Home

After a whole day of flying we are finally home. Thanks everyone for checking out our blog. We had alot of technical difficulties along the way. The internet connection on the ship was very slow and would not let us upload pictures.

We would also like to thank Phil, Barb, Carol, Mom, Lu and Dan for a great vacation. We had a great time and alot of fun. We will never forget our time with you guys and hopefully we can do it again in the future.

We would also like to thank Rex and Kris for taking such good care of Caroline and Nathan while we were gone. We never worried about them because they were in such good hands.

Until our next vacation............

Fairbanks

Our last day of our trip and we are in Fairbanks. We went on a riverboat tour that showed us how people lived and traveled in Alaska. Many people have bush planes, they park them right in their yards. We stopped at an indian village and learned how they lived in the past. They still hunt and fish every summer in the same place where their ancestors did.

Tomorrow we leave for home. We have had a great time and can't wait to see the kids:)

Denali

I am feeling much better this morning. We are off on our nature tour. We are promised beautiful scenery, but as far as the animals, that was not promised. Denali is home to Mt. McKinley which is the tallest mountain in North America. It is 20,000 feet, we weren't able to see it very well, because there were clouds around the top.

We saw grizzly bears, moose, rabbits, ground squirrels and birds on the trip. So it was a great animal day. We met a native american that showed us some of the clothing he wears in the winter. It gets -40 degrees in the winter. I'm glad it was not cold when we were there:)

Tomorrow we go to Fairbanks for a riverboat tour. Until then........

Train ride from Hell

We were up at 5 am ready to venture in the unknown. Ahead of us was a 10 hr train ride to Denali National Park. Most of you may not know that I get really bad motion sickness. I have been wearing the patch during the cruise. I only had one left, it will last for 3 days. We still had 4 days left on our trip. I needed to make sure I had it for the airplane ride home. So I thought I would just take Dramine. Well the train ride was very bumpy and the dramine was not working. I slept most of the trip and once we got to our destination I slept the rest of the night. So it was not a great day for us.

We were now about 1 hr from Fairbanks and had the fun experience of it never getting dark. The sun would set at midnight and be up again at 4am. It never really got dark, that was something to get use to.

Tomorrow we have a nature tour of Denali National Park. Hopefully I feel better:(

College Fjords

Again we did not get off the ship today. Most of the day we were sailing to College Fjords. A Fjord is a place where glaciers have made deep passages through the mountains. There were 6 different glaciers, all named after colleges.

This was our last day on the ship. We had a great trip and our waiters were awesome. Thanks for a great experience Jovanne and Simon:)

Tomorrow we have a 10 hour train ride to Denali National Park. Until then..........

Glacier Bay

We did not get off the ship this day. The whole day we sailed through Glacier Bay National Park. It was alittle scary at first. There were alot of big pieces of ice in the water. I remembered my Dad telling me to watch out for icebergs. We saw many pieces of ice calving, that means pieces falling off the front of the glacier. There were many harbor seals, whales and birds that called the park their home. It was a cold day sailing through the park.

Tomorrow we sail through College Fjords. Until then...........

Skagway

We have had a wonderful trip so far. The weather has been great and we have met alot of nice people on the ship.

Skagway is a very small town that grows to three times its size when the cruise ships come to port. We went to a dog musher's camp and horseback riding.

The dog musher's camp was very interesting. We got to ride in a wheeled cart that was pulled by 16 dogs. They had no problem pulling us and 6 other people. These dogs are known as Alaskan Huskies, which really means muts. They are small but mighty. They are trained like marathoners, not weight lifters. We listened to a guy that competed in the Ididrod this past March. He finished in 15 days, which is about the middle of the pack. We also got to hold some puppies that were born last month. They were so cute:)

That afternoon we went horseback riding. It was a very relaxing ride. Paul rode Willow and I rode Homer. We learned alot about the gold rush days and how some of the women made a living. One women made pies and sold them for $5 which would be like selling them for $90 today.

Tomorrow we will be sailing though Glacier Bay National Park. Until then.........

Juneau

Hey everyone, we had some technical difficulty the last few days. The ship is on a satellite hook up, so going in and out of the mountains has not been good for getting on the Internet.

Tuesday we stopped in Juneau. The weather has been great, the locals say that it is usually raining. We have not had any the whole trip, we have been lucky:)

In the morning we rode bikes out to Mendalhall glacier. It was a nice leisurely stroll through the city. After checking out the glacier, we were taken to the Alaskan Brewery. We were able to sample 6 different beers. Paul liked the amber and I liked the raspberry wheat. The bad thing is that they do not sell this beer in Missouri:)

In the afternoon we went zip lining. We were hundreds of feet off the ground. It was very scary at first, but by the end we wanted to go again.

Tomorrow we will be going to Skagway. Until then.............

Ketchikan, Alaska

We had a fantastic day of fishing on the inside passage near Ketchikan, Alaska. The weather and the view was perfect. I caught two 5 lb. red snappers and a 10 lb. sand shark. Although I had a great day fishing, Christa was the big winner of the day, she caught a 15 lb. halibut and 3 red snappers all bigger then mine. Our fishing expedition finished with a shore lunch made with the fish we caught. My favorite part of the meal was the rhubarb-blueberry bread pudding:)

Tomorrow we stop in Juneau. We are going to take a bike ride to the glacier and then go to a brewery (yippee). Then in the afternoon we will be zip lining through the rain forest.

Until tomorrow.........

At Sea

We finally got aboard the ship yesterday around 1 pm. The ship is huge with anything and everything you can think of. Once we finally got settled into our room we went up to the top deck to check out the view. It is so beautiful, it took my breath away. It was really hard to go to sleep because you don't want to miss a thing. We have been trying to see whales, but have not see one yet. I guess you need to be very patient and I'm not good at that:)

Our first port is Ketchikan. We will be going fishing and it sounds like the shopping is awesome also. Our fishing expedition starts at 6:30am. So not much partying tonight for Paul and I.

Until tomorrow.......

PS- I can not up load pics today, maybe tomorrow:(

Trolley tour of Vancouver

We had a very eventful day taking a trolley tour of Vancouver. We started the day in Stanley Park. There were beautiful gardens, awesome totem poles and great walking/running trails. From the park you can see downtown Vancouver. Tomorrow Paul and I will be running on the trail that goes around the park.

After Stanley Park, we went to Granville Island. It has a public market that was wonderful. There were many vendors with yummy looking fruit, veggies and deserts. It must be the place to be because I swear everyone in the city was there.

We then jumped back on the trolley and went through Chinatown. We saw some older asian women that were collecting donations for the earthquake victims. One of them sang in Chinese for us.

Our last stop was Gastown. It was probably the most touriste place in the city. If you want something that says Canada on it, you will find it there. The cruise ships dock only a couple blocks away, so it gets really busy when the boats dock.

We board the ship tomorrow to set sail for Alaska. Until tomorrow.......

Vancouver, Canada

Hey everyone, we are in Vancouver for a few days before we get on the cruise ship. We have been touring the city. Our hotel is located downtown, which is nice because we can walk everywhere. There are a lot of shops and restaurants. Last night we walked down to the Boathouse restaurant. You can see English bay while you eat. The food was great. After dinner we walked on the seawalk. The seawalk is 5 miles long and is a place where a lot people like to run, walk, bike or rollerblade.

Today we took a tour to Capalino suspension bridge and Grouse Mountain. While up on the mountain we saw grissly bears that they had rescued and now live in captivity. We also saw a lumberjack and I even got a picture with them.

Until tomorrow:)

Pondering?!

Only a couple of days before we leave and I am pondering what to pack. The temperature can range from 40 to 75 degrees. I know what a dilemma. So I think I will pack a little bit of everything. It makes me think of the scene from Titanic when Rose is boarding the ship and she has a whole car full of luggage. For Paul's sake, I hope I can fit everything into two suitcases:)

I am both excited and nervous. I have never been on a cruise ship before and I have really bad motion sickness. So I am going to try using the patch, but the doc told me that it could make me drowsy. Paul was happy to hear that because maybe it will slow me down a bit. He likes to relax more so than I do. I want to see and do everything, Paul would rather take a nap:) So we will plan to do a little of both.

I will post again once we are in Vancouver, so check back!

Getting Ready to Go

Only one week left before we leave and we thought it would be fun to share with everyone our adventure to Alaska. We will try to post a new blog everyday, so check back often.