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.