2012 Alaska Cruise Vacation...Gday!

THe 3rd load of laundry is spinnning and I am drinking a cup of coffee, so I figured NOW was the best time to post about our INCREDIBLE, AMAZING, BEST EVER VACATION!!!

We started our vacation(after the flights from Harrisburg, Chicago and to Seattle) on Monday morning. Mom, dad, Mike, Lori, Jim, Audrey and I, made our way UPHILL to the Space Needle. We traveled on the elevator up to the top and walked around. Beautiful view.
From there we hitched the monorail, where the driver let Audrey blow the whistle, and headed downtown to Pikes Place Market.

WOW. The beautiful CHEAP flowers alone were worth walk. All of the artists are local.
This is the place of FISH training that I bought and did 12 years ago with my staff at Campus Door.

We had a ball just looking around and listening to the local musicians.

Jim and Audrey caught their eyes on a GIANT Ferris Wheel, so she cried until we made our way there. It overlooks Seattles main waterways. We had a great ride.

 

Then, we headed over to the Seattle Aquarium. What a beautiful place. we got a great intro by one of the divers, met some pretty cool seals and enjoyed the unusual fish!

After a long day, we headed back to our room at the Homewood Suites in Seattle.  This place is a 10 out of 10 when it comes to a hotel stay, wonderful breakfast and dinner included.  Was excellent!

We woke up bright an early and hopped on the shuttle to get to our Cruise Ship, Carnival Spirit.
The entry and embarkation process was a breeze. We were in our rooms and ready to set sail by 1:30 pm.
This was Carnival Spirit's last Alaskan Cruise. It will now be docked in Australia as the first cruise ship of Carnivals to set sail there.

We were ready to go. We got Audrey all registered at Camp carnival for the week to enjoy the various activities included for her on the trip. The weather was clear and we were all very excited! We met up with our friends Bonnie and Paul on the safety briefing deck and we set SAIL!!!

On our second day of sailing out at sea, my parents renewed their wedding vows to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Jim and I gave them the renewal package as a gift for their anniversary last year.  what a top notch running of the wedding department.  They met with Ekataryna and she set them all up.  we met at the Chapel at 4:30 pm and My mom made her way down the aisle as my dad waited at the end. Captain Volpi performed their wedding vow exchange.  He has sailed with Carnival for 38 years and will be retiring, so it was a little extra special.

A beautiful service, even despite my mom losing her words half way through, which was very sweet.  We celebrated with very yummy white cake with strawberry filling and champagne afterward and headed down to the lobby for dancing before dinner.

On Day 3, we arrived in Juneau Alaska, where it was cold and rainy and foggy. BUT, it DID NOT Deter us from making our way to The Dog Mushers Camp and riding a wheeled sled pulled by 16 professional sled dogs...who TRULY WANTED to pull our big behinds.

 WHAT A FEELING! They whisked us at speeds like a roller coaster through the tall cedar woods, enjoying the ride along with us! After the ride, we got to smooch the puppies! WHAT A TREAT for all of us, but especially the littlest of the travelers. Audrey was in HEAVEN! and so were we

 

 

 The excursion was amazing despite the weather. We did a wee bit of shopping and set sail for Glacier Bay.

 

 

 OMG!  This was totally indescribable! The glaciers that soared above and in front of us were massive and amazing. We saw Whale, Seals, mountain goat. Dad saw a bear. The pictures and words cannot do this majestic place justice! GO, save, RUN to see it! We watched glaciers calving ( breaking off). The water inside them was a crystal blue.  It wasnt too terribly cold, and the whole ship of people stood out on the decks to take in the view.

 

 

The next day, we made our way to Skagway Alaska. We enjoyed gold panning with Paul and Bonnie and my parents.  Audrey even got in on the action. They taught us how to sift through the "pay dirt" and look for gold flakes. We all found some.  Then we took it in and weighed it and we had ours added to a necklace charm to wear.  I got a petrified walrus tusk and gold bead for my charm bracelet.

 

 

 

 
AND, we added the TO the Summit excursion which can only be described as foggy...thats it...foggy...and perhaps a bit funny lil waste of 2 hours.....but we laughed it off....er, everyone laughed at me for choosing to spend the extra time on a small bus filled with some questionable other cruise goers and our small little group.  Lori and Mike can be sure that they didnt miss anything.  LOL!  The gold panning was super fun so it made up for our foggy bus ride...did I mentioned cramped!  LOL!

 
We did manage to make our way into Canada...although we couldnt see anything. And I did manage to get some pictures, foggy pictures.

From there it was off to Ketchikan..with a 95% chance of rain. we awoke to....not a cloud in the sky!
I LOVE this place! The port is beautiful. The city was filled with great shops and lots to do.
we walked around a bit and enjoyed the DUCK BOAT TOUR...always a good choice. They wheeled us around town looking at sights and then into the harbor to enjoy some more sights there.

 

We visited the fire house for Jim to say Hello! Nobody was there but we snapped a pic!

THEN, I alone, was off to a second excursion to the rainforest. Why was I by myself, you may ask???

Because my selection of the To the Summit Fog tour wasnt well received, so everybody decided to NOT follow my excursion additions.

AND that was OK!

My parents took Audrey shopping.

I loaded onto a bus and headed to the Ketchikan rainforest, where I was SURE I was going to see BEAR!!!

And everyone laughed at me.....but I was....RIGHT 9TIMES OVER, I WAS RIGHT!!!

We hiked our way through the rainforest, with our Guide John H, a very knowledgeable young man. I learned ALOT on this excursion, about plants and wildlife.

And he made sure to tell us what to do if we see a bear.

I SPOTTED ONE FIRST!

Up in a tree about 50 yards away.

In all, I saw 9 bear, lots of spawning salmon, an otter, an eagle, and goodness knows what else.

We fed reindeer and saw a rehabbed eagle and owl.

Then, they took us to see John Hexson a local Totaem Pole Artist . VERY Interesting!

This excursion was THE BEST! Very well planned, very educational, and great sights!!!  I was so happy I left the rest behind to shop and go with my gut! It made up for the fog tour.

The last day at sea, we enjoyed whale spotting and all the activities the ship had to offer.

In between, we enjoyed SOOOO Many great activities and entertainment.

Audrey thoroughly enjoyed Camp Carnival, the ships' kids club. We would take her there 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night to play with the other kiddos and just enjoy some time to ourselves. That is a wonderful feature to the cruise ships that is included. So we could go and see a comedian and she could enjoy playing penguins and getting her face painted, making puppets, tshirts, and getting her face painted some more.

We enjoyed sunsets and time on the deck looking for wildlife. Fun meals, and dancin with Saneen our waitress.  We met some incredible people along the way and made some great memories!

Cheers to Alaska, to family to friends, to adventure on the high seas!!! To the Carnival Spirit and its staff!

What a journey of a lifetime!