08.04.09

08.04.09

Skagway

Ryan got up at 7am because he desperately wanted to go for a RUN in Alaska. Got to admire the boy's commitment. The kids and I stayed behind to enjoy another Room Service breakfast. Mmmmm. Once he was back (he loved every minute of his trek!), we got ready for the day and headed out to explore Skagway, Alaska.

The ship docked about a mile from the town, 

so we all enjoyed a leisurely walk in (emphasis on the LEISURELY here) and did a little shopping. Ryan got a very nice winter jacket for $20, which will come in handy when we go to Michigan every Christmas. 

We also were able to watch a seal playing near another ship, catching fish.

We headed back to the ship to drop off our purchases and eat lunch. I had scheduled us for a Train Ride at 12:45pm (I would like to add that since I booked it ONLINE prior to leaving Tampa, we were able to save $25 EACH over the price the boat was charging for the exact same excursion... I know, Clever Girl). We lingered a little TOO long over lunch, and suddenly realized it was almost time for our train! Remember when I said the town was about a mile away? And remember when I said that perhaps trips to the treadmills was unnecessary since we were RUNNING everywhere in the ports? Well, we basically race walked to the train! BUT, we made it on time!

The White Pass Railway is pretty amazing... 3 hour train ride that follows the route the 1898 Gold Diggers took. Incredible scenery. 

And it was about 75 degrees in Skagway when we were there! Must admit, inside the train was a little TOO warm, but they don't have AC since you normally would NEVER need that in Alaska.

We were able to go out on the platforms at the front and back of each railway car, and that was really fun, too. When we reached the summit, the train stopped, we flipped the seats over and traded sides with the people across the aisle from us, and the train went into reverse and headed back down the mountains. Pretty cool. Ben and Carly really enjoyed this experience (as we all did!) even though Ben did fall asleep at one point... too many late nights for my boy!

Back in town, we finished up our shopping, then walked SLOWLY back to the ship! Once we arrived in our room, we were AGAIN surprised that ALEX (of "Here's Alex" fame) had made fun little arrangements of the kids stuffed animals... but you will have to wait to see his creations in a separate post... they will be much more fun ALL together!

Went to dinner in the dining room with our usual Table for Six and our waiters... Carly ordered french fries and fettucini alfredo (umm, AGAIN). 

Fist bumpin' Grandma who ALSO ordered the F. A. ~ you know, because Girls Rock.

Kids took off for KC, and Mom and Dad and I went to see the "Motor City" show... Ryan was SUPPOSED to join us, but he SAYS they wouldn't let him in once it started. I am somewhat suspicious of this claim as he was going to be late so he could "check" the score of the Rays game on the XM radio he brought with him. The 3 of us enjoyed the DISCO music.

We headed out to the deck to catch some more incredible Alaska scenery as we were pulling out of Skagway, 

maneuvering through the Inside Passage and heading towards the Tracy Arm Fjord, our destination for the next day. We saw this VERY COOL hanging glacier...

you can see it in the center of the mountains... and here's  a closeup:

Got the kids from KC and settled in to enjoy a "Movie Under the Stars" (MUTS) feature: Monsters Vs. Aliens. The kids had been wanting to see this for a while!

Carly went in the spa during the beginning of the movie, then I got her changed into warm clothes and we snuggled down on the pool chairs (they cover them with fleece pads!) and blankets. 

They also pop popcorn for the movie, so we were all loving that. Until ALMOST all of us fell asleep! Remember, we'd had a LONG day! Took off for bed... NO TROUBLE sleeping at night, that's for sure!

08.03.09

08.03.09 Juneau... the REASON we came to Alaska


Juneau Day! The whole reason we wanted to come to Alaska (other than the obvious, it's beautiful!) was to go to the state capitol building, on our pursuit to visit ALL of them by the time Ben graduates from high school. I agreed to this challenge for 2 reasons only: #1 Alaska, and #2 Hawaii! You knew I was smart, right?!


Our day started out exceptionally early as we had heard there was a good chance to see whales around 7am. We dressed warmly and headed up to the highest decks to WATCH....



If you click that picture, you can see the remnants of the "spout". We saw many many of these spouts and many "backs" of whales, but none "breached". You can thank me later for sparing you all the photo's that I took TRYING to catch the whale:) It was enough that we saw several and knew they were out there... pretty cool. And yes, worth the early wake up and the cold.



Carly shivering on the deck. The wind was what was so very cold!



After our whale watching, we enjoyed breakfast. Ben lost a tooth during breakfast, so it was good to know that the Tooth Fairy is so clever that she found him later that night!


Next, Mom and I did Ceramics at Sea. Yes, they call it that. Seemed like a fun thing to do on a ship, and we each made a plate to commemorate our fun vacation...



Looks really nice all glazed and fired. We got them back on the last day.



After lunch, the boat docked in Juneau and we stepped off on Alaskan soil for the first time. It was really cool to us. We are huge saps about this kind of stuff, so we were all excited and Ryan and I kept saying "I just can't believe we are here. With our family! In Alaska." It was really mind blowing, I have to tell you.



It was pretty hazy and when we got into town, we heard that there were forest fires burning in the Yukon in Canada, which wasn't far over the border. We had great weather, regardless (I mean, no rain) and it was about 68 degrees.



Here is the Diamond Store where we got Tracy the diamond necklace Carly promised her for getting her a WebKinz. Thanks for that, Tracy. Next time you make "deals" with my daughter, you might run it by me first. HA!



More fun pictures while we were shopping...



we were all excited to see Subway, and laughed and laughed that they have "$7 footlongs" instead of the $5 ones we have in Florida. We had to alter the song a little bit.



Finally at the Capitol building. We were able to walk there from the boat... it was only about a mile. We took a tour with Emma, who had lived in Juneau her whole life. There are no roads going into Juneau (you have to arrive by boat or float plane) so it is probably the 2nd most difficult capitol to get to:) I was feeling bad for this "Land Locked" girl who gave us a tour. She told us if you wanted to take your car to the rest of Alaska, it would cost a family of 4 about $1000 to take themselves and said car to Skagway on the ferry. You can see why they don't often leave.



Kind of a boring building, as Capitols go (and we've seen a few!) and the House and Senate rooms were off limits as they were being renovated. Didn't even see Sarah cleaning out her desk. But we enjoyed her old bathroom, which was actually really nice.





Afterwards, Mom and Dad finished their shopping and we bought "Shuttle Passes" to go to the Mendenhall Glacier. We were highly entertained that THIS old bus was our "shuttle". You can't go wrong for $7, though. On our way driving to the glacier (it was about 7 miles away), the driver told us about hiking to the waterfall BESIDE the glacier, and of course, we wanted to do that. We had to rush, however, as the last shuttle was leaving at 6pm, and it was already 4:30pm.



They had brought some of the glacial ice up for everyone to touch... it was cold, like ice. I know, had to go to Alaska to figure that out.



This is the Mendenhall Glacier, and the waterfall to the right of the picture. We hiked over to the base of the waterfall, about 1.5 miles over to it.



close up of the glacier






Just to get a little perspective on how huge this thing is, those are people at the base of the waterfall...



FINALLY made it to the "end"... we were really rushing due to our time constraints.



Silly Mama wore FLIP FLOPS! Really wish I had had better shoes on, but I guess it worked out ok in the end. It was pretty chilly close to that glacier, though! And notice my ever-present Orange ebag. LOVE it, and it was FANTASTIC on our trip. Plus, it's orange! Ben loved that!



Glacial ice out in the water... as we were rushing back to the shuttle, I called my mom to catch up with her and I believe I said, "Umm, I better go, I can't see the trail anymore...." and somehow we had gotten OFF the trail, but found our way back in time, anyways. Just a little McGregor excitement in Juneau! Back to the boat and a late dinner, then we saw Carlos one last time (again, so funny!) then we went to bed! Again, REALLY tired from our super busy day. The kids were holding up pretty good, which REALLY surprised me!

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?  

Vacations over, Boys...

... because you knew I wasn't REALLY done...

Rochel "watched" our cats while we were gone (THANKYOU... I know how much you "loved" that job!) and let me tell you, I can TELL they are VERY HAPPY we are home.  No offense to my darling girl, but our cats are PEOPLE cats and enjoy interacting with us, and well, I'm not so certain their Aunt Rochel loves interacting with them!  You can see what they were up to while we were gone HERE... no, it's not the nanny-cam that Angela had on The Office....

I came back to say all this because the two "babies" were just scruffing about something and growling and making a scene (I'm certain over who got to sleep in Carly's room...) and Carly walked up to Elfy and grabbed her and said, "Carly's on Duty now, and we'll have NONE of that!".  *ahhhhh*   Fun's over, boys!

Vacation... FINALLY!

You know you had a GREAT vacation when you get to the end of it and suddenly realize #1 it's OVER and #2, you need about a month OFF from life so you can sit back and THINK about all the great things you got to do (and of course, look at the over 3000 pictures you took!  not kidding there....) #3, loved every minute of it #4 feel completely relaxed, and finally, #5 are actually happy to be home.  Because you feel satisfied.  And ready for routine!  

Here are the chronicles of our FANTASTIC summer vacation to Alaska, Washington, and Oregon (and, CALIFORNIA!  we snuck that one in, too!)  You can thank my GREAT journaling for all the details!  You know I couldn't remember this stuff on my own!  This will serve as our scrapbook for the event... I really hate scrapbooking (shock, I know!) so this will have to do... Although I will be making a photo book online (more of that later...) 

08.01.09

SEATTLE... our cruise begins!

The time change had us a little messed up... we were 3 hours ahead in our heads, on Tampa time, so the kids were up BRIGHT and early, by 6am Seattle Time.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn near the airport and started our day with a continental breakfast in the dining room... we were THRILLED to find Ryan's dad up already, too... they had gotten in late the night before and we were already asleep so this was our first time seeing him.  Ryan was off running in Seattle.  Mom joined us shortly afterwards.

At 11:30 am we headed off to Pier 91 to board our ship.  Our first glimpse!  It's huge!  We've been on a couple of cruises to the Caribbean, and this boat is WAY bigger than those... we were BEYOND excited!

The Golden Princess... embarkation went really smoothly and we were on board and exploring by noon.  We found our rooms, which were lovely (kids were all excited about their bunk beds!) then found some lunch.  Afterwards, during MORE exploring, we stumbled upon a tour of the boat with one of the "ship people" named Jorge.  Very informative.  

Here's the Seattle skyline as we were pulling out of the port.  Really pretty.  We got the kids signed up for the kids programs where we were happy to hear that Carly would be able to move up to the 8-12 year olds, instead of staying with the 3-7 year olds.  There are 400 kids on board, which we were AMAZED by!  We didn't think there would be that many!  Carly kept saying she's going to make lots of friends (no kidding) and Ben said that he will be playing video games.  Sounds about right!

This is (obviously) the swimming pool on deck... there is another on that is indoors (pretty necessary in Alaska!) and several others "here and there" and many spas.

Fitness Center with MANY treadmills all facing out the front of the boat and they each had their own tv's on the front... THAT makes running much easier.  For all my GREAT intentions, I only made it up here ONCE to run!  BUT, we did plenty of hiking and walking OFF the boat.... although, I'm sure not enough to offset the ridiculous amount of desserts I ate!  ANYWAYS, REALLY nice fitness center....

Dinner in the Canaletto Dining room.  We met our waiters for the week, who were really really nice.  We (um, me and Ryan) were all excited that our table was just for SIX people, so no wacky strangers this time!  Here's what Carly picked for dinner: French fries, and fettucini alfredo.  Little did we know, it would be a pattern.  Oddly enough, during dinner, a girl was going around pretending to be a lumberjack (albeit EVIL lumberjack) and the photographer was taking everyone's pictures with her.  I'm going to need to know how many people actually PURCHASED their Lumber Jack Picture.  

We also met up with our room steward, Alex.  Kind of quiet guy, but nice.  Every time we see him, we all say "Here's ALEX!"  Probably only funny to us.  But, we can't stop saying it, either.

After dinner, we went to the "Welcome Aboard" Show and saw the singers and dancers do a number, and mostly enjoyed the comedic efforts of Carlos Oscar.  Pretty funny, and it's hard to find a "clean" comedian, and he really was family friendly!  We loved that.  Ben REALLY thought he was funny, especially when he was talking about people taking pictures of their food.  Ben kept shooting me looks and giggling.  Hmmmm.... 

We were all pretty tired afterwards, so we headed to bed.  I'll leave you with one last picture...

I'm leaving, on a jet plane...

HA! And you thought you were not going to be bugged for 2 weeks! Ryan's mom brought her computer! But, internet access will be limited, so don't get too excited. Anyways, I wanted to share our VERY EXCITED flight to Seattle. Let me preface this by saying, Ryan flew separately on a frequent flyer ticket, I flew with the kids (and lots of carry-on luggage) on a different airline, different route... let me see:

First Lesson Learned: When your husband offers to have YOU fly alone and HIM fly with the kids and carry-on luggage, don't be all "I think I will keep up with the children better than you". Seriously. He hasn't lost them yet, so WHY would today have been any different? And climbing up the flight of stairs after 2 "outdoors" shuttles to the "new terminal" while totting said carry-ons and 2 children will not be too fun... BUT we WALKED outside in California, so it COUNTS for going there!

Second Lesson: There's a reason why our tickets were "cheap". It goes like this: Tampa to Chicago to Los Angelos to Seattle. Long day. I feel like I COULD be a bird.

Ben and Carly are VERY SAFE flyers. Yes, they did read over the emergency instruction card before each LEG of our flights. Every time. And asked questions about EXACTLY where those floatation devices were located. And have YOU ever tried to actually find the "extra life preservers tucked into the side of the seats"? I really saw no "secret compartment". I'm just saying. And we are all VERY clear on how the oxygen masks fall out of the ceiling, even though we never got to witness it. Thankfully. Also, from Chicago to LA, there were 2 pilots sitting BEHIND us (just along for the ride to their next "job")... a little something I like to call "insurance". I'm thinking a few extra can never hurt, right?

We believe this could be the "Painted Plains" or something like that, just before getting to California. I'm going to have to verify that at some point, but still, a cool picture. Obviously out the plane window... we were NOT parachuting.

Special THANKS to the stewardess who gave Ben and Carly FREE $3 gourmet cookies. That was kind... and fortunately did NOT make them hyper. That would NOT have been kind.

Also, a very special shout out to the VERY NICE gentlemen who gladly swapped their middle and window seats for our 2 aisle seats so we could all be in a row together. They were thrilled, and I was thrilled, so everyone wins in that situation.

The Rocky Mountains, which we had never seen before... I'm telling you, this flight might have been LONG, but it had very exciting scenery.

The FIRST time we THOUGHT we saw Mt. Rainier... but turns out, this was near Portland, so NOT what we were looking for... I won't bother posting photos of all the OTHER mountains we THOUGHT were Mt. Rainier.

We were all pretty excited to see this volcano, and if you look closely in the background, THAT volcano is Mt. Saint Helens... Of course, this information was given to us by the pilot, so I'm going to have to trust him on that... But, cool picture, right?

Ok... this actually IS Mt. Rainier... can you see how I got confused? But, right outside of Seattle, so I'm pretty sure about this one.

We all made it safely and are getting ready for our next big adventure...