Alaska cruise part 1

This will be part 1 of...oh I don't know...um, 4? We'll see how many there are when I am done. As many of you loyal readers know, we had the opportunity to go on a cruise with my parents and siblings and their spouses and uncles and wives and cousins and their kids to celebrate my parents 50Th anniversary. In all there were 27 of us so this is a recap of all the fun we had. The flight out of Salt Lake was the biggest obstacle for Kelsie to overcome since the last time she flew she was less than a year old. I think Lonna will have fingernail marks for a while.

Part of the group that was on our flight. Sadly, Steve was not able to go with us, you were missed Steve.

After getting to Seattle and after a cab ride where I thought we would surely die, we made it on the ship but were unable to go to our rooms yet because they were finishing cleaning from the people they just kicked off the boat. So what do you do while you wait? Shuffleboard!

Note to those of you planning to go on a cruise, don't sit right under the horn when it goes off. We thought we were lucky to find this patch of shade, maybe there was a reason it was available.

Off we go, time to take pictures of people waving to the other boat (much,much bigger boat, so big it has a spoiler on the back that doubles as a disco)

I thought this one worked out okay. Slowly pulling out of Seattle and enjoying the sights.

My aunt Zelma insisted I get a picture with this very handsome guy because she thought we looked like each other. Actually this is my cousin Scott (for those of you who don't know, or can't remember). This is the first time I had seen Scott in many years.

Woo hoo day 2. This was a day spent at sea enjoying the sights of... water, lots and lots of water. So what do you do when there's not much to look at? You go exploring. Dale, Steve, Jim and myself found the door that led to the bow (front end of the boat for those not nautically oriented). We did meet some slight resistance from one of the crew trying to tell us that it was really windy but Dale assured him that wind had little effect on fat guys. Yes, we did have to keep an eye on Steve, cuz he's skinny.

My sisters! We found this corner in the buffet that we would meet at that would accommodate most of us when we ate, or just congregated to visit.

More exploring the boat. Kelsie was off with the kids group doing one of her countless numbers of scavenger hunts so Lonna and I took Alyssa, or maybe Alyssa took us, either way we took a walk around and came to the aft (another nautical term, this time the back end. Not only a vacation but an education too). They are laughing because I told them to look at me so I could take a candid picture and instead of just turning and looking, they also both said "what" at the same time thus causing lots of laughter, and more photo opportunities.

One of my new favorite pictures. That night we had our first formal night, I forgot to take my camera so you will just have to wait for other pictures to pop up, but I will probably do a follow-up after part 4ish just so I can post a few more pix that I liked from the others.

Next time: The mysteries of Juneau.