eight.

Happy eight years of marriage to the love of my life.

You are the best decision I ever made. I love you.

Alaska Part 2: Juneau and Sitka

Juneau is a really beautiful place. It is nestled in between tree covered mountains, with waterfalls everywhere. It (along with most Alaskan "cities") is only reachable via plane or boat. In fact, 1 out of every 3 residents has a pilot's license just so they can get around.

We spent the day sight seeing and eating salmon in the woods. Loved this place.

We took this sweet bus out to Mendenhall glacier. Its called the blue bus. Go figure.

This is our engagement picture in front of the glacier and the waterfall.

There were these HUGE ice bergs out in the water in front of the glacier. The water was really clear and the ice was so blue. It was really beautiful.

This huge waterfall was right next to the glacier. Because, you know, the glacier alone wouldn't be cool enough.

After the glacier we headed into the woods to eat some fish. I didn't take very many decent pictures at the actual salmon bake, but there was a huge grill with tons of salmon cooking on it. A young guy was there playing music and they served the best chowder I've had in a long time.

Now a yellow bus.

After the bake we roasted marshmallows.

There was a beautiful area a few hundred yards away from the bake. There was an old mine there and some gold panning pans. There were gold flecks all over in the bottom of the river, so Nic and Lloyd spent some time trying to strike it rich. No such luck, but it was fun anyway.

(I think the two pictures below show the real connection my father-in-law and I have. I can't look at them without laughing.)

Strikin' it rich!

Perhaps Nic has found a new career.

After our tummies were full, we decided to take a spontaneous hike up one of the mountains. There was a gondola that went to the top, but it was $30/person. After talking with a couple of locals we opted to take a trail that traversed up the North side of the mountain. We were able to talk Lloyd into our insanity (he was quite willing to join actually) and so the three of us headed up the trail. It turned out to be quite a bit hotter than we expected, and we had left the ship earlier without plans to hike. But despite wearing jeans (not my preferred hiking attire) and having limited water, it turned out to be awesome. In fact, it was one of our favorite parts of the trip.

I found this randomly on the trail. Pretty cool.

Juneau from afar.

Headed to Sitka

In Sitka we decided to rent some bikes to see the area. Before that, however, we walked around town a bit just to get a feel for it. Its very small (its not the same town as you see on the movie The Proposal), but the people were really friendly and it was (as expected) beautiful.

This is the high school. The picture doesn't really show it, but it was tiny.

Yikes! We wanted to see what the cost of living would be here, and this is what we found. Five bucks for a gallon of milk. Super expensive meat. Super cheap Salmon. I could live on Salmon. (The lady at the store told us they get paid a lot more than people in the lower 48 do. She said she didn't feel like it was hard to live there and has lived there all her life.)

Heading out on our ride.

We rode up to a place called Whale park. There were these board walk trails everywhere. We went on our honeymoon to British Columbia and spent some time in a little town on the far west side of Vancouver island. There were tons of these board walk paths everywhere there and so it brought back some fun memories hiking around on them.

We didn't spot any whales here, but did I mention that we saw quite a few on our trip? Most of them we saw on our entrance into Glacier Bay. We also saw seals, dolphins, and bald eagles. The bald eagles in Alaska are as prevalent as seagulls are at the beach. Seriously they are everywhere. As much as I dislike birds, I have to admit that they are pretty majestic.

Sweet bike riding pants.

Nic loves to look for sea creatures.

And we found some.

 

Totem pole park. It was pretty cool learning about the different kinds of totem poles. The culture of the natives there is very much alive and its very interesting to hear about it from the people themselves.

Next up: Ziplining in Ketchikan and revisiting Victoria.

Alaska Part 1: Sea day and Glacier Bay

A few weeks ago we returned from our trip to Alaska. It. was. incredible. Prior to leaving, I thought about it everyday, for months. It did not disappoint. I also vowed that nothing was going to ruin this vacation for me. Nothing. So despite having a horrible allergic rash covering half my body, and having to take Nell to the emergency vet the night before we left (She ran into a pole. Seriously. She was pretty banged up with a bloody nose and all. But she is ok.) I powered through and I'd say the trip went off without a hitch! It was hard to leave the kids. I may or may not have had a bit of a melt down as we were pulling out of the dock and I knew that I would be "unreachable" for a few days. They did great though, and I am so SO grateful to my mom for playing mom for the week. From melt-downs to pooping in the backyard, they gave her a run for her money. Everyone survived though and they are all still best of buddies.

We opted to drive to Seattle to save some cash. It is a long drive, but I didn't mind. It was super nice to not have to be constantly passing fruit snacks to the back, or singing songs to calm someone down, or pulling over to pee in the bushes because we were miles from the next rest stop (although we did almost have to do that once). I listened to a book, slept, took pictures of Nic sleeping, and just enjoyed the ride.

We got to Seattle Saturday evening. After asking around we found a great Thai food restaurant. It was yummy. Lloyd (Nic's dad) asked for a "2 out of 3" level of hotness and was literally sweating by the time dinner was over. It was pretty funny.

Sunday morning we headed over to Pike's Market. I had never been and wanted to squeeze it in before we got on the ship. I loved it. Flowers everywhere, food everywhere, music everywhere. Loved it.

We found a little shop run by an Austrian couple. Nic was able to get his favorite Austrian beverage and speak a bit of German.

There is this wall down one of the alleyways. There are thousands, nay, millions of pieces of gum stuck to it. Its gross and awesome at the same time.

Goofballs.

We grabbed some fresh cheese curds and mac 'n cheese from Beecher's. This macaroni was to die for. I seriously am still craving it.

Waiting to be taken to the ship. Somehow, quite mysteriously, we found one of our chip bags had a little hole nibbled in the bottom of it. We hadn't noticed it earlier on the trip and therefore thought we might come back to mouse infested car. Luckily no mice. We finally determined it must have been that way when we bought it from the gas station. Nasty. It was probably from the place that had 2 toilets in the same room. With no stalls or even a half wall for privacy. Just 2 toilets. Right next to each other. You'd have to be REALLY good friends to want to experience that together. My mother-in-law and I love each other, but not that much.

Waiting to board.

The ms Oosterdam.

Our first full day on the ship was a sea day. We went to the many activities they had on board including the kitchen tour and Tango lessons (surprisingly hard when on a rocking boat). That night was the first of two formal nights and it was really fun getting dressed up and having dinner then going to a show.

 

Victoria and me with the head chef.

Tango lessons. There were several times the ship would rock and everyone would go flying in one direction. The fact that these dancers can do this on a stage everyday is super impressive. The fact that Nic took these lessons with me is even more impressive. He was such a good sport.

Formal night in the dining room. Pretty sure I ordered two desserts every night.

I love this picture. I LOVE this picture. It cracks me up every time I see it.

Aw. Love these guys.

Day 2 we were in Glacier Bay National Park. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect (which is rare, we hear). A park ranger boarded our boat at the entrance to the park and later gave a lecture about the park. There are several glaciers in the park, some of which are often impossible to reach due to ice. We went to Marjorie glacier and attempted to get to Johns Hopkins, but the ice was too thick.

Holding our spot on the bow of the ship. The wind was chilly, but otherwise it really nice.

Marjorie glacier. We were able to see it calve. It made a impressive crack (like thunder) before a big chunk fell into the water. Awesome.

This thing was massive.

While we made our way to the Johns Hopkins glacier we decided to have dinner. The dinning room is at the back of the ship and every few minutes we could hear a crashing sound as the ship would be hitting the ice bergs. Pretty quick the captain decided to turn around. Probably a good idea. The whole voyage already had a bit of a Titanic feel ever since they announced that they were one life boat short. "It will be okay," they assured us. hmmmm.

Pictures don't do this place justice. It was beyond incredible.

Johns Hopkins glacier from afar.

I can't remember the name of this glacier.

Leaving the park.

Sun setting at midnight. (It would rise at 3:30 am).

The mountains went on forever. Behind those huge mountains in the back there were even more mountains. The mountain behind Marjorie glacier peaks at 15,000 feet. Considering the base of that mountain is pretty much sea level that is pretty incredible.

My love.

Stay tuned for Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria.