We sailed with Royal Caribbean. It was a 7-night cruise and we left out of Vancouver, Canada. I had never been to Canada and desperately wanted to finally get my passport stamped but to no avail. (Canada and the Bahamas have failed me!)
Andrew and I weren't able to find a good flight that arrived in time for our cruise departure, so we flew in the night before. On Sunday, we attended church, and guess who we ran into?? Andrew's cousin, Christy, and her son which was a pleasant surprise.
It was a long time to be away from our kids. We are so thankful to my parents for helping watch our children for part of the trip. They were extremely busy making final preparations to move to Brazil. Jeff and Lindsey also helped watch our kids for a chunk of the time and our kids had a blast with their cousins! They got to see the new Buzz Lightyear movie, go swimming, play at a splash pad, go out to ice cream twice, play in a bounce house, and more. It put my mind at ease knowing my kids were left in such good hands with people I trust completely who love my kids wholeheartedly.
On our journey, we stopped at 4 ports. We lived for port days and spent as much time as possible off of the ship. It's hard for me to pick just one favorite city in Alaska. They were all stunning.
Port #1 Sitca: Tuesday, June 14
It was a chilly day in Alaska. It wasn't rainy though. At one point, I was cold enough to put on gloves and a hat. Some warm chowder helped.
We went to a bear reserve where rescued bears live. We got to be up close to 8 bears. Watching the bears eat was hilarious. A couple of the bears were teenagers and energetic/fighting. After the bears, we saw eagles. There are so many eagles in Alaska and we listened to a well-done presentation about eagles. It was sad to hear that so many eagles get hit and injured by cars. After seeing the eagles, we hiked back toward town. I can see why "ABH" takes so long. It felt like we stopped every 5 seconds to get video footage or take goofy pics. Thanks, Kelly! We did some souvenir shopping and ate dumplings which were only so so in my opinion. Kelly bought the best popcorn and I definitely regret not buying a bag of my own. I tried to buy some in another city later on and it didn't compare.
Port #2 Juneau: Wednesday, June 15
What a sunny and beautiful day! We were told numerous times how lucky we were to have this phenomenal weather. Annie said it felt like Ken intervened and made the weather beautiful for Debbie's birthday trip. We took a bus to go whale watching. There was a money-back guarantee if you didn't see whales. It felt like a long boat ride before we got out to the whales, but then we saw so many! I was surprised they weren't blue whales. All of the whales were black. We even got to see a baby whale with her mom. We also saw a popular hangout for Sea Lions. We then took a bus to a glacier. We hiked up to the glacier and later checked out the visitors center which had lots of fascinating info about how much the glacier has shrunken in size. Apparently getting married or engaged near the glacier is popular. Once again, we ended the day souvenir shopping. We got our kids t-shirts, I picked out a sweater, and Andrew got an Alaskan sticker for his laptop. Juneau had a cute main street.
Port #3 Haines: Thursday, June 15
Another gorgeous, cloudless day. This was by far the smallest port city we went to. Thankfully, we were able to track down 2 rental cars. I don't know what we would have done without the cars. It was a tiny city with not a ton to do. We were able to drive around and see some breathtaking scenery. A few braved the cold water and climbed a tricky rock for an epic pic. It was impressive. (I did not participate.)
Later, we drove to another area of the town and did a hike which made my heart happy. We ended up at a beautiful destination. It was basically a rocky beach. We ended up seeing a sea lion and the boys skipped rocks and probably would have kept going all day if we let them. Let me just say, I am proud Andrew is my husband. I discovered he has a hidden talent--rock skipping. Grannie survived the hike and was so proud of herself! This hike definitely pushed her limits and I think was around 2 miles. Some of us tried to find a shorter route back for her, but it was extremely steep. We stopped and ate fish and chips back in town, shopped, and of course, tasted the local fudge. Thank you, Julia!
Port #4 Ketchikan: Friday, June 16
Perfect weather once again! In fact, jackets were unnecessary. All week, we had been wanting to go ATVing and we finally found an excursion that wasn't sold out. We went side-by-siding and got to see some phenomenal views. My only complaint was that we couldn't drive faster. I do not speed in a real car (in fact, I've never been pulled over), but I go for it when adventuring. I will say I got up to 32mph which was speedier than Andrew. Our excursion included "reindeer sausages." When we got back to the city, we walked the streets, shopped, and ate more fish and chips. Good thing I love seafood-HA! I got a burger. Andrew worked in Alaska the summer we were dating. He spent 2 weeks of his time working in Ketchikan. It was neat to have him point out places he'd been. Blayre bought doughnuts for all of us to try and they were delish. Grannie splurged and bought herself a ring from a jeweler. We teased her because we never saw her actually wear the ring. It was far too precious and expensive to take out of her secure wallet. She didn't want to lose it. I wonder if she is showing off her prized possession on her finger now?
Ship Time
We had lots of time on the ship. Four of the evenings, we went to shows. We went mini-golfing. The boys played shuffleboard and basketball. There was a ping-pong table and I was not on my game. Embarrassing. We hit the gym. After all, we had to work off the unlimited food. Karaoke happened and we went twice. Andrew performed, "Sugar We're Going Down" and much to Grannie's chagrin, Blayre signed Grannie and Ginnie up to sing, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles. They were wearing nearly matching outfits (not planned) and it was hilarious. Blayre also signed the Ditto boys up to sing, "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," but they shockingly changed the song to, "Old Time Rock and Roll." There were some horrific singers. In fact, Logan got excellent video footage of a terrible singer. He legitimately hurt our hearts. We played so many games! All the games a girl could ever want-- Skull King, Rook, Family Feud, and Nerts.
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Bleh! I ate so much! It's hard to say no when the food is endless. We had the same waitress each night and go to know Veronika well. She had quite the story and is Ukrainian. Hearing about the hardships her family is facing was eye-opening. Veronika recently married a Russian and they ended up getting married over zoom, so he was able to flee Russia. What a story. We plan to stay connected on social media.
COVID-19
Covid definitely made cruising more complicated. Everyone who got on the ship had to take a covid test. Not any test would cut it, there were very specific guidelines. I was relieved knowing that everyone on the cruise ship was healthy from the beginning. My biggest fear was that I would get covid while traveling and miss out on time with my parents.
Things got dicey with the covid testing. Andrew's brother, Birch ended up testing positive and Birch and Sara didn't come. Andrew and I ordered special expensive tests to take in front of a proctor via Zoom and my test was missing a piece. It made for a stressful day. I had to scramble to get tested another way. Walgreens barely pulled through. I was able to snag one of the few available faraway appointments. It took longer than they said to get my Covid-19 test results, so I called. I nearly had a panic attack when they said had no record of me taking a test. Thankfully, someone else was able to find my results and I was negative. Unfortunately, they couldn't email me the results. They requested that I come to get retested. Finally, Andrew just had them print off the results and he went to pick them up. We finally had my negative covid test results in hand 1.5 hrs prior to when we left for the airport. Phew!
My worst fear happened. I brought home an unwanted souvenir--covid. At times it was mild, but other times I was pretty sick. It was devastating to miss going to see my parents get set apart by President Eyring and other events. Thankfully, I was able to say my goodbyes to my parents after they finished up at the MTC.
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All in all, we couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous location to vacation. Happy 70th birthday, Grannie!
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