Lots has happened since we last posted anything. We just haven't had time to post anything about it. A couple weeks ago, we celebrated graduation.
Nate finally finished his ATK project, and I quit work at AlphaGraphics in Provo (but not before going to the company party and watching our manager compete in the Spanish Fork demolition derby). And we moved up here to a new apartment in Clearfield, UT.
Then, at the end of that same week, we took off again to Alaska for a week long cruise. The cruise was a generous graduation present from Nate's parents. It was so much fun! Our five star cruise ship was called the Diamond Princess. It had 15 decks, five or six restraunts plus a buffet that was opened all day, several swimming pools and jacuzzies, a work out facility, ping pong tables, shuffle board floors, a basketball/tennis court, a theater, a library, lots of bars, and a casino (although we didn't care much for those last two items...) Actually, we did spend some time in a couple of the bars since they did host other activities there, like line dancing, ballroom dance, and some shows.
I can't say we were a huge fan of all the entertainment since a lot of it had "adult" content in it that we didn't appreciate. We also didn't much like the super gaudy costuming used during the singing/dancing shows. But there was a lot of good stuff too. There were really fascinating lectures about sustenance living (living off the land) in Alaska. Another man from Skagway gave a show involving folk music, lore, and Skagway history, which was also really good. The dancing was way fun too.
The food was good, and we tried a lot of things we had never tried before, including duck, rabbit, lobster, crab, mussels, and escargo. The fresh Alaskan salmon was wonderful.
We flew up to Anchorage on Friday, arrived early Saturday morning, and spent the rest of the night it a hotel. Saturday morning we took a shuttle to Whittier and boarded our ship. Our ship left later that night.
Sunday morning we got up early to stand outside freezing while we enjoyed the beauty of College Fjord as our ship cruised through it.
Then we attended an odd 20 minute long interdenominational church service held in the Wheelhouse bar. (We were definitely happy to go to a regular church service again with our new ward this last Sunday.)
Monday our ship cruised through glacier bay, which was also cold and beautiful. This is Margerie Galcier:
Tuesday our ship stopped in Skagway for the day. We got off and started our morning by riding a ferry over to Haines. From there we rode a bus to the Chilkoot Lake were we went kayaking and ate lunch. We saw lots and lots of wildlife there, including five bears, several bald eagles, a blue heron, and silver salmon. Overall on our trip we also saw other salmon, seals, humpback whales, and dolphins in the wild.
That afternoon we went hiking along trails right next to Skagway. We went to Icy Lake and Lower Dewey Lake. The forests there are
breathtaking! They are moist temperate rainforests. The ground is wet or spongy. There are rich blankets of moss covering almost everything and all sorts of fungi we were completely unfamiliar with. Streams wind everywhere, lakes and ponds dot the landscape, and waterfalls cascade freely all over the place. The pictures we took hardly do it real justice. I have never seen such amazingly beautiful forests anywhere else before.
Wednesday our ship stopped in Juneau. While there, we took a shuttle to see Mendenhall glacier. Then we hiked a beautiful 3.5 mile loop that took us above a waterfall to the side of the glacier (not the one seen in this picture).
After hiking, we rode the shuttle back and took a tram part way up Mount Roberts (since we didn't have time to hike) before getting back on our ship.
Thursday our ship stopped in Ketchican. We visited the Discovery Center there, which was interesting, looked at totem poles, and walked around looking at the streams swarming with salmon.
We spent Friday at sea on our way to Vancouver, and Saturday morning we arrived at Vancouver. We ate breakfast before leaving the ship. Then we walked to Stanley Park and went to the aquarium, which was really fun. They had so much to see there, including a mother beluga whale with her calf, which was born toward the end of June, and four dolphins that put on a show for us.
We returned home that evening on a flight that had a total of six passengers on it, including us. That was the smallest flight we had ever been on.
So, our trip was definitely worth it! We have tons more great pictures, but putting them here on the blog would be too much. So, you can check them out
HERE.
Friday evening we went to the Airforce Anniversary Ball. Every year, a couple of people from Northrup Grumman where Nate works are invited to go. This year they invited Nate, since he was the newest employee, and another employee who has been there for a long time. We had fun dressing up and going. Nate looked especially good in his sharp tux. We had our pick of steak or salmon for dinner with cake for dessert. The program was pretty long, but there was dancing afterward which we really enjoyed.
Saturday afternoon we attempted our first hike in this area. We planned to meet up with some friends, but unfortunately we went to different trail heads a couple blocks apart to meet, and so we never found each other. After Nate and I had waited for about a half hour, we decided to take off on our own. We meant to hike up Waterfall Canyon to a 200 foot waterfall, but we started late and we were unfamiliar with the trail (which greatly slowed our progress, not to mention it was raining), we had to turn back before reaching our intended destination. We still had fun though, and it was still very pretty!
