Ok, epically failing at this already…  More posts coming to make up for what I missed.

In the middle of the summer my family and I went cruise from Seattle making stops in Alaska and Canada.

First we took a day in Seattle before getting on the boat.  To get downtown from the hotel I we took the new light rail.  It was a big change of pace to ride a light rail that isn’t more than 100 years old.  We took a tour of the Seattle underground which was interesting.  Apparently modern day Seattle was built a floor above the original city and in the tour you can walk around where the sidewalks used to be before new sidewalks were built above them.  Here’s Dad, who enjoyed the tour the most, down there:

We also checked out Pike’s Place Market, a huge farmer’s market in downtown Seattle.  The we went to Fremont where they have a whole bunch of weird statues.  Here’s all of us in front of the Fremont Troll:

After that we got some dinner and went back to the hotel.

The next day we were off for the cruise.  The car that the hotel arranged to take us told us a different price than the hotel originally said it would be.  When Mom talked to the manager he asked her how many people riding were adults and how many were children.  Mom, misunderstanding the question and then correcting herself, answered as follows: “Four children but some of the children are adults.”  We teased her about that answer pretty much constantly for the rest of the vacation.

The cruise itself was kind of lame.  Firstly, cruise ship entertainment has its reputation for a very good reason.  I won’t say any more about that.  Second, who know how much my parents paid for it in the first place and they spend the whole time trying to get you to pay for all the extras.  No, I don’t want an $8 cocktail right now, I’m trying to read…

The ports we stopped in were all pretty cool though.  We got to see lots of scenic areas.  First we stopped in Juneau and did some rafting.  Rafting is always fun, although Mom didn’t enjoy the (fairly mild) rapids.  I told her we didn’t all have to do the same things at every port but, oh well.

Next we stopped in Skagway.  We had a nice long excursion in Skagway.  We took a ferry to a hike to a canoe and then the reverse to get back.  The canoe took us right up close to a glacier:

For our last port in Alaska we stopped in Ketchikan.  We really lucked out on the weather for the first 2 but it was gray and rainy for this one.  We took some inflatable motor boat sort of things out.

These things are driven from the back seat, which proved to be difficult.  It was a bumpy ride too.  It was still fun though.

Our last stop before returning to Seattle was Victoria, Canada.  Much to Sarah’s displeasure, we pretty much just walked around there and enjoyed not being stuck on the ship for a little while.  Smelled the roses and so forth.

After that we were back on the ship for one more night and arrived back in Seattle in the morning.

For our last day in Seattle, first we saw the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Ben complained about how the plaques for abstract pieces of art basically involved the artists inflating their own egos.  I’m such a genius for creating a bent piece of metal.

Then the Experience Music Project museum.

It was a pretty cool place.  Lots of guitars (and not just in that sculpture).  I wish it had been less crowded though.  There were a bunch of interactive things that just weren’t worth the line.

We also just walked around Seattle a bunch more.

The next day we all went to the airport to fly back home.