Summer Vacation - On the Disney Wonder

After comparing last summer's Carnival cruise with the summer before Disney cruise, I decided that Disney is the only way to go.  We might eventually try out a different cruise line, but for now we'll stick with Disney.  They just do things right.  No different this time on the Disney Wonder to Alaska.

A floating Chevron Station at the Vancouver cruise terminal

First ice cream cone

(not 30 min after boarding)

Sail away party!

Character breakfast

The Mickey 200

This is a derby race using only a potato and a carrot.  Kids design, adults carve.  Olivia and I were a team and she decided we should put a word on top of the carrot.  I thought ours was very creative but it didn't win any prizes...

...because Sarah was participating with John and Marcy and she designed and carved an Epcot Spaceship Earth on top of a carrot.  It won most creative and it's top heavy design brought in a 2nd place finish in the derby.  Notice who I said was supposed to be designers.

Frank helped Emily, Anna, and Ashley (our friends, the Williamsons, happened to be on the same cruise!) make a car for the Potato Princesses.  It was...really good??

Bingo fun

(we didn't win a single thing, not even a raffle prize but the Bingo crew loved Marcy)

Marcy dancing the sprinkler to B11

Views of the boat

Summer Vacation - Whistler

After all the fun in Seattle we boarded a train for Vancouver.  Yes, a train!  Not our usual mode of transportation and  not quite equal to the experience we had on the overnight train in Vietnam years ago.  But, a nice way to travel.

First, an early morning walk to the train station, luggage in tow

On the train!

When we arrived in Vancouver we drove up to Whistler and stayed at the Fairmont.

We did some swimming, hiking, shopping, and playing.

Crowded pool full of Canadians thawing out from the winter
(You can actually see Frank down there on the left side in the orange shirt.  The girls are walking in front of him.  I didn't even realize they were in the picture until after I looked at it.)

Hiking out and around a small lake

Emily and Marcy built a baby Inukshuk

Crossing the VERY cold creek

At the Blackcomb Adventure Zone

Bungy Jumping

Mini Golfing

 Luge-ing

Shopping in Whistler Village

We heard reports of bears around Whistler while we were there.  I didn't put much stock in it until we went for our hike.  Some guys playing tennis at the courts we were passing said there was a bear up in the woods just past.  Then the bear came out of the woods ambling down the path.  No big deal, we were meant to cross the street and take another path.  Wouldn't you know it, the bear crossed the street and took our path.  Another lady out walking said we could take a driveway leading to some condos and catch the path further down to avoid the bear.  Then that bear decided to just come right through the woods, directly to that driveway.  Frank and Marcy were a bit ahead and took some steps up to the path.  Emily and I were stuck standing on the porch of a condo waiting to see where he would go when he came out of the trees.  But, Emily freaked and made a run for it.  Not the right choice for bear safety.  I had to follow.  Luckily the bear had no interest and came out of the trees headed in the opposite direction.  Here is our bear friend at a less tense moment as he crossed the street:

We would definitely like to make a winter visit to Whistler for some skiing.  Looks like a great resort with Whistler and Blackcomb together.  But, this guy did not want to wait for winter and went up for year round glacier skiing.  It looked so funny to see skiers standing in the lift line behind summer tourists.

Summer Vacation - Seattle

We planned a two week vacation this summer centering on a Disney Alaskan Cruise in the company of the extended Rehagen family.  We started the trip with a side trip to Seattle.  Amazingly, that is a city Frank had never visited but I had!  I hardly remember it, as it was 20+ years ago visiting Krista Sorensen and I believe our focus and interests were a bit different back then!

We had an exciting start to vacation - a limo from the airport was the same price as a cab.  Woohoo!

We couldn't visit a new city without checking out the ballpark - twice.  Mariners vs Red Sox and Mariners vs Angels.  The Red Sox game was an afternoon game with great weather.  Perfect day!

The not so perfect part - a hard hit foul ball came right to Frank's seat and hit off his hands, right to this Mariners fan in front of him (who wouldn't shut up about foul ball stories).  Frank said it was one of the worst feelings of his life.

Game 2 was much more low-key - only Emily and Marcy went with Frank and I, but still a fun night game.  Bill Nye, the science guy, threw out the first pitch.  Despite rumors going around, he is not dead!

Other Seattle stuff:  Space Needle, Aquarium, Public Market.

 Views from the Space Needle

Public Market

At the aquarium