ALASKAN CRUISE!

The day after Kevin's graduation I hopped on a plane with my parents and grandma to Seattle. When we got to Seattle we spent a little bit of time at my brother's house and then we went down to the port and boarded for a cruise! This was a "brother/sister" reunion for my mom, my grandma wanted a traveling companion, so I was able to go!This is checking in our baggage before loading the ship. In front is me, grandma, and Kathy, and in the background is DJ and Joan.

After we boarded the ship we waited in the "Lido" for our rooms to be ready. They had quite the buffet set out to feast on, little did I know that was just the beginning.

DAY 1

The first day on the boat, before we left port, we did a "mandatory life boat drill". It was kind of funny to me. We had to grab our life jackets out of our state rooms and make our way down to where the lift boats are. Watching everyone try to put the life jackets on was the funny part. They had all these straps and hooks and it was almost impossible to figure it out, then one of the stewards would come along and get the person all hooked up in seconds. After the life boat drill we just walked around the ship trying to figure out where everything was and where all our rooms were in comparison to the others. We had our dinner table for 10 reserved everynight at 5:30pm. Same waiters and drink staff every night. After dinner there was an open house for the "digital workshop", it was interesting, but a little below the level I am at... Little did I know that is where I would be able to find my mom and aunt Kathy every time there was a class (I think this was the highlight of the cruise for them). Later that night we went to the night club and played a trivia game. We (my dad and me) were at almost every trivia game there was and placed in almost every single one we played. We met a couple who was on their honeymoon and teamed up with them at all the games too- we were quite the team! Every night the crew put on some form of entertainment in the "Vista Lounge". Some were good, some were OK.
This is our dinner table- starting at the front and going clockwise; DJ, Joan, Janice, Brent (standing), Dan, Kathy, Grandma, Me, my dad(standing), and my mom.
This is when we were waiting to start the trivia game. My mom, grandma, me, and Kathy. Everyone but my dad and me only played the first night.

DAY 2

Day to was an "at Sea" day. We lounged around, ate, went to some entertainment on board, ate, played a trivia game, ate, did some line dancing lessons, and ate some more. Everyone tells you there is a lot of food on board, I just didn't realize how much, an pretty much anything you might want.

DAY 3
Scenic Cruising Glacier Bay

We were "at sea" but we were up in Denali National Park. A couple of park rangers boarded the ship (without us stopping) and had some informational talks about Alaska and the park. We pulled up next to some glaciers and sat there for about an hour. It was amazing to me that the caption could take this ship that was 935 feet long and 106 feet wide and turn it from side to side in front of the glaciers (basically spinning the ship). My parent's had a balcony and so when their side of the ship was facing the glacier we went out and took pictures and sat out on their deck. Later that night was our first "formal" dress dinner. That was fun to get dressed up and take pictures. And of course later was the entertainment, a comedian, Julie Barr. She was pretty funny. And then we played another trivia game.

This is the "panoramic" picture I took of the glacier out my parent's balcony, my mom "stitched" it together for me. (this is one of the things she learned how to do in the digital classes.)

This is my grandma and my mom and dad with the glacier in the background.

This our group photo from the first formal night.

DAY 4

Juneau, Alaska

We docked in Juneau while most of us were still sleeping... so grandma and I ordered room service so we wouldn't be rushed. Kathy, Dan, Brent, Janice, and grandma had all booked an excursion to go on a float plane. DJ, Joan, my mom, dad, and I hadn't booked anything so we thought we'd just walk around and see what was available. When we got off the ship it was pretty rainy and foggy. We headed over to where the float planes take off and talked to the office that books the flights. They were willing to give us a discount from what they give the ships so my dad talked me in to going. I'm pretty much a chicken when it comes to stuff like this, so it took some convincing. We had a while until our plane took off so we went over to a native american museum, interesting, but boring after an hour... We then headed to "The Hanger" and had some lunch, then on to the plane. It probably wasn't the best idea for me to eat right before we were supposed to take off, I had nerves though so I didn't eat much anyway. We then loaded the plane and took off. It was amazingly gentle take off, in fact I was so sure when we left the water and hit the air. There were some bumpy spots that made me a bit nervous, but it was a beautiful sight. My dad was able to sit in the co-pilot seat and see the view from there. We flew over a couple glaciers and looked for wildlife along the river (we never saw any). When we landed I started getting really nervous, so nervous that I wasn't even sure when we landed. The landing was so gentle and smooth that I didn't know we had touched down on the water. After the flight we loaded the ship and met up for dinner with everyone. We found out that Dan, Kathy, Brent, Janice, and grandma never were actually able to go on the float plane. It was too foggy and rainy when they were scheduled to take off, they rescheduled and it was still to bad of weather. They were a little sad that they had planned it and weren't able to go and we had just jumped on... Later that night we went to the entertaiment, Hayden Smith, a singer- he was pretty good. Then of course we had to do our trivia for the night...

Mom and dad infront of a clan house at the museum.

Lunch at the Hanger. This is one of the only times I was able to talk to Kevin, so I was on the phone...

The float plane group- the plane in the background.

DAY 5

Sitka, Alaska

We anchored in Sitka out a little way and had to take a tender to shore. They really just used the life boats, kind of interesting. In Sitka we jumped on a bus and took a tour around Sitka, it's pretty small. We went to a forest and in the middle was a stream you could see all the salmon making their way up the river to spawn. We shopped around Sitka for a little while then boarded the ship. The night's entertaiment was Leo Ward, master illusionist, it was a pretty good show. Then we couldn't miss our trivia game! After the trivia game they had a $500 cash bingo game. My dad bought cards for each of us... I ended up winning! There was also another passenger who got bingo at the same time, so I won $250. That night they also had a love and marriage game, that was pretty entertaining and funny. And then later that night they had a "Chocolate Extravaganza"- sounded so good... but a little dissapointing after all the great food and desserts we had already had on board.

This is the harbor in Sitka. (Another panoramic, stitched together by my mom)

This is in the forest with our tour guide, she was a pretty nice girl.This is in front of a clan house with our whole group.

DAY 6

Ketchikan, Alaska

In Ketchikan we jumped on a "trolley" of sorts... that was interesting. Our tour guide was quite interesting too. His name is Rob- this is his web site, if you want to see just how interesting he was... http://www.myspace.com/ruralalaskan Rob took us to some really neat places, we went to a stream bed, where the salmon were spawning and right accross the street was a large group of trees with about 10 bald eagles in them. That was an amazing sight to see. Then he took us to totem park, where there are quite a few totem poles preserved. He told us about totem poles and some of their stories, when we got to the bottom of the park he showed us where there was a large bald eagle nest with two baby eaglets in it, we couldn't seem to get a picture of the eaglets, although they did stick their heads up every once in a while. After our tour my dad and I split from the group to do some shopping, they went to see a museum. This was a short day in Ketchikan so we boarded the ship early and had lunch. After lunch there was a Black Jack tournament. My dad and uncle Dan entered the tournament... they were the last two standing at the end of the tournament. My dad beat Dan out on the last hand, for a $500 prize. That night for dinner was another formal dinner, I don't seem to have any pictures from that night. Then on to our trivia game again- by then the crew knew who we were and expected us to keep winning, we didn't let them down.

This is just one of the totem poles that we saw. The story that goes with it is a little like the boy who cried wolf. I though this was cute...
This is one of the trees with all the bald eagles in it. There were a group of 3-4 trees that each had 2-5 eagles in them.

This is the eagle nest, you can hardly see the eagle sitting on the perch and then the nest is the big "knotty" looking thing in the center of the tree.While my dad and I were shopping we saw this dog hanging out the window. There were actually two of them but the batteries in my camera was dying and we couldn't get the other one to come back to the window...

DAY 7

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
The majority of the day was spent at sea but we ported in Victoria about 7:00pm. We boarded a bus to ride into the city and then once we got in the city we found a double decker bus to take a tour on. Again, my dad and I split from the group to do some shopping (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) while everyone else walked around the pier and The Empress Hotel. Victoria is a pretty city, especially at night when the buildings are all lit up.

The double decker bus tour- of course we were on the top...The parliment building at night.
The Empress Hotel- the green lights on the top changed colors.On the Pier by a whale mosaic statue we found.

Some beautiful flowers with the Parliment behind. There were so many flowers all over Victoria.

The next morning we were back in Seattle. I was ready to call Kevin and tell him to meet for the next cruise out. I loved it! I am trying to plan a cruise in May- anyone want to join us?