September 2023-We had such a memorable, fun 15 day trip to Canada (we drove), then a 7 day Royal Caribbean Alaskan Cruise and lastly we rented a lake house AIRBNB in Washington.
Day 1-DRIVE TO BOISE
-We got on the road at 3:45pm to drive 5hrs 15 min to Boise to our hotel.
-Our hotel had a broken AC which was hard and the toilet was clogged. 😝.
-SO MANY BEAUTIFUL fields and fields of sunflowers on the way which were GORGEOUS!
-Boise Idaho temple which was so unique and beautiful!
-Stopped at Geiser Pollman Park which was a really awesome playground and we ate lunch here.
-Many more fields of sunflowers. So beautiful!
-Stopped an hour and a half later for a game of Frisbee golf in Pendleton Oregon which was fun. They had a bunch of wild blackberries too which was fun for the kids to pick and eat.
-Right after our game of Frisbee golf we headed towards our hotel in Yakima Washington but Brady's cars transmission stopped working as soon as we started driving when we had 2.5 hrs left to go. Everywhere was closed for the weekend... but we needed to be at our hotel 2.5 hrs away and not enough seats in Wes' car and our car for their family 😢. After over an hour of calling everywhere even though they were closed, we said a prayer and tried to start it again to see if it'd cooled off and that would help. It did and we were able to get to our hotel in Yakima Washington!
-Got to the hotel at 8:10pm.
-Today was the day we drove to Canada from Yakima Washington.
-It was a BEAUTIFUL drive especially from Seattle to Vancouver.
-We stopped at a beautiful park to break up the drive.
-We stayed at Ramada Inn here in Vancouver.
-Swimming and hot tubbing after we grabbed dinner.
Day 4-GOT ON THE SHIP
-What a LONG day! But we finally made it on our ship! Darrin dropped me and the kids off at the port and then he went to park at the airport parking. I was dropped off with absolutely no clue as to where to go with all my kids and all our families luggage...I kept having to ask people where to go as nothing was labeled well at all and I kept getting different answers. It took an hour to find the line I was supposed to be waiting in to label our luggage.
-Finally Darrin arrived and we got onto the ship. Few! We were all so excited to see our SUITE and have our fist DINNER on the ship!
-A few days before we left we got a phone call from Royal Caribbean. They wanted to upgrade us to a $10,000 SUITE for FREE! It is spacious, gorgeous and has a huge balcony!
-Today was a sea day. It was quite rocky the first half of the day. We went with the kids to explore a bit, play pickleball, eat , eat some more, watch the water splash out of the pool from the rocking, etc. Then the kids went to kids club while Darrin and I went hot tubbing for a couple hours. We met some nice people we chatted with for a long time. Then we picked up the kids, got ready for formal night and went to dinner. We enjoyed our dinner, put the kids to bed and Darrin and I went to the comedy juggling show with the other adults. Parker stayed in Wes and Jenicas room while their kids slept while they went to the show.
-Very rocky night last night. Loud creaking and swaying.
-Dropped the kids off at kids club while we checked out the views outside as we approached Sitka. It was super windy outside but very clear.
-Went to play a trivia game with Brady and Christie and while there saw a bunch of WHALES out the window. Pretty far but very cool to see all their blowholes spouting and some backs.
-Picked up the kids and grabbed some lunch before getting off the ship.
-Got off and took a bus into the town of Sitka.
-We saw a sea lion soon after getting off which was fun. He was big and swimming around trying to eat salmon.
-We walked to the totem museum, watched the video they had there and did the totem walk through the super green lush forest.
-We came at the right time of year to see tons of salmon swimming upstream to mate and lay eggs and die. That was really cool to see.
-We then played at a big playground for a while
-Headed back to the ship to chill until dinner.
Day 7-BEST DAY EVEERRRR! TRACY FJORD and JUNO
-Woke up at 6:15 to look outside our balcony because we were heading into Tracy Fjord. Already saw icebergs and it was so beautiful in the fjord. I woke up Darrin and then the kids got woken up too. We couldn't stop saying "look at that!" "Did you see that?!" There were SO MANY WATERFALLS all over the place and SO MANY ICEBERGS! They were so blue! The weather was perfectly clear.
-We got dressed and headed to the helicopter pad. It was really cold but INCREDIBLY GORGEOUS!! Unlike anything we've ever seen. We eventually got breakfast and hot chocolate and ate it outside while we watched the scenery.
-We took the kids to kids club when they opened and us adults went hot tubbing, and in the steam room and sauna. It's so funny talking with people in the hot tub. They know exactly who we are before we introduce ourselves-the ones with all the kids 😁.
-All the adults got off the ship in Juno where it was pouring rain. We had to walk 20 minutes in the rain to make it in time to our whale watching tour through Juno tours. They had shuttle busses to downtown but we weren't sure they were going the right place plus the line was really long for it so we just walked. Turns out it did go to the right place 😁.
-We went out in the pouring rain on our boat. It was so cold but SO WORTH IT! When we first stopped we saw a handful of orcas/killer whales one of which was RIGHT in front of us! I grabbed my DSLR and shot some pictures of the killer whale but didn't realize it was zoomed up 😝.
-They said it's rare to see orcas since they travel 200 miles per day and are really unpredictable. Then we went further and saw a good amount of humpback whales. There was a Mom and baby who were really putting on a show slapping and things. But the lady said it's really rare for them to breech in Alaska. About 15 minutes later the MOM AND BABY BREECHED AT THE SAME TIME PRETTY CLOSE!! So incredible!!
-When we got back to the ship we showered immediately because we were SO COLD. Then we tried to pick up the kids for dinner but they wanted to stay in kids club! So we went with Brady, Christie and Wes and Jenica got to have an adult dinner! What a perfect end to a perfect day!!
Day 8-HANES
-Happy birthday to Darrin! We're in Hanes Alaska today! We had a slow start to the day and then got breakfast. The kids didn't want to go out in the cold and the rain but wanted to go to kids club instead. So Parker, Dallin and Kaylee came with us adults off the ship while the rest went to kids club.
Day 9-KETCHIKAN
-We arrived in Ketchikan today! We had a late breakfast in the dining room and then headed to the hot tubs with the rest of the Simon's in the rain for a couple hours. Caden and Parker played ping pong and then went to play mini golf on their own.
-After hot tubbing and swimming for hours, we went to get a light lunch before getting off the ship.
-The rain stopped soon before we got off the ship! What a tender mercy! What a beautiful place Ketchikan is! Very green and so many colorful buildings. We walked to the lumberjack show which was about .7 miles away and a fun walk. The show started and it was AWESOME! The kids and adults all had a great time watching the entertaining show where it was a contest for all sorts of wood cutting techniques.
-After the show we walked to Creek Street and walked the salmon ladder which was really cool to see the salmon going "up the ladder" if you will.
Day 10-SEA DAY
-Last day on the cruise and it was a sea day. We spent our day eating it up, went to see the flags show which was actually really good, watched the egg drop from the 10th floor which was way fun, went swimming twice, hot tubbing, kids club, went to the stream room and sauna as sister in laws which felt amazing, ping pong, mini golf, a Neil Diamond show and a variety evening show. Then we quickly got all our bags ready and put them out by 11pm so we wouldn't have to cart them around tomorrow. Oh, and we saw some whales at lunch a ways off.
Day 11-MOSES LAKE, WA
-We ate breakfast and everything went really smoothly getting off which was also an answer to prayers.
-After getting the car, we were on our way but got held up again at the US border waiting for over an hour in line.
-We drove a total of 5.5hrs to Moses lake in Washington where we rented a lake house until Friday. Mom and Dad Simon chose it and booked it while we were on the cruise since we didn't have good service.
-It's a cool lake house and was really affordable at $288 per night to sleep us all right on the lake.
Day 12-LAKE MOSES, WA
-Today we simply chilled at the lake. Lots of kayaking and kids getting in the cooold water. The ladies went grocery shopping and I bought a fishing pole and supplies for fishing too. The kids did fishing the rest of the day and caught probably 10 small fish total some of which were extremely small. Parker taught TJ to fish and he caught 2! They saved three for gutting and cooking. Parker and Spencer did a great job gutting them and Parker cooked them on the BBQ. They all got eaten. We watched "the tooth fairy" with popcorn and treats to conclude the day. Ironically, both Rachel and TJ both have very wiggly first loose teeth! They're so excited!
Day 13-EXPLORING WASHINGTON
-Today was awesome. We spent the day exploring nearby Washington. The older boys went fishing in the morning. Then we came up with a plan. It was 3.5hrs round trip to drive to our stops.
Stop #2 dry falls. We accidentally put "dry falls" into the gps not knowing, which made us pay a $10 entrance fee and drive on some really sketchy roads that we barely made it on with our minivan. What we should have put into the GPS was "dry falls visitor center" with way better views and it would have been free. Oh well. We had fun exploring anyway. The views were spectacular.
Stop #3 Coulee Dam. We were reeeallly hoping to make it on the 3:30 tour but with our group size plus the time it took on stop #2, we missed it. So we visited the visitors center instead which was fine. There was a laser light show at 8:30 but I'm the only one who was interested in sticking around for it so we went back home after the visitors center.
The drive itself was gorgeous. Incredible views and landscape. So glad we went.
Oh, and Rachel lost her first tooth tonight!!!! Age 6. She complained all day about how painful her wiggly tooth was and would hardly eat. I looked at it again at dinner and it was ready so it took me about a second to yank it out and vuala! She is very excited about it.
Day 14-LAKE MOSES, WA
-Today we hung out, played games and did lots of puzzles.
-I took all the kids with the exception of Spencer who didn't want to come to a park called "Blue Heron Park". It was a great park! Fishing, disc golf, a big playground and a sandy beach up to the water. The kids loved the beach and went in without permission fully clothed 🤷♀️😜. They dug and built in the sand. They played on the playground. Then I picked up papa Murphy's for dinner. Tonight we watched Elemental and I loved it!!
Day 15-CHECK OUT AND DRIVE TO BOISE
-First thing this morning, Parker and Spencer went out fishing. We packed up at the lake house, took one last stroll in the kayaks, and headed on our way to Boise where we'd be stopping and resting for the night. We stopped once in the 5.5 hr drive for a few holes of disc golf. We also stopped for dinner here in Boise at IHOP. It was pretty good!! We're staying at Ramada Inn in Boise. We went swimming right after we got here. The pool area is quite impressive! It's indoors and HUGE. It's got a lap pop, kiddie pool and a hot tub. The rooms are pretty disappointing especially the gross bathroom but we paid $67 so 🤷♀️. We had a great time swimming.
Day 16-CRYSTAL HOT SPRINGS ON THE WAY HOME
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