see why they are the national bird. After our stop at the mountain, we came back down and wandered through the Juneau downtown until we decided to board the ship once again.

Our final stop was in Ketchikan and I’ll tell you what, it was another amazing Alaskan experience! We wandered off the ship and found a great opportunity to go flightseeing back into the Alaskan wilderness. Granddaddy, Grandmother, Jesse and I got the opportunity to fly for an hour over some of the most magnificent natural sights I have ever seen. Words and photos cannot describe the grandeur of the mountains and cliffs and waterfalls and forests. We eve landed in the middle of a remote mountain lake for a few minutes to get out on the pontoons and gaze out at even more splendor. It is an experience that continually reminded of how small I am...and of how great and majestic our God is! Overall, it was a mind-boggling experience, and definitely one of the trip highlights.



Overall the cruise was a lot of fun, and quite cold! I will never forget the things I saw up in Alaska, and we always love cruising with Disney. It was a wonderful, relaxing vacation with our grandparents, and we all had a fabulous week. Now time to head back down the coast!