ALASKA!

So once we got to Washington we had a little less than a week to get Ashlyn comfortable at Grandma Woodworth's. It didn't take long.  While Ashlyn hung out with grandma and grandpa, Justin and I went on a cruise to Alaska with the Tolman side of the family...and it...was...awesome.

The boat was huge, the food was great, the company was the best, and the scenery was amazing. While here are some of the highlights from the trip (WARNING: long post with lots of pictures):

Our ship

The main atrium in the ship

The Loooooooong walk from the buffet side of the ship to our cabin at the very nose of the ship.
I think this might be the only reason I didn't gain any weight during the trip.

On the back of the ship. Not exactly a warm-weather cruise...good thing I like hoodies!

Our first stop was KETCHIKAN:

I love this picture of the cruise ship looming over this little town

View from the back of the ship

The weather was beautiful. We went to a lumberjack show and did a little shopping. Then we got on the top of the back of the boat and watched as we departed to our next destination:


TRACY'S ARM:

This was a scenic venture into Tracy's Arm fjord early one morning. (What's a fjord you ask? I have no idea, let me look it up...it's like a canyon or valley formed by a glacier.) We all had plans to wake up and meet as we just enter the fjord and so we can enjoy all the scenery. But when I woke up, bundled up, and stumbled my way to the meeting place...hmmm...NO ONE showed up. Haha. So I enjoyed a couple of hours of GORGEOUS scenery by myself, as everyone took some extra Z's. If it was anything less spectacular I might have cared more, but this was probably the most beautiful place I've ever been. The stillness of the morning, the early morning light, and a small chilly breeze to keep me awake made it a great morning. (Can i say "morning" one more time? morning...EARLY morning.)  I wasn't up early enough to catch the whales, but we saw a bunch of seals and a few mountain goats. Here are a few of my favorite pictures (I had to be selective, I have lots.)

Lots of blue Icebergs. It looks small from the top of the ship, but it really is rather big...

from the top center of the ship

Justin came and joined me at a more decent hour

From there we headed on to:

JUNEAU

Here we took a tour of the city (town) on a bus that wasn't even equipped with AC. And why should they be? For the majority of the year, they don't need it. Grandma Bateman kept calling it the Death Bus (and many things along those lines). She thought for sure we would all die of heat stroke. But somehow we survived and made it out to the Mendenhall Glacier.

View of Juneau from across the way

The Mendenhall glacier. Notice the small waterfall to the right...

...which isn't small at all. Yes, those little black specks are people.
Kind of puts the size of the glacier into perspective

Here we took pictures with ice chunks that washed up on shore. Those ice chunks have gotta be really old right? They probably fell right off the glacier. That's what we tell ourselves anyway. On our hike back we had to wonder a little at the kids in swimsuits playing in the water with ice floating in it. Brrrrrrr.

Next we were off to:

SKAGWAY

Here we saw the town...and did some more shopping.

Definitely a little tourist town

We could have gone to see a vaudeville show...complete with can-can girls, but we passed.

How come all the best pictures are self taken? 

Not willing to spend $15 on a sandwich, we headed back to the ship to eat at the free buffet...again. (I think we practically lived there. *sigh* how I miss it.)

Our last stop was:

VICTORIA, B.C.

Here we did some MORE shopping. They had a cute little flea market on the pier, and lots of shops downtown, complete with street performers.

From the top deck of the ship

creepy statue lady

and darth vader playing the violin!!! (his skill was lacking, but his outfit was cool...)

From there we departed for Seattle, and got off the ship the next morning. I went through food withdrawals, having-someone-serve-me withdrawals, and had to return to normal life. I have tons more pictures, but still wish I would have taken more pictures of our time on the ship. We played cards, ate, watched comedy shows, ate, played cards, ate, hot-tubbed (is that a real verb?), ate, played cards...I think you get the idea. It was loads of fun just being able to hang out with family, with no one worrying about preparing food or cleaning anything. I just didn't think to bring my camera around until we were getting off the ship.

So overall...AWESOME. Would I cruise again? YES, can I leave tomorrow?




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