Glacier Bay and College Fjord

Day 6 of the cruise was Glacier Bay. The whole reason we strayed from our normal cruise line (Royal Caribbean) was because we wanted to see Glacier Bay. Usually we choose our cruises based on three factors: 1) price; 2) ship; 3) itinerary. For this cruise it was mostly itinerary. Most of the cruises I looked at (NCL, Princess, Royal, Holland America) were priced very similarly, so it all came down to where we wanted to go when we visited Alaska. We looked for an itinerary that included Glacier Bay and had the longest port times. That is how we ended up on Princess Cruise Line, sailing one way from Vancouver to Whittier (Anchorage). If I do a wrap-up post, I will write more about what we thought of Princess as compared to Royal Caribbean. 

Back to Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay is a national park and the ship brings park rangers aboard to narrate the visit. Thomas and I went to their welcome speech at 730 am. We got our National Parks books stamped (we forget that book at about 50% of the parks we visit, so I was glad we remembered it this time) and heard more about what to expect for the day. The ship had already handed out Glacier Bay maps and the anticipated schedule. We ended up spending most of the day on our balcony. It was stunning. We saw dozens of otters (we stopped counting at 30) and many sea lions resting on rocks. We passed two big glaciers, where the ship did a 360 turn and some smaller glaciers. We got to see one of the large ones, Marjerie Glacier, calving (where chunks of ice falls off). It was pretty amazing. The whole day, really the whole trip, was just filled with stunning scenery. Jack commented at one point that never in his life has he taken so many pictures. 

The view from our aft balcony

We also bought an upgraded package that included pictures. In fact, the main reason we bought it was for the pictures. Not going to lie, I am pretty disappointed in how they turned out. Judge for yourself below. I don't know why they have the label on all of them, but it is one of a few things I don't like (some not their fault, like Luke having his hood up).

In Glacier Bay.

In front of Marjerie Glacier.

We were in Glacier Bay until mid-afternoon, then ship activities resumed. Thomas and I went to a delightful afternoon tea. We felt fancy drinking our tea and eating our little cakes and sandwiches. Although, to be accurate Thomas didn't eat the snacks, but he liked the tea and I am surmising that he also felt fancy. We sat at a table with strangers and made small talk like the real grown-ups we are. 

Not pictured is a scone with jam that I also enjoyed.

I went to afternoon trivia with Anna and Kevin. We did pretty well, I think 15/20 and the winner had 17. We had dinner at the buffet, after the first two nights we decided it wasn't worth trying to get into the main dining room. Thomas, Jack and I went to a Motown Show, which was not great. Then, Thomas and I went to a comedy show, which was decent. Kara spent most of the day with other teens. Jack went to the teen club at night. He said he had a lot of fun playing hide-and-seek with a large group of kids. He and Kara are running with two different crowds, which seems to suit both of them.

The next day was mostly a sea day. More trivia that we didn't win. We had lunch at Alfredo's for the 3rd or 4th time. Their pizza is really amazing. Anna, Luke, and I went to watch karaoke. Kara was also there, but sat with her friends and they sang a couple of songs as a group. After karaoke, we got ice cream, then relaxed in the room. Then it was more trivia before we arrived at our last scenic tangent, and why I said "mostly" a sea day--College Fjord. 

College Fjord was absolutely stunning. I feel like every place we go, I think it is the prettiest place yet. We saw several more glaciers. We also saw bears, and more otters and seal lions (or seals, not sure which). It was our first sunny day and it was amazing to stand on our balcony surrounded by so much beauty. It is one of my favorite memories of the cruise. It was peaceful and perfect.

That night is a bit of a blur. We packed. Anna and I went to the variety show, which was my favorite show of the cruise. The cruise director is a trained opera singer and sang a song from Don Quixote. The assistant cruise director is also a talented singer and did Piano Man, complete with harmonica. Together they sang a song from Les Mis. The singers and dancers did one song and the comedian did a short, really funny set. It was a fun show. 

We loved our big aft balcony! I am going to miss this view.

A panoramic showing four glaciers.

Skagway & the Yukon

Our Skagway day was much anticipated. We booked an all day excursion to go up into the Yukon. It made multiple stops, and all of them were absolutely stunning. On our first stop, we actually got to make snowballs. Luke was very excited about this and it was one of his hopes for this trip. He has no recollection of playing in the snow when we lived in Maryland. It definitely felt surreal to see so much snow, and to be so cold, in June.

Much of our excursion took place in Canada, so we had to go through Canadian Customs. The border patrol walked through the bus and looked at all our passports. On the way home, the American counterparts looked at our bus drivers passport, asked if all passengers were on a cruise and asked if he picked up any hitchhikers. Not sure if Canada is more secure, USA is more trusting, or some combination. 

One of our stops was the Yukon Suspension Bridge. We took tons and tons of pictures.

Not as big as the Capilano, but still fun.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. So beautiful.

We learned a lot about the gold rush and what the Canadians did to keep the peace in the Yukon.

Thomas and Jack both thought this was hilarious. Not sure why :)

Over the course of the day, we saw some great wildlife. Some of us actually saw a moose, which, according to our tour guide is very rare. Luke was the one who spotted him and yelled out moose! the whole bus was very excited. Unfortunately, Anna and Kara were sitting on the wrong side to see her, but the rest of us did. Anna and Kara did later see a bear on their side, so I think it made up for not seeing the moose. All of us saw a porcupine and rabbits. 

The tour included lunch and we stopped in a tourist trap area (Wild Adventure Yukon). But, it was pretty fun. We had our lunch and then walked around the various buildings. It even had a small petting zoo with llamas, goats, etc. One of the coolest parts was they had tons of sled dogs that would pull people in a motorized cart. It was a little expensive, so we did not participate, but it was fun watching the dogs. They got extremely excited when it was time for them to do a run. I saw one dog literally jumping, trying to get his harness down in the hopes that he would be chosen to pull the cart. 

We also got to pet future sled dogs.

After lunch, we had two more stops, the first was at Emerald Lake, which was beautiful. Then we went to a little town, which was just OK. After that, we made the drive back to Skagway. 

Emerald Lake lived up to its name.

When we got back on the ship, we went straight to dinner. Thomas, Kevin, Luke, Jack and I went to Alfredo's for pizza. It was amazing. Kara went off to the teen club. After dinner, Jack, Luke and I went to the evening show. It was a comedian and an amazing singer (not at the same time). Thomas went to the gym. Anna had another early night (Thomas and I sat with her at the buffet after we had our dinner). Three days in a row of excursions was a lot and most of us went to bed early. Kara stayed out until 1am at the teen club. I am not sure exactly what they do. I know there is a teens only hot tub and karaoke, video games, etc. We gave her rules and we are trusting that she is following them. The smaller ship and the Alaska itinerary feel safer than our Caribbean cruises on the mega ships. I know that the kids are enjoying the extra freedom we are giving them.

Father's Day & Jack gets his License!

Interrupting the vacation posts to bring you back to our daily lives. I had to work Monday after vacation. Fortunately, I did not have to go into the office so I didn't set an alarm and decided to start my day whenever I woke. Normally, I log in at 6am, but I slept until about 730. Thomas took the day off to recover, but he went to Universal to meet up with Kevin. Not my brother, who was on the cruise with us, but Thomas' best friend from childhood. They had a week planned at Universal and Disney and Thomas joined in when he could. He left the house around 930 and none of the kids were awake so he went on his own. He had a fun day.

That night, I took Jack to his final driving lesson. It went well and the teacher told him that he thought Jack would pass the driver's exam. The rest of the week was pretty routine. Anna, Kara, Luke and I were all fighting colds (sore throats and coughs). Jack also had it, but only for a day or two. Anna definitely had it the worse. She has been sick for over 2-weeks now. Fortunately, she is on the mend, although I just heard her cough in the other room, so it is still lingering a bit. For me, it lasted about a week. And, a few days for Kara and Luke. Funny how that works. I assume it is the same virus for all of us, but we had such different experiences. Thomas never seemed to catch it (knock on wood).

On Friday, our family met up with Kevin and his crew at Magic Kingdom. It was a passholder preview day for the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure and we scored a virtual queue spot. Splash Mountain was one of my favorite rides, but I promised to give Tiana's Bayou Adventure a fair shot. Not going to lie--I don't love it. The "story" just isn't there and it didn't feel cohesive. But, it did have some cool elements and I am glad we got to ride. We hung out with Kevin until dinner time and then our family left. We were still tired and not feeling 100%. But, we had a really fun day. We even did a couple of new-to-us, or haven't done in years, things--the Riverboat, Tiki Room, and the already mentioned Tiana's.

Saturday, Anna, Thomas and I met up with Kevin one last time for brunch at a Cracker Barrel. Then, they started their 18-hour drive home to Missouri. Maria, one of Kevin's girlfriend's kids had a flight later that night, so she came home with us (she had work on Monday morning so didn't want to do the drive). She spent the day hanging out with Anna. At one point, Maria, who is 19, and Anna decided to go to Menchi's. I offered to drive them and then Anna remarked that Maria could drive. I hadn't even thought of that! But, I was very happy to hand over my keys. All these kids, and their friends, getting older--it is going to take some getting used to, but I think I'm going to like it. They went exploring a bit and when they got back, we all went to Tijuana Flats, then dropped Maria off at the airport. We enjoyed the extra time with Maria and I think we may have convinced her to come back for Halloween Horror Nights.

For Father's Day weekend, Thomas' first request was the baseball card shop and Tijuana Flats, which he did Saturday. Sunday, he wanted to go to Universal. We got there around 230 and got in line for Hagrid's. The posted wait was 65, but I think we waited just under 40. It was a pretty quiet day at the parks and we did a lot of rides. For me, the best part was staying for the new nighttime show, it was really good, with water fountains, fun music, fireworks and drones. Hopefully, Thomas felt celebrated. He is a great father and we are lucky to have him!

Now, it is almost like vacation never happened. The kids are all busy. Kara is babysitting a couple of days a week. She and Jack go to the gym often (though not together) and hang out with friends. As mentioned, Anna is still recovering, so her summer is off to a slower start. Luke is at baseball camp this week. Thomas and I have already done our days in the office. I miss sitting on a balcony with the mountains to look at!

In biggest news, Jack got his license this morning! He passed the driving test! For his first non-supervised drive, he and Anna went to Taco Bell for lunch. He is pretty excited. I am excited for him, but I am definitely going to be nervous for a while. I didn't take any DMV pictures, :(

Juneau

We debated long and hard about whether or not we wanted to go whale watching on the cruise. We watched some videos where it looked amazing and some videos where it looked boring. I did not want to go out on the water for 3+ hours just to see a fluke or two off in the distance. Also, I really wanted to go to Mendenhall Glacier, but the joint tours only gave you 1.5 hours at the glacier, which did not seem long enough. So, we did not book any whale watching. After all the talks about whales and Luke and Anna's interest in whale watching, I did regret the decision. But, it was too late to change it, so there was no whale watching for us on this trip. Instead, we rented a minivan. We first drove to Mendenhall Glacier. We walked to Nugget Falls and then the glacier photo spot. We watched the short film in the visitor's center and got our National Park's passport stamped. We took lots and lots of beautiful pictures. It was stunning, amazing, hard to describe in words--the waterfall, the glacier, the rocks, the snow-capped mountains! We were all in awe. Juneau gets its own post just because we took so many great pictures.

After that we drove to the Shrine of St. Therese. It was also very beautiful. We enjoyed the drive and the views. The two pictures below are both from the shrine. Then, we went to Eagle Beach. That one felt like a bit of a misnomer, as we did not see any eagles and it wasn't a walkable beach. From there, we went to a Fred Meyers for some snacks. Thomas remembered Fred Meyers from when he lived in Alaska and wanted to see whether it was how he remembered (sort of like a Walmart). It was bigger than he remembered, but otherwise the same. Prices were high, but not that different from Seattle. Seattle was more expensive than Vancouver, which is more expensive than Orlando. From there, our plan was to walk around the downtown area. But, when we got back, the skies looked rough and a few of us had headaches. So, we went back to the ship. We almost made it onboard before the rain started, but not quite. It came in fast and cold and we were glad we got onboard when we did. 

We had a very late lunch (snack?). Then, Anna, Kevin and I went to trivia. We got 16/20, which we were pretty proud of (at least Anna and I, not sure about Kevin). After trivia, Anna, Thomas and I went off the ship to look at souvenirs. We spent a while walking around and got some t-shirts. Then, we came back onboard and went to the pizza restaurant, which was delicious. After dinner, Thomas and I checked out one of the production shows, but we didn't love it (just singing and dancing, no story), so we left. Jack hurt his ankle jumping off a rock at Mendenhall Glacier and he and Luke just hung out in their room for most of the night (they went to the buffet at some point for dinner). Kara was off at the teen club. Anna was mostly with us, but decided to call it an early night. Unfortunately, she caught a cold at some point on this trip and has been fighting it for a couple of days. We also did laundry, which was very nice. We knew that everywhere we stayed this trip had laundry facilities, which made packing a lot easier.

Cruise Days 2 & 3 (Sea Day and Ketchikan)

Day 2 was a sea day. We all slept in and then went to the very, very, VERY crowded buffet. We could not find a table together and it was frustrating. We managed to eat, then Anna and I went to morning trivia. It was harder than Royal Caribbean's. We only got 8/20 right. We did better than at least half the people playing and the winner only had 14 (yes, a lot more than us but still a pretty low score), so we didn't feel too badly. Thomas and I went to the thermal spa, which has a sauna, steam room, whirlpool, and heated tile beds. It was relaxing. Luke checked out the kid's club. He made a cool alligator keychain. Jack and Kara went to the teen club. 

We had lunch in the buffet, it wasn't as crowded, but was still hard to find a table. Later in the afternoon, Kevin (my brother) and I went to hear a speaker, the captain of the Aleutian Ballad, Jerry Ballard. He has been the captain for a long time, including when the ship was was featured on Deadliest Catch. It was on the show in season 2 and was hit by a rogue wave. We saw some video clips and he talked a bit about his adventures as an Alaskan fisherman. After he spoke, Thomas, Anna, and Jack joined us to hear the naturalist speak about the whale migration. I enjoyed both lectures. 

We went to dinner and again, our reservation was messed up, but they let us in. From dinner, Thomas, Kevin and I went to hear a comedian. He was good. While we did that, Anna and Luke whale watched from our balcony. And, they saw several--including at least 2 orcas! I was very jealous and after the comedian, I spent about an hour on the balcony looking out with binoculars, but had no luck. 

Day 3 was our first port--Ketchikan. We had a small excursion booked, a bus tour through town and the Totem Bight State Park. It was an interesting tour and I enjoyed learning more about the native tribes, totem pole carving and the stories totem poles tell. I also enjoyed the tour through town. It was informative and entertaining. My favorite fact from the bus tour is that streets were named before there were cars or even horse-drawn buggies on island, so some "streets" are just wooden staircases.

Totem Bight Park

Our excursion only lasted 2.5 hours, so we had time afterward to walk through the city, including the infamous Creek Street and the Southeastern Alaskan museum. Due to weather concerns, our all aboard time got moved to 1:30, so after picking up some souvenirs, we got back on the ship for a latish lunch. Kevin and I went to another enrichment lecture, this one was on glaciers. I didn't like it as much as the whale lecture, but it was still good.

Creek Street was so scenic!

After lunch, Thomas and I went to the thermal spa for a little bit, but people are selfish and were reserving the heated chairs, which is what I was most interested in, so we didn't stay long. That night, we had a specialty dinner at the ship's Italian restaurant. We got a lovely table by a window and enjoyed watching the water go by. The kids went to the buffet and then Luke and Anna whale watched again and Jack and Kara went to the teen club. Our meal was good, but it was very long, about 2.5 hours. I am not sure if we would do it again. After dinner, Thomas and I whale watched from our balcony. Thomas spotted two blowholes and we were able to see whale flukes in the water. I am not good at finding them.

Vacay Days 5 &6: Stanley Park & Embarkation

Everyone said they slept okay. The days here are really long. Sunset is at 9:09 and Sunrise is at 5:11 (about two more hours of sunlight than Orlando) and there are no blackout curtains in the apartment. I have been sleeping terribly so far this trip. I don't think I have had more than 5 hours a night, and even that is not consecutive. It's starting to catch up to me. I don't think others are sleeping much better. 

We had a leisurely morning and then walked about a mile to a bike rental place near Stanley Park. We rented 6 bikes and biked all through Stanley Park. It is a beautiful green oasis, larger than Central Park. We first rode along the Seawall, stopping when anything caught our interest. 

The last lighthouse keeper was named Davy Jones :)

I really love this picture and wish that I had Luke take off his helmet.

Bikes were not allowed on the path to the tree. It was an uphill climb to get to this hollowed out 1000 year old tree.

We had lunch and gelati (except Jack and Thomas, both of whom are sticking to no-added sugar, even on vacation). Then, we got back on the bikes and rode some more. We took a path away from the seawall to venture into the park's interior in search of Beaver lake. We ended up having to go up a pretty steep hill. I had to get off and walk my bike; apparently, I am not in Canada biking shape. I wasn't feeling too badly about this, until, in what can only be described as sitcom-like-real-life-humor, an old man walked past me, then another man rode past pulling his kid in a trailer. Anna had stayed with me and we just laughed and laughed. Eventually, we found the lake and it was beautiful. 

After that, we headed back to the bike rental place. We ended up having the bikes for about 5 hours. I would estimate we rode about 10 miles. We offered the kids an Uber, but there were some stores that people wanted to check out, so we walked again, stopping at a few places along the way. We were back to the apartment around 4 and later got NY style pizza for dinner. It was good. 

Tomorrow, we leave for our cruise. I enjoyed our very short stay in Canada. Vancouver is a really cool city. The architecture is interesting and the natural areas are absolutely amazing. It is also very international feeling, a lot of people seem to be bilingual with French and English and I have heard a ton of other languages as well.

Part 2, the cruise beings. Due to tides, our cruise asked people not to come to the terminal until 1:30. We had to check out at 10, which we did. Then, we went to port and dropped off our luggage. We were able to check-in and then go explore. Definitely a different process than other cruise ports. We wanted to do Flyover Canada, but the times we wanted were sold out. So, we walked around a bit and then went to a food court across the street. We had a leisurely lunch and then decided to go back to the port. At one, we got in the security line. They were telling us we would just have to wait downstairs and suggested we go get a snack or something. But, we had already done that and we opted to just get in line and wait. We went downstairs, walked through security and...onto the ship. Apparently, the people downstairs weren't talking to the people upstairs. 

After boarding the ship we immediately tried to sort out our dinner reservations. I was unable to make a reservation for all 7 of us prior to the cruise. As soon as they opened, months ago, I tried making them online. I even called. I could get reservations for 4 and tried to make another reservation for the remaining 3, but no matter what we tried it would not work. The Princess reps told me I would have to take care of it once onboard. So, as soon as we boarded, we went to the dining room, they said they would take care of it and to come at 5. We did. There was no reservation. They let us sit anyway, but it was a frustrating encounter. Dinner was long, almost 2 hours, but it was fine.  Prior to dinner, we had done the muster videos and explored the ship. We also registered Luke for the kids' club and the teens for the teens club. After dinner, the teens checked out the teen club. Jack and Kara stayed for a while, but Anna didn't enjoy it and came back to her room fairly early.

A new tradition? We took one of these from the Space Needle, then the cliff walk and now the cruise ship sky bridge.

My only other picture from the day, taken from our balcony.

To Canada We Go!

On Thursday morning, we left Seattle on an 830 Amtrak. Our destination--Vancouver. It would have been quicker to take a bus, but a train seemed scenic and fun. And, for the most part it was. It was about a 4.5 hour ride. Most of it was beautiful. But, the last hour was long and not very pretty. We just crawled along. But, customs was easy and the official humored us by stamping our passports, even though it isn't required for Canada. Train views:

Things got a little sketchy on the ride when our Airbnb host contacted me with some rules: We couldn't walk into the apartment with our luggage, instead, we had to meet her driver, 'Ivan' in a parking lot and he would drive us in. She also said if asked we had to say that we were visiting family. Under no circumstances were we to make contact with the building's concierge or walk through the lobby with luggage. We were not a fan of these restrictions and tried contacting Airbnb for assistance, but reception was incredibly spotty and all I could make out was that the host had to honor the reservation. That wasn't really our concern. We were more worried that Ivan was going to mug us or, more likely, that we were going to be put in an uncomfortable position of lying or facing a harassing concierge.

The Airbnb process had already been difficult. We have never had any trouble renting a place before and have rented homes/apartments multiple times. It is challenging to find hotels for a family of 6 and our kids are too big to squeeze into a small hotel suite (we love a two-bedroom Homewood Suites, but those are hard to come by). So, generally, it works better for us to rent through Airbnb or similar. I had booked us a place to stay a while ago. Then, less than a week before check-in, I got notice that the host canceled the reservation. No explanation, no offer from Airbnb to help us find an alternative. So, I got online and found this place. It was clear the two measly reviews were faked, but it also said she had been a host for the past month and I figured if no one had complained yet, it was more likely than not a legit listing. And again, this was less than a week before our stay. There was almost nothing available and the ones that were available were way outside our budget. 

So, we met Ivan in a parking lot. His car couldn't fit all of us, so Thomas, Luke and Kara drove with him and the luggage to sneak up the back elevator. The rest of us walked to the building. Ivan got them in, then Thomas came and walked us up. We weren't mugged (yet) and the place is real. At least that is good. It is very small. No bigger than a one-bedroom hotel room. And, there are multiple signs in the lobby about no short-term rentals and one that specifically says no Airbnbs. Fortunately, we are only here for two nights, so we will make it work. And, it has an in-unit washer and dryer which is very nice. 

Okay, enough of that. After we dropped our stuff, we took a bus to our first Vancouver attraction--Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was absolutely amazing. One of, if not the, prettiest places I've ever seen. Luke wasn't feeling well, so that was a bummer, but he pushed through and we walked all around. My favorite was the cliff walk. The pictures don't do it justice, but are better than words, so enjoy a photo dump below (they aren't in any logical order as some are from me and some from Thomas). We spent about 2.5 hours there, including having dinner. Now we are relaxing in our tiny apartment.  

Crossing 450 feet above the ground. The swaying was a little crazy.

The cliff walk, the cantilevered walkway is built into the cliff and is 350 feet above the ground.

More cliff walk.

In the rainforest area, it was so pretty!

Luke would be the same height as a 9-year-old Douglas Fir or a 12-year-old Red Cedar. Jack is about the height of a 16-year-old Hemlock or 14-year-old Red Cedar.

View from the suspension bridge, there are some kayakers way down below.

Luke next to a giant tree and looking up the same tree.