Alaska!

We just got back from an 12 day trip to Alaska, Vancouver, B.C., and Seattle.  We had a lot of fun exploring new places and meeting new people.

Day 1: Tuesday, May 21st - SLC, Seattle, Vancouver

We flew in to Seattle and met my parents there.

Juliet got her own seat on the plane

Then we hopped on the Link light rail and rode it from the airport to downtown Seattle.

The Light rail terminal

Then we dragged our luggage a few blocks through downtown Seattle to the Greyhound station to catch a bus to Vancouver, B.C.  The bus ride was...interesting... Nothing bad in particular, besides the smell... When we got to the Canada border, we had to get off the bus, grab all our luggage, walk through customs, and load back onto the bus.  The bus driver wasn't too happy he had to wait for us to change a blowout diaper...

Stopped at McDonald's for lunch on the way and as we were looking around, found the Space Needle.

Photobomber!

Traveling in luxury...

After we got to the Greyhound station in Vancouver, we decided to walk to our hotel (Best Western Uptown) about a mile away instead of paying $11 for the 5 of us to ride the city bus. Our luggage definitely got some miles on it during this trip. 

We happened to encounter a little rain and a pretty good hill on our walk to the hotel.

For dinner, we went to find a restaurant we found online.  It ended up being a bar, not too great of an environment for a baby, so we continued walking around and ended up at the cutest little diner (Lucy's) and were waited on by a Johnny Depp look-alike.  It was a yummy dinner and helped us realize how expensive things are in B.C.

Day 2: Wednesday, May 22 - Cruise day!
We packed all our luggage back up and, after having breakfast at the hotel, walked down the street to the bus stop.  We waited for a little while as a few buses traveling a different route stopped and left, and realized the bus we wanted should have come by then.  We eventually asked the driver of the next bus that came along and he said his route would get us there also.  So we loaded the bus with all our luggage, another family did too, and rode the bus for about 15 minutes and got dropped a couple blocks from the terminal.  It's a good thing we know how to read a map because otherwise, we never would have found it!

We got priority check in because we were traveling with an infant (a very nice surprise!) and were on the boat in no time.  We dropped our things off in our rooms (2699 and 2700) - around the corner from each other - and headed up to the Lido deck dining room for some lunch.  The food was pretty dang good.  Holland America does something a little different than other cruise lines we've been on.  They completely serve you for the first 48 hours of the cruise to prevent spreading any sickness.

Nom nom nom!

Full bellies!

Enjoying the Vancouver skyline

We explored the ship, went to the safety drill, had some treats at the sail away party, and had dinner in the dining room.  Juliet met a couple friends in the dining room, including the guy who was in charge of the whole dining room.  He came to see her a few times during dinner and continued to visit her several times during each meal.  She just absolutely loved him! She also made friends with a couple at the table next to us, and we continued to see them several times each day throughout the ship.  After dinner, we just relaxed in our rooms and admired the amazing sunset out the back of the ship.

Day 3: Thursday, May 23 - Day at Sea Sailing through the Inside Passage

We spent most of this day just relaxing and planning out the rest of our week.  We went to a presentation on the different wildlife that we might see on the cruise and also went to a cooking demonstration.  Chase took a reverse polar bear plunge by jumping into a warm pool when it was very cold and windy out.  Everyone thought he was pretty crazy as they watched in their heavy jackets.

We also went up to the Crow's Nest to enjoy the view and look for wildlife.  It was remarkable!

Lunch in the dining room

 Dinner that night was the first formal night. Juliet's friend made her a flower.

 After dinner, I apparently turned 60 years old, because I spent the evening with my parents at the piano bar listening to the piano entertainer play Neil Diamond hits (and I actually knew a lot of them!).

Day 4: Friday, May 24 - Cruising Tracy Arm and Juneau, Alaska

We spent the first half of the day enjoying the scenery of Tracy Arm and relaxing.

After lunch, we headed off the boat to explore Juneau.  It's a super cute city with lots of shops.  The houses are up the hill behind the shops at the top of several flights of stairs. I couldn't even imagine having to climb all those stairs every day!  We took a bus ride to see Mendenhall Glacier.  It was about a mile walk on a trail to be able to see this incredible, bright blue glacier.  We had to pretty much run the entire way back to make it to the bus in time to make it back for dinner.

The Capitol Building

On the bus ride to Mendenhall Glacier

The Glacier!!

Runoff waterfall near the glacier

Souvenir Shopping

Juliet's friend made her a flower at dinner that night.

We went to trivia and then to The Marriage Game after dinner and then wandered the ship some more.

Mom made more baskets than Chase :)

Took a long time for the sky to get dark.

 Day 5: Saturday, May 25 - Skagway, Alaska
Juliet turned 8 months today!

After breakfast, we got off the boat, walked a little way down the dock, and caught the town shuttle for a ride into downtown.  It was $2 each way or $5 for the whole day, including a ride to the famous cemetery and the Jewel Gardens.  We walked around town for a while, window shopping, and then back to the ship for lunch in the Lido.

Riding in style!

 

This building is completely covered in driftwood

Souvenir shopping

Hi mom!

After lunch, we boarded a train right on the dock and rode up the White Pass.  This is the mountain pass that people had to cross to come to Skagway to mine for gold.  The view was absolutely beautiful, with canyons, old bridges, runoff waterfalls, and tunnels.  We made it to the top, turned the engine around, and headed back down.  The weather was perfect!

The railroad "snow plow"

Back to the ship for dinner.

Relaxing in the crow's nest after dinner waiting for trivia.

After trivia, we went down to the comedy show and then to the movie theater to watch "Oz the Great and Powerful"

Day 6: Sunday, May 26 - Scenic Cruising of Glacier Bay
This was a very relaxing day.  We spent most of the day outside on the back of the boat looking at the glaciers and scenery of Glacier Bay National Park.  We saw some glaciers, a bald eagle, some seals, and a humpback whale. We saw a pod of orcas earlier on the cruise, but didn't get any pictures of them, unfortunately.

This is the only picture we got of the humpback :)

Wearing Grandpa's hat

That little brown speck on the block of ice is a bald eagle

Grand Pacific glacier

My cute parents

Pretty good view at lunch!

We had to do some laundry in the afternoon and then got dressed up for our second formal night at dinner.

Making the baby laugh!

Wow!

So excited about the whale!

After dinner, we changed clothes and went to trivia and then to see the magician. After the magician, we went up to the "Ice Ball" just to listen to the music.  We headed to the Lido deck for Dessert Extravaganza at 10:30 that night. Every night at 10:30, the Lido restaurant opened and we got ice cream :) The dessert at the extravaganza was pretty good, and practically made us sick.

Day 7: Monday, May 27 - Ketchikan, Alaska

After breakfast, we got off the ship, which was right in town, and walked downtown.  They had a map of a walking tour of downtown that we followed.  Such a cute city with beautiful mountain scenery and colorful flowers and totem poles.  There is a river that runs through town where the salmon swim upstream and we would have seen them, had it been salmon spawning season.

Apparently, it rains a LOT in Ketchikan, hence the giant rain gauge, but we didn't see a drop!

Lots of churches in Ketchikan

Sleepy girl!

Veterans walking in the Memorial Day parade

This park was absolutely gorgeous!

During lunch on the Lido, Juliet's friend from the dining room came over with a dog to say hi.  Then as we were getting ready to leave, another crew member brought over a little chick he made out of a cloth napkin for Juliet.  She was so excited, she immediately destroyed it! :)

We had to wait while they moved the gangway after lunch because the changing tide changes the height of the boat.

We walked the other half of town after lunch.

They built roads on top of pilons. Can you find Waldo?

Souvenir shopping. Rawr!!!

Back to the ship for a meeting of military veterans, dinner, and then we went to trivia.  This time we won! We had to do 5 tie breaker questions, and on the last one, we guessed out of the blue, and totally won!  It was fun! After hanging out in the Crow's nest for the rest of the night listening to ABBA power hour and some embarrassingly bad karaoke, we went back to our rooms.  Chase, Juliet and I walked around the ship to see the sunset.  It was incredible!

A monkey towel animal for our little monkey!

Day 8 - Tuesday, May 28 - Day at Sea Sailing Through the Inside Passage
 Today was a rainy day so we didn't spend a lot of time outside.  We went to breakfast in the dining room.  They were doing a pretty good job at knowing what we ordered regularly! Impressive! We went to the disembarkation briefing and then to a memory seminar.  The seminar was an interesting way on how to turn everything into a picture in your head to help you recall it later.  It was pretty cool.

Breakfast :)

We played a little ring toss after lunch and then just relaxed on the Lido until dinner.

Juliet and her friend at our last dinner.

It was a "happy dining room" that night

After dinner, we went up to trivia and won again! We were pretty proud to win 2 times in a row.  After we went back to our rooms, Chase, Juliet and I walked around the ship, sad that it was our last night of the cruise.  We even went out on the bow of the ship.  It was so cool to be up there!  We went back to our room and packed up our bags.

Day 9 - Wednesday, May 29 - Disembarkation and Vancouver

We had breakfast nice and early in the dining room and then disembarked the ship.  Going through customs actually went pretty quick.  We went to the Alamo rental car at the cruise terminal.  They were so nice! They allowed us to check in early, gave us a later time to return it, and gave us a free upgrade to a minivan because they thought it would be easier to fit all 5 of us plus our luggage.  Its a good thing because we were prepared with bungies and rope to tie luggage and the stroller to the roof or trunk of a car.  So we drove around Stanley Park when we left the terminal.  This park is just outside of downtown Vancouver and is absolutely huge! It is bigger than the entire downtown area.  It was beautiful.  We just drove around it mostly.  We stopped at a beach and walked down to the water for a few minutes.  It was drizzling rain, so we didn't really want to get out much.

Kind of a long line to get off the ship

There was a crane in the water, so they were supposed to be doing the crane pose...

Such big trees!

A cool bridge we went over.

 We drove by the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and the Grouse Mountain resort, but both were way to expensive so we kept driving.  We went to the salmon hatchery.  Not much was going on there because it wasn't salmon season, but we got to view some beautiful scenery.

We happened past this other park and dam, so we decided to stop.  Chase said it was his favorite thing we found by chance.  It was amazing to stand on the dam and see the water fall under us.

We decided to drive around to all the different little neighborhoods of Vancouver (ie: Chinatown, Gastown, etc). Then we went to check in to our hotel near the airport because we didn't have any more ideas of what to do!

Had some sleepy passengers!

Once we got to the hotel, we worked on things to do and see the next day and also looked for a place to eat.

Such a cute hotel from the outside

 Chase found good reviews on a Mexican place called Taco Luis, so we set out to find it.  It ended up being in the food court at the nearby mall, which really should have been our first clue about its quality.  We decided to give it a try anyways and were quite disappointed.  I guess we really should not have been surprised.  After eating, we walked the mall a little bit.  Once again, not impressed.  On our way back to the hotel, of course we had to stop and get some ice cream! We had ice cream every night since the cruise started, so a few of us (cough, cough...Chase and Mom...) just HAD to have it.

Day 10 - Thursday, May 30 - Vancouver and Mt. Vernon, WA

Today we ventured around Vancouver a little bit more.  My dad found some things for us to do and was quite successful.  We went to a Buddhist temple first.  It was absolutely breath taking and so peaceful.

Then we went over to the little town of Steveston, BC.  If you have ever heard of or seen the ABC show "Once Upon a Time", this is where they film all the outdoor scenes.  It was cool to see this place, but it looked so different than how it looks on TV.  We stopped by the candy shop to get a map of which buildings were which on the show and bought some super yummy fudge.  We had lunch at the fish and chips restaurant there.

After that, we went over to the town of Burnaby.  We went to the Burnaby Village Museum and Carousel.  This was a free cute little 1920's town with people dressed up in costume and homes and shops on display as they would have been.

Life size "Chia Pets"

She wasn't so sure about this carousel thing...

Aren't they cute? :)

We decided it was time to leave Canada and head on down to our hotel in Mt. Vernon, WA.  This city is part way to Seattle and was a cheaper, and much nicer, hotel.  We grabbed some gas and drinks and headed down.  It rained most of the way down, which made for some absolutely gorgeous scenery the whole drive.  This was our first encounter with the Canadian border on our own, and it really wasn't that pleasant; the guy was pretty grumpy and he scared me a little.

"King Size" Dr. Pepper.  We didn't know how many oz it was because it was in mL.

144.9 cents/liter - roughly $6/gallon!

Freaked me out every time I looked down at my speed!

The border

When we were on the cruise, we had heard that a bridge on I-5 had collapsed after a large truck crossed it.  We knew it was in Mt. Vernon, but we didn't know exactly where it was.  It ended up being right next to our hotel.  It was crazy to see this bridge just completely gone.

We got some pizza for dinner and then tried to go swimming, but were informed the pool was closed due to it's chlorine level.  We were sad.  So we just hung around the hotel watching movies.

Day 11 - Friday, May 31 - Seattle

Woke up early, had a wonderfully delicious breakfast at the hotel, and headed the other 70 miles down to Seattle.  We drove to our hotel near the airport, dropped our luggage, and raced to the airport to return our rental car on time.  From there, we took the light rail downtown.  It was a neat coincidence that we started and ended our trip with the hour ride on the light rail.  When we got to downtown, we got some lunch at Chipotle and then headed to Pike's Place Farmers and Fish Market.  We walked through it just a little bit and decided to head down to the aquarium on the waterfront.

Juliet was fascinated by this man acting as a statue.

The corner of Pike Pl and Pike St.

Had a great time touring around the aquarium.  Juliet liked what she saw...until she fell asleep :)

Jellyfish!

Cute little Puffin birds

And other birds that also swim underwater!

Huge aquarium with huge fish!

We got to watch them feed the seals and then give them "popsicles"

Juliet's own seal - Grandpa named him "Snowball"

We also got to watch them feed the octopus

  We headed back to the market and walked around it for the last hour they were open.

It was crazy busy!

Hilarious!

 We headed over to a park next door to the market to enjoy the sun (along with everyone else in the city!) and wait for my high school friend we were meeting for dinner to let us know he was home from work.

Handsome guy!

 We got tired of waiting at the park, so we decided to start walking toward the Space Needle, since we hadn't really seen it very well yet.  We stopped by the original Starbucks across the street from the market on the way.

As we got to our viewing spot, Gabe called and met us for dinner at a nearby burger place.  Good food and great company! It was great to see him again after 10 years.  He invited us all up to his apartment on the 18th floor to see his view.  Incredible! The Space Needle was just outside his window and we could also see the harbor, the glass and music museums, and all of downtown.  We headed back to the light rail as it was starting to get dark and took it back to our hotel.  It was definitely the worst of all our hotels, being dirty and really warm in our room.  We survived for one night :)

Day 12 - June 1 - Flying Home

Woke up early, had breakfast, and then took the shuttle to the airport to fly home.  My parent's flight was delayed, so they stayed with us all the way until we boarded our plane.  Had a good flight home but little miss Juliet was a little crabby and wouldn't sleep.  She had been so good the whole trip, we really were very lucky.  It was bittersweet to see our vacation come to an end, but we had so much fun and were glad to be back in the comforts of our own home.

Super long security screening lines got a little boring for this little one!

Bye bye grandma and grandpa! We had fun! We love you!

THE END!!

(You thought it was never going to end, huh?)