Idaho - Part 10 (Headed Home)

Now that the cruise was done, my ankle felt like it was on the mend we were on to packing up for our trip back home. The boys were starting school the following week and we had a lot to do.
I feel like each year that make the drive to and from Idaho that the boys tend to do a little better and it's a more manageable and enjoyable trip. The drive home this time was no different. We tend to stop at the same places each year so the boys have come to learn what to expect and with snacks, iPads and movies, we make it work.

 We stopped for lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant in a small podunk town in Utah on our way home.

 We spent the night in St. George and tried a new wings place for dinner and had a yummy frozen yogurt as dessert. 

 The boys watched Napolean Dynamite for the first time in the hotel. A lot of it went over Logan's head (as executed) but Lincoln caught a lot of the jokes and laughed along with us. 

Most of our drive home on this trip was rainy.  It makes for a bit more of a stressful drive but you also get to see a lot of fascinating lightning in the open desert too. 

 Again, the usual In-N-Out stop in Kingman for lunch on the way home. 

This was our last picture of the trip. So long Idaho, until next time!

Alaska - Victoria, Canada

Our last stop was in Victoria, Canada. We only had about four hours so we chose to go see the Buchart Gardens. Unfortunately we got there as the sun was setting so lighting for pictures was pretty rough. We made it work as we quickly moved through the gardens snapping what turned out to be beautiful pictures of some very lovely flowers.

Alaska - Ketchikan

I was most excited about the excursion in Ketchikan...bear watching. We went to a fairly secluded area where we walked on suspended bridges that trails that took us through what they called bear country...and we saw a bear!...for like two minutes.  Well, it was longer than that but it felt like such a short time. However, we got very close to several different bald eagles, both old and young and that was a pretty amazing sight.

Alaska - Glacier Bay

There was one day of our travels that our ship cruised through Glacier Bay.  It was by far the coldest day of our trip. It rained much of the day but that didn't stop us from being outside to see the glaciers and the glimpses of the passing whales.

 This was the only day that I wore my beanie and gloves and bundled up like this. 

This is one of my favorite pictures -  no filter on this - just the way my iPhone picked up the light. 

Alaska - Skagway

Our second stop on the trip was Skagway. This was a really tiny town and literally was one main street with a couple little side streets and that was it. We took a fairy over to Haines in hopes of seeing bears on a wildlife flat bottom jet boat tour.  It was nice to see more of the real everyday living for locals in a town that functions outside of the tourist industry.

 This was the dock view from our balcony. The cruise captain backed our ship into port in the middle of the night. 

 We started with a picnic lunch that definitely added to the outdoor experience. Unfortunately this excursion was pretty much a bust.  

The boat ride was fun, the views were beautiful and we did see a couple of bald eagles but that was it for wildlife. No moose, elk, deers, bears, nothing.  On our bus ride back to the ferry doc we did get a quick glance at a mama brown bear and her two cubs as they crossed the street in front of us. That was it. 

I didn't love the idea of being on a boat for another 45 minutes to Haines but we did see a few pretty waterfalls along the way.

 Waiting on the ferry dock to head back to Skagway. 

 I did enjoy walking around this town as the buildings were all kept to the old little town theme.  I also was able to pick up a super cute pair of shoes there too - that was a great consolation prize for not having the best excursion. smile. 

 In keeping with tradition, we tried a cupcake from the local cupcakery and deemed it good. Far better than what we tried in Seattle and better than most of the desserts on the cruise ship (but that wasn't saying much!).  Skagway was a cute quaint town with lots of cute little shops but by the end of the day we were exhausted and ready to be back on the boat relaxing. 

Ricky went to the room and read and I went to the lounge to be entertained...and I was.

Alaska - Juneau

This is one of the first pictures I took as we started to see land in Alaska. It'a also one of my favorite pictures. There's no filter -just the way the light came through as we headed up to Juneau.

Our first cruise stop was Juneau, Alaska. Our excursion was a whale watching photo safari. The excursion consisted of a boat ride to whale watch and a hike to Mendenhall Glacier.

We were two days into the trip at this point and anxious to see some wildlife. Ricky and I were both very excited to see some whales. It wasn't as close as we hoped for but we did get to experience the miraculous show of the whales bubble feeding.  It was quite fascinating as a pod of approximately 8-10 whales would shoot out of the water as the scoop a mouth full of haring. The tricky part was that you never knew where they were going to come up at. The seagulls would give you about a five second warning as they started to flock to the area in hopes of catching their own lunch from the whales hard work.

  Luckily, the hiking trail was fairly smooth and as a group we went quite slow which made it easy for me to keep up with my injured ankle. Our tour guide went into the water to gran a large chunk of the glacial ice that was floating nearby.  We all got to hold it and it, as expected, was freezing cold but also very very dense. I captured a few great nature shots along the way as well.

 On our way back to the dock our guide took a detour and showed us an area where the haring where spawning. That was an amazing site. I had never seen so many fish in one place like that before and in such shallow water.

 Instead of going straight back to the boat after our excision, we went into the town to check it out. We ate dinner at a famous old saloon in town.  

I'm not normally one to get over excited about potato salad but they did have the best potato salad I've ever eaten. 

It was exactly what I would expect an old saloon to look like inside.

We then strolled the mile of gift shops that keep that town in business before heading back to our ship.

Alaska - The Ship

I've seen several cruise ships from a distance but had never seen one as close as we were when we pulled up to board. It was massive!!  Huge!! Pictures will never justify how incredibly enormous that ship was. It was fascinating to see a vessel of that size.  Not sure I'll ever get over how big it was. Anyway. We boarded the Golden Princess for a seven day cruise to Alaska. We were told the Golden Princess is the largest cruise ship that sails to Alaska. Again think massive.

Luckily the first day and half were at sea so that I could continue to recoup from my injury. I was surprised that our room was as big as it was and that our balcony was almost as big as our room. What was even more surprising was that with a large balcony and room that our bathroom was so incredibly small. Little bitty. It was tiny. Think airplane bathroom small.

We enjoyed a variety of activities onboard the ship throughout the week including a few comedy shows, a magician, karaoke, a couple less than good attempts at stage production shows and a movie outside on the pool deck under the stars...and rain clouds.  My favorite entertainment of the week was a piano player/singer named Billy Reid. He was fantastic!

This was us boarding in Seattle.

This view was our send off from the Seattle Harbor Patrol. 

Yes, we were prepared. Not knowing what to expect or how we were each going to respond to potential sea sickness, we boarded the ship with all of this. We ended up only having to use the patches and the sea bands for the first several days.  

This is in Skywalker's Lounge, which is a nightclub on the 17th deck of the ship and it's set to feel like it's hanging over the back of the boat. 

 This picture is when we just went in for a visit but Ricky did take me there to dance on the last night. No, he didn't dance but I did!

 Watching Divergent outside on the pool deck. 

 BBQ dinner night outside before the movie. 

 They held a food decoration demo with several of the chefs. These were just a couple of the masterpieces at the end of it. 

Ricky and I also participated in an egg drop contest....and won! Yes, we are the champions!!  It was the kind of contest where you have to wrap an egg up in some type of materials and then drop it down two stories onto a target and hope that it doesn't break. In this version, there was a bunch of rules and criteria you had to meet and they don't give you any materials, you have to come up with that all on your own. Luckily for us, Ricky had the brilliant idea to use his giant camera bag.  We put the egg inside a couple of ziplock bags and Ricky arranged the padded dividers inside the bag to perfectly surround the egg. There were hundreds of people watching and everyone was sure we were going to lose because the bag was so big and heavy but guess what, it paid off to invest in nice equipment because apparently it can even protect a raw egg.   We got a good kick out of that for a few days. Yes, we are the egg drop winners!

This is our winning egg and the bag (yes the buckles are wrapped in socks so they would't break) that made us winners!

Relaxing after lunch at the center of the ship.

 Me on our balcony.

 This is the view from the balcony for the majority of the trip.

We were often outside enjoying the crisp air and taking in the views!

Overall, we had a great time on the trip. Food was hit and miss. Some was great and some could've and should've been better.  I would definitely cruise again though. It was a fun time and a wonderful memory.