Wednesday in Skagway

Wednesday we spent in Skagway, riding the White Pass train and dredging for gold!

~

White Pass Railway

~

Noelle on the train

~

Lance's mom taking a little nap

~

Shallow river

~

Looking back at our train crossing a bridge - best shot of the day

~

Getting the mountain in the shot

~

The valley

~

A waterfall we rode by

~

I wish Noelle had slept a little longer

~

Gold dredging machine

~

Panning for gold demonstration

~

Back to the ship

~

Goodbye Skagway

~

Tuesday in Juneau

On Tuesday of our cruise, we docked in Juneau. Our excursion was whale watching, and we did see some humpback whales. We even saw one breach, or jump all the way out of the water! The guide said that is very rare in Alaskan waters; it usually only happens in warmer waters when the whales are mating (the breaching is showing off for a potential mate). They come to the cold Alaskan waters to eat. I kind of think the whale just enjoyed breaching, and maybe was showing off for our boat. We saw a couple of whales together, and the guide said that was rare, too, but these whales are together every season. We also saw many bald eagles and a big group of sea lions. Our tour boat served complimentary hot chocolate and we each got one cracker with smoked salmon on it - very tasty. We loved our tour guide - he was a 24-year-old Alaskan native with enormous knowledge of wildlife and some great stories.

We woke Tuesday morning up to see this beautiful view of Juneau out our balcony window:

~

It was a busy port with a few other large cruise ships arriving the same morning. This first photo was taken from our balcony as we were pulling into the port.

~

This picture was taken a few minutes later, also from our balcony, but the view is from whence we came - isn't it beautiful.

~

Here's a picture of the rare pair of humpback whales I mentioned earlier.

~

Here's the sea lion colony - they were noisy. the guide told us how they like to be trouble-makers, like knocking over kayakers for no reason. He also told us that sea lions have hips, while seals do not.

~

Here's Noelle & I braving the rain up on the outer deck, hoping to get a good look at some whales. I'm glad we went up there, because it allowed us to see the whale breaching. We couldn't stay out there very long, though, because it was so cold!

~

We thought this ship looked pretty against the sunset as we were leaving Juneau.
~

"Goodbye Juneau," we call as we sail away.
~

Fabulous sunset sailing away from Juneau. As you can imagine, it was even better in person.
~

Monday on the ship

Back to our cruise...



Monday was our day at sea, so we explored the ship and watched the cousins bowl (the ship had a two-lane bowling alley). It was fun to watch the balls roll to the side as the ship rocked.



Connor & his cousins had a great time swimming in the heated pool, going down the spiral water slide, and warming up in the hot tubs. No one else in our group swam that day, because it was really cold outside!

~
Connor in the pool

~

Connor & Dan coming down water slide
~

Connor & Dan in hot tub, with Lance behind them
~

Connor & Dan in hot tub with the yellow spiral water slide behind them
~

Connor splashing at the base of the slide
~

Ryan, Noelle, Aunt Lisa talking to Dan (who is in the pool). This shot gives a good view of the pool area.

I interrupt this trip...

I must pause in my long, drawn out string of pictures & posts about our cruise to Alaska. I am just too sad right now.

My friend Crystal has been told some bad news. Her cancer has spread to her brain, and the tumors in her lungs have grown. They are stopping the chemo, and starting radiation in order to shrink the size of the tumors and give her some relief. She should be going home from the hospital in the next couple of days under hospice care. I have prayed and prayed; I have cried and cried. She is such a wonderful Christian mother with seven little children to raise!

Tomorrow is Fathers' Day. I need to get my act together and get or do something for Lance, but instead I'm just grieving over not having my dad. I'll read a little article about creative Fathers' Day presents, and just think about how my dad would have loved them.

I guess death is supposed to be sad. We're not supposed to like it. I feel for Tim Russert's family, because I know the shock and grief they're experiencing right now. Tim was born the same year as my dad, and it sounds like his death was just as sudden.

My dad had so many people depending on him. Crystal has so many people depending on her. As much pain as I have felt over losing my dad, thinking about the what Crystal's family is experiencing right now is just unbearable.

Sunday on the ship

After our ship set sail from Seattle, many of us went up to deck 12 for the send-off party. Here's cousin Dan in the white jacket and Connor showing his usual energy level:

~

Here we are trying to get a good picture of all the cousins on board. They are each about 3 years apart: Dan is 13, Ryan 10, Brandon 7, Connor 4, and Noelle 1.

~

Here's the view from that afternoon, of sun rays breaking through the clouds onto mountains in the distance. Beautiful.

~

Lance took a few shots of the ship. Here's the front (I'm sure there's a more accurate, nautical term for it):

~

Here's the highest part of the ship (again, I'm sure there's an official term):

~

And here was what our room looked like (this is a stock picture from the cruise line, but our room looked exactly like this):

The Norwegian Pearl

We sailed from Seattle on the Norwegian Pearl. Since I have never been on a cruise before, I have nothing to compare it to, but we were very impressed with our ship. I think there were over 2000 passengers and over 1000 crew.

~

Here's our first view of the ship from the pier in Seattle (we don't know who those people are):

~

The first thing we did once on board was eat lunch! They had a nice buffet we seemed to frequent since it was easier to find something to please everyone there. Nice of them to have high chairs for Noelle; even nicer that they were on wheels. Cousins Brandon & Connor entertain Noelle.

~

We had an awesome room on deck 11 (out of 14) with a balcony. Many beautiful pictures were taken from this balcony. If you ever go on an Alaskan cruise, I highly recommend getting a room with a balcony. This is Connor & Noelle playing on our balcony as we are sailing away from Seattle.

~

Here's Aunt Lisa in our view looking forward out our balcony as we sail away.

~

Goodbye, Seattle. You were a little rainy, but pretty cool.

We're home!

We are home from a fabulous vacation - a couple of days in Seattle, and then a 7 day cruise to Alaska! It was beautiful. We went with Lance's parents, his sister Lisa, and her 3 boys.

~~

As an aside, I must mention that last night Lance played softball with our church team, even though he felt tired from the traveling, and a little sluggish from all the yummy cruise food. But, something must have hit the spot, because he hit a home run!! An over-the-fence home run!! He doesn't think he's ever done that in an actual game (only at practice). Yea, Lance! I'm so proud of you!! Now, back to our vacation...

~~

I'll start with some pictures of our stay in Seattle. We had a great view of the Space Needle from our hotel room:

~

Noelle loved looking at the Space Needle out the window of the hotel. Her excitement was so amusing we tried to capture it:

~

Here are the cousins outside the Science Fiction Museum (what a great place to visit):

~

Noelle napped during the first part of our outing, so on the way back she was full of energy while Connor was tired. Push, Noelle, push:

~