Saturday June 15. After some emotional good-byes, Justin and I left the kids and headed to the airport with my parents and sister to meet up with more family for a 10-day cruise to Alaska. My parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year and they took all their kids and some grandkids to Alaska. We've been planning this for 18 months and it was hard to believe the day was finally here.
I hadn't flown anywhere since 2010 so this was all sorts of exciting for me.
And except for girls camp last summer, we hadn't left the kids more than 1 night in a row so we were a little giddy (and worried) about it all.
I was so sad to leave the kids but looking forward to lots of good times with this guy.
And these people.
The kids wanted to know what it looked like to fly through a cloud so there you have it.
In the Oakland airport we met up with Matt and his family so our group grew to 17. We rented some cars to drive to the port. After a memorable visit to a sketchy Oakland shopping center, we headed to San Francisco.
I got crammed in the back of a small SUV with a bunch of luggage so this is my view of the Bay Bridge.
I went to SF when I was 18 but I don't remember much besides Alcatraz and weird street performers. They have some cool buildings and crazy steep streets.
There's our first look at the ship!
After boarding and exploring the ship we headed outside to watch us sail out of the bay.
We sailed right past Alcatraz.
It was windy.
This is a coast guard vessel escorting us out of the bay. Check out the machine guns on the bow.
And we sailed right under the Golden Gate Bridge.
A few people standing on the bridge waved at the hundreds of us cheering and yelling as we sailed under.
Aaaand the other side.
The 22 of us split among 3 tables ate dinner together most nights. Here we are our first night of fancy food.
Poor Jaana was seasick. She felt better after this night but it seemed that someone was always feeling it. We had some very rough water the first couple of days.
Sunday morning we met in a bar so my dad could say hi to us all and share a little why Alaska is such a special place for my parents. He served his mission in Alaska and British Columbia in the mid 1960s and he and my mom lived in Homer for a couple of years when Justin and I were dating and newly married.
Get a good look at Bella's cute beanie.
Afterwards we went outside and freaked out about how scary and windy it was out there.
The wind took of Bella's hat and it landed in the wake. Bye bye hat. It was a sacrifice to the cruise gods.
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| Tiny black dot in the center. |
The wiser folk not in the wind.
Then we went to one of the restaurants for their English pub lunch. I tried beef and kidney pie. I liked it.
That afternoon we played games up high where the view was nice and the buffet was close.
After 3 hands Justin finally got to play his foot so I took a picture to commemorate the occasion.
I wasn't there but my sisters won the Name that Tune 80s Music. They won a bottle of champagne.
Monday was more games and being lazy and lounging around. It was also one of two formal nights.
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| Justin is a big fan of Swarovski binoculars. |
It wasn't foggy so we got some awesome pictures of the sunset at 10:23 pm.
My sister Christena. She loved Alaska before any of us had ever been there. I'm glad I got to be there with her to see it.
That's my pretty niece Talia in NC on the phone.
Who likes late night sunsets? This guy.
Then I'm pretty sure we hit up the ice cream cone bar and went to bed.
Up next: Ketchikan, and Juneau
The kids wanted to know what it looked like to fly through a cloud so there you have it.
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