Alaska Trip.

When I started this blog, I meant it to just chronicle my health and cancer journey. I hoped it would be an easy way to keep everyone updated with what was happening. I'd finish treatments, and life would go back to normal. Life is never as easy as we've planned, is it? So, it is a bit of a change that I'll share with you all a few of the pictures that I took on the AMAZING 3-week trip that I took in June and July.  But, as with so many things lately, it all seems to come back to cancer...

One of the things I did when I was really struggling to get my head wrapped around the whole "you-have-cancer" thing was to write a bucket list.  (You know, a list of things to do before I kick the bucket).  In all honesty, I probably wouldn't have gone on this amazing trip if I hadn't been diagnosed. I wouldn't chose cancer, but I am glad for this trip.  (also I've had several requests for a travel-log, so here it goes!)

The first leg of the trip was a family cruise to Alaska.

 This is a great view in Vancouver before we boarded the boat. To pass the time, we did many things, including dodge ball, looking over the edge of the boat, and playing cards. The scenery from the boat was absolutely gorgeous!  One of the "on the boat days" was spent at Glacier Bay National Park.  The glaciers was amazing, and we could see pieces of the glacier breaking off and forming icebergs.  The pictures don't adequately portray the scale of the scenery.  Even while we were seeing them in person, it seemed impossible to me that the glaciers were one or two miles across, and the icebergs were the size of cars or houses.

The first stop on the cruise was Ketchican, where we saw a lumberjack show.  Then, in Juneau we took a tour of a gold mine, and then took the tram up the hill.  The view of the town was impressive, and the hike down was steep, but very green, and with a lot of mud!  (I think we all took at least one muddy fall on the hike.)  We went on a scenic train ride and off-roading in a jeep when we in Skagway.   (Off roading in the Yukon wasn't on my bucket list, but it could have been!)

Even the ride to Anchorage from Whittier was interesting.   (http://www.alaska.org/detail/whittier-tunnel)  The tunnel is only one lane, but has to accommodate car and train traffic in both directions.  Z (4 years old) got bored in the car and took about 20 self-portraits with my camera. 

Stay tuned for the next entry - Road Trip from Seattle to Pennsylvania!