Alaskan Cruise: Part deux

Are you ready for more pictures? I've got lots.

For the rest of the cruise, we made two stops: Ketchikan and Victoria.

For our visit in Ketchikan, we went on another hike through the Tongass Rainforest, which was really cool. Did you know this rainforest covers 17 million acres of Alaska??? Yup, there's a little fun fact about Alaska for you there. It felt like I was in the movie Ferngully because it was so green.

 There were giant slugs too.

Ward Lake 

After our hike, we went and hit the shops in town. Our hike guide told us to go to a chocolate store and get their chocolate covered oreos... 

So we did. And they were so good that I had to take a picture. Chocolate covered oreos, why didn't I ever think of that??

We also saw saw some totem poles and pretty flowers....

Ketchikan was great... and very wet. They get over 200 inches of rain every year (I could be an Alaskan tour guide now with all of these fun facts). It actually seemed busier than Juneau, which surprised me. So, if you ever go to Ketchikan, go to the rainforest and grab yourself some chocolate covered oreos. I suppose you could make some at home, but that just wouldn't be the same as Ketchikan oreos, right?

The next day, we stopped in Victoria, BC for a few hours that night. Everyone told us that Butchart Gardens was the place to go in Victoria, so that's where we went. We're really good at doing what people tell us to on vacation. It's a good thing too, Butchart Gardens was probably my other favorite excursion. I also took the most pictures here.

 You walk in, and see some stuff like this...

And then you walk some more and you look over a ledge where you suddenly see this:

Gorgeous, right? This is just the beginning. 

 All of this was part of "The Sunken Garden"

And then we went through the Rose Garden (do you see that great new Alaska jacket I have on? Got that in Ketchikan)

And then we went through the Japanese Garden

I didn't get a ton of great pictures here because my camera kept taking blurry shots... as seen above. 

Anyways, after all this, we were at the end of Butchart Gardens.

I loved it there, I would love to go back someday. 

After Butchart Gardens, we went and walked around Victoria for a bit... although I'll be honest we were there later in the evening so there wasn't a whole lot to do. But, it is a cute city that was fun to see!

 The Empress Hotel, very popular place

 The Legislature Building at night

 We got some mini donuts that melted in your mouth.. they were so good that I had to post a picture of the stand we got them at. 

I would love to go back to Victoria one day when we have more time to enjoy the city since we didn't get to very much while we were there.

On our last day, we just walked around Seattle for a bit until it was time for us to go to the airport. I didn't take many pictures there just because I took so many pictures from Butchart. :)

So there you have it, that was our Alaskan cruise! I totally recommend going on one someday. This was my first cruise, and I loved the experience. If you are thinking about a cruise, here are my tips:

- If you want to sleep great and save some money, get an interior room with no windows. We slept great at night because it was so dark.

- That being said about the interior rooms... If you get claustrophobic easily and want to see sunlight in your room every now and then, it's worth the extra money to pay for a room with a window or a balcony (which is what my parents had) 

- we went through Norwegian Cruise Line, where there is freestyle dining. You can eat when you want and where you want and you don't have to dress up super nice. This was nice because we didn't feel like getting cute after going hiking and stuff. 

- take motion sickness medicine with you. 

-eat all the food you want (don't tell weight watchers I said that..)

We loved our trip, like I said, we may have to go live there now. We probably won't, but I'll at least go visit again someday. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Alaska: The Last Frontier (and cruise review)

We are back and safe and sound on land... but sad that we had to leave. How do you sum up our trip to Alaska?

I think the front of this shirt sums up how I feel about Alaska:

You guys, you have to go there. Alaska is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen, I think I may need to live there... except.. just in the summer time when it's not freezing out there. Anyways, enough my rambling, I have a lot to show from this trip so I can't make this post any longer than it needs to be!

Days 1 - 3: Sailing and a day in Juneau

Like I said here, we were pretty much just sailing the first day and a half. But we saw beautiful views like this:

What time do you think this picture was taken? Take a guess, I dare you.



This was 10:45... PM!!! I love it!

Ok... I'm rambling again.

Anyways, on Tuesday we made our first stop in Juneau where we went whale watching and then went to Mendenhall glacier. This was probably one of the best excursions we went on... it was so neat seeing the whales so close.

 We saw humpback whales, here they are popping their heads up, our guide says there were about 14 of them all together!

 There are some seals on that buoy... with some pretty scenery.

 Mendenhall Glacier... very pretty

And our whale friends again.

Downtown Juneau

Days 4 & 5: On Wednesday we stopped in Skagway, where we took a bus tour over the White Pass into Yukon Territory... and the bus driver was a BYU student from Utah! He was great. And the drive was really, really, really, REALLY pretty. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

 That's a super long pipe that had some sort of historical significance that I don't remember anymore.

 I thought this place was cool, it's called Tormented Valley.. it's real Alaskan Tundra!

 Scary suspension bridge

We are larger than life.

After our bus ride, we went on a hike and float trip. 

 Rainforest.

Then we saw Sarah Palin. Sorta.

The next day we went to Glacier Bay... which was cool because you can only access that area by boat, so if you go on an Alaskan Cruise, make sure they go there!

Steven climbed the wall, what a champ!

I still have a lot of pictures to go through... so I think I'll post about the rest of our cruise later, but I'll leave you with more beautiful pictures of the sunset from the boat:

Get ready for the next post... there's still lots of great pictures!