After six long months of waiting, we finally we were off.
DAY 1 — Friday, May 12
- See girls off to school
- Drop Winnie off with Andrea's parents
- Drive to Salt Lake City
- Fly SLC to Seattle
- Fly Seattle to Anchorage
- Check into hotel
First view of Alaska outside our plane window. So many mountains!
Since we'd be gone for 9 days, we made sure to take lots of selfies to send to the girls.
Interesting points of the day
- Both of our flights were on newer planes, which was nice. The seats had USB chargers!
- We watched Inception on our flights and were reminded of what a good movie that is.
- When we got to our hotel, it was after 9 local time, which felt like after 11 for us. But it was still light outside, so we got creative with magnetic clips and pillows to block out as much light as possible so we could sleep.
- Wake up in Anchorage
- Breakfast at hotel
- Walk around Lake Hood
- Lunch at Taco King (a short walk from the hotel)
- Board bus to Whittier
- Board cruise ship in Whittier
- Dinner at the buffet
- Played "Miracle Lyrical" with the cruise staff
- Set sail from Whittier
Andrea and Seth next to Lake Hood. It's the world's busiest seaplane base. We saw several planes take off/land on the lake and on the runway next to it.
It seems everyone in Anchorage owns a plane.
Something (we determined it was the trees) smelled yeasty ... like rising bread. We got a little lightheaded breathing deeply on our walk.
View
from Beluga Point Lookout along the Seward Highway. We boarded the bus
in Anchorage and learned about the area and its history from our tour
guide. We also got make a couple of stops along the way.
Seth and Andrea at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center on another one of our stops. We saw wolves, muskoxen, a fox, wood bison, elk, reindeer, grizzlies (including the one behind us here) and a black bear.
Video of the grizzlies and the black bear. It was incredibly windy right then.
Selfie by the cruise ship in Whittier. We learned that the city of Whittier is still around because of cruise lines and the harbor. Otherwise, this tiny city of about 300 residents (who all live in one building ... look it up if you don't believe me!) who probably have been abandoned a while ago.
Our cabin, room A747. We were in the very back of the ship on the 12th deck.
The view from our cabin porthole.
Andrea sipping a virgin piña colada and Seth sipping a virgin strawberry daiquiri. We splurged and purchased the drink package, so our trip was full of mocktails, hot chocolate, milkshakes and soda.
Interesting points of the day
- We learned about the mud flats at Turnagain Arm as we drove from Anchorage to Whittier. People occasionally try to walk across them at low tide but get stuck in them and drown as the tide come in.
- As we boarded the boat, I was completely overwhelmed with the grandeur and scale. I almost wanted to run back off it, but I'm glad I stuck around.
- "Miracle Lyrical" was a game where teams of up to 6 had to guess the next lyric of a song. We joined up with a couple from Raleigh, NC, and a couple from Britain. My only contributions to the 20 songs featured were lines to "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" (From The Lion King), "So Long, Farewell" (from The Sound of Music) and "Dream Believer" (by the Monkees). Gratefully other members of our team knew the other songs, and our team ended up winning. We scored Princess lanyards and magnetic clips.
DAY 3 — Sunday, May 14
- Breakfast at the buffet
- Naturalist lecture about glaciers
- Sacrament in our cabin
- Lunch at Trident Grill (hamburgers and hot dogs)
- Read books, sip hot chocolate
- Nap
- View Hubbard Glacier from the aft hot tub
- Formal night in the dining room
- Attend "The Voice of the Ocean"
Andrea and Seth dressed up for formal night.
Our fancy-shmancy dessert in the dining room.
Walking around on the promenade deck.
Evening stroll and ocean sights.
Hubbard Glacier in the distance.
Seth sings "Round Here" by Counting Crows as part of the "Voice of the Ocean" auditions. He didn't move on to the finals (everyone who did either sang a country song or was at least 60 years old), but he had fun.
Interesting points of the day
DAY 4 — Monday, May 15- Seth had received permission from our bishop to bless and pass the sacrament to the two of us while on board. It was a neat experience to partake in our cabin.
- Many people looked at us like we were crazy as we sat in the hot tub looking at glaciers. "Aren't you cold?" they'd ask. I don't think they're from Idaho.
- Our first experience with our dining companions in the formal dining room was interesting. We had already been seated when another couple was brought to the table. The husband started heatedly talking to the waiter about how he and his wife and requested a table for two. The wife sat down as called her husband a choice 7-letter name. We were stunned for a little while, but as we visited with Mike and Faye from Chicago, we really enjoyed getting to know them. I assume the feeling was mutual, because they ended up staying at our table for the rest of the cruise.
- Breakfast in the formal dining room
- Spotted otters and seals from the deck
- Listened to the National Park ranger's lecture about Glacier Bay while sipping hot chocolate and eating donuts
- Lunch at the buffet
- View Margerie Glacier from deck
- View John Hopkins Glacier from deck
- Nap
- Dinner in formal dining room
- Watch the rangers leave the ship
- Listen to Irish songs
- Listen to ship band play 70s music, dance
Video montage of Glacier Bay, including Margerie Glacier calving and the park rangers disembarking from the cruise ship.
Margerie Glacier and a smaller boat in lower right quadrant. That should help with the scale. (In other words, the glacier is huge.)
Seth taking pictures of the glacier with his phone.
Andrea sipping on a virgin strawberry daiquiri while looking at glaciers through our cabin's porthole.
Seth, Andrea and the John Hopkins Glacier. Even though it looked close to us, it was still 5 miles away. Our ship couldn't get any closer this time of year due to iceburgs.
Seth sitting on a deck chair while the ship spins in circles so everyone can get a good view of John Hopkins Glacier.
Interesting points of the day
DAY 5 — Tuesday, May 16- Breakfast in the formal dining room means you're seated with people who aren't your regular tablemates. This time we were introduced to Pete and Janice (from "N'awlins" ... "On TV they never get the Louisiana accent right," Janice tells us) and a nice Canadian lady whose name I didn't catch.
- If I could, I would eat the fried calamari served at the lunch buffet every single day of my life.
- While we were viewing glaciers from the deck, we watched a film crew shoot footage for a reality TV show. Although I didn't give the "reality" much merit before this experience, I give it even less now. "Pick up your daughter, look at her lovingly." "Now we'll go change clothes and get more footage of you walking around the ship."
- While on a cruise, it doesn't matter if you can't dance. Just go for it and the cute little lady from the side will tell you you're adorable.
- Breakfast from room service
- Port in Skagway
- Lunch in Skagway (crab cakes and halibut)
- Souvenir shopping, sightseeing, museum in Skagway
- Dinner at the buffet
- Read books in the lounge
- Watch a local perform folk songs and tell about the history of Alaska
- Listen to the cruise band perform
- Watch the second set of auditions for "Voice of the Ocean"
Andrea and Seth on the train headed to White Pass.
Montage of the ride up to White Pass summit and back to Skagway.
The train headed to its first tunnel. After the train got up to speed, passengers were allowed out of the platforms to take pictures of the scenery.
Long exposure of the train coming out of one of the tunnels.
The amount of snow at the top of the summit. We went from sea level to 3000 feet above.
Posing majestically on the train.
Eating delicious seafood for lunch in Skagway.
Cool old building (originally the Arctic Brotherhood Hall, now the city visitors' center) in Skagway decorated in driftwood.
View of the ship from Skagway.
Interesting points of the day
DAY 6 — Wednesday, May 17- We learned about the Klondike gold rush while traveling by train, including the town villain (Soapy Smith) and hero (Frank Reid), Dead Horse Gulch where the bones of many horses can still be seen, double jacking (three men hanging from ropes, one with a drill bit between his knees, the other two hammering the end of it and turning it a tiny bit after each hit followed by stuffing the hole with dynamite and swinging out of the way before the explosion), and two men and their mules who died with a huge slab of the mountain fell down on top of them.
- When we reached the summit, Seth mused that we'd have to face backwards on the way back down since the train cars don't turn around. Imagine our surprise when we were given instructions to flip the back of the seat up over the seat so everyone could face forwards both directions.
- In Skagway we bought T-shirts, necklaces, finger puppets and pyrite for the girls; sea salt caramel popcorn and taffy for us to snack on; a book for my parents and a necklace for me.
- During the second half of "Voice of the Ocean" auditions, anyone who had performed during the first night could perform again, so Seth sang "Old Man" by Neil Young.
- Breakfast from room service
- Port in Juneau
- Whale watching in Auk Bay
- Mendenhall Glacier
- Andrea takes a nap; Seth does the laundry
- Dinner in formal dining room
- Watch ship's comedian perform
- Explore ship and find the art gallery, internet cafe/library, casino
- Snack on eclair and hot chocolate
- Clear off throwaway pictures from cameras
Whale watching turned out to be fantastic. We had six adults and two children on the boat (our captain, our naturalist, Seth, me, a couple from Japan and their two kids), and we saw countless humpbacks. They spouted, showed their backs and showed their tails. We also saw porpoises, bald ealges and sea lions.
Montage of whale watching. It was hard to pick between shooting stills and video, but we saw enough whales that I could do some of both.
The blowhole of a humpback. This one got so close to our boat that when it spouted, we all smelled its breath. (It's really stinky, by the way.)
View of a whale tail from the bow of the boat.
View of Nugget Falls and Mendenhall Glacier. After the whale watching, we caught a tour bus out to the visitors' center and walked the 2 miles to this beach.
A rock spiral placed on the beach by someone else.
A nice girl from Kansas took this picture of us in front of the falls.
Kayakers getting closer to the glacier.
Falls spray and glacier.
Glacier, waterfall and visitors' center.
Seth vlogging while Andrea naps.
Interesting points of the day
- We lucked out when it came to whale watching. Sometimes the captain has to drive the boat 45 minutes away from the dock before they see any whales, but we were lucky enough to have them a lot closer.
- Lenny our bus drive on the way to Mendenhall gave us the lowdown about the glacier. He said to hike straight to Nugget Falls for the best views and then spend your time looking at/doing other things. We're glad we followed his advice.
- Breakfast at the buffet
- Watch ship dock in Ketchikan
- Port in Ketchikan
- Sea kayak in low tide
- Eat lunch in Ketchikan
- Sightseeing, museum, shopping
- 2nd formal night at the dining room
- Watch cruise staff production show "Gotta Dance"
- Watch cruise band perform a tribute to Billy Joel
View from the back of the ship as it docks in Ketchikan.
Silly selfies on the deck before it started raining.
Foggy, rainy sea kayaking. Apparently this is typical Ketchikan weather.
Andrea and Seth sea kayaking at low tide. See all the sea stars below the water on the left? We got to hold one.
Headed back to Ketchikan. We had to pass in front of all the cruise ships. "It looks like the Ruby Princess is about to leave, so we have to paddle fast to get across," Gillian, our guide, told us. (We made it in plenty of time.)
Us in all our sea kayaking gear. It rained on us the entire time, but it was a blast.
The delicious dungeness crab Seth and Andrea shared for lunch after kayaking and running back to the cruise ship to change.
Talking to the girls outside the restaurant. Our phones had no service at sea or on land, so we had to rely on the internet of shops to make contact with them.
Seth at the totem pole in front of the Ketchikan library. It depicts Raven stealing the sun. We also visited a Native Alaskan art museum.
Andrea at Creek Street.
A cute little otter with a fish at Creek Street.
Interesting points of the day
- Because it was low tide when we went kayaking, we got to see sea stars, sea cucumbers and tubeworms. We also saw more bald eagles.
- We came into kayaking feeling some trepidation. Neither Seth nor I had ever been kayaking before, but we figured with our limited experience with canoing and rafting we'd be okay. Turns out we were okay. :-)
- Jack and Gillian, our kayak guides, were very informative. Gillian tried to persuade us to move to Ketchikan since we love hiking, hunting and fishing so much.
- We bought a necklace for Grandma Susan, a necklace for me and malachite for Seth.
- Breakfast in the formal dining room
- Hot tubbing on the back deck
- Go on photo safari around the ship to show the girls
- Lunch at the buffet
- Watch naturalist program about animals of Alaska
- Nap
- Pack luggage and place it outside the cabin
- Dinner in the formal dining room
- Game with the cruise staff: "Are You Smarter than the Cruise Staff?"
- Drinks, pizza and the cruise band in the lounge
- Walk around on the deck, watch Sting concert on the big outdoor screen
Hot tubbing on the back deck.
Seth recording a video when we realize it's his brother's birthday.
Some of the many pools on the ship. The big one is inside, the others are out.
Food, food, food. Desserts on display at the buffet, the buffet, the ice cream corner.
Looking off the bow and the bridge.
Inside the ship: the super long hall leading to our cabin at the very back and the stairs we vowed to take all week long rather than the elevator.
Places we sat: the lounge (also where Seth sang), the auditorium and the other lounge.
Places we didn't spend a lot of time in: the piazza lined with shops (top 2 images) and the casino (bottom 2 images).
Seth vlogging some more.
Watching Sting on the big outdoor screen.
Interesting points of the day
- We got to meet more people at breakfast: Lily and Charles from L.A. (originally from Hong Kong) and Betsy and Charles from Tennessee.
- We made a list of all the mocktails and drinks we ordered on the ship: strawberry daiquiri, piña colada, cranberry nojito, hot chocolate, ginger ale, root beer, diet coke, sprite, Bahama mama, mucho mango (which, apparently, is just mango juice when you remove the alcohol), dirty banana, Key West cooler, sunshine daiquiri, lemonade.
- We made a list of places we met people from: Australia, England, Japan, Singapore, Chicago, L.A., Wisconsin, Atlanta, Cedar City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, Kansas, Louisiana, New Zealand, Canada, Raleigh, Philippines, Colorado, Washington, Florida, China. I'm sure there were people from many other places as well, those were just the confirmed ones.
- We ALSO made a list of all our favorite foods from the trip: crab, lobster tail, smoked haddock, halibut tacos, halibut fish and chips, pheasant, all the food on Italian night, cream of wild mushroom soup, okra coconut curry, smoked gouda.
- Finish packing, leave the cabin for the last time
- Breakfast at the buffet
- Walk around outside
- Call home and find out how the girls are
- Wait in the lounge for an extra hour since the ship was late docking
- Leave the ship, walk from the Vancouver cruise port to the subway station
- Arrive at airport, go through customs
- Fly Vancouver to Seattle
- Fly Seattle to Salt Lake City
- Check into hotel for the night
Interesting points of the day
DAY 10 — Sunday, May 21- Seth and I both had to apply for passports for this trip since we'd be flying out of Canada. Seth was disappointed when nobody pulled him into a room and grilled him about his purpose in their country.
- We had to fill out paperwork to be in Canada. We fretted over whether we should declare our dried berries as fruit, then watched the lady take our paper without even looking at it and shove it into her fistful of other papers.
- Breakfast at the hotel
- Drive from Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls
- Turn onto Jennifer Lane to see Grandpa Dennis bringing our girls home from church
- Hug and kiss our sweet daughters
