Earlier this year, I sailed on a seven-day cruise through Alaska.
It was my first time visiting America’s *other* noncontiguous state, and the experience was amazing.
The weather was crisp, the scenery lush, and the cruise ship relaxing.
I’ll never forget soaring through the sky in a tiny floatplane, circling the crests of Ketchikan, and landing on a lake as a mother bear and her cub lounged on shore.
Then there’s waking up at the crack of dawn as our ship approached Dawes Glacier, seeing crystal-clear waterfalls cut their way down stony cliffs shrouded in mist, seals slipping off their icy perches as the ship churned past.
Yes, cruise lines bring big business into these “sleepy” port towns, but somehow the constant flow of visitors fails to blemish the area’s serene beauty.
