Five years of pure happiness with the best friend of my life.  I can’t believe it’s already been five years, but what a joy they have been.

We’ve been looking forward to a five year anniversary trip for a long time.  When Kathryn’s mom offered to watch the girls for us, we jumped at the offer and decided to make this five year trip happen.  After some deliberation, we came to the decision to go on an Alaska cruise.  It sounded pretty nice to get out of the heat and to go out and have a relaxing adventure where we really didn’t have to worry about anything other than not gaining too much weight.  We took a seven night cruise from Whittier Alaska down to Vancouver Canada.  Here is a map of the itinerary.

DAY 0: Final preparations

The time finally came.  Work was done for the day/week and after so much anticipation, it was time to finally head out on our adventure.  We ended up being out of our house for nine nights in a row.  That’s quite a bit to pack for!  Also, we were a little short on some gear, so on our way up to Salt Lake for the night, we stopped at Dicks Sporting Goods to pick up some last minute essentials, those being mainly raincoats.  Notice the seat Ashley fashioned in the shopping cart.

DAY 1: Long Travel Day

Our first day out was definitely a travel day, but we still had a lot of fun doing it.  It is so much easier and more enjoyable and less stressful to travel as two mature adults with the kiddos at home.  The cruise embarked from Whittier Alaska which is about 1.5 hours South of Anchorage.  Whittier is a major port for Alaska because it remains open and ice free year round.  We arranged our travel so that we could have a couple of hours in Anchorage before we needed to head out for Whittier.

Per the recommendation of our taxi driver, we ate lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse.  It was a great choice.  We enjoyed delicious ribs and a monster burger that I’d say is tied for #1 favorite burger I’ve had.  Being a brewhouse, they had lots of choices on the drink menu and we were delighted to see a fresh crafted cream soda.  So good.

With our tummies happy and full, a precursor for the rest of the trip, we used what time we had left to wander around downtown Anchorage and check things out.  We both found some fun hoodies that we got and enjoyed wearing through the rest of the trip.   Soon we were on our bus headed for Whittier.  It was a gorgeous  drive and a sample of some of the amazing scenery we enjoyed throughout the trip.  Once in Whittier, we got all checked in and soon we were on the boat ready to embark on our voyage aboard the Island Princess ship.  We were happy to get news from home that the girls were having a fantastic time and that everything was going well.

DAY 2: Hubbard Glacier

Day two was spent entirely on the boat without much to see.  We spent most of the time avoiding the rain and trying to get me over some sort of Alaska bug that bit me hard sapping all my energy, strength, and giving me throbbing headaches.  We explored the ship as much as we were able to, and got some good use out of our new raincoats that we bought.  In spite of the Hubbard Glacier being mostly occluded by the clouds and fog, it was still an impressive sight, and sound.  White Thunder is what they call the huge rumble the glacier makes every once in awhile when it scrapes its way down the mountain.  Many of the glaciers will move several feet each day.

This was our first opportunity to try out our dinner restaurant.  The food and service were fantastic.  The culinary highlight of the day, and one finalists from the entire trip, was the Chocolate Hazelnut bar with Citrus Cream dessert.  It was part of the Chocolate Journeys series of desserts created by Norman Love.  We liked it so much we asked our waiter if we could get the recipe.  The next day he came through and delivered the key to this magical dessert, after running the request up the chain of command several levels.  The only problem is the recipe is all in kg and is sized for 50 servings, and there are many ingredients we’ve never had in our kitchen or even heard of.

DAY 3: Glacier Bay National Park

No Alaska cruise can be complete without a visit to Glacier Bay National Park.  It was majestic and stunning.

Day three was a beautiful day in the sunshine enjoying Glacier Bay National Park.  They said it’s rare to get such a clear day like we got,  but we welcomed the sunshine after the previous day’s rain.  The glaciers are amazing to see.  Also amazing are the mountains that spawn the glaciers.  The Muir Glacier is almost a half mile wide at the terminus and begins some eleven miles up on the slopes of Mount Orville and Mount Wilbur.  The Margerie Glacier is an equally impressive sight.  It begins at the slopes of Mount Root and descends 21 miles to end at its mile wide terminus where it’s total height is 350 feet with 100 feet being underwater.   One of the most impressive factors of these mountains is their prominence.  Mount Fairweather rises to an impressive 15,000 feet elevation…from sea level.  Mount Timpanogos, for example, rises 7,000 feet above the valley floor to shy of 12,000 feet.  These mountains and the glaciers they form are simply massive and impressive.

DAY 4: Skagway Alaska

Welcome to Skagway Alaska, gateway to the Klondike.  This small town was once a mecca of activity for the Klondike Gold Rush as people came hoping to strike it rich.  Now it is a quaint little town that is a popular port of call for cruise ships.  The town strives to keep alive and share the story of the gold rush that created it.  Prospectors would come to this town or the neighbor town Dyea via steamship and with their supplies and make the arduous trek up the mountain to Bennett Lake and then build barges to travel to Dawson City Canada.  We followed the Dead Horse trail, but in the comfort and speed of a tour bus, up to the White Pass  and then into Canada.  O Canada, this was our first time setting foot on your land.  It was fascinating to watch the plant life change as we climbed from a more temperate sea level climate all the way up a subarctic climate where the trees struggled to grow more than a couple of feet in their entire lifetime.

After being away for several days now without internet access, we were happy to again have cell service for our phones.  We were able to do a facetime call with Kathryn’s mom and get a chance to see and chat with our girls.  They were doing great and didn’t seem to miss us too much if at all.

DAY 5: Juneau Alaska

Welcome to the capital city of Alaska.  This place is only accessible via boat or air, there are no roads that lead here.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t cars though.  People still need to get around.

We enjoyed a peaceful Sunday in Juneau.  We attended a Bible Service on board the ship, but were surprised to see only one other couple there.  They were a wonderful couple from Alabama.  We had a pleasant conversation with them regarding the life and the challenges it holds, along with some of our favorite stories from the Bible.  They were genuinely good people and we enjoyed spending some time with them.  After that, we took a short ride through Juneau out to Fritz Cove where we went out on ocean kayaks.  It was really fun to be out in the beautiful cove looking for wildlife and enjoying the view of Mendenhall Glacier.  We saw several bald eagles, both adults and juveniles.  It was a childhood dream come true to see this many eagles.  We were able to get quite close to them and watch as they roosted in trees or flew around looking for fish.

Later that evening, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and our waiter surprised us by bringing out a delicious chocolate creation and singing Happy Anniversary to You to the tune of the Happy Birthday song.  After dinner, we headed outside for some whale watching.  We were lucky to see several humpback whales and even a couple of them up close.

DAY 6: Ketchikan Alaska

Ketchikan is the self proclaimed salmon capital of the world.  They also are famous for their Great Alaskan Lumberjack show.  We were luck enough to be able to experience both.  The lumberjack show was great entertainment and it gave us a glimpse into the history of logging.  The show was set up as a competition between the Americans of Spruce Mill and the Canadians Dawson Creek.   They competed in events such as chopping, sawing, tree climbing, axe throwing, and log rolling.  We were on the side of the stands assigned to vote for the Americans, and we were happy that our team eked out a winning the final event, the log roll.

After the lumberjack show, we headed back to the dock to set out on our salmon fishing adventure.  Neither of us had been salmon fishing before, or really much of any fishing to be honest, so this seemed like a good opportunity to try it out.  We headed out with captain Al, or Al Captain as he liked to be called, and three other fellow fishermen.  We had a great haul and each person maxed out with six pink salmon.  It was really pretty lazy fishing to be honest.  The captain got all the lines set in the water and then we just trolled around until we found a good spot.  We were out on the bay so the water was really smooth and we were up against really pretty scenery.  Once we found a good spot, be started reeling in the fish.  Once they were all in, we’d set the lines and turn around and do it again.  After a short while, everyone was maxed out and we headed back to the dock an hour early.  That’s my kind of fishing.  We had the fish processed and flash frozen and shipped home to us.  Now we have a nice stash of our very own Alaskan salmon in our freezer.

DAY 7: Inside Passage Canada

For the last day on the cruise, we worked our way down the inside passage enjoying the ship and beautiful scenery.  We went to a little salsa dance class and learned some of the basic steps.  We also got to take a tour of the ship’s galley and see how they prepare the food.  It’s quite an impressive kitchen to make that many meals everyday.  We said goodbye to our dinner friends Mike and Annie.  They were a lot of fun to get to know throughout the trip.  We also were lucky to catch a gorgeous sunset.

DAY 8: Vancouver Canada

O Canada, thanks for the one great day we had with thee.  We really enjoyed our day in Vancouver.  We arranged our travel so that we’d have the morning and afternoon to explore before we needed to leave for the airport.  One of the most popular things to see in Vancouver is the Capilano suspension bridge.  It can get quite crowded, so we headed over first thing after getting off the ship.  It was certainly a pretty place to visit.  It’s technically a rain forest, even though I usually think of rain forests being in much hotter places closer to the equator.  The suspension bridge was quite impressive, and they had a series of smaller bridges set up in the trees that allowed you to be up much higher in the trees and explore the rainforest from that perspective.

After visiting Capilano, we followed the recommendation of Ben and Emily and rented bikes.  We rode the loop around Stanley park.  This was really quite a bit of fun and I’d pass the recommendation on to anyone visiting the area.  The trail is very flat, and we were on eight speed cruisers which are quite comfortable for out of shape bikers like us.  It made us seriously consider doing some biking at home.  As part of our ride, we went back to Canada Place, the cruise ship terminal, to go do the Flying Over Canada ride.  It’s basically the same thing as the Soarin’ Over California, or now Soaring Around the World, at Disneyland.  We would highly recommend spending the extra two bucks per person and getting the fast lane passes.

Soon the time was come and we returned our bikes and made our way to the airport via the Sky Train.  It’s Vancouver’s version of the Subway.  We had a pretty uneventful trip home.  Adam picked us up from the airport and soon were were back at Kathryn’s house.  We had a quick sleep and soon we were woken up by our Ashley girl.  It was so much fun to get to see Ashley and Eliza after being gone for eight days.

Thank you so much to Suzanne, Tim, Adam, and everyone else that helped out with our girls and made our fabulous trip possible.  This definitely will be a trip we remember for the rest of our lives.  Happy anniversary Babe.  I love you.

Posing on the cliffwalk