Alaska Video's

I'm a bit late on uploading our 2008 Alaska Video's but hey I always say better late than never! Right? I still have my YouTube account www.youtube.com/auntienorma

Ketchikan

Ketchikan is a hustling, bustling city. Outside of Fairbanks, Juneau, and Anchorage, it is the biggest town in Alaska. When you first see it, though, it seems wild. Rugged spruce covered mountains push the town literally right into the water. They were still considerably snow covered in June, which added to the feeling of wildness.

I'm all Thawed out!

Yes! We are back from our cruise. Brrrrrrrr! I finally thawed out. While everybody was baking in the hot summer tempurature and trying to find a way to cool off, the Ramirez family trying to keep warm as we sailed through Alaska's Inside Passage.

We had a balcony state room on deck 11, and, quite literally, sat on our balcony with hot chocolate and watched the icebergs, whales, eagles and majestic, snow-capped mountains glide by (truly, words do not do them justice. I have never seen such beauty, inside or outside the US).

I must say, Ketchikan was my favorite port. It was my first glance at true Alaska. Juneau was so breath taking with all the snow -capped mountain's. We took a 30min helicopter ride up to the top of Mendalhall Glacier where we took in all of it's glory. It was so amazing just being in the center of it all. We trekked up, down and climbed the glaciers. This was the major highlight of our trip. How lucky and blessed we are to get a chance of a life time to experience this. Thank you to my wonderful husband for this chance. Everybody needs to have this on their Bucket list of things to do before you "kick the Bucket" (before you die).

Our third port was Skagway We did not get to see much of this town because we took a scenic tour of the white pass and Yukon route on a Train that took much of our time in Skagway. This tour was so breathtaking with so much beauty everywhere you see. We even sat next to one of ABC's news weather girl. I won't tell you her name but she has blond hair. Ha!

Our last stop was Prince Rupert. Um this was my least favorite port. Not much to say about this little Canadian town but this was a manditory stop for NCL cruiseline for this trip. Hey but we were lucky enough to be up and close to see the Eagles out on the harbour doing what they do best, Flying around looking for food.

NCL cruise itself was nice. They are the first to start this " which I'm not a fan of. I really did not care much for it. I know 95% of me hates being told what to do but I found out, When I am on a cruise I LOVE being told what to do and when. Ha! The food was good, Oh my gosh the Hot wings were fricken Delicious. The casino sucked the slots were as tight as Hum well I don't know but they were tight. I lost alot of money trying to find out if I could loosen them...

The entertainment was much cheesier than the pizza on board, that's for sure. Not much for our boys to do not enough girls their age they can hang out with. By 10:00pm it was like a ghost town onboard. There was a good mix of people. I meet so many people on board I even took a survey well sort of, I asked the wives who's idea was it to cruise Alaska and they all said, "It was my husbands dream" Hmm I figured this cruise is a "Manly Man" vacation. I really did enjoy this trip sailing through the passage and watching big chunks of ice passing the ship by as the ship very slowly and I mean very slow passes these Hugh chunks of ice the silence of our ship as it coast down this passage was very intense feeling.

I had played a lot of bingo on Carnival cruise and enjoyed it. On this ship they had a electronic bingo handset that was $89 to play or you could play on one paper sheet for $29. The difference in odds was staggering. I was amazed at how many people must have blown hundreds of dollars on bingo.I played 4 times on this cruise.

They had a great Gym onboard. Um Rudy used it twice the first day of our cruise and the last day. I did not make it to the gym (my excursions kept me physically active and darn sore). Rudy, Jon and Cory kept busy down at the Spa thruout our cruise they all had a Detox body wrap, facial and massage treatments. God talk about a MetroSexual I have Three. Turned out towards the end of our Cruise Inga our lovely Spa girl was keeping all my men very busy. She is a dam good sales girl... K-Ching let that cash register ring!

All in all we all experience a wonderful trip we all got much more than we expected we would out of this trip. While the ship itself was very basic and more of a floating hotel than a resort, Alaska made up for all of it's shortcomings.

*Oh and ladies when your hubby wants the Manly Man cruise of all cruises tell him you "Really want to go with him" Because there is a great big PLUS in going and really makes up for not wearing those sexy clothes and high heel shoes and prance around the pool. With the Alaska Cruise you always get lot's of old men and I mean lot's... okay hear it goes and with lot's of old men you get looked on and made to feel like you where "20 Something again" Oh Ya Baby! Sorry Rudy but this was to funny not to tell about it.

***A Thank You goes out to many of you who called or E-mailed me regarding why I have not posted my Alaska Cruise adventures and Photos sooner. Dam can't a girl thaw out first?.. I hope my pictures of our cruise was worth your wait. Please let me know what you think . And keep checking my Blog for lot's more pictures and of course I am putting together a movie of our adventures very soon.

Trekking on Mendenhall Glacier

Sawyer Glacier

As you can see the reason why so many people calls Alaska "The Final Frontier" because it is the untouched beauty that God has made.

The captain sailed the ship 14 miles up the fjord until we were very, very close to the glacier. I was so impressed when they expertly turned the immense vessel around in the narrow Fjord and sailed back out. The sweet light of the end of the day enriched the ethereal colors and set a serene and even spiritual mood. Does it get any better than this?

If you look closely at the picture below you will see some brave and crazy cruisers taking in all the sites in the Jacuzzi. Oh ya my kinda Peeps.

The milky blue color results from powdered rock that the glacial outflow carries.

The scenery at Sawyer Glacier was spectacular! This is just on of many mountains that were along the side of the ship as we were going into the bay to see the glacier.

Look another slide show

Skagway

Our next stop was Skagway. It is on the mainland and connected to the rest of North America by a road over the mountains and into the Yukon Territory. Skagway's claim to fame is the Chilkoot Trail, a national historic trail that was established in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush.

We took the White Pass-Yukon Railway. It's a 3 ½ hour breath-taking excursion on the White Pass Yukon Railroad. This 40 mile round trip climbs from tidewater at Skagway to the summit of the White Pass.

Click arrow below to watch my slideshow

It's almost cruising time!

Oh God! In three days we will be on our Alaskan Cruise. I have been taking it easy the last couple of days I now realized, Yikes I better get cracking with my To-Do list. There is so much to do and so little time and energy. I am still so pooped out from chasing my sweet Triplets around.....

Cruising the Mediterranean

Yes! We are planning our Family Cruise on the Mediterranean Seas for late June. How lucky are we!  We will be flying to Barcelona Spain to board our ship then were off to 5 different Ports of Call. 

Ports of Call: Departs From Barcelona, Spain visiting Valletta, Malta; Naples, Italy; Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy; Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy; Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France