Cruisin' Alaska - Part One: Seattle to Ketchikan

September 12 – 19th we went on a cruise to Alaska! In my family it is a tradition that my parents take you on a cruise when you graduate from high school. For my graduation cruise I went with my parents, my grandmother and one of her good friends; let’s just say that I was really bored most of the time because I was by myself. My parents had each other to hang out with and even though I love my grandma to death, it really wasn’t all that fun tagging along with a couple of golden year-aged ladies. I still had fun and loved everything that I got to see, but I wouldn’t recommend going on a cruise “by yourself.”

This year, my brother Alex graduated from high school. Being the smart person that he is, he knew he would need some super cool individuals (like Luke, myself and Z) to keep him from being bored out of his mind. Graciously (and since we graduated from college) my parents invited us to go along.

Our large party of seven and a baby (which is how you explain our large party to the dinner reservation people) - Dad, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Alex, Luke, Bre, Aslynn - was quite the site to see! Aslynn was practically the only baby on board and everyone loved her! She is a flirt anyway, but on the trip she really pulled out all the stops. The people working on the ship learned her name quickly and would talk to her whenever they saw her; they even took pictures of her for thier own personal collections.

*Turn your head to the side; it'll be worth it, I promise!*

It was a lot of fun! My graduation cruise was also to Alaska and on the same ship that we were on this time. I was able to find my way around pretty well – as opposed to last time when I got lost often because, man, let me tell you, those ships can be confusing when you don’t know what direction you are pointing – and was able to help the newbies know where they were and how to get to where they wanted to go.

*Our ship: the NCL Star.*

Luke was pretty excited to go. Poor kid hasn’t really been a lot of places (this was his second trip into Washington. The first was into Vancouver to get a crib from Craigslist, so I don’t think that really counts). *Leaving Seattle.*

*Luke’s a model now.*

We left out of Seattle and had one “sea day” before we reached our first stop…Ketchikan, Alaska.
We had a great room with a great big window (that Z liked to climb up to and bang on) near the front of the ship, close enough to enjoy the full benefits of the wake the ship created.

*Dolphins right outside our room. That loud person would be my brother.*

There were lots of good places to eat on the ship. We traveled with Norwegian Cruise Line which is a freestyle cruise – that means that you can eat wherever, whenever and with whomever you want to, no specific dinner times and no dress code! If you want to go on a cruise, do a freestyle cruise.

We all ate so much food and gained so much weight that we are still quite ashamed of ourselves. When the cruise ended we weren't hungry for what seemed like days.

*This is Luke Il Popo he got for dinner one night. It was huge and it was hot. It was like a big, hangy-down, pokey, cast-iron skillet with vegetables and meat skewered onto it.*

The coolest thing we saw in Ketchikan was a salmon run. Oh my goodness, I’d never seen so many fish before. It was awesome (as in awe inspiring) to see that many fish all together.

*See all the fish?*

*Smart seal in a freshwater river = good dinner.*

*If this picture was bigger you would be able to see all the fins poking up out of the water. LOTS and LOTS of fins.*

*This gift shop moose had a crush on Luke; he didn’t seem to mind.*