Well, we're finally back...
It is a verrryyy long trip from Fairbanks, AK to West Palm Beach, FL. Our flight left Faibanks at 1:00am local time Thursday morning (5-hours later than EDT), and we didn't arrive at WPB until 11:00pm EDT last night. That means that with all the time changes included, we didn't sleep at all on wednesday night, and went about 41 hours total with only cat naps on the plane(s) and in the airports. As seems to be the norm today, we were delayed for five hours in Atlanta waiting for our last leg of the flight home. I'm a bit of a zombie today, but, I'm home and still have the weekend before returning to work.
To describe Alaska in a word would be impossible. But, vast, incredible, astonishing, amazing, fantastic, and just plain cool, might be a good start. We saw whales, orcas, porpoise, seals, sea otters, salmon, and more Bald Eagles than I've ever seen in one place...and that was before we even left the ship. We saw about ten glaciers total, flying over and around some on a float plane, cruising up to others on the cruise ship & an excursion boat, and hiking up to others on foot. We saw Moose, Caribou, but disappointingly, no bears. I've seen plenty of black and smaller brown bears in the wild, but never a Grizzly. I guess that means that we'll just have to go back again!
I caught some salmon, and a couple of grayling on two seperate fishing trips, and lost a couple more grayling in the process as well (catch and release fly fishing).
I drank gallons of Alaskan Amber and IPA, and found another fantastic micro brew IPA at a place in Anchorage called The Brew House. We ate way too much on the cruise ship (oh, what a surprise!), and downed many bottles of wine as well.
Holland America Lines is a first class operation. I'd highly recommend them to anyone thinking about an Alaska cruise. We liked them so much that we're already considering another trip with them possibly to the fijords in Norway, the Greek Isles, or elsewhere.
I've got about 290 pics to sort through and save before I'll be ready to post any, but there are some really good ones in the mix. Although the pics are beautiful, they still can't capture the dimension and panorama that you see when you view it first hand. Plus, they don't allow you to feel the air, or smell the sea and the forrests.
oke: 
