Hi everyone! Now that I’ve (reluctantly) gotten back into the daily grind I figured it’s about time for me to put together a trip report of our wonderful cruise to Alaska. I’ll be sharing highlights and pictures from each day and will wrap up with a few lessons learned. If you have any questions along the way, please let me know – I’d be happy to answer them!

Arrival Day
I travel to Seattle for work a lot because my company is headquartered there, but the kids had never been, so we decided early on to fly out a few days before our cruise to do a bit of sightseeing and to visit with some friends. We left on Saturday and our flight was uneventful. The kids kept busy with the usual tech gadgets

And I took pictures out the window, including this nice one of Mt. Rainier as we were descending toward Seattle.

We stayed at the Sheraton Seattle in downtown Seattle. This was one of the “official” Disney hotels although we booked too late to get one of the rooms in the Disney block. It’s a nice hotel and within walking distance of Pike Place Market and the monorail that takes you over to the Space Needle, Chihuly and the Experience Music Project.

We got to the hotel around 8:00 and just grabbed a bite to eat and hit the sack – we were pretty beat from the travel day.

Exploring Seattle
Sunday we got up and headed out to our friend’s house in Snoqualmie. We weren’t in too much of a hurry so took the “back roads” because the scenery is just so gorgeous. No matter how many times I visit, it always amazes me how green everything is. Coming from Colorado where everything is dry and brown during the summer, it’s a nice change!

We spent a great afternoon with our friends but by the time we got back downtown, it was too late to do much else, so we just walked down to Pike Place Market where we walked around and visited the Pike Place pig and what I would consider the grossest tourist attraction ever – the Gum Wall. Can you spot the cruise ship?

We ended the evening at one of our favorites – The Pike brewery, where Colorado Dad and I enjoyed some delicious beer and the kids enjoyed “kid beer” (aka root beer)

Good night Pike Place!

Next up: Heading to the port and Bon Voyage, Seattle!