I thoroughly enjoyed Seattle and Alaska! Above is the ship we got to cruise on called the Norwegian Star. I believe it was a little bigger than the Pride of America, the ship we did our Hawaiian cruise on. Still, I feel that our Royal Caribbean cruise has been the best so far. Anywho, the weather for the whole trip was apparently unusually sunny and perfect. Our days in Seattle were perfect and every stop along the cruise was nothing but sunshine and nice weather. However, Keith and I did discover that while the weather on land was perfect for regular long sleeves and pants, the attire needed for being on deck while the ship was moving is another story. Keith thinks what he thought was sunburn one day may actually have been wind burn, lol. I forgot how windy it would get while the ship was sailing and it was so not warm winds like in the tropics! Next time we decided to do a cruise into cold regions we will arm ourselves with hats, ear muffs, scarves, mittens, long johns, etc. I was actually forced, well I say forced but not unhappily so, to purchase another sweater (I do in fact have a sweater fetish which I’m only too happy to oblige at any chance).

Despite us both having to buy some cold weather accessories along the way we loved every minute of. Well, expect for a incident we had on our Skagway stop which involved Keith slipping on a slimy rock and falling into the ocean. Keith got out safely and it only lasted a matter of seconds but it will listed as the second most scary thing I’ve experienced in my 25 years (the first being thrown of my horse for the first time and having the breath knocked out of me). I think my heart rate will always speed up whenever this incident crosses my mind. I barely kept myself from hyperventilating when it was over and we were walking a soaking wet Keith back to the boat for a change of clothes and some minor first aide. He got some minor abrasions and cuts climbing back up the rock he slipped off of but lucky that was the worst of it. If there’s a greater being out there watching over us then they sure were taking care of us that day. The incident was minor but I can’t help but think of how much worse it could have been. Definitely shook me up.

ANYWAY, scary incident aside, the rest of our stops went extremely well and I enjoyed our first excursion in Ketchican the best. It involved us driving our own little motorized raft and we went out all around the bay and channels and then got to stop at a little campsite where they fed us odd food laced with salmon. Well, to Keith it was normal but to me it was…”ew”. Keith drove the raft the whole time, I was having more fun sitting up front and holding on while he hit some great bumps! Man it was a blast! Check out my Facebook photo albums for all the pics.

Let’s see, our second stop was Juneau where we went to see the Mendenhall Glacier and then to a Salmon Bake. Keith, of course, was able to appreciate the fresh salmon while I appreciated the chicken breasts provided for those who weren’t into fish Fish is soooo ew! *blows raspberry* Oh! The Glacier park had some nice trails to hike and we decided to not get a map and choose one that had questionable length. Long story short we ended up speeding walking the last bit of our hike and being the last two to get back on the bus. When we made it back down to the bus our bus driver was looking for us and was about to leave us to care of a cabbie, LOL!

The third stop was Skagway, the one stop where we hadn’t signed up for an excursion. We’d decided Skagway would be our DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Day. The major excursion set up for this stop was a train ride and since we went on one in Colorado last summer I figured we’d just wander around ourselves. We  may never have a DIY Day again because you leave tourists to their own devices and they go and fall into the ocean! Figures! Before Keith’s fall we did get to hike around a bit and after the incident we stuck to the town itself and found some trails that went up a mountain. We were both rather rattled after his fall so we just did some light shopping and exploring for the rest of our time in Skagway. It’s layout was that of an old western frontier town and it had some really cute little shops and parks. Pretty nice. It was also where I got my first Pepsi in whole week!! So the two things I will remember most about Skagway: Keith falling into the ocean and a blessed bottle of Pepsi!

I was so happy about the Pepsi because we had decided to be good and not pay the additional money to be allowed soda on the cruise. Ever seen a hard core coffee drinker go cold turkey off their caffeine? That would have been me if I didnt’ some Pepsi soon! >:-)

Anywho! Our last stop was Prince Rupert, BC. We did a nice easy nature walk with a couple grad students as our guides. It was nice and relaxing and we got to see some serioulsy impressive ceder trees. Until we stopped at Prince Rupert we hadn’t been troubled by any insects but misquitoes I saw along this hike were….REALLY BIG MISQUITOES! I think a kid got carried off! For serious! Hehe.

So despite Keith’s little run in with the ocean I think it was definitely a great vacation. I hope I get to do it again with my mom in few years. I would also love to explore Washington State from top to bottom. Seattle is wonderful but it’s only a small part of Washington and I bet the whole state is gorgeous.

Also, while we were on this trip they did a presentation of NCL’s new ship the Epic and it’s cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. For a minute I toyed with the idea of just doing a wedding in NC and then doing a honeymoon cruise on the Epic. But…then I started looked through more Hawaii wedding things and realized I really do want to do in Kauai. I’ll put a future cruise on the Epic down on my wishlist, hehe