The first trip in May was a last minute one (last minute meaning we booked it in January). Katie was given (for Christmas) money for a trip, anywhere she wanted to go. Christian said he would watch the kids and she could go wherever. She hemmed and hawed and hemmed and hawed and poloed me (on the Marco) about where to go. She mentioned she's always wanted to go to Alaska, but she wanted a trip to Alaska to be for more than a weekend. My suggestion was a 7 day cruise to Alaska and how about if I came along? She jumped on the offer and we eventually extended the offer to Hayley because one more person in the room meant cheaper because we were splitting the price three ways instead of two. AND (BONUS) my sister is a newly minted travel advisor and we hit her up to do all the work of booking stuff for us (except the plane tickets). It was so easy to have Jenni do all the booking for us. And she answered my questions, especially calming my worry when I got an email from the cruise line suggesting I switch my cruise to another date (NO I DON'T WANT TO! Jenni explained that I had a guaranteed room and they couldn't force us to switch dates)
We left on a Friday afternoon and flew to Edmonton (layover). We got to chat with a customs agent, who casually asked us questions like have you ever been to Canada before (he seemed like he was casually chatting, but I'm sure he was supposed to ask us these questions) and if so when? and what brings us to Canada. I guess we answered within normal parameters because he allowed us to pass. We had already filled out custom forms on the ArriveCAN app so going through was a matter of scanning our passports and having our picture taken.
We had fun eating Canadian foods at the airport--I like airport food. Edmonton airport had some fun little photo op vignettes, which Hayley and I found fun to do.
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| Hayley is pretend skiing! |
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| My shoes barely fit in the backless ski boots |
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| Sadly the swing did not swing |
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| Essentially a grilled cheese sandwich with a waffle-like bread |
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| The cheese was cheesy. We all thought this was a delicious sandwich. |
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| Poutine with an Indian flavored twist--Butter chicken? Hayley is good at photobombing. |
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| This is what I have to deal with from my children. |
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| I did like the poutine too. |
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| I think I am eating the last of the grilled cheese thing |
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| Edmonton's airport code is YEG. Random letters or does it mean something? |
When we finally got to Vancouver (our port of call for the cruise ship), we caught the hotel shuttle to our hotel, which was located in the middle of the Asian section of the city. I didn't take any photos in the evening so you'll just have to imagine business signs in both English and probably Chinese. When we checked in, I asked the concierge what was the best way to get to the port terminal and he pointed out a little sign on the wall that offered a cruise shuttle the next morning and explained it was $20 per person in US cash money. All three of us instantly pulled out our $20 bills and practically threw them at him, saying "SIGN US UP NOW." That was one of my big worries on this trip and one of the only things that hadn't been set up ahead of time. I knew we could take a taxi, but signing up for the shuttle took care of that worry. The older couple who were checking in at the same time were offered the shuttle, but they said they needed the shuttle back to the airport in the morning because they had signed up for the Princess shuttle that took them from the airport. We saved ourselves the extra step.
Next up was dinner--where to eat that was close by? We looked at all our options and Katie mentioned there's a grocery store literally across the street. So we walked over and it turned out to be an Asian grocery store! We bought a bunch of things to try and headed back to the hotel to eat. We all liked the Korean barbecue. Hayley got some soft-boiled egg type thing that looked iffy but actually wasn't too bad. We got some milkbread twists that were also pretty good.
The next morning, we had gotten up early and had some time to waste before the shuttle came so we went for a nice walk. It misted a little bit, but not too bad.
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| Foody World where we got our dinner the night before |
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| Many pretty flowers on our walk |
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| My two girl babies |
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| Vancouver has black bunnies (and orange ones, but I was not fast enough to get a photo of the orange ones) |
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| Free creepy doll in Vancouver |
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| I want these bushes in my yard |
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| Far down at the end is the pillar graffitied with "Rachel your a lieing goof" on it. |
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| Weird habitat pods for sale |
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| Ah sweet flowers! |
After the walk, we got our stuff and waited for the hotel shuttle that would take us to our cruise! This is Hayley and Katie's first time cruising and I was eager, as a veteran cruiser (I've gone once before), to show them all the fun things a cruise ship has to offer. We missed the first shuttle because it was packed (and some guy had put his luggage on the shuttle and then it left but he wasn't on it and he had to chase the shuttle down and have them remove his luggage because he was waiting for his wife). The second shuttle showed up soon after and after some worry about there being enough room for all of us who were waiting, we did manage to get on. We got the last 3 seats.
Next post: We get on the ship.
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