we set off first to seattle. we walked to a mall near our hotel for dinner. it also just so happened to be the 4th of july, so we enjoyed the city's fireworks from our hotel room.
[fam watching the fireworks]
i would have been super pleased to see more of the city, considering its my favorite city's (portland) older brother. oh well. i'm positive i'll make it back someday. the next morning we set off in the direction of vancouver.
[helpful sign on the border. thanks canada!]
driving to vancouver was beautiful. and the border was stupid, as always. but it didn't take us too long, i just don't like waiting at all when i'm in a car. (blame it on my recently acquired road rage.) after renting cars, dropping cars off, showing passports 13 times, smiling for camera's, and a bunch of other necessary shit, we finally boarded our ship. mind you, cruise-ship security is a BITCH. equally as bad as the airport.
[sky and i after boarding & setting sail]
moving right along...we boarded. and ate. and ate and ate. and slept. and ate. we didn't set sail until about 6. the entire ship gathered on the deck to wave goodbye to vancouver, we were then sitka-bound. we spent the entire next day at sea. which almost sounds boring, until you realize what is happening on this boat...twenty-four-seven. everything. everything is happening. people are stuffing their faces with the all-you-can-eat-everything. people are gambling, playing bingo, attending movies, playing shuffleboard, attending live shows, taking pictures, getting massages, playing ping pong...god, i could go on forever. (i did all those, minus the massage. they were expensive.) at the end of our first day, everyone passed out for the night, and we arrived at sitka the next morning.
[our ship]
[ship deck]
[girl's room]
[shuffleboard]
[bingo - we didn't win]
[formal dinners]
SITKA
i must admit, sitka was my absolute fave! you could walk the entire city, not missing a thing within about an hour. for example, their so-called "arts fesival" which consisted of three different booths, accompanied by three different artists. not quite a festival in my mind. but, everything is smaller in alaska...right? (false. i know. everything is huge-er there) my ma, skyler, and buddy went fishing, while my dad, sierra and i toured the city and went whale-watching. the city was just awesome. there were loads of fresh salmon-berries lining the sidewalks. oh! and there was a super duper touch aquarium. my sister and i touched a lot of gooey sea creatures & dad thought we were gross.
[arts festival]
[fresh/delish salmon-berries]
[sitka islands]
[gooey sea creature]
[sitka church]
[huge anchor]
[sitka fog]
[totem pole]
WHALE WATCHING
us three had the time of our lives watching for whales. secretly we were all really watching for bears, though. we didn't find bears. what we did find was a school of whales that were way excited to meet us. they kept bubble feeding, blowing their blow-holes, and showing us their tails. they were super duper. we also found a sea otter. he didn't appreciate us in his waters, so he disappeared soon after. we ended up seeing quite a few bald eagles as well, which i quickly fell in love with. they're beautiful. i gained a lot of respect for our country. mainly for their choice of bird.
[dad and sis on our whale-watching boat]
[whales]
JUNEAU
juneau was the second city we happened upon. juneau is super, however we didn't see much of it. my little brother, steve, and sierra went fishing. sierra decided the boys had a lot of fun, so she wanted to try it. if i remember correctly, this is where they caught a shit-ton of salmon. hooray! however, i have yet to taste any of it...yet. The rest of us took a float plane to a little island, about a ten-minute flight away. there we ate some delicious food., but i forgot what it was. We then went on a hike around the island, and got attacked by mosquitoes. Also, I was quite sick this day. I threw up on the island, right after I arrived. Now we all know why Sitka was my favorite so far. Juneau was obviously still beautiful though, see:
[iceburg-enclosed mountain]
[iceburg from the sky]
[on the hike]
[playing horsehoes]
[dad and sky by our plane]
[me being sick & sad]
[juneau from the sky]
KETCHIKAN
Ketchikan was super duper. To me, it almost seemed like the west valley of Alaska though. No offense if you love west valley, or Ketchikan for that matter. I tend to feel hatred when thinking of west valley. BUT BUT BUT…I don’t hate Ketchikan. It just seemed to be super run-down, and not as beautiful or comfortable as the others. It was still very green (which I always love) but, buildings seemed to be older and all-in-all, we’ll just say it wasn’t my fave. I did go to the mall there though. They had a starbucks. We didn’t go on any adventures in Ketchikan, but us girls went shopping, which was fun. I got a cool ring, and some sweatshirts.
[my bear friend]
[a rad stairway]
[ketchikan's masonic temple. cool.]
Um, if you read all that, you’re super cool. I sure wouldn’t. In fact, I’m not even going to proof read it. So, if you find mistakes, don’t harass me. Thanks for your compliance.
here's some more random pictures, that i feel should be included:
[our adorable waiter, veljko, who sang to us at dinner]
[buddy and i cuddled in blankets]
[room service + digestive biscuit]
love you alaska. thanks for being fun.
