Take a ride with us on Mardi Gras, Carnival's newest ship. Cruising during Covid was as safe as anything.
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O Canada! Victoria BC: Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene, D’you Know Juneau?, KetchiCAN (we move here stat?) Our last day on the boat. This would be a long day at sea, navigating the waters between Ketchikan and Victoria, BC, for a short night port-of-call. Like Juneau, the kids were really excited that my friend Karen lived in Victoria. They’d both read a few of her books and were looking forward to another “locals tour” of a city. Plus, her kids were going to meet us for the evening, too. We spent the day on the boat the same as other…
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KetchiCAN (we move here stat?): Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene, D’you Know Juneau? Ok. I lied. Sorry. I lied when Skagway and Juneau made us want to move to Alaska. Ketchikan really REALLY made us want to move. This is one of the cutest places I’ve ever been in my life. I mean, the cutest part used to be a street of brothels, but you know. We arrived at Ketchikan early, and as usual, we were up, watching from the balcony. The view of the marina and the outskirts of Ketchikan were absolutely adorable. The bright colors of the buildings contrasted…
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D’you Know Juneau? Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene Oh, Juneau. Magical, magical Juneau. This is the day our desire to be Alaskans one day, was cemented. If we could have grabbed our bags and sent for our things without drama, we absolutely would have. It started when we woke up to this view. We pulled into port around 6am. We were up (can’t say before the sun) well before then and watched us pull in from our balcony. The day was foggy and damp, as we’ve learned is pretty typical for Juneau. There’s really no silence quite like the…
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The Skagway Scene: Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord On Friday, we finally got to put our feet on solid, non-moving ground. I love cruises so much, but I’ve never been on one where there were two and a half days without getting off the boat. I didn’t realize until we hit the ground in Skagway that my body needed to be off the boat. Good thing, because Skagway was our excursion day! We were already awake as we floated into port, so we watched from our balcony. Again, with breakfast and coffee. Our excursion wasn’t to leave until later in…
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Floating Through the Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord: Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation. Post contains referral and/or affiliate links. Day At Sea The first full day on the Carnival Legend was our Day at Sea. Henry and Brianna were most concerned about what they would do on this day. “A whole day on the boat, what will we doooooo?” We started the morning ridiculously early. The water was really choppy due to a storm system in the area. Before bed, we each took a Dramamine and I had us all put a patch on for good measure. It was really good that we had all that, because we woke up in the…
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Taking on Seattle and the Carnival Legend: Alaskan Cruise 2019
When we told the big kids (now 16/15) we were going to take a cruise to Alaska, they weren’t real happy with us. “But what about the beach!” “That sounds so boring!” “Cruises are for old people!” “What will we dooooooo?” And then we told them there were bears. And eagles. And maybe bears. That changed their mind and they were all in. We booked a 7 night cruise on the Carnival Legend, leaving mid-June so we would be in Alaska for Summer Solstice. I mean, if you’re going to a place where you get little to no darkness during the summer, go so you can be there on the…
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The Summer of Life Skills
Life with teenagers is a blast. It’s basically the gift that keeps on giving. This summer, Brian and I decided we were going to help the big kids (16 and 14) learn some life lessons. Skills, if you will, that they will need as they face college and adulthood in the next few years. I found a few lists to use as inspiration, but as usual, we ended up flying by the seat of our pants. They did learn a few things, though. Groceries Are Expensive. We told the kids they were in charge of cooking dinner for us one night a week. They were to plan a menu, research…