Cruise part 3

Obviously, throughout the trip, we had lots of good food. It really was excellent, and there was lots of it. Breakfast for me generally included custom-made omlettes. There were danishes, Belgian waffles, and a bunch of other stuff. There was always pizza, available almost all day, with sandwiches, and other things for lunch. All of this at the buffet. You could also go to the formal dining for breakfast or lunch, but Rebecca and I only did that once for lunch. There was ice cream and cookies available anytime, and room service anytime. We ordered cookies and cheese with room-service a few times. However, it took so long that we learned to order extra.

The best food, however, was the formal dining for dinner. There were new things to try. If you wanted to try two things, you could, or two desserts, which I did a few times. We had venison, which for some people is not new, but it was for me. I tried duck, which tasted a little like chicken, but with a softer texture. I tried the escargot (snails), which was not as bad as it could be, but I only ate two.

I tried the mussels, which tasted like clams (so, not that great). I had veal cordon bleu and filet mignon, both of which I liked. We had several versions of baked Alaska for dessert. Some were better than others. The creme brule was also good. And there was plenty of non-new good food as well.

We had two really good servers, shown in the picture below. On the right is Ali, and the left is Novel. They were very friendly. We ended up with the late shift for dinner, and considered changing, but we didn't because we realized we would have to change servers.
They had someone that carved ice scuptures. We sat and watched him during a demonstration. Often we would find towel origami on our beds at night. This is one of them.
When we got back to Seattle, we all split up to get back to our respective flights. It was a good experience, and we got to see some really neat things. Thanks a ton, Mom!!

Cruise part 2

After the glaciers, we went on to Juneau. We all got off and took a tram partway up the mountain. We all hiked around a little. Ryan and Darice hiked all the way down. Rebecca and I decided to hike further up the mountain. It was a good hike, and took us a couple of hours. We made it to Gastineau Peak, which is about 3 miles from the tram station.

This is Rebecca singing "the hills are alive" at the first peak we reached.

The views into the valley on the other side were really pretty.
Here Rebecca is at the top of Gastineau Peak. It got quite cold in the last stretch. We considered going on all the way to Mt. Roberts, but we had been told that the trail was not well maintained beyond Gastineau Peak. We started to try it, but then the weather got very cold and cloudy, and it was hard to see. We decided we didn't want to get lost, so we turned back.

In Sitka, Ryan, Darice, Andrew, Maren, Rebecca, and I went kayaking. The kayaks were sea kayaks, so they had steering pedals that controlled a rudder in the back. Sitka Bay is really pretty, and it was nice to get to see so much of it.
This is us just prior to taking off.

Our guide took us to a little bay where we picked up starfish (we put them back before we left).
Rebecca tried some kelp. Looks like it was tasty.

We also got to see a stellar sea lion up close. This picture isn't all that close, but when he popped up a few yards from our kayak, I was too zoomed in and didn't get a good picture.

We played a fair amount of ping-pong on the trip, so I thought I ought to include at least one picture of that.

Cruise part 1

This fall, my mom took all of her kids and their spouses on a cruise to Alaska. It was a fun experience. It was a week long, and I can't capture everything in this blog, but perhaps I can show some of the highlights.

Rebecca and I flew up on Saturday. We got to walk around Seattle. We saw the Space Needle, but decided not to spend the money to go up it. Mount Rainier is really impressive. We saw it on our flight up. We are planning to go camping near it this next summer.

We met up with the rest of the family on Sunday, and caught the ship. The first few days were at sea. We read books, or just hung out. We watched for whales from the observation deck, which was also the library. On I think the third day, the ship cruised around the glaciers. The whole area was very scenic. The glaciers, as well as the mountains and rocks, as well as the water.


This picture shows the blue ice of the glacier. I read about the blue ice, and what causes it to be blue, but I don't think I ever really understood why. Not all of the glaciers appeared blue like this. I'm not sure what the difference is.We also got some good pictures of us and Mom.


This next picture is of a house on an island in Sitka Bay. There were lots of these little islands, many with houses on them. Very pretty.

This last picture is of the parliament building in Victoria, BC. We got there near sundown, and you can see the lights on. It creates an interesting effect in the picture.

Yellowstone

I'm attempting to catch up again. Rebecca and the kids went to Rebecca's family reunion at Yellowstone this summer. They had a good time, enjoyed being with their cousins, and got to see some cool things.

Here are our girls and some of their cousins hanging out in a tree.


Here are our kids and the Troutman kids.


Here the boys are acting as the girls' arms to apply makeup (I think that's what it's supposed to be).

And the girls returned the favor by helping the boys shave.
They got to see some of the geysers, and Rebecca said the Grand Tetons were very impressive, so we're going to try to visit with just our family this next summer. There was a river running next to the campground. But I think what the kids enjoyed most was just being with their cousins.