alaska

Since Sunday, my family has been on a one-week Alaskan Cruise from Vancouver up to Alaska and back down again! We're at the halfway point now, and we've been enjoying the rest for sure. It is absolute heaven to wake up at whatever time I want and literally have nothing, nothing, nothing to do all day long. Beautiful. There honestly isn't much to blog because we have been doing nothing and loving it! I have been taking photos though, so I thought I'd quickly blog some of them on our very, very ridiculously expensive internet connection. No joke: I paid $60 for 100 minutes...I've been trying to desperately ration those minutes over 6 days. Not as easy as it sounds, because even a quick log-in to check facebook and my email takes about 5 minutes--the internet is also painfully slow.

We pulled out of the Vancouver port Sunday evening and it was cool to see the city from a different angle than I'm used to. Here's a part of the Seawall: a 10k running/walking/biking/rollerblading/whatever-you-feel-like route in Stanley Park. I have never ran this, and it's on my list of things to-do! And soon! Maybe this Fall.




Just a random ocean view:




As we were unpacking in our "stateroom" (seriously, there are no "rooms"--they are all "staterooms"--haha!) I was looking through all my fall clothes that I had brought. I think I'll call this my Alaska outfit:







What do you do when nobody can seem to take an in-focus, well-exposed photo of you, the photographer when you are on a family vacation? Well....this.



Oh Cheese of all cheese. Self-timer family picture sans brother. Love it.







Last night we were having dinner downstairs in one of the restaurants when somebody said that they spotted a whale. So of course, all of us went to the window to try to snap a picture. He never made an appearance, but I LOVE this shot. The water just looks so calm and surreal. Amazing.



This is what happens when my brother gets sick of self-portraits. I love the fact that my face is so obviously attempting to somehow infect the face beside me with the same enthusiasm. Not happening.




Today was the first time we got off the ship, and we docked in Juneau, Alaska. Yesterday morning we were docked in Ketchikan, Alaska but we didn't disembark...we had to be up at 6AM or some ridiculous time for that.



We went into this awesome wool store and we found a plethora of treasures. Haha! My dad grabbed his hat and wanted me to try it on. Of course I wanted him to take a picture. My mom watched all of this, terrified it was going to turn into The Bay in Downtown Vancouver circa last Christmas:



I was desperately looking for a zip-up wool sweater that fit properly. Because these sweaters are just ugly and traditional enough that they "work" if you know what I mean. Just last winter I bought a big swedish looking sweater from American Eagle, which cost twice as much as these ones did! Unfortunately, as you can probably tell from the photo, none of them were that figure-flattering. I was totally digging that plaid one though.




You gotta love passerby's offering to take family pictures. I also love their comments, "Woah. That's a camera you got there." - Yes, yes, it is.



On the bus ride up to a group of glaciers, we drove by these amazing mountains. I just snapped this out the window, but I love how it turned out. So beautiful!



And here is a shot of the glaciers we went to see!




We're back on the cruise now, and we're headed to Skagway, Alaska, where we will be in port tomorrow morning until the evening. Then we'll be headed back to Vancouver where we will arrive on Sunday morning. Because the internet is so expensive and slow, as aforementioned I don't think I will be blogging any more vacation photos! Hope all your weeks are doing well. :)

P.S. In case you are wondering how I've been blogging all these sessions when I've been away; I've just been very very sneaky. I pre-scheduled a blog post for August 18, 20 and 22nd just to keep all of you readers happy. Love J.