Day 3 of our cruise began with something I had never experienced before...ROOM SERVICE!!! OH YAY! It was fun! Well...ok...honestly it wasn't that exciting because the food was kind of blah and eating it I was a little rushed as we had to be off the ship soon. But it was fun to try it for once!

Once we had eaten and the five of us were off of the ship I was finally able to snap a picture of this sign, which I kept seeing in all the ports and thought was hilarious!


So we arrived in Juneau and were headed to our excursion of Salmon Hatcheries and the Mendenhall Glacier. This is a photo of us as we were waiting for our bus to arrive. We had the best bus driving...but more about that in a minute.
The following video is of the Salmon Hatchery. It was my most favorite of all our excursions. I had not really expected much from it and it turned out to be very fascinating. One thing I did not say in the video was that if you buy salmon you should look for salmon that says either Alaska Salmon or Wild Salmon on the packaging. The reason for this is that it is illegal to do Fish Farming in Alaska, so you know for a fact that if it comes from Alaska it has not been farmed. Fish farming is bad because they raise the fish in little nets and the fish aren't in a natural habitat. This causes the fish to get sick so they inject them with antibiotics (steroids too???). So Alaska Salmon is not only more humane it is going to be free of any man made junk.



Inside the building of the Salmon Hatchery there were many crazy creatures to look at. These were some of the coolest aquariums I have ever seen!!!

These particular creatures they had in little tubs so you could feel them. They don't always have them in these little cages.


You might not be able to tell from this picture but this starfish has many legs. You can see younger newer legs growing like nubs in between the older longer legs. I had never seen this before. These thigns looked like octopi. They were pretty crazy!!!

From there we went to the Mendenhall Glacier. I preferred the Hubbard Glacier but this one had some unique features. It was kind of eerie looking though!


They had some trails outside of the Mendenhall Glacier building. Some of them were closed off due to bear activity. This is a nice little sign that was right outside of the building. Can someone please explain the significance of the date, other than the fact that it was a day old?


Our bus driver was an adorable young girl (ok, not that young). She had a very dry sense of humor and we all really liked her. She was young but her driving was very good. Towards the end of the trip we were sitting at a stoplight and the bus engine stopped. She started saying, "oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed!" None of us knew why until she said, "I was trying to turn off the windshield wipers and turned off the bus instead!" We all laughed and nearly 2 minutes later she finally had the bus started again and we were off!


Back on the ship we had to get ready for dinner. Prior to that though we tried to take a picture using the auto shoot mode on my camera. I cannot upload all the pictures to tell this story properly without getting into trouble with my family so I must apologize for the lack of visuals. The first picture I didn't think to use the autoshoot so we decided to retake it. Then my mom felt that she was too fat looking so we reshot it. The third picture I messed up and wasn't in it, the fifth picture my mom and aunt both said they looked too fat so finally I realized no one would be happy unless they were covered, so....

This was the night that Alissa was wearing her strawberry pajamas. The reason this is important was because this was the night we met our head waiter (our waiter's boss). From this night forward he would always come looking for his "little strawberry." He was very sweet and loved Alissa. Of course, everyone on the boat did. Especially at dinner, we had a late dinner so I don't think they were expecting children and everyone there would always ask about her if she wasn't there. The waiters would always bring her milk and food and ask if she wanted anything. They would all try to talk with her but she's a little shy of strangers. It was cute.

I HAD to put this picture in. I'm not sure what was in her mouth but boy I don't want any!

This is our waiter. He was very nice, somewhat shy. He didn't do that many tricks or anything for us but I still really liked him. He was always very good and pleasant and would laugh and get embarassed pretty easily.


Of the trick he did, this was one of them. This was to show us how the ship's stabilizers worked. Though, I'm still not clear on the stabilizers, this was amazing. Yes those were normal sized toothpicks. That was a pretty amazing balancing act!!!

Ok, to end this day I had to put this picture in. They both look so adorable! Mom and daughter!

We have started a new type of relative in our family. Second cousins are CCs (Cousin Cousin). My CC Nathan is a beautiful boy of 3 years old. Somewhere around 2 years old Nathan was diagnosed with Autism. I could not describe the journey that this took his family on without pages and pages and possibly a book (maybe his mother will write one someday) of explanation. But after a completely whirlwind of lifestyle changes, therapies, prayer prayer and prayer this video was made.

The long awaited Day 2 Part 2 is here! Aren't you excited??? The second half of the day we explored the ship. It is an amazingly large ship with 13 floors! Our cabin was floor 3. We were above the water level so we had a great view. But let me start at the top.



Floor 13 and 12 merge in some spots. Like the outdoor swimming pool. There is also a mini golf course (9 holes), a climbing wall and a random fake rock with a hole in the middle.



Floor 11 had the buffet restaurant that was where we ate most of the time (every day around 3 we would have soft serve ice cream, nachos with some AMAZING sauce, and play cards). This was also where the spa and the gym were. Or was that floor 5? I'm not sure anymore. I'm getting mixed up. Anyway, we explored from the top down, played golf and exhausted ourselves until it was time to get ready for dinner. It was fun!



That night we went to the club and had virgin margaritas which were YUM!

Pastor Pat gave me a box of Christmas Nerds. I have been sitting here eating them. I was on the phone and I separated them by color and size, in pairs of two. Then I counted the pairs and ate until there were equal amounts of each color. As I eat them I have one on each side of my mouth (that truly is something I ALWAYS do...I have to have the same flavor on each side. Thats also why I separate them by size. Size is more important than color because the amount of taste and the colors taste the same). Now I will figure out how to finish the rest but WHATINTHEWOLRDISWRONGWITHME?!!!

I do this with skittles and MnM's too...

If I have an odd number the last one gets bit in half so I can still be balanced.

How I wish I could describe the awesomeness of God. He is more than I could ever dream of. The fact that He loved us enough to provide salvation for us truly does blow me away. Then the fact that He gives us His Spirit and helps us through our daily walk is astounding. But I don't even have a word for the last part...He calls me His friend. 'Lil ol me. Briana. The crazy one that is weird to the point of annoying. The one who doesn't do much. Just lives her little sheltered life. She's not famous, or talented, or even a Spiritual Giant or anything. Nope, simply a plain Jane that struggles her way through every day of trying to die to self and live for God. That girl, that simple girl, is the one the God who created the earth and all its fullness, the starts and the galaxies, the far reaching universe and who knows what else beyond, He calls her His friend.

Truly no words can describe my astonishment. Nor can I gather that I even truly fathom the amazingness of this fact.

All I can say is, "Lord help me to be all that You have created me to be. More of You and less of me."

The Hubbard Glacier is not a port but it is a cruising site. Your boat never stops moving but you get to get pretty close to it depending on the weather (how much ice is in the water). We started off the day by finding a good spot with a view and camping out until we got to the glacier.

We spent a lot of time waiting, playing cards, eating, waiting, waiting, waiting...

While we were waiting lots of ice started floating by. Some small little pieces and some huge! But mostly small.

This is not the glacier but a mountain that looked amazing!

This is a very zoomed in picture of the glacier.

I kept zooming out until I got to the widest possible. The glacier is amazingly blue and gorgeous! I loved how blue it was. The water was kind of murky because the silt in the glacier gets into the water as it melts.

Jessica and Alissa together, Jess is the cutest Mom!
This was funny because I kept trying to get a good pic of my mom and my Aunt like this and it was not working. Finally they were like, we are done! And I said, "One more" and it worked that time!
Thats it for the Hubbard Glacier. Stay tuned for our next episode where we explore the ship!

Hello all and aren't you glad that I am going to give you a day to day description of my cruise?! Its actually going to be very cool. There will be 8 posts regarding this. I will show pics of the places we went and explain what it was like. Don't get bored! It will be fun!!!

Day 1 We were mostly traveling. For those of you who don't know we were starting in Seward Alaska which is North and working our way south to Vancouver Canada where we would end. So day 1 we were traveling from Carson City to Seward Alaska...it took ALL day.

Funny story, that morning I was shaving my legs and the shaving cream splurted (yes thats a word) all over and got in my eyes. I immediately started flushing my eyes out and my big concern on my mind? Blindness? No, I was thinking "gosh I hope I get to drive to the airport!!!" Silly me.

We made it to the airport safe, flew to Anchorage where we got to experience something you guys have not got to experience for several years...my Aunt and cousin were there right when we got off the plane! I miss the pre 9-11 days. They flew into the same airport at the same time so they were able to come find us. We all went together and got on the bus that would take us 2 hours to Seward.

Isn't she precious? This is Alissa Grace, my cousin's 18 month old. She went with us and she was a joy! Takes after me of course!

We made one stop to stretch our legs and then we finally got to Seward to board our ship.

We had a little time to explore and settle. What we had to do once we got settled was to Muster...which is where they make sure you know the safety procedures if you have a Titanic type experience.

This Mustering called for us to put on our life jackets...hence these lovely pictures that I HAD to include!!! The above is my mom.
This, of course, is the lovely Alissa. She was not too happy about her life jacket!

This is my cousin Jessica in her lovely orange hue.

And this is my Aunt Bev wearing her gorgeous ensemble.

Immediately after this we had our first dinner on board. It was fabulous.

During dinner at one point I looked out and realized we were moving! We had embarked on our All Girl Mountain Fest! At least, that's what my souvenier shirt calls it! Not much to tell after that...I will continue this series later with Day 2. Or at least day 2 part 1 because we did so much and saw so much every day that it was amazing!!!