June 22-29, 2001: My friend (and former college roommate) and I cruised the Inside Passage of Alaska. We left from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Our first stop was in Ketchikan, the "Salmon Capital of the World." It was in the 50's and rainy the day we were there and we were told that it rains >2/3rd's of the days here with 162 inches of precipitation annually. Even so, it had a population of 15,000 people, making it Alaska's 4th largest city.
Our next stop was Juneau, a beautiful city! There aren't any roads into or out of Juneau, so you must travel there by boat or plane. It is the capital of Alaska and, at the time, had a population of 33,000 people. We started out our day by going kayaking. We saw swarms of Bald Eagles - absolutely gorgeous!
After kayaking with the Eagles, we decided to go whale watching. This was one of my favorite events of the whole week. We each spent $100 and it was worth every penny! We were on a fairly small boat with 13 other people along with the captain and a guide. They took us out to Auke Bay and we saw several humpback whales, including a baby. We saw them spouting, going on deep dives where we saw their tals in the air, etc. In my journal, I wrote, "The coolest was when they did this bubbling feeding. The whole school of themc came up at once and then circled around the fish to trap them and eat them. That was so cool! Words and pictures can't describe it. It was so neat and so beautiful to see all of them in their natural habitat." 
Since I didn't have a good camera with me at the time, this postcard will have to serve as a sampling of what we saw!
Skagway, Alaska is just off the Lynn Canal and is where the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 began. Gold seekers began here to do the 45 mile trek over the White Pass toward the Klondike gold fields. The population boomed during that time, but today (2001), only 750 people live in this town. We boarded the White Pass and Yukon Route Rail Road. My comment in my journal was "It was neat but not worth the $94 we paid to go on it." 
A picture of our train.
Hubbard Glacier in Yakutat Bay. We came within 1.2 miles of the face which, we were told, is the closest the ship had been able to get all season. My journal: "There were big ice chunks floating everywhere and you could see parts of it breaking off which was followed by a noise that sounded like thunder. It was beautiful and fascinating. Hubbard glacier stretches over 90 miles making it one of Alaska's biggest. It is 6 miles wide and 300 feet high."
Other stops we made were to Valdez, Seward and finally Anchorage. Verdict: Everybody must visit the Inside Passage at least once in their life! The wildlife and raw beauty of the Earth is something that must be seen in person!
yea! I finally made it into a post :) That was such a great trip. You didn't mention anything about the HUGE crabs our guide pulled out of the traps while we were kayaking. And did we really pay $94 for that train ride? Yikes! Whale watching was really the best and going with a smaller company was the way to go. I must take my husband on this trip.
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