Yo Ho

Word of Warning: After I had already invested time in waiting for pictures to upload I realized this post should have been broken into several posts. In the interest of my patience and not reloading pictures, I kept it all together. This means there are A LOT of photos.

Consider yourself warned.

It seems like it was ages ago, but it was only last week that we set off on a family cruise.

For one whole week we called this lovely boat home.

We set off from Seattle and enjoyed a day at sea before arriving in Ketchikan, Alaska.

While there we took in a lumberjack show. Then the boys set off for a brotherly hike.

The girls shopped and explored the little town...

...where we did happen to stumble across this guy.

The next morning we were supposed to visit Tracy Arm, but due to heavy fog the boat changed directions, and in stead we visited Dawes Glacier

Much of the morning was spent like this...

...until Ali had this brilliant idea.

That afternoon we arrived in Juneau, where we rented this beauty!

She did a fantastic job of taking us up to Mendenhall Glacier, where we not only saw the glacier but Chris had the opportunity to eat some of it too.

(Picture was lost in rearranging the photos-too lazy to try to put it back.)

That is what happens when you spend too long away from the buffet.

From there we made our way to a Catholic camp site where whales were supposed to be quite common. Despite having seen them off the boat already, we were hoping for a glimpse, which didn't come. As far as wildlife, this was the theme of our trip.

The next day we arrived in the spunky town on Skagway. We picked up another car and went for a drive into Canada to see sites such as this.

Despite reports of several bear sitings the day before, we again saw no wildlife. However, we did get a chance to stop in at the Red Onion and took a tour of this former type of wild life.

We have great friends that used to live in Skagway and hooked us up with a dogsled tour. It was really interesting to learn about the musher's way of life, although none of us are looking to take it up any time soon.

Ali just came for the puppies. Well, not really, but she did say she would be happy if she was just surrounded by them.

Our final stop was Victoria, BC. I can't even begin to tell you how happy Kevin and I were to be back there again.

While there we did spot this beauty, and of course thought of Kara.

Ali had friends there that showed us around and gave us a little history of the town as we took in the sunset.

While we didn't make it out to Butchart Gardens we were thrilled to find this huge collection of hydrangea, my favorite flower.

And, of course, how could you not resist staring at Parliament at night. It is just stunning.

When we arrived back in Seattle the following day we took off for Pike Place Market.

I fell in love with this hat...

...and this hat. Anyone know how to make either one of these?

As for our time spent on the boat, well you might say we had a good time.

We did a little of this...

...and a little of that.

We went here quite a few times.

And most everyone did this at some point.

We took in a couple sunsets.

But mostly, we just did a whole lot of this...

...and boy are we missing it.