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	Seward, Alaska

During the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964, the residents of Seward were horrified to see a tidal wave over 100 feet tall wash away most of the waterfront. However, this charming town, embodying the famous Alaskan spirit and fortitude, was rebuilt and is now home to 3,000 residents. Seward was originally founded in 1903 as the southern terminus for the Alaska Railroad, a distinction it still holds today. Modern-day residents are primarily associated with commercial fishing, tourism and the railroad. The picturesque harbor with its colorful wood-frame houses and background of soaring cliffs looks out on Resurrection Bay, so named by a band of Russians explorers who found this calm spot along the storm- tossed Gulf of Alaska on Easter Sunday.

Seward is also the gateway to spectacular Kenai Fjords National Park, with its distinctive rock formations, massive glaciers and abundant wildlife, including a colony of 40,000 puffins. Seward with a population of 3000 is a scenic town flanked by rugged mountains on one side and the salmon filled Resurrection Bay on the other. It is the only town on the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula.

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	Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

They call the place where gigantic Hubbard Glacier empties into the sea Disenchangment Bay. Perhaps because it is virtually impossible to venture any further. A full six miles of ice block your way. And this giant ice cube is on the move. In fact, Hubbard moves faster than almost any other glacier on the continent. Beginning its journey 76 miles away on Mt. Logan, Canada's highest mountain, Hubbard has been known to advance so fast that it dammed Russell Fjord and created a lake behind it, trapping many marine species. A dozen years after this phenomenon, the dam no longer exists, and Hubbard is no longer the galloping glacier it once was. But the continent's greatest tidewater river of ice stilll flows at a fast trot, regularly disgorging enormous calves into the waiting arms of the sea. As the Navigator sails along its looming mass, you'll notice that Hubbard's pock-marked face is punctuated by deep ice caves that glow with the lovely blue light that distinguishes active glacial ice.

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	Sitka, Alaska

In 1799, the Russian explorer Alexander Baranof founded New Archangel, a settlement adjacent to the Tlingit village of Sitka, This was the beginning of the first permanent Russian government settlement in North America. But three years later the settlement was destroyed by the Tlingit Indians in an attempt to reclaim their ancestral home. Their brief victory ended when Baranof returned in 1804, accompanied by Russian warships, and retook Sitka in the Battle of Alaska. Sitka became the Russian capital of North America. In 1867, the Imperial Russian flag was replaced by the Stars and Stripes when the United States purchased Alaska. With the discovery of gold, and the rapid population growth that followed, Alaska's capital moved north to Juneau in 1906. Today, picturesque Sitka, across the water from snow-capped Mount Edgecombe, is known for its fishing industry, an annual summer classical music festival and, of course, its many historic visitor attractions. On a clear day Sitka, the only city in Southeast Alaska that actually fronts the Pacific Ocean, rivals Juneau for the sheer beauty of its surroundings.

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	Skagway, Alaska

Skagway (population of 800), a place of many names, much history and little rain, is the northern terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway. The town lies in the narrow plain of the Skagway River at the head of the Lynn Canal and, at one time or another, has been called Skaguay, Shkagway, and Gateway to the Golden Interior. It is known as the Home of the North Wind, and residents tell visitors that it blows so much here you will never breathe the same air twice.

Skagway was known to thousands of hopeful gold rushers as the gateway to the gold fields. Although it boasted the shortest route to the Klondike, it was far from being the easiest. Over a hundred years ago, the White Pass route through the Coast Mountains and the shorter, but steeper, Chilkoot Trail were used by countless stampeders. The treacherous Chilkoot Trail, combined with the area's cruel elements, left scores dead.

The gold rush was a boon to Skagway - by 1898 it was Alaska's largest town with a population of about 20,000. The town's hotels, saloons, dance halls and gambling houses prospered, drawing Skagway residents as well as the 10,000 people living in the tent city of nearby Dyea. But when the gold yield dwindled in 1900, so did the population of Skagway as the miners quickly shifted to new finds in Nome. Skagway retains the flavor of the gold rush era, especially on Broadway, with its false-front buildings, and in the Trail of '98 Museum, with its outstanding collection of memorabilia.

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	Juneua, Alaska

In 1880, for Joe Juneau and Richard Harris, the going was slow and frustrating as they searched for gold with the help of Indian guides. Finally, after climbing mountains, forging streams and facing countless difficulties, they found nuggets "as large as beans." Out of their discoveries came three of the largest gold mines in the world. By the end of World War II, more than USD$150 million in gold was mined. Eventually the mines closed, but the town Joe Juneau founded became the capital of Alaska and the business of gold was replaced by the business of government.

Some 30,000 people live in Juneau and its total area makes it the biggest town, in size, in North and South America - and the second largest in the world. Only Kirunda, Sweden, with 5,458 square miles, exceeds Juneau's 3,108 square miles. Few cities in the USA and none in Alaska are as beautiful as Juneau. Residents claim it is the most scenic capital in the country, while others describe it as a 'little San Francisco'.

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	Vancouver, Canada

Captain George Vancouver first explored Burrard Inlet in 1792, and for his effort, he would later have Canada's third largest city named for him. But for almost 100 years, the only civilization in this area was a ramshackle saloon run by one Gassy Jack Deighton, who was to give his nickname to a small logging outpost called Gastown. It was a dot on the map until 1887, when the Canadian Pacific Railroad completed the first railroad across Canada. And Gastown, now more decorously renamed Vancouver, became the railroad's western terminus. With its location o n the eastern edge of the Pacific. Rim, Vancouver has drawn a tremendous amount of business investment from Asia. Today's Vancouver is a multi-ethnic rainbow of cultures, with the second largest Chinatown in North America and an equally thriving Japantown. Of course, the fact that the U.S. dollar is worth almost 50% more than the Canadian 'Loonie' has a lot of attraction for American visitors, who throng to Robson Square's tres chic shops. Other prime attractions in the Vancouver area include the serenely beautiful enclave of Stanley Park, an oasis of green right on the water in downtown Vancouver, complete with totem poles, an aquarium and a beaver pond. And there's the spectacular gondola ride up to the 4,000-foot summit of Grouse Mountain, where a panoramic view of the city greets you. Down below you can see Canada Place, the sail-shaped cruise ship terminal where the Navigator docks, lying at the edge of the inner harbor. And for a thrill even more elevating, walk across the swaying Capilano Suspension Bridge, the highest and longest footbridge in the world.

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