Day 4: Raptors and otters and sea lions and whales and bears…oh, my!

We woke up this morning

To a typical Alaskan day…in Sitka!

A bit grey, but still gorgeous

Who’s ready for adventure?

Our excursion today was a 3-parter:

First up, the Alaska Raptor Center.

Eagles and other raptors are rehabilitated here

And then, hopefully, able to be released back to the wild.

We’ve seen a lot of eagles at the cabin

But WHOA was this up close!

This was their shtick—

It was everywhere.

We were not amused.

But we were excited to see a peregrine falcon up close! 

One more look at the eagles

Before we moved on to The Fortress of the Bear

This was a bear rescue—

For bears that were either too used to people to be in the wild,

Or cubs that lots their moms and couldn’t go back to the wild

They were fun to watch

And we were SO close

Sheesh!

Glad there was a window there!

Our last stop—

A boat ride around the coves to see what else we can find

The salmon are running!

Did you know there are 5 kinds of salmon in Alaska?

Using your hand there is Chum, Sockeye, King, Silver, and Pink.

We heard that a lot over the next few days

You know what likes salmon?

BEARS!

We watched this Mama Bear and her 2 cubs for quite a while

(The cubs are the dark brown lumps towards the right of the picture)

A “teenage” bear tried to join them but Mama wasn’t having it

Then we found a bunch of sea lions

It stayed cloudy

But the scenery was still pretty

See?

The clouds over the mountains were everywhere

We ran into a bunch of otters

And eventually ran into our first humpback whale

There were a few of them—

We got a video of the fluke wave but no picture

It was heck of a day—

More wildlife than we’ve seen on an excursion…ever!

And look!

There’s our ship!

One last sighting just before the dock—

An eagle’s nest!  With eaglets!

Thanks, Sitka!

That was cool!

Our excursion was over pretty early in the day

We we settled into the Waterfront to watch the scenery

It was captivating

We tried out the mojito bar

And discovered they could make virgin mojitos too!

Wall ball, anyone?

Or maybe a pre-dinner cocktail on the balcony?

Or maybe we’ll just enjoy more of Alaska

It sure is pretty up here

 

Day 3: Ship life

We’re at sea today

So we had plenty of time to check out the ship

And all its activities.

After spending a fortune in the arcade last night,

Mom and Dad thought it was a good idea to buy us an Arcade Package…

So that’s where we’ll be!

We surfaced for lunch

And look who we saw learning the Cha Cha??

But then, 

Mom couldn’t stand it

And she went to join her

It was a pretty low-key day.

We played a lot of arcade games,

Mom and Dad got in a run,

We checked out the shops and various bars

And eventually got all spruced up for dinner

Clearly also on our best behavior

We thought it would be a good night to celebrate Mema and Pappo

(Well, every night became a good night to celebrate the reason we’re all here!)

When the crew heard us talking about them,

They brought over a slice of cake for them to share

We headed off to see Six, the Broadway musical

(Mom loved it—she was so excited it was playing on the ship!)

And we came out just in time to take in the sun

As it slipped under the clouds

We headed to The District

Where Tucker found the best seat on the ship

Which Mom needed to try out too

Followed by Jack

With our new favorite piano bar player

King Bae playing in the background,

It doesn’t get much better than this.

 

Day 2: Settling in and setting sail

So why are we in Seattle?

Because for Mema and Pappo’s 50th anniversary,

We’re cruising to Alaska!

We got to board nice and early this morning

Which gave us plenty of time to hang out in the hot tub

And Enjoy the view

We decided to try out a new cruise line—Norwegian.

And check it out—we’ve got water slides!

We were disappointed to learn we could only go on the tube slide—

You have to weigh 120 pounds to go on the body slide.

Apparently, people get stuck a lot.

After walking the ship from top to bottom,

We met back in our rooms for the push off

See you later, Seattle!

And now,

It’s off to dinner.

We didn’t understand the dinner procedure for Norwegian

And missed our seating time.

They managed to get us all near each other…

But at separate tables.

Dad and I had an intimate dinner, just the two of us!

The ship has all sorts of cool outdoor spaces,

Especially on Deck 8, the Waterfront.

It was too beautiful of an evening not to hang out for a bit

Then it was time to dive into the beverage package

And find our hangout bar for the week—

A brewery with over 20 taps called The District

Mom was SO excited to go to her first Silent Disco

As were Kurt and Dad

We decided to head to the Local,

The all-night restaurant on the ship

It was a bit of a…debacle trying to get food.

We ordered wings and pretzel bites (it was a limited menu)

And nearly TWO hours went by without any food arriving.

When Pappo wandered by and heard our predicament,

He had a few choice words for the restaurant manager.

Low and behold, our food suddenly arrived…

But we thought it was best to call it a night without our pretzels.

We had one last task for our first day at sea…

Decorating

What do you think?

Can’t miss it!

We thought we were so sneaky…

But Pappo decided to call it an early night in the casino

And we got caught.

Oh well.

He was still surprised.