Alaska Trip Part 3: Skagway, Ketchikan, 2nd Sea Day, Coming Home

This is way late, but I'm finally finishing up my last installment of recording about our Alaska trip. Feel free to skip!

Sunday, 8/30 we docked for the day in Skagway, AK. Brandon & Jen looked up the information on church services in Skagway ahead of time, so they, David & I and some other members of our family went to church. It was interesting, because they have a lot of young adults (single and married) come up to work during the summer, so their branch swells to about 150 people during those few months. During the other months of the year there are only about 15 or so members. Crazy. Anyway, their church building is quite small, with pretty much only a small chapel and a few rooms/offices right off of the chapel.

I had a funny pumping experience there at church: It was time to pump again after Sacrament Meeting, but the bathroom there only had one stall in it, and I didn't want to monopolize it for the entire pumping session. So I asked one of the regulars if there was a classroom or somewhere else I could use, and she arranged for me to use the branch president's office, which was right off the front of the chapel room. Pumping in the president's office was weird enough in and of itself, but soon after I started I heard Sunday School begin, and was really hoping that everyone else couldn't hear my pump going. After I was finished I had to walk out of the office and come out into the front of the chapel from behind the Sunday School teacher (who everyone was facing), carrying my pumping backpack, and find my seat. It was pretty embarrassing for me, but David said no one was really even paying attention to me. He may have just been being nice to me, but I'll take it. Here is the little church:

After church Kayla, Brandon & Jennifer, and David & I continued our scavenger hunt for free stuff. We felt (okay, rationalized) that since we weren't "buying" anything we were okay to do that on Sunday. :)

A view of one of the streets of Skagway:

Kayla (Jeff was doing homework), Jennifer, Brandon, David and me:

Some huge mushrooms we saw growing by the creek:

A couple of salmon that were fighting. They were going at it for several minutes and it was fascinating to watch:

This little waterfall was so beautiful:

Brandon had to go really bad and couldn't wait to get back to the ship. Luckily, we came across this gazebo bathroom right off the highway :) :

More beautiful scenery:

Monday, 8/31 we docked at our last port, Ketchikan, AK. All of the towns were interesting, because you could tell a lot of their economy came from people on the cruise ships, but none more so than Ketchikan. The day we docked there there were three other cruise ships docked there as well.

After finishing up our treasure hunt for free stuff, David and I went on part of a walking tour in Ketchikan. One of the points of interest on the tour was this "street," that is actually wooden stairs (there were lots of those here). If you'll look closely, you can see the street sign where this street meets up with another street.

Here we are in front of "Dolly's," the most famous of the "establishments" on Creek Street, aka the Red Light District:

Gotta love this sign:

Another picture of fish. You have to look closely, but the two dark spots towards the bottom right are two salmon jumping up the rapids. It was seriously so fascinating (and quite frustrating) to watch all the fish work and work and work at swimming upstream, where they would lay their eggs, then guard the eggs for a couple of weeks until they eventually died. A little bit sad, but I couldn't help but be impressed with their selflessness. They give their lives for their kids!

Tuesday, 9/1 was another full day at sea, and luckily we didn't run into any storms this sea day. David and I played a little miniture golf and basketball there on the ship (those ships are seriously amazing!), went on a tour of the galley, and went to Kerry Summers' Elvis show. (Unfortuneately I didn't blog about this earlier, because I've already forgotten a lot of the details of what we did!)

The ship workers were so talented! Check out this detail (those are watermelons):

Elvis lives!

Every night when we would come back to our room we were treated to an awesome towel animal and pillow mints. (Luckily, David didn't like the mints, so I got his!) Such luxury!

While on the galley tour, we saw the menu boards for dinner...

...and more importantly, dessert!

Those menu boards reminded me how very spoiled I had been for the past week. I ate A LOT on this trip, and thoroughly enjoyed it!

We also saw some wild life, from the ship. Here you can barely see the fin of a killer whale sticking up out of the water:

As mentioned in a previous post, our family hung out in the karaoke lounge a bit. My sister-in-law Jennifer (Tyler's wife), got recruited to be Madonna for the Carnival Legends show on Tuesday evening. She was a bit embarrassed that the song they made her sing was "Like a Virgin," and that the male dancers were wearing super short, tight shorts, but it was quite funny to watch. They also had other karaoke stars perform as Garth Brooks, Gloria Estafan, James Brown, Brittany Spears...quite entertaining.

David and me with our waiter (I've already forgotten his name!) and assistant waiter (Elnie?). These guys were great, I especially liked the singing/dancing numbers they would do during dinner. Elnie tried to get me to get up and dance on one of the nights, but I was too embarrassed. The waiter at the other table was able to get JenMarie up a couple of times, though!

Wednesday, 9/2 we woke up early (relatively) and disembarked in Vancouver, Canada, then hopped on a bus that took us to Seattle, WA, from where we flew home.

David and I were again on a flight with several other family members, and we were all lucky enough to be able to get on the earlier flight home, which meant that we got to board about an hour after getting to the airport, rather than waiting 3 more hours. I had a ton of fun, but I was definitely ready to get home. I was so excited to see my kids!

Who wouldn't be excited to see these two kiddos?

Thanks again to David's parents for taking such good care of Josh and Mary for us! Ralph definitely deserves Grandpa of the Year honors!

Locked Out!

Yesterday morning it was time to make bread again, so I took the wheat grinder out to our balcony to try to save our eardrums and started the process. A little later, I went out to check it and heard Josh slide the glass door shut behind me, but didn't think too much of it...until I tried to come back in and discovered that he had also locked it after shutting it. Great. Of course I didn't have my phone with me, I was just going to be out there for a second.

Me: "Josh, can you open the door for me?"

Josh: "Okay." Tries to open the door, but can't get it right away. "Mamy help you?" (Translation: Mama, do it for me?)

Me: I knock. "I can't do it Josh, please open the door."

Josh: Thinking it's pretty fun to play through the window with mom. "Mamy help you?"

Me: I try pulling on the door hard to see if I can get it past the lock. Nope. More begging and pleading with the same results. Hmmm...maybe I can get in through the the other sliding glass door to the kids room.

Josh had recently learned how to move the lock switch up and down, so we put poles in the tracks of both sliding glass doors to keep him from opening them. We live on the 3rd floor and with the climber that he is it's just too dangerous for him to get out there without our knowing about it. I had removed the pole in the living room door to come out, and I was hoping that somehow the pole in the kids' room wasn't in there. Nope, it was there. Rats. That door is unlocked at least, but the bottom of the door won't budge since the pole is there behind it. The top will come out an inch or so...maybe I could lift it off the track and up over the pole? I try for a minute or so and get my hand nice and scraped up. I can't do it with just my hands, but luckily, David's tools are out here. I try prying the bottom of the door up with a screwdriver, then a hammer. Nope. Back to the first door.

Me: I knock again. "Josh, will you please open the door for me?"

Josh: "Mamy help you?"

Me: "Josh, do you see the lock?" I trys pointing to the lock switch through the glass. "Go up, down, up, down."

Josh: Points at the glass by where I'm pointing.

Me: "No, over there." I try pointing again.

Josh: Sees his magnets and goes to play with them.

Clearly this isn't working. Thank goodness Mary is asleep (at least I hope she still is). Maybe I can shove a screwdriver into the key hole and get it to turn the lock. That's not working...maybe the needle nose pliers will work. The end of the pliers just broke off in the lock. Rats. At least I have my wheat and our water-filled soda bottles to survive on (always thinking of food). I bang on the door to get Josh's attention away from the TV and his magnets and try getting him to open the door again.

Me: "Josh do you want to ride your bike?"

Josh: "Yes, bike!"

Me: "Okay, open the door and come and get it."

Josh: Tries pulling on the door.

Me: "You have to unlock it."

Josh: "Mamy help you?"

I go back to the kids' room door. While trying to open it Josh comes into his room. Maybe he can move the pole from behind the door.

Me: "Josh, can you move the broom?"

Josh: Tries to move it. "Stuck. Mamy help you?

For the next several minutes I keep going back and forth between the two doors trying to figure out a way to get back in. More banging. I start yelling and pleading with Josh to open the door. No luck. My face is "glistening" with sweat and my shirt is starting to get wet.

After about 30 minutes or so one of the girls who lives below us calls out from her balcony asking if I need help. Realizing that I'm not going to get back in of my own accord, I ask her to call David to come home from work and let me in.

Finally, about 15 mintues later, my knight in shining armor comes and rescues me. I love David!

I go and check on Mary, she's sleeping. If she did wake up screaming I'll just pretend that she didn't. Thank goodness. What a morning!