Alaskan Cruise

It's taken a couple weeks to get out of vacation mode, but we wish we could go back. Alaska was so amazing! As a gift for Jay's parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary, his brother, David, paid for them to go on the cruise. The rest of the family was told about it and spent quite a few months saving for the trip. Seven out of the eleven kids were able to go.

We flew from Salt Lake to Seattle early Saturday morning and spent all morning waiting in lines to get onboard the ship. We made it on by noon and explored the ship until we left port around 4:00 in the afternoon. We spent the night sleeping and recovering from our all night cleaning and packing experience the night before. We sailed all day Sunday and did a lot of whale watching. All morning long we would see the spouts of the whales and we even saw some breaching and watched their tales come out of the water as they dived. There weren't any that got real close to the ship, but we all had binoculars that made the whale watching spectacular. We were able to identify Humpback Whales, as well as Orcas. We also saw dolphins this day that were jumping the wake from our ship. We went to a comedy show that night, but weren't too impressed.

The next morning we ported in Ketchikan. The city is on an island and they only have one road that runs the length of the island. We shopped around a bit, then went on a Lighthouse, Totems, and Eagles excursion. We got on a small boat and sailed around a ton of little islands. We spotted 16 Eagle nests, and you could see Eagles in almost every tree. We sailed past Totem Bight State Park which boasts the largest collection of totems in Alaska and then made our way out to a small island with a lighthouse on it. We circled the island which had tons of seals all over the beach. They were kind of hard to spot, as they just looked like shiny rocks. That night, back on the ship, we all met up for dinner, then went to the magic show.

The next day we ported in Juneau. The capital of Alaska has no roads that lead to the city, so you have to get there by plane, or by boat. Again we shopped a bit here, then were able to go for a flight on a Float Plane. (They are the ones that land on water.) The flight was amazing and was the highlight of the trip for me. We flew over a bunch of glaciers. The pictures don't do them justice as they are so large, you can't even imagine them without being there yourself. We flew all over Juneau, and if you are hunters like Jeff and David, you would have been able to spot the bears! The ride was loud, but very smooth and I couldn't even tell when we hit the water. Back on the boat we had dinner at the steakhouse which was awesome. I've never had a better steak and even Jay was impressed.

Early the next morning again, we ported in Skagway. This was my favorite place by far. It was styled in the traditions of the Old West with wooden plank sidewalks and shops that had the same decor. It reminded me a bit of Jackson Hole. We shopped around, making sure we went into the Olde Traine Shoppe, just for Jaxson. Then we took a ride on the White Pass Railroad. The train follows the route the Stampeders followed as they headed into the Yukon to find gold. The stories they told about the trail were just crazy. I never would have made it to the Yukon. I could go on forever about the trail, but it would be way to much to post. You'll have to come for dinner and here the tales! When we made it to the top of the trail, we hopped a bus and went into Canada. We traveled a ways in to a Suspension Bridge. It was 60 feet above the river and was a great spot to relax and admire the view. We made it back to the boat just in time to take off. That night, we cruised up a fiord to Dawes Glacier. It felt just like being on the Titanic as we watched big ice chunks float by the boat that had broken off the glacier. This was the coldest it got on the whole trip. We hung out up there for quite a while and even saw an avalanche that happened way up on the mountain!

The next morning we slept in and ordered room service. We didn't port in Prince Rupert until 4:00 that afternoon. This was the only day that we had bad weather. It had been sunny all week until Prince Rupert and it poured. We braved the rain and headed off through customs to do some shopping and see what there was to see. It wasn't much. We found a grocery store and stocked up on junk for the next day when we'd be at sea. We bought a few more souvenirs and hurried back to the ship.

Friday was spent cruising in the open water back to Seattle. We arrived there early Saturday morning and got off pretty quick. We caught a shuttle to our hotel since we had planned to stay overnight and go to the Mariner's game. The hotel let us check in early, so we were able to ditch our bags and rented a bright blue mini van to check out the sites of the city. Jay and I took off and went to do the Underground Tour. Basically, Seattle was originally built right at sea level and kept having flooding and sewage problems. The town burned down a little bit later and they just built the city on top of what had burned. We went down underneath all the modern buildings and saw all the original sites. It was crazy. We met up with the rest of the group and drove around a bit more then went to the game. Of course the game was fun, even if they were two of the worst teams in the league.

Sunday came bright and early with more waiting in lines at the airport until we finally made it home. Alaska was beautiful and it was nice to get away for a week. We were glad to see the kids, even though they were so spoiled, I thought they would want us to go away again! If you ever get the chance to go, take it. You won't be disappointed.