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!

Funny Face

Mary has this new funny face that she learned to make. It cracks me up!

She also loves to blow raspberries:

Boys Will Be Boys

Do these look like the legs of a little boy who has been having lots of fun, or what?

Alaska Trip Part 2: 1st Sea Day, Sitka, Juneau

After sleeping in a MUCH more comfortable bed on the ship Wed. night (8/26) we awoke really early Thurs. morning and braved the cold for a spectacular view of College Fjord, and specifically Harvard Glacier. (All of the glaciers in this fjord are named after colleges: Yale, Harvard, etc.) All of the glaciers were beautiful, and it's amazing how big they are. Here is some of the beautiful scenery we saw that morning:

Yeah, I know we look pretty goofy, but it was COLD!

After leaving the glacier I made myself go and work out for a bit (I knew I was going to need it with how much food I was planning on eating throughout the cruise), then we got ready for breakfast and met down in the dining room to surprise my mom with the matching shirts Tyler & Jen designed.

Here's the gang (Doug & Jenn and Mindy & Chad weren't able to come). Under "Flake" it says "Cruisin' since 1959":

The was our first "Sea Day", and later that morning Fun For Less had a variety show for our group with Kerry Summers. Kerry does a variety show, where he does a little magic, ventriloquism, and some other fun stuff. My bro-in-law Dean got called up to participate as Dolly Parton. It was pretty funny and Dean was a good sport. Kerry is also an Elvis impersonator, and later on in the week he put on an Elvis show for us. The most awesome part about it is that he has Elvis-like hair...and it's not a wig! He wears it like that all the time. The poor fellow was assigned to our table in the dining room for dinner, so we got to know him better than most...nice guy.

Our family hung out in the karaoke lounge for a lot of the rest of the day, and many of them even participated. I missed a lot of it, though, while I was up in our room *pumping.

Later that evening is when the real "fun" started. We hit a storm while at open sea, the likes of which was the worst that even most of the crew had ever seen, and many of them even got sick. The boat got rocking pretty hard, and a few members of our family were too sick to even come down to dinner. I got a headache from it, and David was feeling a little nauseous, but we got dressed up and went down. We were doing okay until someone ordered fish and David caught a whiff of it, and almost lost his lunch, so we left without eating. We ended up sitting in the middle of the boat for a couple of hours or so, as it seemed to not be as rough there. Later we finally felt hungry and not too afraid of up-chucking so we scavenged some food. David and I were pretty much fine after that and slept pretty well, but the storm lasted through much of the night.

The storm delayed our arrival in Sitka the next morning, but we were very happy to have the rocking over with! Sitka was a "tendered port," which means that the boat didn't dock, rather little boats (tenders) took us to shore. Sitka is a pretty little town that was originally inhabited by the Tlingit Indians, then later by the Russians, so there were lots of influences from both of those peoples there. There is a national park with a Totem Pole Trail, that David and I went to.

The tender boats coming back to take another group into town:

While at this little dock area I saw a sign on a little message board there advertising/requesting transportation to the Seattle area in exchange for sailor-type work on a boat. The notable thing about it was that the requestors were 2 girls.

We were lucky that our trip was after the worst of the mosquito season in Alaska. Apparently they get really big there. David took this picture of a bug, which I think is a mosquito, on the window of one of the shops there in Sitka (this picture is not cropped...it was that big):

This is what Alaskans wear when they want to feel sexy in the winter. We saw these in several shops!


This is St. Michael's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, rebuilt from a fire that destroyed it in 1966. A story was told to us that during the fire one man lifted a chandelier out of the building in order to save it, but after the church was rebuilt it took several men to be able to carry it back in. That was some adrenalin rush!


One of the many totem poles we saw in Sitka:

On Saturday we docked in Juneau, the capital of AK, where we were grateful that we brought our umbrellas, since it rained on us all day long. After getting off the ship David and I, along with several other family members, booked a little bus ride up to Mendenhall Glacier where we saw...

this...

and this...

and this!

Just kidding.

But we did see this little bear cub up in the tree (if you look at the little black blob in the middle of the picture, that's him).

Up at the glacier there is a national park that has "trails" up on stilts so that us nosey tourists can go and look at the salmon swimming in the streams (there was a lot) and the bears eating the salmon, without disturbing the bears and without the bears disturbing us. I really wanted to see another bear, but the little cub up in the tree was the best view I got. I did, however, see lots of fish-remains that the bears left behind, along with some bear poop. :) (We took a picture of it, but I'll spare you.) Some of the other family members who came up a little later got to see a mama bear feeding on some salmon...lucky!

These rocks used to be covered by the glacial ice, which smoothed them. I think it's pretty interesting how the glaciers are literally rivers of ice that advance and retract.

The rest of our day in Juneau was spent browsing around the shops and collecting free stuff. When we boarded the ship they gave each passenger little coupon books that included several freebies that you could collect at various shops in the port cities. One of the deal-ie-o's was a charm bracelet that you collected one charm each at several different shops in the cities. There were also coupons we got for loose "gems," little necklaces, etc. Being the cheapo that I am, we got all sorts of free stuff. I'm sure those stores (all of them fancy jewelry stores) rolled their eyes at us when we would come to collect our freebies and not even want to look at their expensive wares, but oh well. David and I, Brandon and Jennifer, and Kayla (and sometimes Jeff if he wasn't doing homework) had fun on our little treasure hunts. If anyone has a good idea for all of my loose cheapo gems, let me know!

*Ahh pumping...it seemed like I was doing that the whole time practically! When we were off the ship I carried my supplies around in my trusty backpack to be used every 3-4 hours or so. I tell you what, I got pretty good at sitting in bathroom stalls in the airports, visitor centers, restaurants--pretty much everywhere we went--to take care of business. Only to dump all that precious liquid down the drain when I was finished. It was kind of annoying to have to leave the crowd so often, and I know I missed out on some fun stuff, but it was all worth it to be able to go on the cruise and then come home and still be able to feed Mary! She started nursing again like a champ, but I had to go through the pain of starting nursing all over again! Oh well...things are much better now.

Alaska Trip: Anchorage, Talkeetna, Embarkation

For Christmas last year my wonderful mother paid for each of us kids (and spouses) to go on a 10 day trip to Alaska, including a 7 day cruise. Fun, fun! I must admit that I was pretty nervous to leave the kids (especially Mary) for that long, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology (i.e., the breast pump), I was able to prepare. David's dad, Ralph, earned Grandpa of the Year honors for coming to our house, with Joseph, and taking great care of Josh and Mary for us while we were gone. Two of my siblings and their spouses weren't able to come, but we had 22 of us that did go...not to shabby!

Me, Celeste and Pam waiting to board

We flew from Phoenix to Anchorage on Monday 8/24. David and I flew on the same flight as several other family members, so that was fun. We got settled into our hotel, the Howard Johnson, got some dinner (I ate reindeer sausage) and walked around downtown Anchorage for a bit that evening, then slept on a mattress about as soft as our tile floor.

My mom booked the trip through a group called “Fun For Less,” which is run by LDS people, and most of their “guests” are LDS as well. On Tuesday we had a little excursion scheduled with them, which included a bus ride to Talkeetna. During the bus ride the tour director had everyone come to the front of the bus and introduce themselves. Pretty much everyone else in the group besides our family was older, so they would be telling about their families and missions and how much they enjoy traveling with Fun For Less. It was actually pretty fun to hear about these other peoples’ lives, but it sounded an awful lot like some testimony meetings I’ve been in. I dared Travis to start with “I’d like to bare my testimony…” when it was his turn. Crystal beat him to it, though (and she didn’t even hear me!). Our family got a good chuckle out of it, hopefully it wasn’t too sacrilegious.

On our way to Talkeetna we were able to get a good view of Mt. McKinley (aka Denali to the locals) from a hundred or so miles away. Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America, and since it creates its own weather system, only about 20-30% of the tourists actually get to see it, as it is usually covered by clouds (this is according to our bus driver, btw). We felt pretty lucky! I love the brilliant white behind the clouds!

We got on a jet boat that took us for a ride on a couple of rivers (I’ve already forgotten their names). We saw a bald eagle (the first of a few throughout the trip), an eagle’s nest, and some of the others on the boat even saw a bear scamper away from the river as we drove by.

Then we got to go on a nice little nature walk and got to see how the hunters/trapers/gold panners/etc. lived back in the day (which for Alaska, was only around 100 years ago or so).

Here is a tiny one-room cabin where they would live. Notice the sod roof, and several different commonly trapped animal pelts.

Here's the "cache". This is where they would store all their pelts and food to keep it away from live animals. If you'll look closely you'll see stove-pipe at the top of the poles. These are to keep rodents and other climbers from climbing up the poles and getting into the loot.

An inside view of the cabin.

David pretending to be a trapper.

A beaver trap...the beaver would gnaw on the skinny pole and whack!...you've got yourself a beaver!


Brandon, David and me playing with not-so-teddy bears

Our guide even carried a shotgun in case we ran into bears (it is slung over her shoulder--you can barely see the barrel in front of the beaver trap) ...


After our jet boat ride

Mom and me

After the boat ride we went to the Talkeetna Lodge for lunch, and it had the most beautiful views. Pretty much everywhere we went was beautiful, but this was especially so (not the best picture of me...oh well)

After lunch we boarded the bus again and headed for Wasilla to the Iditarod headquarters. The Iditarod is a big sled dog race going over 1,000 miles from Willow, AK to Nome. I don't know if it was the race on the movie Iron Will, but it's like that. Anyway, we got to ride in a little cart pulled by real race dogs (we had to do the cart with wheels since there's no slow), then watched a movie about the race.

Celeste, Jeff, me and David ready for our turn.

They even had some cute puppies.

Penny and David trying their hand at the sled.

We didn't leave Anchorage to drive to Whittier, where we would board the cruise ship, until around noon on Wed., so we had all that morning to walk around and see more of downtown Anchorage and do some more souvenir shopping.

Do we look like tourists?


Admiring one of the HUGE cabbages they have growing in the flower beds around the city. On the plane ride there I read that they can grow really big vegetables, etc. because during the summer they have so much daylight. At the state fair they have almost 80 lb. cabbages!

According to one of our bus drivers, the visitor's center has the only roof in town that has to be mowed.

On our way to Whittier our bus driver told us about how during the earthquake in 1964 this ground lowerd significantly so these trees were under the ocean water for some time and became petrified. When people later tried to cut them down their saw blades would break, so they just left them standing there.

Some more beautiful scenery on a little stop between Anchorage and Whittier.

Between Anchorage and Whittier there is a 2.5 mile tunnel only wide enough for one way of traffic at a time. On the top of the hour the north-bound traffic goes while all the south-bound traffic waits in lines, then at half past the hour it's the south-bound vehicles' turn. Throughout the tunnel there are 8 safe houses interspersed with provisions in case of an emergency.

We finally made it to Whittier and boraded the Carnival Spirit, our home away from home. (This is a picture we took at a different port.) That thing is HUGE!!! We spent the rest of the evening eating dinner, unpacking and generally exploring the ship.