Joyful in Juneau!

We had a noon arrival in Juneau, Alaska yesterday. 

It was a no-workshop day, we were free to spend the time as we wanted all the way up until sit-n-sew free time that began at 8pm!

A whole day to play, explore, discover!

Mom, Joy, Gail, Irene and I enjoyed a beautiful leisurely breakfast at the best table in the Windjammer.  We were right above the ship’s wake and we chatted about the excursions we had planned for the day.

This was the day we were going on a whale watching adventure that also included a salmon cookout for lunch, and a stop at the Mendenhall glacier.

This was an 8 hour bite of Juneau, and it didn’t disappoint!

But we had a few hours to spare before disembarking the ship for our bus to the whale boat…what are we to do?

Trace applique on the library window over looking the Promenade!

This is me stitching on a special applique project!

Quilters have their own ideas of how to spend relaxing time while on a cruise, and it usually involves needle, thread, and people watching!

Good day, Juneau!

As we disembark there is another ship in port!

All ready for our whale watching adventure to begin!

Welcome to Colt Island for our cook out!

Joy, framing up for the perfect shot!

Irene is now one of the Mach girls too!

Orca Point Lodge, where our lunch has been prepared!

Cruisers wandering the shore.

Can you believe this scenery?

Here is a little video I took of the flowers and the breeze, sights and sounds along the shore:

A video posted by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 10, 2016 at 4:00pm PDT

And this was only the START of the day!

Just wow!

On the boat looking for whales!

See it?

I caught a bit of our excitement on my phone camera in video:

A video posted by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 11, 2016 at 8:32am PDT

We were lucky to see both Orcas and Humpbacks in abundance yesterday.  We were told that Orcas are harder to find, they only show up about 10% off the time, but we saw a mother and baby and watched them blowing and surfacing for quite a while.  At one point there were three together.  It is just the most amazing thing! there were several beautiful fluke sightings with the humpbacks, but I was never fast enough with my camera phone to catch them on camera .

Shutter girl, Joy has them all on her camera!

Mendenhall Glacier takes our breath away!

Holy Moly.

If you ever want to feel really small, stand near and view a glacier.  There is majesty beyond measure in this universe of ours, and quite a bit of it has little or nothing to do with people. When I think of the millions of years represented in this ice formation, I am humbled that we are just a speck on the timeline of this planet we call earth.

View from my balcony as we get ready to leave Juneau for Skagway.

Boat crossing the sun stripe on the water as we set sail.

Of course there are many many more photos, but with the upload speed of ships wifi I’m going to leave it here!

Today we have a White Pass Scenic Railway tour!  It doesn’t depart the stationi until 12:40pm so Irene and I are planning to get off ship early to do a bit of shopping before we meet up with mom, Gail and Joy for the rail tour.  Should be another AWESOME day – and the sun is shining on Skagway as we pull in to port!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

vintage ocean waves quilt found in North Carolina.

This is your journey! What will you do today that your future self would be proud of?

Have a terrific Monday, everyone!

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