Alaska: Bigger & Colder than Texas

Thanks to Cliff's parents, July 7th-14th we took our first family vacation to beautiful Ketchikan, Alaska.  In short: it was beautiful, relaxing and fun.  But really...you know I'm not going to stop this post with an "in short."

So...off we go:

First of all - traveling with an infant isn't actually that hard.  Well...if you have a mellow baby like we do, then it isn't hard.  Gareth slept most of the flight to Alaska (4 hours to Seattle, then 2 hours to Ketchikan), and when he wasn't sleeping, he was laying in my lap laughing as Cliff and I made faces at him.  Our niece and nephew were also great travelers, so the trip there was pretty low stress. 

And then we got to Alaska....and it was beautiful.  And in the high 60's.  Or as native Alaskan's would call it..."a hot day."  Pssh.   The air was clear, the view was gorgeous and we were exhausted from traveling.  But of course that was the day we saw a pod of orca whales right outside of our hotel.  God is good, all the time!

Instead of doing a day-by-day vacation recap for you (which my sister-in-law did so much better than I ever could), I'll just sum it up like this:

- Cliff fished

- I went to the Spa

- We saw a horrifically terrible melodrama called the Fish Pirate's Daughter

- We got mistaken for locals

- We saw humpback whales, bald eagles, bears and orca

- We saw at least 15 different cruise ships

- We did a zip-line

- I climbed a rock-wall

- We ate so much awesome seafood that I wont crave it again for at least a month

- Gareth wore really cute coats

And now...for some pictures:

Elizabeth...defeating the rock wall!

Cliff, in a mighty struggle with a halibut

Elizabeth getting ready to zip-line!