WOW!

This ship (the Diamond Princess) is docked outside my window! The picture doesn't do it justice...it's HUGE!! And look--it really is here!

I know--our water's not *quite* so blue as the top shot, but that's a shot from their webcam today. This ship has a golf course on it for goodness sake!

I'll have to take a picture of one of these ships from down on the harbor to give you an idea of how giant they are in comparison to our little town. Today however, we went into town and it's been raining buckets here since Monday. Not prime photo taking weather.

This is the first cruise ship of the season and ohmygoodness! Not only are they huge, but they bring a lot of hub-bub to town. Only about 10% of cruise-goers actually do anything in Whittier. Most are taking part in package vacations, so they disembark here and hop right onto a train or bus to go see other parts of Alaska. Still, it's quite a big event and makes tunnel travel slower for sure--all of those tour buses get to go first through the tunnel!