Alaska Adventure - Day 3

 Day three was our first port, which is the tiny town of Hoonah in Icy Strait Point. When we started really getting into the planning process of this cruise, we wanted to do an excursion in each port. We had initially planned to do a riverwalk/hike in Icy Straight, but it was cancelled due to "logistical" reasons. At first, we were sure what that meant, but we later learned that this was the latest any cruise had ever sailed to Alaska. Most small towns virtually shut down after the cruise season, so the tour operators for our excursion were done for the year. The town itself is very small, only about 800 people. So our cruise had more people on it than this entire town. ;)  We still got off the boat and explored. The town itself is mostly people of the Tlingit "tribe". Seems to be a fishing village, with a cannery right there at the "pier". We took a small hike through the forest (all of the places we visited were part of the Tongass National Forest, which is a rainforest). 

The forest itself was so densely packed with vegetation, moss, lichen, etc. Very different from what we see in Idaho.

There truly wasn't that much to see in Hoonah, so we went back to the ship to relax.

Alaska Adventure - Day 2

 Day two was an entire day at sea, so we spent the majority of the day exploring the ship. The weather was still gorgeous, so we walked quite a bit up on the upper decks. There was also a ton of entertainment onboard, so we watched some of the interactive game shows, as well as Sunday night football. I also spent quite a bit of time in the observation lounge, reading and watching the views. We spied some dolphins swimming alongside the ship, so I tried to get a quick picture of them. We also enjoyed a champagne dinner in the fancy Manhattan dining room. We spent a lot of time in a place called The Local. It was central on the ship, and was a two story sports bar that also overlooked the main atrium where they did all of their game shows, contests, etc. Very easy to people watch from here while enjoying good food and some drinks.