Canadian/Alaskan Adventure

Brian and I just returned home from our 10 day Canadian/Alaskan adventure. While we definitely caught up on sleep, we're suffering from jet lag today. We took off on our adventure on the 11th with a 4+ hour flight to Vancouver, BC. Saturday we took a nice walk to Stanley Park, toured the Vancouver Aquarium and walked around downtown. Sunday morning we caught a cab down to the cruise ship terminal and boarded our home for the next 8 nights, the Celebrity Mercury. The ship was on the older side but you really couldn't tell. They've done a great job redoing the inside. Since we were going to have beautiful scenery almost the entire time, we splurged and got a suite with a nice deck.

After a relaxing day at sea, we pulled into our first port of call - Sitka, AK. We had to tender into the harbor (I don't do well with small boats so I took some Dramamine). We had pretty smooth waters so my stomach was fine. Sitka was a really nice small town. It was definitely on the cool side and it drizzled the whole time we were there. They had a beautiful Russian Orthodox church in the middle of town that we visited along with lots of shops.

We hopped back on the boat and headed off to our next destination, the Hubbard Glacier. It was SUPER cold that day and it got colder the closer we got to the ice. We were incredibly lucky. We had beautiful weather, calm seas and next to no ice in the water. We had the closest approach to the glacier any ship had all season long. We got within a quarter mile of it and boy could we tell. We sat out on the patio huddled in our sweatshirts, jackets, hats, scarves, gloves and those Snuggie blankets you see on TV. Even then I was still cold. We didn't get to see any calving (when big chunks of ice break off and splash into the water) but we did hear a lot of "white thunder" (when the ice breaks and shifts up on land).

Our next destination was the capital of Alaska - Juneau. It was another quaint town. Lots of shopping near where the ships docked. Brian and I took a walk to see another really old church and then over to the capital building. We walked around the corner and found the Governor's mansion as well. We strolled back into town and took the Mt. Roberts tram up to the top of Mt. Roberts. It was amazing to ride the tram up through these incredibly tall trees. We watched a short video about the local Native American tribes in the area and checked out the spectacular views of Juneau.

Our final stop in Alaska was in Ketchikan. Again, it was raining - quite a bit harder this time. This was the only shore excursion Brian and I signed up for. After hearing about Sally and Jason's zip lining experience on their honeymoon, we decided to give it a try. We rode up the mountain in what looked like a golf cart on serious steroids. There were points in time where the incline was so steep, I was sure we would go sliding back down the mountain. We got all suited up in our harnesses and headed out to the course. Brian and I ended up being separated because he volunteered to go first and I wasn't quite ready to take the leap. I was the last one in our group of 9. The whole thing was lots of fun. Not even the rain could ruin the outing. I'll definitely have to give it another try when it's not so wet. We didn't take any pictures or video because of the rain which was disappointing. We didn't see anything else of the town because by the time we got back to the ship, it was time for dinner. Perhaps one day we'll go back and check out Creek St. or the logger show.

We had another day at sea after we left Alaska. The water was on the rough side but calmed down around 3 pm as we re-entered the Inside Passage. We did lots more reading and napping. We had to order lunch in because of the rough water. My stomach couldn't handle sitting upright for more than 10 minutes or so. Thankfully it was nice and calm well before dinner as it was our last formal night and lobster night. I will say that the food on the ship was fantastic and that night was no exception. At the end of dinner and before dessert, they introduced the head chefs and the folks in charge of the wait staff. They had a really nice parade around the dining room carrying Baked Alaska. Finally, just before they cut into dessert, we all got to witness a marriage proposal!! It was so incredibly sweet. Of course she said yes, and as it turns out, their table was right across from ours.

Our final port of call was Victoria, BC. All the locals on the cruise told us about the unusually warm summer they had been having and that day was no exception. The sun was out all day and it was on the warm side. It would have been wonderful had I not been in pants and a long sleeved t-shirt. I figured we were going to Canada so there wouldn't be any need for t-shirts. Boy was I wrong. Thankfully there were cool breezes and it was quite comfortable in the shade. We had a nice walk down to the old harbor, saw the Empress Hotel as well as the Parliament building, both of which were incredibly beautiful. On our walk back, we came across a really pretty courtyard with a beautiful fountain. They also had shields with the flag of each province on them flanking a beautiful water wall. We had one more nice dinner on the ship and then it was off to Seattle.

My only complaint for the whole trip would be the disembarkation process. We had asked for Express Walk off since we had a flight to catch. It wasn't well organized and there was a huge crowd of people all trying to get off the ship with their luggage at the exact same time. Thankfully we had no problems once we were off the ship. I think that was the quickest trip through immigration and customs I've ever had in all my travels. They barely glanced at my passport and didn't even look at our customs form. We hailed a taxi and were off to the airport. We were missing the boys so much, we decided to see how much it would cost to get on an earlier flight. We had originally thought it would be $150 each but when we go there it was only $50 a piece so we splurged and caught the earlier flight. We were on the ground in Houston before 6 and home before the boys went to bed. All in all, it was a great trip. We're both well rested and ready to tackle whatever lies ahead.

Here's a slide show of our trip. I haven't added captions yet. It goes in the order of our trip so hopefully you can match up the pictures to what I've described.