Our Alaskan Honeymoon

Alright, I've decided to try post at least once a week whether we do something exciting that week or not. So, sometimes (like in the case of this week)I'll do a throwback post to past things that I failed to post on Facebook or send out otherwise.

With that being said, here's a huge photo dump of pics from our honeymoon last summer 2012 to Alaska. Since we had limited time to plan a trip between the wedding and Galen going to school, we decided to go on a cruise. That way, all of our meals and entertainment would be planned out for us, and all we would have to do is show up!

Our port of call was in Seattle, Washington, and since at the time Seattle was a possibility for Galen's residency, we flew in very early in the morning to walk around and see the city before our ship left that evening. My favorite things there were the water everywhere and all of the beautiful fruits to eat, especially the Rainier cherries. We must have eaten about 4 pounds (almost 2 kilos) of Rainer cherries throughout that trip because we bought some to eat while we walked around that day, some to take on the ship, some to eat while we walked around before the flight home, and more to take back to Tucson. 

Overall, it was an excellent trip. I definitely recommend Alaska!

Famous Pike Place Market. Excellent place to buy some French pastries, a Starbucks coffee from the original cafe, a bag of Rainier cherries, and have breakfast over looking the Sound.

Just a sampling of the rows and rows of beautiful produce in Pike Place.  We're not used to this in the desert because it's just too hot to have markets like this. Plus, nothing grows here. Ha. It's all imported from Mexico.

Fresh flowers for sale, the kind you'd never see growing in the desert.

Setting sail, with Seattle in the background

We went to bed one night and woke up the next morning in beautiful Oz

Loads of tiny waterfalls all around. Tried to capture one here

 

Our second day at sea. The ship drove into a fjord called Tracy Arm to Sawyer Glacier. The captain said that since last year, it had melted back 100 feet.

Trying to get a photo with the glacier

Warming up on the deck with hot chocolate and a view

The ship stayed by the glacier for about an hour, and everyone packed the deck for the first 30 minutes, but we braved the cold for the rest of the time to get a photo without everyone else in it.

Woo!

Finally, land!

Summer is the down season for racing sled dog teams, so they take tourists up and around the mountains on wheeled carts.

Our lead dog. Can't recall her name though.

The dogs used for racing are Alaskan huskies, as opposed to Siberian huskies, and are very friendly

Since the puppies are born in the summer, we got to go back to their camp and play with them

And this is how we ended up with Max. Galen said he was just going to "look"

The puppy pen

A litter had just been born two days prior to our visit, but we were not allowed to pick these babies up

Gorgeous walk back from the camp. Our guide said instead of going to the movies (since there is no theatre). there they all pulled up lawn chairs next to the stream in this valley and watched the bears catch the spawning salmon.

Perfect weather

Skagway, Alaska: the town at the bottom of the mountain where the dog camp was located, literally a one road town where the median home price is $500K because no one ever moves in or moves out. It was built for miners during the Gold Rush, like most of the towns in Alaska.

We spent a day zip-lining through the canopy.

They provided us with all the gear, including these fashionable waterproof jackets to protect our clothing from dripping tree sap.

Surprisingly, not as scary as one would have thought. This was a practice line that we all zipped on before committing to the big lines because there was no turning back once you got going (this is Galen, btw)

Suspension bridge along the course

The shuttle on the way back from zip-lining took us to see another glacier. Galen and I decided to hike away from the visitors' center to see it up closer. Here's Galen skipping rocks.

Creek Street in Ketchikan, Alaska. A street build over the river with local artisan shops. The salmon spawn up this river, but we couldn't spot any.

The quaint town of Ketchikan. We also took in a lumberjack show, but couldn't get any decent photos because it was raining.

Our final port of call was in Victoria, Canada, but we were only allowed to disembark for a few hours. Luckily there was a vendor fair going on that day that we got to see. 

Getting ready for the last show aboard the ship, followed by our final dinner.