Alaska!

While Brian was in North Carolina this summer, I watched the entire season of Sarah Palin's Alaska on Netflix. Since then I have really wanted to visit Alaska! Brian and I threw the idea of an Alaskan cruise around a bit when we were talking anniversary trip ideas but we never made any final plans so I assumed that the cruise was out of the picture. Two weeks before our anniversary Brian surprised me and told me that he had booked us the cruise! 

Going on a vacation with just Brian for a whole week was so amazing! We had so much fun together and I feel like that alone time was so replenishing for us! Brian's Parents, My Parent's, Amy & John, and Bob & Brenda all stepped up to watch the kids for us! We are SO thankful that they blessed us that way! 

I did a really bad job taking pictures of our trip. But really on a trip without the kids, the pictures just end up being a bunch of selfies anyway! 

We skipped the show on our first formal night and headed to the smoke filled sports bar to watch the Seahawks game.... (wife bonus points right there!) 

They decorated our door for our Anniversary! 

The Morning of our Anniversary I did a spa sampler package. It was great! I could totally go on a cruise and skip the excursions and do spa stuff instead! 

Juneau was the port stop on our anniversary. We did the Alaskan Gold Panning and Salmon Bake excursion. If you go on a cruise, skip this excursion. We had fun together because we always have fun together BUT the excursion was hokey. Everyone out there was given prefilled pans and would you believe it, we all "found" the same amount of gold flakes. 

 (I totally learned my lesson, the zipline would have been more fun! You were right Brian!) 

The waiters all sang "Happy Versary" to Us!

How cute is that cutlery anchor?! If I ever have a beach house I will totally make an anchor like that for the kitchen!

Our cruise was scheduled to visit Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, and Victoria BC. However we hit a storm so our last two ports were cancelled and replaced with a Vancouver port stop that also ended up being cancelled. This was a big bummer! We left the trip feeling like we didn't really get a great feel for Alaska. Most of what we saw looked just like Washington.

Glacier Bay is a national park that the cruise ships go through. The glaciers were AMAZING. Brian and I found a table on deck and played Rummikub out there all day while we watched the Glaciers. The pictures totally don't do it justice!

 God's Creation is truly stunning! The Author of Creation song was totally stuck in my head that day!

On the second to last night Brian competed in the finale of the Princess Pop Star competition! I wish I would have videoed him because he really rocked it! He sang Bright Lights by Matchbox Twenty. 

.... and......

He won! 

He won a bottle of champagne and the title of "Princess Pop Star"! 

It was a really great getaway with my Man! If you have the chance to go on a solo trip with your spouse I HIGHLY recommend it. (You will miss your kids, A LOT. But you will also be so much more thankful for them when you get home!!) 

As far as cruise specifics go: 

• I don't think we will cruise Alaska again, but I am glad we did it once.
• I don't think we will cruise Princess again. The onboard activities weren't that great (Maybe because Alaska has an older clientele?). The food was really delicious, but they didn't have 24 hour self serve ice cream which is a deal breaker for Brian! We want to try Royal Caribbean or Disney next.
• Be prepared to pay for excursions. We talked about what we remember from past cruises and what we remember is always the excursions. We don't really remember much from the places that we just walked around the shops. 
• On Caribbean cruises, save money and get an inside stateroom. On an Alaska cruise spend the money for a balcony room! We had an interior room because on past cruises all we could see was ocean and we didn't use our balcony very much. For an Alaskan cruise though I think it would be worth the money because there really is so much landscape to see the whole trip, especially the glaciers!! 

If you have any Alaska cruise questions let me know!