We stopped on our way up to visit his brother David and his wife Mona. They have the cutest girls and we haven't seen them in such a long time. I actually only met Dave for like 10 minutes on our 3rd date, then he moved to Seattle. I've heard stories about him, but it was nice to meet and talk to him more. Norman and I stopped at a waterfall on the way there...I thought it was called Magamoth, but I can't find that online. Norman calls them Mammoth falls...who knows...it was a waterfall and it was big.
After the falls we were walking through this walkway that goes under the freeway. I told Norman that at this very moment he could be holding up a big rig...that's my strong man!!!
We got stuck in horrible traffic on our way out of Portland, but we made it out and were even able to stop by Centralia which is where Norman lived during part of Middle School and all of High School.
SUNDAY - SEATTLEIt was soooo funny because when we got on the ship the first thing Norman did was spit over the edge!! LOL!!! He was all proud because he hit the water.
The first day they have activities as you leave port and so we decided to participate. We put in our little tickets just before they were going to have the drawing. The people to the right of us won some water bottles and then the ones to the left of us won some T-Shirts. I was like "Hey! We were skipped." Then they did the grand prize drawing which was 3 prints from the Art Gallery. WE WON!!! LOL!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! The best part is when we went to pick them out the one is of a little boy playing a trumpet/tuba looking thing. Norman used to play the tuba and trumpet. So fun!!!MONDAY- CRUISE INSIDE PASSAGE
One of the things that I heard about Alaskan cruises was how smooth they are. Well...the first day to sea was not really that smooth. It was windy and we were rocking. Oh wow! I wasn't the only one that was sick either. There were people all over the boat that were sick.
TUESDAY - JUNEAU
This was our first Alaskan city. The nice thing with the Alaskan cruise is that at the ports you can walk everywhere. The towns/cities (I don't know if they are big enough to be considered cities) are small enough that you can just walk directly from the ship. We didn't do any excursions in Juneau, instead we shopped and took the tram to the top of the hill and looked around.
I'm pretty sure I could see Russia from here!They had this thing where you could compare your wingspan to that of other birds. I did mine first and came up as a goose. Norman was positive that he was a manly man and would come up as an eagle...nope...he's a goose....
I thought this tree was funny! It has a big belly like me!
WEDNESDAY - SKAGWAY
In Skagway we took the morning to just wander the city and check things out and then that afternoon we went on the train up the mountain. Where is a train when you need one!??!?!
I love this picture! It looks like he's grabbing the lady's bum!!! haha!!!
This sign said no grouches, sourpusses or malcontent's beyond this point. I'm sad...I couldn't go in :(
We actually saw this bear a couple of times. I love this shot because it wasn't until after that I realized that you could see the bear (kinda of) and there's a reflection of smoky the bear from a guy's shirt. I thought it was funny!!!
This is the train we rode
We went at a great time for waterfalls. They were EVERYWHERE and sooo beautiful!! The water was milky looking too because it's from the snow pack. That part was cool!!
THURSDAY - GLACIER BAY
This was my favorite day!!! It was almost surreal to be in the glacier bay.
Norman took this picture. I had no idea that we were this close to the puffins!!!
We saw mountain goats in the distance.
The glaciers were AMAZING!!! It seriously felt like we were on another planet or something. There were pieces breaking off and falling into the ocean which was awesome. I couldn't believe how loud it was. We were still 1/4 mile away because the boat couldn't get too close with all of the ice in the water. You'd see things falling and then hear this huge crack! Almost like thunder. It was awesome!!
That afternoon we saw at least a dozen whales. It was soooo neat. There were 2 that were doing a show for us a little better than others. It was fun just to sit back and relax and watch the whales. I couldn't believe how intently I'd watch the water just for a glimpse.
So the guide from the park that had joined our ship pointed out that there was an eagle resting on a piece of ice. I was looking soooo intently for her and Norman started taking all of these pictures of this dot. I was like "what are you doing?!?!" I didn't believe him it was the eagle. oh geesh....he was right...once we zoomed in....sure enough....it was the eagle!!
We even had wildlife in our room!!! :)
FRIDAY - KETCHIKAN
Ketchikan was pretty fun. It's one of the smaller stops. There was a place called Julie's which is cool though :)
We went to the Lumberjack show which was actually a lot of fun! I went to a similar one years ago when I was in Vancouver and this one didn't disappoint. They were funny and really cool to watch. I felt like such a wimp watching them use their axes and climbing things.
SATURDAY - VICTORIA, B.C.
Several years ago I'd gone to Butchart Gardens and it was a must do again. The gardens never disappoint. The crazy thing is that this was actually our coldest day of the trip. We were really lucky and had a great bus driver also. She was a native of Victoria (born and raised there) and her name was Julie too. She was soooo informative. It was actually a really fun tour.
I said to Norman...go pose for me. This is what I got. It was intentional...I'm totally blogging it because he's a geek :)
You're supposed to rub the boar's nose for good luck. Norman said he didn't need any good luck so he'd just stand there and look manly :)
I'm never opposed to good luck. I rubbed it's nose :)
It was such a great trip and I would totally recommend it. Glad to be home, but love the memories!!!
