We (were) On A Boat!

Good morning!

Before getting into the actual details of the post, we felt this appropriate:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8F3UE9qFsg&ob=av3e  (note: this is the edited version for the youngins who may read this blog).

As we mentioned yesterday, we have now officially arrived in Alaska.  We got in off the ferry last night and spent the night in Juneau.  However, we'd be getting ahead of ourselves if we didn't spend some time detailing our awesome trip to, and on, the Alaska Marine Highway.

On Monday, we left Prince George for the 7.5 hour drive across BC to Prince Rupert.  For the past week or so, we've been using a book called "The Milepost," which was given to Tammy by her sister for the holidays this year.  This book is amazing.  It details stops along EVERY mile of the drive between Seattle and Alaska, including where to stop for gas, camping, bathrooms, etc.  Tammy planned out an amazing drive to Alaska using this book, and it's been exceptionally useful thus far.

However, we began to get a bit concerned in Barkerville about the planned route because we had heard that some of the highways in BC were closed due to extreme forest fires.  We asked about it in Prince George, and were (thankfully) told that the highway we planned on using was still open.  However, we were told that if we traveled south we would either get "fined or dead."  The biggest forest fire, located close to the highway we needed, was only 20% contained.  Needless to say, we did the drive as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, we missed the wildfires.  However, the smoke created from the fires was extreme and overwhelming.  There were periods where it was hard to breathe in the car because of the surrounding smoke.

That is not fog obstructing our vision; all of the haze you see is smoke from the wildfires.

Nonetheless, we made it to Prince Rupert perfectly safe.  Then we boarded the ferry to Juneau!

The ferry works just like a regular car ferry.  Basically, you drive the car onto the ship and then go up on the decks, where there are cabins, lounges, and places to pitch a tent if you choose not to get a cabin.  We chose to get a cabin.

The 30-hour ride was amazing.  We saw such cool stuff, including:

Other fishing boats

Beautiful lighthouses

Small Alaskan towns (only accessible by boat, and with no roads within them such that the residents have to use boats to get from one place to another)

                                     

Wildlife, like sea lions (above)  and whales (below, you can see the blow coming out of the water by the end of the rainbow)

and glaciers!

                       

There was also a forest ranger on the ship giving information about wildlife and the towns we stopped in.  Tammy learned some really interesting facts, including that the capital of Alaska used to be Sitka (of "The Proposal" fame).  But, one day the governor woke up and realized that no one was in Sitka except for him.  So, pretty much over night, he packed his bags and moved to Juneau, thereby moving the capital with him.  Since that time, there have been many attempts to move the capital out of Juneau and into another Alaskan city (he didn't mention which, but presumably Anchorage), but none have been successful thus far.  The legislature approved moving once, but then decided not to when they realized how much it would cost.

Today we're exploring Juneau and the glaciers surrounding.  Then tomorrow we're back on the ferry heading to Haines on our final stretch of the trip!