And I can see Russia from my house

Before we started our Alaska cruise we spent the weekend in the Seattle area, and we got to see this adorable face as well as my brother and sister-in-law.

We stayed in Sammamish with my parents' very good friends the Fowlers. They were great hosts and it was nice to spend so much time with them. We also got to spend an evening with Todd's very good friend Phil and his wife Jasmine. I had only met them at our wedding, so I really enjoyed getting to know them better. It's too bad they live far away.



We had a wonderful time in Alaska. We knew we were taking a risk with the last cruise of the year, but we got so lucky--every port day was sunny. That meant about five days of sunshine. In Alaska. It was unheard of, and we really appreciated it. It would've been mighty cold without the sun. And because we were the last or second-to-the-last boat, every souvenir shop was having 50-75% off sales. We bought lots of things just because we could.

Our first "port" was Glacier Bay National Park, where we stayed on the ship all day and looked at two glaciers. They were phenomenally beautiful, with the true blue colors and the surprising amount of dirt. As glaciers move they rub against the rocks and collect rock dust. I also loved all the ice floating in the bay.

Our second port was Juneau, and we took a float plane (I got to sit co-pilot!) to this lodge near a glacier, where they served us grilled salmon. It was beautiful there, too; so peaceful. When they grill the salmon the bears know what's coming, and the bears like to lick the grill and oil drops after the salmon is cooked. This guy had a head start and came around before the salmon were done grilling, so an employee used a stick to keep it in the tree until the tourists were inside. Black bears are amazingly agile in trees.

Next we went to Sitka, a city with early Russian influence. We rented bikes and drove around for a few hours. We saw a ton of salmon, although most of them were dead. We also went to a national park that had about 15 totem poles. And the closest we got to seeing a bald eagle was this one at a rehabilitation center.

Ketchikan was our last Alaska stop, and probably my favorite city adventure. They had this beautiful area of town called Creek Street, which was on an inlet surrounded by cool colorful buildings and a wooden sidewalk. In the inlet we saw lots of salmon again, including salmon jumping up waterfalls, and sea lions gearing up for their salmon buffet. It was so cool. We also got to watch a lumberjack show, where they competed in five events. I was amazed at the things those men could do.

That night we had terrible weather--hurricane-force winds and 18-foot waves (or 80-foot. Todd thought they said 80, I heard 18, but we all know about my iffy hearing). So the ship was moving a ton. Luckily my seasickness medicine works wonderfully well. But because of the weather, we were an hour late getting to Victoria, Canada. We didn't have much sunlight planned there to begin with, but we got there when it was dark so there wasn't too much to see. We had a fun walk into town from the ship, and one plus of being there at night was we got to see their legislative buildings lit up like Christmas.

Oh, and what was our opinion of Holland America?
It was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis great. We absolutely recommend them. Roomy accomodations (each bathroom had a tub!), only 1900 people on the ship, friendly staff, etc. It was great. Especially because of the deal we got from VacationsToGo.com. Check it out.

If you're so inclined, you can see every single (random) picture we took here. There are a lot of them.