Seattle, WA + Ketchikan, AK

An Alaskan cruise made its way on to my list of things I really, really want to do someday about a year ago, so I'm sure you can imagine how stoked I was when things lined up perfectly and I was able to go recently. (Definitely jumped online and purchased a waterproof jacket before tickets had even been booked, ha.) It's probably a good thing we booked it just a few weeks before departure and I didn't have too long to get excited and ready for it, because I'm really awful at waiting around for exciting things to happen! I love spontaneous trips and activities.

Sorry for the blurry cell phone pictures mixed in!

On Saturday, I met my mom and grandparents (who just celebrated their 60th anniversary!!) in Seattle where we got on the ship. We explored the ship, ate some good food, discovered brownie cheesecake, went to a show, walked laps around the ship, read, slept, read, ate, dealt with some (minor) motion sickness, read, slept some more, ate, went to a show, ate more cheesecake, walked laps around the ship, read, and went to bed. Basically, we ate and slept non-stop for a day, and it was definitely relaxing.

Monday morning we woke up in Ketchikan, Alaska!

It was such a quaint fishing town--yes, quaint!--that I couldn't help but fall in love with the brightly painted buildings, greenery, and that small town feeling. We jumped on a tour bus and rode around the town (There are 3,000 residents that live there and it's the 5th largest city in Alaska! Crazy, huh?) before heading over to the Saxman Native Village Totem Pole Park. Honestly, I didn't expect the totem poles to be very interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised. They were taller, more intricate, and more colorful than I was expecting, and the stories behind some of them were so interesting! If you ever find yourself in Ketchikan, take a few minutes to walk around the park and snap some pictures.

After some souvenir shopping and fish tasting (no fish for me!), we jumped back on the ship and I quite enjoyed laying out in the sun with a book before we headed off to dinner and a show. We ended the evening with a treat, a few laps around the ship and some reading. I was thrilled about having so much free time to read - I don't take near enough time at home to read "fun" books.

Tuesday morning we woke up in the capitol, Juneau, Alaska!