Alaska

Everyone that knows me has had to listen to me talk about the cruise we were going on to Alaska for over a year. I have been so excited to go on the vacation, and it did not disappoint. The first of August we set off for a fun filled week aboard the Golden Princess to Alaska. Practically everyone I know went with us. It was a little overwhelming at first, with the kids. After getting through my first night of nightmares, picturing Ethan, jumping out of his crib, on locking the sliding glass door, going out the the balcony, climbing the table and jumping out over the balcony into the ocean, I was OK.
We left from Seattle and I was able to take this amazing picture, from our balcony! How cool is that!

JUNO : Our first port was Juno, Alaska. This was a very interesting port for us. We had a few bumps along the way but had a pretty good attitude the whole time. We first had some trouble getting off the ship, once that was done we were ready for an adventure. the rest of my family went kayaking, but since we had the kids we were on our own for the day. We started out riding a supper high gondola up into the forest. It was really cool to see thing from that high. This is where our first slip up began. Looking over one of the look outs, Ethan managed to loose a shoe over the side of the mountain. Hmm. What now, that was his only pair of shoes we brought. So we went down into the town in search of shoes. Juno is the capital, but well there is not much there. We were pointed in the direction of the new Walmart 15 miles away. sigh. Since we did not bring car seats we could not take a cab and had to take the city bus to Walmart. It took forever! We did however get to see all of Juno that none of the tourists get to see, and visit with some of the locals. We got some new shoes and were ready to go. We decide to continue on the bus and head out to the Mendenhal Glacier further away. We were told we could take the bus mostly there but had to walk maybe a mile or so to get there. Well a mile or so turned into about two and a half. We were very happy to arrive at there finally, but were supper tired. We walk around for a bit and caught a tourist bus directly back to port. We dis get a few pics at the glacier after all our travels:

This picture can only be had by those who walk the path so I am sure we are one of the few: :)

SKAGWAY: The next stop on our trip was Skagway. I new this would be a better day since we had it planned before hand. A big group of us rented a van tor and headed out to the white pass/Yukon area, and into Canada. It was wonderful to see all the beautiful scenery. It was so green lush. We made several stops and saw the sights. We even got to see some mountain goats! After the tour we went into the town and walked around. It had a very old west feel to it. Such a cute place. In the streams the Salmon were everywhere swimming upstream.

Tracy Arm Fjord: the next destination was not a port, it was a day on the ship. Early in the morning we sailed into Tracy Arm Fjord and tried to get as close as we could to the glacier. It was so beautiful. It was great to be able to get up and go right out onto the balcony, eat breakfast and see everything.

Ketchikan: Ketchican was a fun, short day. We were only in port until noon, so by the time we got out we had a few hours to roam around and see the sites. We went to creek street, that was I think my favorite part. It was a old part of town built on stilts on the creek. Ketchkan to me looked just like I pictured an Alaska town being. We even saw a bald eagle get a fish right out of the creek and fly away with it. Amazing! Joseph had a different day, he got up early and went fishing with a few other guys from our group. They caught tons of Salmon. We got some shipped back to parents house and have been eating it right up, so good.

Victoria, Canada: Victoria was our last day. We were sad to see it coming to an end. Most of the day was spent on the ship hanging out. We didn't get into port till after dinner at 7pm. While getting off the ship I was watching Ethan who was a being held by my dad, he was being so cute and waving to me. I got excited and waved back and must have lost my balance because I came a tumbling down and twisted my ankle really bad. I thought it would be OK, so I continued on. We decided to go see the Butchart Gardens. While we were on our way there my ankle swelled up pretty big. When we got there I could barely walk. So we rented a wheelchair. By that time we only had about a hour to see everything, so we all ran (well I rolled) around as fast as we could to see as much as we could. Kimi and Wes, took Bridget, my mom took Ethan and Joseph pushed me. the garden were beautiful and I was so happy I was able to see them. They are defiantly somewhere I would like to go back to.

It was a really fun trip and we were sad to go.