This post is long overdue and wraps up our 7-day Alaskan cruise. Our last day was spent going through the inside passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The weather wasn't great, but we spent most of our waking hours on our balcony, watching the scenery flow by and watching for wildlife.

A pic I borrowed off the Internet of our ship.

The World Cup was still in full swing, so we had breakfast in our room and watched the England/Sweden game. Earlier in the week we booked a spin class, so I went to that, and then for fun did a couple of laps of the running track around the ship - very hard when you come into the wind!

After that, we watched the Russia/Croatia game in our room, then chilled out a bit before heading down to get some lunch, which we brought back to our room to eat on the patio. It was pretty cold out, but you could bundle up and watch the scenery. We were headed into an area where we were much closer to shore, and could see land, and were expecting to see some wildlife.

This was pretty typical of the scenery that we had throughout the day.

It was mostly overcast, with a few breaks where blue sky came out - or alternatively it would rain on us for a bit.

Early on in the day we saw a couple of long humpbacks as the ship cruised by.

We saw porpoises quite a few times throughout the day.

Mostly, you just saw a flash of them as they dove.

Early in the day we saw this tug pulling a huge barge.

It seems everything gets to Alaska by barge…

Including the buses for Juneau!

Boats, trucks, buses, heavy equipment - crazy what they’ll throw on a barge.

There were so many little groups of islands, and always a hope that we’d see something interesting as we went by. In this case, a group of kayakers.

Two for one - a bald eagle on top of the marker, and a harbor seal on the rock.

A slightly better look at the eagle.

And a closer look at the seal, hanging out on the rocks.

Some more Dall’s Porpoises.

A sea lion swimming near the ship.

We saw a few sea lions throughout the day.

Common murres on the water.

More typical scenery as we headed down near the top of Vancouver Island.

We had to bundle up to stay warm to watch the scenery.

The Canadian Coast Guard out on patrol.

It was a misty, overcast day but there was some interesting colour.

Often, there were these low hanging clouds, wisps over the water.

A big male sea lion, sitting on the rocks.

One last bald eagle.

Heading past Campbell River and into civilization.

Eventually we headed down and had one last fantastic meal in the main dining room. After dinner we hung out in the cafe and listened to live music, grabbed a last drink and headed off to bed. By the time time we awoke in the morning, we were docked back in Vancouver and it was time to head home and back to reality.

Home again - the last view from our well-used balcony.