Cruising Day 8: Oh, Canada!

Victoria, Canada was the destination today, but it wasn’t until 6:30 PM that the ship would dock. We spent the day on the ship trying to find things to do to keep us busy and entertained. We all slept in and when I woke up I went for a run, and by the time I was done running, everyone else was ready to go and out to breakfast since it was almost 10:00. I went straight to breakfast from the gym, but unfortunately I just missed the buffet. I was able to grab a few things to eat before they took them away. The food and the food schedule was one of the most disappointing aspects of the cruise, since the buffet was only open for certain times during the day. We lost an hour last night coming back towards Seattle, so that is why we all slept in and had such a late start.

While I was eating breakfast, Lori and Lauren attended the towel making class and learned how to make a towel elephant. I joined everyone in time to see the towel animal show. It was a puppet show with all the towel animals singling and being moved all along the stage. It was a little dumb; OK, a lot dumb, but it was something to do.

After the show we went to the cafe for the family photo scavenger hunt. I really enjoyed the scavenger hunt. We were given one hour to find a list of 24 things on the ship. Mom, Lori, Lauren and I took off in the pursuit. One of the things we had to find was an employee from Europe and take a picture with them and have them write their name, mom was really good at that one and found someone fast. Mom also happily obliged and got an ice cream and took a picture while eating it. We also had to find the sweet shop, Cherry on Top and get a picture there.

We ran up and down the ship looking for Medusa’s head, a glass staircase, a crew only sign, a red frog, a glass elevator and more.

The funniest part was when Lauren and I read “a red funnel”, what on earth is a red funnel?!? We asked an employee and he said, it’s red and huge and at the tail of the ship. Of course! It is the big carnival tail, so we ran up and got a picture with that.

We only got 23 of the 24 items because we ran out of time, but it was fun and it gave us something to do. After the scavenger hunt, we got seats at the Follies Theatre to watch the Lip Sync Battle. Two ship guests battled for the winner of the lip sync contest. The ships entertainment group joined the lip singers on stage for a fun show and competition. When the show was done, the entertainers stayed on stage for guests to take pictures with them, and this was moms turn to get her picture. We took mom up and she finally got her picture with all the entertainers. Lauren then wanted a picture on stage, so she gets front and center and the ships entertainers totally photo bomb! It’s the best picture ever.

We finish up the day on the ship by going to dinner, by this time all of us are pretty done with the food and dessert, Lori doesn’t even eat her special made dairy free chocolate lava cake. We head back to the room and grab our stuff to get ready to disembark into Canada.

The ship didn’t get into Canada until after 7 PM, and we were scheduled to be back on board by 11:30PM. I guess I expected to have tour companies off the boat and things to do with cruises coming in late all the time, but I was so wrong.

We decided to save $20 by walking instead of buying tickets for a shuttle.  The city center was only a bit over a mile away, so we figured walking would be fine and then we could find stuff to do.

We were disappointed to find that other then transportation to the city center, there wasn’t any other excursions offered. So a walk to city center it was. As we walked we passed by some docks, office buildings with geese in the field and a park.

We keep going and are excited to see a bike rental company, but then are disappointed because it is closed. We then come to a gigantic beautiful building with a huge lawn and a totem pole. After asking around we find out that the building is the parliament building.

The Canadian parliament building was neat at night because they had lights on the entire thing. There was also a large statue of one of the queens in front of Parliament.

After admiring parliament, we go across the street to the hotel The Empress. We find out that this is the hotel where the Queen of England has stayed and also the location of Prince William and Kate's honeymoon.

We go into a tourist center which is just across the street from The Empress and ask about things to do and possible tourist sites or attractions, and are disappointed to learn that everything is closed and the tourist building is closing in three minutes. There is literally nothing to do except go down the street a little ways where there are some souvenir stores that are still open for a few hours. So, souvenir shopping it is.

We find some super cute postcards and are able to find a post office in one of the stores where we buy stamps and then mail our post cards. It was crazy expensive to mail a postcard, like $2.00 a stamp. We spend the next hour or so just going in the stores and walking down the Main Street. It was disappointing after all our other amazing excursions and stops, to have nothing to do and see, but I did get a cute shirt that say “I Love Canada”, and since Kevin is half Canadian, and my kids are 1/4 Canadian, I wear mine with pride.
We walked back to the ship and called it a night since it as so late. It wasn’t an amazing day, but I can say that I have been to Canada now.

The next morning, we all enjoy our last breakfast on the ship together.  The ship docked early, so passengers were disembarking early.  We just carry our luggage off with us and get off the ship just as quickly as we got on, there wasn’t even a line. We also got a taxi right away too, and were able to make it to the airport by about 8:15.

The original plan was to drop Lori and Lauren off at the airport and then mom and I were going to check into our hotel, but when we got to the airport I saw a kiosk for Korean Air and made the comment that I really wished I could go home. Mom says, Why not? And convinced me to get in line and see if I can move my ticket from tomorrow to today. My mom flies standby because she flies free since my brother is a pilot, and she was saying she wouldn’t mind going home today too.

I get to the front of the line and ask if I can get on todays flight and show them my ticket for tomorrow, I am told it’s a full flight and unlikely, but asked to go to the last assistant, she looked at my ticket, made a few phone calls, then asks if I am checking in any bags and takes my bags and hands me a ticket. What!?! It’s too good to be true, I ask if this is for today and she laughs and says yes, if I want it. Heck yes!

Mom then gets online and starts frantically looking for a flight that she can get on. We wait with her while she figured out her flights, then all help her check into Alaskan Air. Lori and Lauren have to leave now to get to their gate, so me, Lori and Lauren move on to security while mom figures out her flight info. I thought I would be able to hang with them longer, but right past security we have to go totally separate ways. Big hugs were exchanged and we part ways.

I didn’t tell Kevin I was coming home, but I did tell Brianne since she was watching Monster for me. I take the long flight home, catch a city bus and arrange for Bri to pick me up. I walk into the house and surprise the pants off Kevin. He was on the couch reading a book to Monster and Little A, and when I walked in he is just staring with his mouth wide open in total disbelief, while Monster and Little A run and attack me with huge hugs and kisses. It takes a while for it to register that I am home, and Kevin is just saying, what the heck? How on earth? Are you really home, how did this happen?! It was a fun and great surprise, I am so happy I got home a day early, best surprise ever!

Cruising Day 7: Rainy Day in Ketchikan, Alaska

Welcome to Ketchikan, Alaska! We docked before 7:00 and the ship was ready to disembark by 7:10. We all got up early today and we were ready to get off the boat by 7:30. We got off the boat and booked it to the Lumberjack Show. Our tickets were in will-call and the seating is first come first serve, we wanted good seats, so we made good time walking to the show. It was only about 5 minutes from our ship, so we were able to get some pretty great seats.

The Lumberjack Show is a fun show where two teams of two lumberjacks compete against each other in different events. They had two teams- USA and Canada. The audience was split in half so we could cheer for our team. We were on the blue team, Team USA.

The show was about an hour long. The referee was the main voice and would announce and describe the events. He helped create tension with the teams by encouraging booing, cheating and cheering.

The Lumberjacks did so many amazing events. There was log sawing vertical and horizontal. There was cutting logs with axes and chainsaws, and they also had to shimmy up a tree. The Lumberjacks also had a log on the water event where they had to stay on and try to get the other team off first. It was a rowdy, loud and fun show. While writing this, I totally forgot that it was raining the entire time. Luckily, the audience bleachers were covered and the seats were heated. I had on my waterproof boots, pants and rain jacket, so I didn't get wet. But poor mom was sitting right under a cable that was dripping water directly on her head. She had to get the umbrella out and cover her legs, so they wouldn’t get drenched. By the time the show was done, she was pretty much peppered with rain drops all over, while the rest of us were nice and dry.

Lori, Lauren and I signed up for Axe throwing after the show. We were taken behind the stadium with about 8 other people for axe throwing. We were shown how to throw an axe, then given one practice throw. On the practice throw I was able to stick the axe on the target on the first throw.

We were then given three throws to try to get into the finals. I didn’t land a single one. All my throws were way too high and completely missed the target. Lori and Lauren didn't have any luck either, and after four throws and $15, our time was done with the axe throw. Only two guys, a father and son, made it to the finals where they were able to throw two more times at the target. The dad ended up winning. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t do the axe throw. It just wasn’t well planned, it was way expensive, and not what I was expecting. I could play a carnival game at a fair for cheaper. But, it was done and it was an experience.

The town was such a cute little town. The buildings were all colorful and made of wood. It matched what I would view as a small dock town. While walking around, Lauren was told that the main totem pole is the same one in the picture in our passport book.  We had our passport with us, so we got the out to compare and sure enough, it is the very same.

As we were walking around, we came to Creek Street.  At first I didn't understand the significance of the street and why it was so special and why so many tourist were walking around in the rain on Creek Street.  The area just looks like a bunch of cute little souvenir shops and specialty stores. One of my favorite stores was a wood shop that had a wooden bear that held a sign that said 'Welcome' on one side, and 'Go Away' on the other.  After walking around Creek Street for a while, Mom informed me that this was the old "Red Light District" of Ketchikan and was the towns prostitution district.  I then looked more closely and past the cute shops, there were signs on each of the buildings with explanations of what each little building was during the Red District.  

Some of the descriptions included the names of the women who owned the houses.  One house was owned by Beatrice Greene, and she was described as the last working woman.  The house was dated as 1920, and it talked about Beatrice's history and how she went underground and continued in her work after the the authorities ended prostitution in 1954. Another house was owned by Dolly Arthur, who was described as the oldest working residents.  She worked from 1919-1940, and lived in the house until 1973. Dolly was known as the most famous "sporting woman". I probably shouldn't have liked Creek Street as much as I did, but it was so interesting to read the descriptions and see the houses still standing.  

We left Creek Street and spent the rest of our time getting rained on while going on a treasure hunt throughout the town. Before leaving the ship, we got a bunch of coupons for free charms, and bracelets and pendants, and mom was determined to get each and every possible one. It was fun watching her get all excited at the trinkets. The only embarrassing part was in the first few stores, she would ask for the free item then bring out a huge bundle of wet coupons and search for the coupon for the matching store we were in. By the last few stores, Lori, Lauren and I were in the “free” spirit and went in for the free trinkets too. It was a fun free treasure hunt. We didn’t even notice the rain.

We got back on the ship in time for a late lunch. I go to the Deli and the guys look at me and laugh, and make my weird requested sandwich without me even asking. For the past few days, for either lunch or dinner, I went to the Deli and asked for a number 10, without turkey. The description of number 10 is a turkey sandwich on pretzel bread, and underneath it says, turkey, avocado, arugula, basil and tomatoes. The first time I asked for it, both Deli workers stopped what they were doing and looked at my like I was crazy. I guess it was a first for them. I say again, a number 10, no turkey. He says, but a number ten is turkey. Oh no, I say, it comes with avocado, arugula, basil and tomato on a pretzel roll. So he says, you want an avocado sandwich? YES! He gets me. Of course he said it with exasperation. But in the end they both laugh and one of them makes me a sandwich. I explained that I live in Korea and avocados are a fortune there. He then asked if I like avocado, and I said, I love them. He said, are you sure? And then put a whole avocado on my sandwich. So, after the first time I asked for a ten no turkey, I never had to ask again, they would just see me and laugh and shake their head and make me an avocado sandwich. It was the best sandwich ever!

After lunch we enjoy the Hasbro Game show. People form the audience were picked to come on stage and play life size Hasbro games against each other. It was fun and entertaining. We wanted to get picked, but were never the choose ones.

After the game, my stomach and head weren’t doing too good, so I grabbed my iPad and a coke (that we bought in a grocery store yesterday) and find a quiet spot on the Lido deck. I relax with my coke and read my scriptures. It is Sunday today, and I feel bad for missing church, so I wanted to make sure that I at least read and studied my scriptures and some conference talks. I guess mom had the same idea, because about a half hour later, mom walks by with an ice cream cone and a book and spots me. She sat down with me and we both enjoy reading.

Tonight was our second formal night, so we go back to the room to get ready. We all get pretty and decide to get some pictures taken. We go to three separate photographers and take a bunch of pictures. It was fun doing a free photo shoot. They all call us sisters, and that makes us laugh. Sadly, it would have cost about $20 a picture and it didn't include a digital copy, so we never bought the pictures.

We enjoy a nice elegant dinner. By now, we are all pretty tired of the food and just want normal home cooked meals. I don’t even order a main course, I just order three appetizers. I think the thrill and newness of it has worn off and we are all ready to get back to our normal lives, food, and beds.  We had some pretty spectacular waiters.  Our main waiter was Micheal and Bjorn helped him out a lot.  We had one other guy that would fill our waters, but I never caught his name.  Micheal especially did an amazing jo in making sure the food was good, and that we were taken care of.

After dinner, we make our way to a Follies Theatre, for another performance, Epic Rock. Tonight’s show featured 80’s songs; the best songs in my opinions. The performers performed: Stairway to Heaven, I Would Do Anything for Love, Total Eclipse of the Heart, We Built This City and so many more! I loved loved all the songs. I really loved the show and the music because it spoke to me. This was the music I grew up with, and it was some great songs. Since tonight was the last performance, the performers opened up time for pictures. Lauren, Lori and I went and got pictures. And yes, I realize after the picture I had my hands facing the wrong way (hand to head slap).  Mom stopped to ask the Cruise director, Jen, a question about the blockbuster movies, so she wasn’t able to get a picture with them. She said she didn’t want one, but I think she really did. So tomorrow, we need to try to get her a picture with the performers.

After the performance, we go up to the Lido deck for more card games. After playing about five games, in which Lori had lost pretty bad on every single game, mom stops a girl that is walking by and asks her to shoot a picture.  Lori thought it was dumb that mom was getting a picture and she was upset about the repeated beatings, so she refused to smile.  I notice the girl is in a swimsuit and freezing, so I tell mom to let the poor thing go.  The girl is a good sport and takes our picture.  As we review the picture we all laugh until we are crying because there is a mirror behind us and you can see the girl in her swimsuit taking our picture.  It was either super funny or we were super tired, but we had a long laugh about that.

After our card game, we head to bed.  Tonight we were greeted by a super cool bat towel animal that was hanging from the ceiling.  This one is my most favorite one yet.

Cruising Day 6: Jeep ride through Juneau, Alaska

We woke up early for a 7:30 departure from the ship. I didn’t get to work out.  I hoped to fit it in sometime before bed, but that’s not going to happen. We quickly ate breakfast, all of which I was not feeling. I didn’t sleep so wonderful, or the ships rocking was beginning to affect me because I had quite a headache this morning. The food tasted rather nasty, so I didn’t eat much.

We got off the ship and made our way down the dock. We easily found our nose-hoop-pierced (is that a booger?) guide holding a large sign “4-door, 2-door self-interactive Jeep Excursion”.

We got instructions on where to go for our Jeep and started walking in the direction in which we were pointed. We passed a Welcome to Juneau sign and then found the Jeep shack.

We got a quick tutorial on the iPad and the interactive maps and GPS. We were able to pick and choose our route after asking a few questions and asking for recommendation. I handed over a paper with Lauren's and my signature, they took copies of our license and off we went. The car was parked up a curb and the last thing they said was don’t mind the curb, miles or gas, it’s all covered.

I started our Jeep driving adventure by taking the very first wrong turn. I quickly re-coursed then we were back on track. Our first destination was the Mendenhall Glacier. We had about a 20 or so minutes drive to the Glacier. As we drove the GPS car thing had a talking tour guide app that was giving us all the skinny on Alaska history, the Glacier, wildlife and more. We leaned all kinds of fun facts, like how Alaska was bought from Russia and was initially called the Seward's Folly.  Seward was the Secretary of State at the time. Alaska was bought for 7.2 million dollars, but it has shown to be anything but a folly! The State has gold and oil and has brought in so much money that there is a surplus of state taxes. We also learned that Alaska was the 49th State to join the United States.

We arrive at Mendenhall Glacier, grabbed a map, and decide on the Nugget Falls hiking trail to see the glacier. The Nugget Falls trail was a gravel super wide trail surrounded by lush green trees and bushes. There were a few signs that said the trail is shared with bears, and no food or flavored drinks allowed. I’m like, scared out of my brain, and have no desire to see a bear or encounter a bear. I’m convinced that if I ever meet a bear I will die instantly. Lauren, on the other hand, totally wants to see a bear.  She keeps talking about how cool it would be to see one.  Luckily, for me, we don’t see a bear. As more and more people join the trail we are on, I start feeling much better. I figure if a bear comes out, the more humans, the less chance it would attack. Gosh, how on earth do these Alaskans do it, share the land with bears?!

The Nugget Falls trail passes by a large lake and has some amazing lush greenery along the trails. The moss is amazing here, it’s so thick that you could totally lay down on it and it would be super soft.

We get to the waterfall, and it is just roaring. The falls are just soaring down and are smashing into the banks of the river. Lauren gets right up to the river and puts her finger in, just to snap them right back out because the water was freezing cold. The waterfall is run-off from the Glacier, so yes, it’s freezing. We get the mist blowing at us when we get too close because of the force it is coming down at.

From the Nugget Falls, we are about a mile closer to the Glacier. We are still super far from the face, but this is the closest we can get. The super crazy part is that where the visitor center is, a mile back up from the trail, is where the Glacier was in 1935! So in almost 100 years, the Glacier has melted and gone back so very much due to global warming.

We enjoy the view and breath it all in, then take the trail back to the visitor center. We go on a dirt trail that is closer to the lake on the way back. We are able to see some beautiful flowers and some bright blue icebergs in the water.

We get back in the Jeep and drive to our next stop, the Anger Lake. We get there and park, and notice there isn't really a great trail or reason to stay. We went up a trail for a few yards and realized it just continues. Since we already had already done a hike today, we decide to use our time elsewhere, and move onto our next stop, the Shrine.

The GPS was a tad annoying because it didn’t talk out loud, and because the little dot that represents you was totally way off. So it made it confusing when looking at the directions. I initially missed my turn, so did a quick u-turn and went down the road for the shrine. We came to a large cross and at first we were a little disappointed and was wondering why tourist would come to this spot. Luckily we saw a sign for the chapel, and followed the signs to a parking lot.

The church Shrine was pretty neat. The stone for the building was hand carried in, and the building itself was on a little island. We walked across the tiny strip of land to the church on the island. It was a small and modest building, with beautiful stone exterior.  The grounds were lush, green and wildly beautiful.

All around the grounds were 15 stone alters with a marble carving representing the life of Jesus. There were 14 that showed his suffering and trials, but my favorite was the last one- Jesus Resurrected. We had to search for this one, it was almost hidden behind bushes and off the trail. This should be the biggest statue and most important one, in my opinion.

We left the Shrine and our self-guided tour had us stopping and Eagles Picnic Area for the last stop. We turned into the park, and found picnic benches in a marsh-type land with the most majestic mountains as the back drop. We didn’t have any food with us, so we only stayed for a little bit and captured a few photos of the place.

We still had about an hour before we needed to return the Jeep, so we looked on our GPS for suggestions on landmarks and places of interest. The Governers Mansion came up, so we decided to tour the mansion before returning the car. We found parking across from the mansion and parked. We got out and the back gate was closer then the front gate, so we all stared walking to the back gate. Lori opens the gate and starts walking to the back door. We tell her we should probably use the front door for the tour, so we come around to the front only to find a big note on the door stating that the house is a resident house and not open for tours. We have a big laugh about that, comment on how dumb it is to include it as a point of interest, bow our heads and duck out quickly back to the Jeep for a get-away.

With about two minutes to spare, we return the Jeep. The Jeep return is right in the down town area, so we decide to hit up the shops around downtown. Mom found out that the diamond stores give out free charms for the cruise, so she stopped in every charm store and got many charms. She was super happy about that, mom loves free. We go in a souvenir shop and find post cards and super cute t-shirts. We all get sucked into the shirts and convince each other that we all need one, so we all get shirts. I bought some postage stamps, and wrote on four of the post cards right there for Kevin, the kids, Jonathan and Krista, stick a stamp on them and mail them right then and there. I think it will be cool for them all to get a postcard from Alaska and postmarked in Juneau. As we were leaving the store we saw a huge bear, we tease Lauren that she did see a bear after all today.

It starts to rain, and we have all gotten some great stuff, so we head back to the ship. We decide to wear our Alaska shirts right now, so we all get our shirts on, and Lairens is too small. There is 30 minutes until all on board, so she grabs her shirts and her recipes and runs off the ship to exchange the shirts for a bigger size. While Lauren is off running to the t-shirt store, the rest of us are eating a late lunch. I get pizza today because a salad just doesn’t sound very good. Lauren makes it back onto the ship just in time and meets us at the buffet for lunch.

We have about 30 minutes until our dining time, so we go back to our room. Mom, Lori and Lauren get a book out and start reading, so I start journaling our day. To which you are now reading.

We make our way to dinner the head straight from dinner to the Comedy show in the lounge. We have two new comedians- Seth and Smiley. Seth went first and was so loud. He mostly joked about how the kids have it good and how we took 14 hour road trips in cars without car seats and all the luxuries of today. He then spent a good 8-10 minutes talking about spanking and beating kids. At first it was funny, but he definitely took it a little too long and too far.

Next was Smiley and he was super funny. He made fun of the cruise hot water and toilets and how small the rooms were. He talked about gas from the food and said the kids should hold it in and then crop-dust people that walk slow to make them hurry. He kept it clean and was oh so funny and enjoyable. My sides hurt from laughing so much.

We left straight from the comedy show and went up one flight of stairs to the VIP Show- 70’s music. We enjoyed the singing and dancing of the 70’s. Our favorite song was Dancing Queen. The show was kept very clean and enjoyable until the threw in a male stripping scene where one of the guys went down to black boxers. We all took a breath of shock and averted our eyes elsewhere. Lauren said it was her favorite part and Lori commented on how naughty it was. I was just disappointed that they had to ruin the show with such a dumb thing. Oh this poor world is just getting more and more blind, accepting and dirty. Oh well.

After the show we went up to the top deck to our normal seats to play games and whale watch. I enjoyed popcorn and a Vanilla Coke while we played cover your assets and Trash Pandas. We went back to our room and were excited to see a bear towel animal.  Lauren might not have seen a real bear today, but she did see two cute ones. It was a great way to end a great day.