Perhaps it is a sign of age - chronological (60 for me, 54 for my wife) rather than mental self-delusional (30 for me, 25 for my wife), but we bejoyed our seven day inside passage cruise on the Holland American Zuiderdam more than we anticipated. We added this trip onto one we had already decided to take to the Cananadian national parks in Jasper and Banff.

We rented an SUV for our week touring sights in British Columbia and Alberta. We traveled to a family reunion in central BC and camped out at a weekend home in the lake district. After this, we went to Jasper and Banff national parks and Vancouver. Overall, we saw more wildlife, mountains, glaciers, and indigenious artifacts on these wanderings than in Alaska on our subsequent cruise. We had a very good time on this part of our trip but it did not deminish our enjoyment of our Alaska cruise.

We departed from Vancouver on August 8th,2009. This seven day cruise included stopping at Juneau, Skagway, and Ketichikan. We also cruised the Tracy Arm Glacier and Glacier Bay. Read more