Holiday Part 2 - Alaska Cruise

ALASKA

Saturday morning Mike and Holly drove us all the way to Seattle where we met up with my Mom and Chuck to go on our week long cruise to Alaska. Our ship was called the Norwegian Jewel and was a much bigger ship than the Bahamas cruise Matt and I went on last. I had told Matt before that on cruise ships there’s always a formal night and you can get food including fruit and ice cream 24/7. The last cruise did not meet the expectations for Matt, but this once certainly did!

View of Seattle from the ship

While at sea and hanging out on the ship we got to go to shows, play Deal or No Deal (more like watch someone else play), get massages at the spa on board, and eat lots and lots of food. Since we booked the cruise with my mom’s company Cruiselady we also got to hear from inspirational men Jack Marshall and Bob Millet from my church. On Sunday we had a small devotional where we got to hear from each of them. Since we can’t have sacrament on board the ship, this was definitely a wonderful alternative. We never made it to any of Jack’s other talks, but I did get to two other talks from Bob Millet and loved every one. Some of my favourite questions/topics were “What would it take to shake your faith?” and “If you died today, what kingdom would you go to?”.

Le Cirque Bijou acrobat show ended with the entire ship's crew

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, Alaska. We went to a fun lumberjack show and then took a bus to Totem Bight Park with the Cruiselady group. The show was a lot of fun and we got to watch two guys in our group compete in the axe throwing competition and one was the overall winner. The park was amazing to see all the totem poles as well as the history behind them. Sometimes the story behind the pole is what makes the totem more interesting. My mom and chuck had gone on a seaplane tour and because the weather was so amazing that they even were able to land on one of the lakes up in the mountains. I can’t imagine living somewhere that you could only get to it by seaplane.

The next port was Juneau, Alaska. The ship spent the first part of the morning traveling to a glacier called Dawes Glacier. Matt and I woke up at 6am to see it and ended up having to wait an hour for the ship to get there. We had a great seat in the front of the ship, but since it was rainy none of our pictures turned out very well. There were still a few hours till we actually arrived in Juneau so my mom and I went to do an Origami class on the ship where we made tulips. Afterwards we went to a Thomas Kinkade lecture in the art gallery. My mom has always loved Thomas Kinkade, but after learning about all the symbolism and spiritual meaning underlying each of his paintings I saw his artwork in a whole new light.

When we finally reached Juneau Matt and I went on a sea kayaking tour. We thought it was a tour near the large Mendenhall glacier, and were disappointed that we couldn’t even see it. Nevertheless, we had fantastic weather. It was pouring rain when we arrived at the kayaks but it stopped when we got on the water and didn’t start again till we got out. While kayaking we saw about 4-5 bald eagles, a couple of harbour seals, and one straggling salmon. It wasn’t as exciting as we had expected, but we still had fun.

In Skagway, Alaska we did the Chilkoot trail hike and river float. Chuck wasn’t feeling well so he missed it, but surprisingly only my mom, Matt, me, and one other old guy made up the whole group. The tour guide was great and explained a lot of the neat things about the plants along the way. The mountains were absolutely beautiful! It was a great way to see the beauty of Alaska.

So a side story from all our ports is that Matt and I did a bunch of shopping. In Ketchikan I bought a Philip Stein watch which is also supposed to have health benefits. Well it stopped working that night and neither Juneau nor Skagway had the same watch to replace it and I had to ship it to them to fix in the end. Additionally, we had found a magnet and a stuffed moose we like at the lumberjack show but when we got back from the totem park it was closed. We hunted in loads of shops trying to find something else we liked and finally in Skagway we found the moose and magnet! I was overwhelmed with how many jewellery shops there were and my mom says every cruise port has tons of jewellery stores and especially Diamond International Stores. I don’t wear much jewellery and I’m not much of a diamond person as it is too glam for me. One woman tried hard to convince me to buy a necklace and when I put it on even Matt said it didn’t fit my personality. Another sales rep said Matt was lucky that I wasn’t a jewellery person. It was the end of the season in Alaska so it was a great time to buy stuff since everything was on sale and you could bargain to even lower prices.

Our last port was Victoria, British Columbia. We spent the day with my mom and Chuck. Somehow we missed getting a map, but were able to take a bus to get to Craigdorroch Castle. Matt and I had been there before but the castle is constantly being changed and restored so there were a couple rooms and other details we didn’t remember. The beautiful buildings including the Empress Hotel and the Legislature building make Victoria such a unique city. My favourite part though was the harbour seals at Fisherman’s wharf.

Overall the cruise was fantastic and it has made us excited to do another one in the future! As this was part of our 5 year anniversary celebration, I feel it was well worth it. 

Holiday Part 1 - Oregon

I decided to have this blog in 3 parts as when I completed writing it all up it was 6 pages. So to not overwhelm any readers, I have separated it for you and will post only one per day.

I’m getting considerable better at recording interesting events in my journal daily so instead of giving you a play by play of my entire holiday I will try to focus mostly on the highlights or things I have pictures for.

OREGON

After four planes we finally arrived in Portland, Oregon. I had managed to catch a bad cold that week but the day we flew out it seemed to be almost gone. Unfortunately, all the pressure on the plane and lack of sleep made it worse. I got to spend my first day on our holiday mostly in bed. Matt’s brother Mike had arranged his family and grandparents to come to Salem that day for a barbecue lunch/dinner. I managed to survive a few hours on Dayquil but eventually got so tired I had to take a nap. My biggest worry was that I would get their two young kids Danny and Rocklynn sick. Luckily I woke up the next morning feeling much better.

The next two days we spent in Corvallis with Laura and Michael Dexter. Laura arranged for us to go out with some girls and float the Willamette River. As Matt was jealous we went again the following day, but bought a raft so Laura could go with her kids. It was a lot of fun! 

Laura and her kids Liam and Amelia

That night I also got to spend a little time with our friends Patrick and Valerie Gollmann and meet their son for the first time. Next we went to Eugene and stayed with Matt’s sister Jaime and her son Jacob. We didn’t have any big plans in Eugene other than closing our bank account there, and visiting friends and family. Matt was still struggling with jet lag so he enjoyed sleeping in late. Jaime made us curry the first night and we had friends Paul and Cassie visit with their daughter Anya, and Matt’s sister Lindsey and her daughter Amelia were there. It was fun to talk to them after a long 3-year absence, although I realised it’s difficult to spend much time catching up in just a short time frame. Some things you just don’t want to post on Facebook.

Matt's niece Amelia with Jamie's pitbull

Amelia with her rainbow dash jacket

The following day Matt and I caught up on the recent American Ninja Warrior videos while we waited for Lindsey. We all went to visit the Gateway Mall which had been completely redone since Matt and I were last there. It’s now mostly an outdoor style mall and we didn’t really like the changes. Considering how it rains most of the year there, it doesn’t make sense to me to redo a mall so that you have to go out in the rain to visit different stores. The layout seems way more complicated. On the bright side Matt found some great fudge at Cabela’s – a large outdoor sports store. To finish off our night we had all of the family meet at Papa’s Pizza and the kids loved being able to run around in the play area.

The family at Papa's Pizza

Matt's entire family kids and all!

Most of the week Matt had been trying to find a time to meet up with his best friend from his childhood. Finally, we worked out to meet Paul Suzuki and his wife Friday morning before we headed to Salem. Unfortunately, his wife wasn’t feeling well and so only Paul came. Although we spent a good 2+ hours at the restaurant, it just wasn’t enough time. I could tell Matt was sad that we didn’t spend more time with him, but sometimes on these holidays you can only get a few hours with people due to busy schedules.

Our last day in Oregon we went to the Oregon State Fair in Salem. Mike and Holly and their two kids, Laura and her two kids, Lindsey and her daughter Amelia, and Jaime and her son Jacob were there. Notice anything about the group? Matt and I were the only ones without kids! It was a lot of fun to experience the fair with a bunch of kids. We got to see them frequently change their minds about what they wanted to do or eat, and spend lots of time playing with corn. Our favourite was the petting zoo which had some less common petting zoo animals like deer, alpaca, and even a baby kangaroo! Another highlight was these large balls that float on water and all of the older kids got to go in one. They were pretty fun to watch. It was a fantastic day and I was glad we were able to spend that time with family and nieces and nephews. We may not live in Oregon, but I hope we can always keep contact so that these kids will grow up knowing they have family in Australia. 

Lindsey, Amelia, and Matt on the monster truck

Matt's nephew, Danny, in one of the blow up balls