Our Epic Vacation: Day 11

It feels sort of like I’ll never finish these Epic Vacation posts, but I am bound and determined to do it.  Even if it kills me.  Thanks for reading them even though I know they are probably excruciatingly boring to the people who read this blog.  Except my mom.  She likes them.  So this is for you, Mom!  🙂

Already Day 11.  After our Sea Day the day before, we looked forward to our first port of call: Ketchikan, Alaska.  Since we had all the kids with us this time, we chose not to do any excursions.  The last time Joel and I were in Ketchikan with my parents, we did a totem tour there.   And, since I am terrible about actually finishing the blogging of our vacations, it isn’t on this blog, though lots of that Alaska trip is.  Sigh.

Anyway, since we didn’t plan for a shore excursion, we mostly just hung around the touristy little shops and the harbor.

View of the Star Princess from shore.

All of the cousins in front of the touristy Alaskan shops, where they enjoyed buying things like ceramic totem pole figurines and bags of pretty rocks.

Princess Chloe with the Star Princess in the background.

Beautiful Bria.

I thought this boat docked in the harbor was totally cool.  What a life, hey?

Sophia and her cousin Estee with a great big Alaskan bear.

The Maestro is all about the chocolate.  He learned on our last trip that Alaskan fudge and other chocolate treats are mighty yummy!

I don’t know why I took this photo, but I like it.  Which is probably why I took this photo.

Sophia and a totem.

Another totem.

I love boat harbors.  Love them.

Proof that I was there, too.  Even though this is a truly terrible picture of me.

After we did some shopping, we found a nature center where the kids could do a scavenger hunt (they won pencils and coloring books), watch a film, and learn more about the area.  I have no photos of this because if I remember right, I was trying to corral all the kids who were running all over the center, which was like a gigantic maze, trying to find the answers to the scavenger hunt.

After we had our fill of the nature center, we found a spot on the bridge to watch the salmon run.  Now that was cool.  Can you see all the fish in my photo?  I tried several times to get a good picture of what we were seeing, and that was the best one.

Look closely!  There are hundreds of fish in this photo.

There were lots of people fishing on the bridge.  I am not sure why, but there were also several dead salmon laying about.  These two girls were fascinated.

Sophia dropped her little velvet bag of pretty rocks over the bridge while she was watching the fish.  Grandpa climbed down and saved the day.

And found more dead fish on the rocks while he was at it.

Mamah and Grandpa and all their grandchildren (minus one who didn’t get to come this time) on the bridge where we watched the salmon run.

Bria and Chloe were both horribly upset to see the fish being caught and killed. Especially Chloe. She was so upset that she sobbed into her Daddy’s shoulder for a long time while the rest of the gang went to do a bit more sight-seeing. Poor baby.

Sad sad Chloe.

The gang doing a bit more sight seeing–also a bit of proof that my brother Dave was there with us.

After we’d had our fill of beautiful Ketchikan (I didn’t mention that it was awfully cold that day, too), we headed back on board our ship.  The kids ate dinner that night at the Kid’s Club and the adults all dined alone and then played a fun game of Trivia.

Later that night, Joel and I took Bria and Brayden up to the top of the ship to watch The Hunger Games on the big screen under the stars.  In the fog.  With the foghorn.  And lots of popcorn and blankets.  It was a lot of fun.

***End of Day 11***