Ahhhhh....one week from today we will have left port in Seattle and be sailing north to begin our 7-Day Alaskan cruise. We have been planning this trip for over a year and we are finalizing details in these last few days. On Thursday (7/17), we will be flying in to Seattle and staying with our good friends, SiJen and Bryan Olthof. It has been a very long time since we have seen the Olthofs and we're excited to have the opportunity to visit with them during this vacation. They are expecting a baby in September, otherwise they would have considered coming on the cruise with us. :) Abby will give them a preview of life with baby!


This is the route we will be taking on the cruise. We depart from Seattle, WA and head to Juneau, then sail through the Hubbard Glaciers, hitting Sitka, Ketchikan, and finally landing in Victoria, Canada for a few hours before returning to Seattle. This is an "Inner Passage" tour and takes us through the more temperate regions of Alaska, so we will not likely have to fear the sub-zero climate of many Alaskan tours. The summer-time temperatures are around 50-60 degrees farenheit, but possibly very rainy.


Despite cool temperatures, we plan on taking advantage of the indoor, heated pools aboard the cruise ship. Today, we bought Abby a couple of swimsuits - one is a bikini! :)

In the next few days, I will share with you the stress of packing for our first family cruise....Although, the real stress is probably the fear of flying across country (4.5 hours!) with a lap infant, who's extremely mobile.