Day 1
Today we flew out to Seattle. We cashed in our frequent flier miles for the flight and flew first class. (It was the same number of miles to fly first as it would have been to fly coach.) After checking into our hotel, we wandered around Pike Place Market a bit and ate dinner at The Athenian (which is a restaurant that happens to also be featured in Sleepless in Seattle).
Day 2
We wandered around Pike Place a little more this morning and stopped for coffee at the original Starbucks. We then headed over to our ship, the Carnival Spirit. The ship left Seattle and started heading up towards Alaska.
Day 3
We spent the whole day at sea. There was some beautiful scenery outside, but it was a bit chilly, so we didn't spend much time outside. Our ship had an onboard naturalist, Michelle, who would let us know if there was any wildlife around the ship and also did several presentations throughout the trip on glaciers, whales, and the other wildlife we would see. This was our first formal night on board the ship, and we ate both lobster and duck for dinner.
Day 4
It was pretty cold (about 50 degrees with a decent breeze and drizzling rain), but we still spent most of the day outside. While we stayed on the boat all day, the boat cruised through the Tracy Arm Wilderness Area, and particularly, Tracy Arm Fjord. (For those who do not know, a fjord is what is left when a glacier melts and is deep enough even for a cruise boat to get through.) It was beautiful. I think we took more than 100 pictures this day. It is impossible to describe to beauty here. It is something that simply needs to be experienced.
Day 5
The ship docked in Skagway, AK today. We spent the morning at a National Park Service center that descibed the role Skagway had in the Yukon gold rush. A ranger also took us on a tour of the town and pointed out some the the historical highlights. We also wandered around the town a bit. In the afternoon we had booked a shore excursion through Carnival. Our tour went to Liarsville, a recreated tent city on the edge of Skagway that ahd been formed by stampeders during the gold rush. (It was called Liarsville because the journalists that had been reporting the gold rush had told so many lies about it.) We then drove in a bus up the Yukon highway to the summit and a little into the Yukon territory in Canada.
Day 6
Today the ship docked in Juneau, AK. We did not really get to explore the town on our own because we had booked two excursions. On the first, we went to a closed down gold mine. We toured the compound, learned about hard rock gold mining, and got a tour inside the mine led by an actual gold miner (and not an ordinary tour guide). They are thinking about possibly reopening the mine, so we were fortunate that we caught it while they were still giving tours. In the afternoon, we got a bus tour of Juneau, visited a salmon hatchery, and then went out to Mendenhall Glacier. I wish we would have had more time at the glacier. There were beautiful hiking trails. We started on a trail to a waterfall, but had to turn around before we got there so we wouldn't miss our bus.
Day 7
Today we were docked in Ketchikan, AK. We did a self-guided walking tour of the town. Of course, it rained all day, which made it a little bit miserable. Ketchikan is known for the many totem poles around town. While on the walking tour, we visited a museum about the history of Ketchikan, a museum on totem poles, and the Alaska Discovery Center, which is a museum done by the US Forest Service about the natural history of Alaska, particularly southeast Alaska and the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest national forest in the US. (We visited the sister museum at Mendenall Glacier in Juneau, which is also in the Tongass National Forest.) Our day in Ketchikan was very short, however.
Day 8
We spent most of the day on board the ship. The ship had a short 4th of July party, which we attended. We also participated in the Chicken Olympics (one of those crazy things they can probably only get people to do on a cruise) and finished in third place. (My knees did get pretty beat up while participating.) They moved our dinner time up a little bit (although we were still rushed), because we stopped in Victoria, BC that night. We took a horse-drawn carriage tour of the town. It was a short stop and town was a bit of a ways from the boat, so we didn't have time to do anything else.
Day 9
The boat docked back in Seattle this morning. After checking into our hotel (which, fortunately, already had our room ready at 8:15 in the morning), we headed to Seattle Center. We first went to the Experience Music Project, which is a museum of music, particularly the Seattle music scene. (For example, they had an exhibit on Nirvana and an exhibit on Jimmy Hendrix.) The most interesting part (and the room with the most people) was the room where a video and computer program taught you a little bit about how to play rock band instruments. I learned to play the bass part for the song "Wild Thing" and tried to learn some power chords on the guitar (which I have always wanted to learn to play, although I was still not very good at them). In the afternoon we went to the Pacific Science Center, which had some wonderful exhibits. The best ones were on the science of fear, as well as the tropical butterfly house. In the evening we took a tour of the Seattle underground. It provided a lot of the history of the formation of Seattle and was very interesting.
Day 10
We flew back home today, arriving home around midnight. (We flew coach this time, though, as we paid for these tickets ourselves.)
I'll admit, I was not quite ready for this vacation to end and to be back in the real world. However, at least I will get to go visit some wonderful college friends next weekend, which helps me remember that my summer (while getting closer and closer to the start of another school year) is not yet over.
While we took more than 200 pictures on vacation, here is one that just barely begins to show the beauty of Alaska:
