ALASKA :)

Overall Alaska Summary:

Wednesday (July 21st) - Flew into Anchorage, Alaska and stayed there for the night. We got in around 1am eastern time, but went out to dinner anyway at a local brewery. Finally made it in bed around 3am (or 11pm Alaska time).

Thursday and Friday- Stayed at two different lodges owned by Princess Cruises. First was at Mt. McKinley. And second was around Denali National Park. Here, a few of us went into the park and watched a sled dog demonstration.. and got to hang out with all the pups and pet them for a bit. Very neat.

Saturday- boarded a train that took us from Denail National Park to Whittier where we boarded the cruise ship. It was about 8 hours long.. but wasn't too bad. Had restaurants, a outside viewing platform, and lots of alcohol :) The scenery was amazing.. and most of us saw a few moose!

Sunday and Monday - These two days we were just at sea.. and headed towards Skagway, Alaska. We saw several different glaciers on these two days.. along with some wildlife (bears and whales).

Tuesday - Skagway, Alaska (first port day off the ship). Everyone did different excursions this day. Seth, Dad, and Thomas all went on a very scenic but unsuccessful fishing trip on Chilkoot Lake. Mary, Mom, and I went into town and did glass blowing.. along with lunch and a garden tour. Most everyone else went ziplining for the day. The glass blowing was a lot of fun though! Bought home a few pieces.. one that I helped make and a bowl that I bought.

Wednesday- Juneau, Alaska. We did a group excursion this day (all 13 of us). Whale watching. We saw several whales.. all Humpbacks. And then we saw a couple sets of dolls porpoises. They kind of look like mini killer whales.. same coloring just 1/16 of the size.

Thursday- Ketchikan, Alaska. Jeff and Patty were the only ones that did an excursion this day (Plane tour). The rest of us took this day to just walk around town.. have lunch at a local pub.. and buy souvenirs.

Friday - At Sea. Not much going on this day. Just hung out on the boat. Played lots of games. And played Bingo of course. I'd say the highlight of this day was my husband volunteering himself to go on stage to participate in the hypnotist act. Quite possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile.

Saturday (July 31st) - Vancouver, Canada. We were off the boat by about 9:30am. From here, we went to the airport to store our luggage for the day. We decided to go explore Vancouver.. considering we had about 12 hours before our flights left. So we took the local metro into downtown.. went out to lunch at a yummy restaurant called Speakeasy. And then went and walked around a local park for the rest of the day.

Thomas and I finally got home around 6 on Sunday night. We flew into Charlotte but made a quick stop to see Miss Emma Joy for lunch :) Needless to say, its been a rough week so far for both of us. We're a little jet lagged and haven't had much energy to unpack yet. Not to mention that yesterday was Thomas' birthday so that definitely took precedent over unpacking! But we'll find the time to do it eventually, I guess :)

That's it for now! Hoping to have some pictures posted on facebook soon. Of course, none of our pictures will compare to the 2000 that dad took :) But we did get a few good ones so we'll get them up asap!