It’s the 4th of July and another town to visit – but first a scenic cruise through the Tracy Arm. I had talked to the boat guide before today and she had recommended getting up early to go sit on the deck and watch for wildlife.
I was up at 6am and out by 620 to claim a spot on the deck and grab a blanket (note: normally on decks they have “towel” areas – on this cruise they were blankets instead!). There werent many people on the deck so I did a few laps and then hunkered down. Shortly after I settled along a railing Julie came to hang. We went to an early breakfast to fill our staomaches before the scenic cruise really got underway. I found caramel rolls this day – and Julie found crab cake benefits – from now forward we believed “We are living our best lives.”
We sat under blankets on sun chairs to stay warm during the cruise. Shortly after we got back Becca joined us under more blankets and we just enjoyed the view and some small talk. Becca ended up treating us to some hot cocoa in these smoke stack mugs!
Iceberg! 
Glacier 
Views for days 
Waterfall – we werent chasing them 
After the scenic cruise we went up to play trivia again. Of course we didnt win – but we had fun and a small gang of us had started to show up for each trivia event. After trivia we got the gang together for lunch. Julia believes she is getting a cold so she ended up sleeping all morning but joined us to fill her belly!
After our group lunch (we are now over 7 for the usual gang) we all went to get ready to get off the ship for the afternoon. Julia went back to bed and I got on my shoes – packed a full bottle of water and headed out. I didnt really have an agenda – but so many people were going on excursions I just wanted to go see the town.
I typed “hike” into google and found a peak called Mt. Roberts with a hike to the top. You can take a gondola to the top – but I opted to hike it….Im not quite sure what I was thinking.
It was about a 35 m inute walk from the boat to the trailhead through town. Most of the walk was up hill – luckily it was gradual. When I got to the trailhead there were a few people in cars who were getting ready to climb as well. I let them all pass me, they looked serious about this hike and that should have been my first sign.
I set off and the woods were just beautiful. However, after about 5 minutes I realized that even though it looked beautiful I was in for it. The amount of flies attacking me lead me to believe I was smelly and the hike just kept getting progressively harder. Google feedback had said it was about a 45 minute walk up – ALL LIES!! It ended up taking me about 1.5 hours. Slow and steady though! I was so darn thirsty. I had a full 32oz water bottle but stopping let the flies attack more easily so I just trekked along .
This is the kind of hike I was on 
This looks fake. 
Views 
I made it to the top 
civilization! 
Julia hands these signs out to anyone who wants one – and here is one in Alaska! 
The hike to get to the hike!
I had originally thought I would walk back down – and I would have if the flies werent attacking! I had finally made it to the top – came up the backside of the building of the gondola! I was very happy to see this building. I went inside the building to buy a ticket down, but ended up sitting down and drinking some water first. The ticket down was $10 OR you could spend $10 in the shop and get down for free – so of course, I spent $10.
I met a handful of cruise passengers from Olivia on the gondola down – we are everywhere! I had texted Julia to meet me so we could walk the town and she could get the millions of postcards needed to fulfill her list of people to send them to. After we acquired said postcards we headed back to the boat to relax before dinner.
Our group all got back together at 8pm for dinner. Some were late because their tours went late. I was pretty happy with this meal today – french onion soup!! Im pretty sure we all ended up crashing after dinner – it was a long exhausting day for all of us!
Normal Travel Girl 
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