Skagway Part 1- Tuesday 6/2/15....AWESOME DAY!

Tuesday we docked in Skagway about 7am. We had to meet on the pier for our excursion at 9:15am. We had a little breakfast in the buffet and off we headed. It was cold and windy on the pier where we boarded a bus for the Kroschel Animal Refuge. This was an excursion I picked and was excited about. It got great reviews on Trip Advisor. Apparently I didn't read too much about it because when we boarded the bus I didn't realize we had to take a 40 minute ferry ride to Haines and then a 40 minute bus ride to the wildlife center. It was ok although the bus driver was a little strange.

We were greeted at the gate by Mario and a red tailed hawk. I knew we were in for a real treat here. We had packed the bug repellent and applied as soon as we unloaded from the bus and was really able to enjoy the entire excursion.
Shortly after Mario arrived we met Steve Kroschel....what a character! So entertaining. Our visit began...

 This hawk was eating a dead quail.

 This was a beautiful fox we got to pet.

 Beautiful Lynx....

 This was Steve walking his Wolverine....

 Chris petting the porcupine....

 Cute little Mink...

Then the moose....Chris got to feed....

 Where Steve lives year round.....

Saved the best for last....the grizzly bear. The entire excursion was interesting and fun. Highly recommend!

All aboard Grand Princess...

Sorry it's been a few days since I have updated the blog. So much has been happening here and no fast internet until we are in port and have down time. There is definitely not much of that.

So lets back up a few days....
We took the 5 hour train ride to the Grand Princess on Saturday...Pretty scenic ride . We did not board the Grand until late so we just had pizza and fries for dinner

Our first day (Sunday) was at Hubbard Glacier from 3-7pm....It was really foggy when we were headed there.... but cleared up when we go to the Glacier. We stood on the front bow for an hour or so coming in just to see if we could see any whales or sealife. Plenty of seals but no whales here....

This glacier was huge. We had to go through plenty of icebergs to get there but we got pretty close.

The second day we headed to Glacier Bay which was even more amazing than Hubbard Glacier. We once again were worried it would be too foggy but again it turned out beautiful. The scenery was great to look at.

 To explain the size of these mountains if you look close at the bottom photo you will see the Coral Princess Cruise ship....

We were in Glacier Bay most of the day and just wandered outside and back and forth to our balcony to keep seeing wildlife and glaciers. We saw several whales in the distance and tons of sea otters, seals, and eagles. At the end of the day I felt like I often feel after snow shoveling all day as the temperature was in 50s most of the day.

Two great days followed by two evenings of buy one get one free at the One 5 lounge. Awesome!