Happy Sunday! I am here to share our last day on the cruise and the time we spent in Vancouver, BC. I set the goal of sharing all of our trip before I go back to school. I go back to school tomorrow morning. So two things are true here – I am a big time procrastinator AND I am achieving my goal. Let’s get to it!

Our final full day (Friday, July 3) on our Alaskan cruise was a day at sea. Our day started VERY EARLY when Jack came in around 3 am. He wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t sure what to do. I thought it might’ve been from a late night snack, but quickly realized he was sea sick. Overnight, the ship started picking up speed to get us to Vancouver on time. Jack laid down in our room for a minute and discovered that going head first, instead of feet first like in his room, felt better. I gave him some Dramamine and he put on the wrist bands. After a few minutes, Jack headed back to bed and slept for a few more hours.

When we woke up, we all had a bit of a slower morning. I laid in bed and finished my book before heading to breakfast. All we had to do that day was enjoy the ship and the scenery and pack our bags.

I didn’t drink much on the trip, but I wanted to try the Alaskan beer with my pizza. There was always cheese and pepperoni pizza available and the third option changed each day. Friday’s pizza was interesting, but delicious!

The art on the ship was something else. We each had a favorite that rotated through over the week.

We had a great dinner together and celebrated my parents one more time. This trip was to celebrate their 50th anniversary. We are so lucky to have such a great example of love and marriage leading our family.

At the beginning of our cruise, we signed up for the Aurora list. That means if the Aurora Borealis are visible, the ship’s naturalist will call your room and wake you up. I was a little bummed that we hadn’t gotten the call because the Northern Lights are something I have always wanted to see. Well, around 1 am on Friday night/Saturday morning, our phone rang!! Of course we were a bit disoriented, but when we realized what was happening, I threw on some clothes and headed up to the pool deck. The Northern Lights weren’t very visible with the naked eye, but once I saw where the colors were with my cell phone camera, I could see hints of the colors. Jeff and my parents came up on the deck, too. We almost didn’t wake the boys up because Jack still wasn’t feeling super, but decided to wake them. I am so glad we did! They didn’t even have to go up to the upper deck because we could see everything from our balcony! Incredible!!

The morning of Saturday July 4th, we had to be out of our rooms at 8 am but weren’t schedule to leave the ship until around 10. We found some empty tables and played cards while we waited. We also walked all around common areas to burn off some energy while we waited. Our three groups were dismissed from the ship at different times and decided to text about our plans for the day once everyone got to the hotels in Vancouver.

Our hotel was right near English Bay Beach. We decided we could walk with all of our luggage. It was a great plan at the beginning, a little less great in the middle, and by the time we got to our hotel it did not feel like a great plan. I had two heavy bags and we were walking uphill on bumpy sidewalks for most of the almost 3 km walk. We stayed at the Best Western Plus Sands. It was a fine hotel, but they were having trouble with their hot water heater so showers were a little chilly.Our hotel room wasn’t ready but the hotel took our bags. We sat down for a minute to watch the World Cup game and then headed across the street to rent bikes.

We kept reading about how fun it is to rent bikes and ride around Stanley Park so we did it. I am not a confident bike rider, but I did ok. There are some VERY SERIOUS bikers in Stanley Park and a few let me know the correct biker ettiquette in a forceful way. I got the message and tried to follow all the rules for our hours long bike ride. The boys took off so Jeff and I took our time and enjoyed the park. We stopped for the totem poles. We stopped to see the lighthouse. We stopped to see the statues. We stopped at the overlooks, too.

At one of those overlooks, we found the boys. Apparently they took a turn and ended up along the seawall and rode all the way back to Canada Place, the cruise ship terminal, a few times. They wanted to ride around Stanely Park so they took off again and Jeff and I biked through the park to meet them about two-thirds of the way around. It is a very strict one way bike path so we couldn’t go around the circle the other way. Stanley Park was beautiful! We saw so many people out enjoying their Saturday. There were people playing games, sunbathing, hanging out, and taking advantage of the park.

We returned our bikes three hours later and headed to find some lunch. We struck out a few places and ended up eating at the restaurant in our hotel. The food was fine. From there we walked back to Canada Place. I wanted to see the Olympic Cauldren and we heard that there were some fun World Cup things happening there. It was a fun place to watch part of a game and explore around.

Then we decided to walk back to our hotel before we had dinner. The boys were looking for some fruit so we popped into Safeway on the way. We have a friend that traveled a good bit for work and would always checkout the grocery stores. He shared all the fun foods and other items he found. I snapped a few pictures of the soccer star chips to share with him. Also, there was a piano that anyone could play while they were shopping. Interesting!

We got checked into our room and relaxed for a bit. I’m not one to enjoy sitting in a hotel room in a new city so I rallied to troops and we headed back into Stanley Park. We brought a deck of cards and found a picnic table to hang out and play hearts. The sun was starting to set so we wrapped it up and headed back to the hotel. We picked up some pizza on our walk back and turned in for the night around 9:30.

The next morning we had a slower start and no plan for the day. There are a lot of things recommended for teens in Vancouver but they weren’t all for us. We’ve been to quite a few aquariums and the guys weren’t excited for that. The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a big draw, but two of my guys do not do heights or bridges. We didn’t have time to go to Whistler or Victoria Island. Jack wasn’t too keen to get back on a boat after spending the last day of our cruise feeling a little seasick.

We decided to walk along English Bay Beach and see what we could find. We found a neat farmer’s market type set up with a bunch of handmade things. I found a really neat dress and ended up going back to get it on the way back to the hotel. There were quite a few statues along the walk and it was lovely. We ended up at the “ferry” over to Granville Island. I use ferry loosely because it was a tiny boat that took us on a 3 minute ride. I’m so glad we went over there. Granville Island was so cool! I wish we had more time there. We walked through the market and the boys got some food. We walked through some artisan shops and heard some live music. It wasn’t high on the boys’ list of things to do in Vancouver, but I am so glad we went! We rode the ferry back over and and walked back to our hotel. We checked out and had the hotel hold our bags until it was time to go to the airport.

Guess what we did next… you’re right, we walked back to Jack Poole Plaza near Canada Place. We watched the end of the Norway game and had lunch at Cactus Club. It was delicious and they had the perfect set up for watching the World Cup. When Norway won, we got to see some fans do the row! Fans from Mexico started filling the plaza and the restaurant in anticipation of their game.

At this point, we were getting a little tired and not excited to do much so we went to my parents hotel. They were staying in Vancouver another few days because they booked a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer after the cruise. The hotel for the train trip was the same hotel that the Swiss Team was staying in for their Vancouver World Cup game. Wowza! It was very cool, but it also meant it was very hard to get into the hotel. My dad met us in the lobby and took us up to their room. We hung out a little more and my sister’s crew joined us too.

Guess what we did next… you’re right, we walked back to our hotel. Jeff pre-ordered an uber for us and we were there just in time. We had an easy ride to the airport and got there in plenty of time. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece got there right behind us. We all had a celebration when my checked bag weighed exactly 50 pounds. I was worried that I would have to shuffle some things around, but no need. We watched more World Cup in the airport and boarded our 11:30 pm red eye flight home. I didn’t sleep much on the plane but I sure did read a lot! We landed in Washington, DC and headed to our car pretty quickly.

We were home around 8:45 am. You might remember, we lost power at home on Saturday, July 4th. The power wasn’t projected to be restored until Tuesday, July 7th at 11 pm. Miraculously, it came back on about five minutes after we got home. We were all so happy to be able to stay at home and sleep in our own beds. Our pool didn’t have power on Monday either, so we didn’t have to dash to swim practice. It was a great day to be at home. We got started on laundry, ordered groceries, and started to get back into our home routine. This was truly a trip of a lifetime. We saw so many wonderful places and animals. We had incredible experiences. We had fabulous family time. Actually, those adjectives – wonderful, incredible, fabulous – do not do this trip justice. They are not strong enough! I am so grateful to my parents for extraordinary (still not a strong enough adjective) vacation!

For your reference, we were on the Discovery Princess and our itinerary for the trip was:
Saturday 6/27 – board the ship in Whittier, AK
Sunday 6/28 – day at sea, Hubbard Glacier
Monday 6/29 – day at sea, Glacier Bay National Park
Tuesday 6/30 – Icy Strait Point/Hoonah
Wednesday 7/1 – Juneau
Thursday 7/2 – Ketchikan
Friday 7/3 – day at sea
Saturday 7/4 – disembark in Vancouver
Sunday 7/5 – Vancouver and red eye home

I am off to enjoy my last day before I head back to work. The weather looks pretty great and I plan on spending my day poolside. I’m hoping to swim laps in the morning and relax/read the rest of the day. Luke’s working, so I know I’ll be safe all day! I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Hello Monday! Have a great day full of sunshine and books!