More Vacation

08.02.09

Cruising the Inside Passage

We were up early and enjoyed a Room Service breakfast... super fun and hey, it's FREE on the cruise ship. The kids really enjoyed getting to eat in their bunks. Afterwards, they enjoyed their first "official visit" to the Kids Club... they were in a group for 8-12 year olds, called "Shockwaves" which Carly thought was completely cool. While they were there, Ryan's mom and I took a Photography class in one of the lounges... unfortunately, the girl "teaching" seemed to be making stuff up as she went (like she might have gotten thrown into it at the last minute), but it was still interesting and reminded us of some things regarding photography that we had apparently forgotten. We suddenly fancied ourselves GREAT photographers, as you will see in the following pictures! ANYWAYS, the BEST part of this free class would be the 50% off coupon she handed out for the photobooks you can make similar to shutterfly and kodak, etc. They sell for $100, but we got them for $48 (for 100 pages) and will be able to download all our own pictures, plus use "stock pictures" they have taken of the boat and various ports, etc... Pretty excited about that. If you have ever made one of these books, you realize this is actually a GREAT deal, and hey, we were going to be making one anyways!....

We walked around the boat afterwards, being all creative.  And we laughed and laughed about how CLEVER we thought we were.  Very funny.  Very fun... Isn't Ben cute?!?!

We attended the ship shopping show, which was fun and got us all excited about shopping in Alaska... then ordered our photo books, from the LUMBER JACK GIRL.  Yup, she works for the photo department, apparently.  Of course.  

Here's Carly in the Shockwaves room....

Ben and Carly wanted to go swimming after their fun morning with the Shockwaves.  It was pretty chilly on the deck, but they went in the spa anyways.  They watched a movie on the big "Movie Under the Stars" screen, while they were staying warm in the spa.  

Notice, they are the only ones in there...

I went for a run on the treadmills and enjoyed those TV's!  Remember, the boat is MOVING, and I'm not so coordinated, so it was not as easy as it looked!  Still fun.  Ryan and I think the Rec Center should invest in personal TV's on their treadmills.  

This night was supposed to be formal night on the boat, but we had decided not to participate since we didn't want to bring all the fancy clothes along (we were staying in the Pacific Northwest an extra week after the cruise)... we ate dinner at the buffet.  Before we met up with the Parents, we entertained ourselves with some time in the ship's library (told Ryan he needed a job in there!) and Carly and I played "Go Fish" while we hung out...

We also had a Ping Pong Tournament (well, just us) and Ben and Carly were SO IMPRESSED that their Mom is a Ping Pong champion.  Who knew?  Apparently that summer of playing in the neighbor's basement when we lived on Chinkapin Rd. paid off.  Remember Cherie, Tracy?  Good times.

And we saw the Lumber Jack girl again.  She actually seemed to think it was funny that we were calling her that.  While the kids were back in KC (you know, Kids Club... they LOVED it and kept begging to go back!) we went with Mom and Dad to see Carlos the comedian again (so very funny!) , then a jazz band and giggled at all the "older people" who got up to dance.  Actually, they were pretty cute together.  I was so impressed that the ladies got their men up there!  Ryan sure did a lot of eye rolling!  One more musical show, a Broadway spectacular that the kids enjoyed with us, too... WHEW!  busy day and we were sure tired afterwards. 

 

One last picture, because he's so very cute and can you tell I DID learn a few tricks in the photography class?