Send someone to fetch us.....we're in Saskatchewan: Well, hello there.

Hi everyone! So, by popular request, I have decided to resurrect this thingy. Apparently, people actually like reading about our lives. (Hi Mom!!)

What's been going on in our lives? The usual merriment- travel, Ernie and Bert, shopping. I'll get into the main reason for this post (The Alaska Cruise review) in a moment.

Stuart, on other hand, will tell you that he is the Happiest Dude in the World right now. Last week, he got to meet his childhood hero, Don Mattingly. I don't remember ever seeing him so excited. No, not even on our wedding day, and I am actually all right with that. He got 2 jerseys autographed, which I am sure will end up in a place of honor in our house. I am waiting for him to ask if they can go above the fireplace. I can't really relate to the childhood hero thing (with the exception of Barry Manilow), but apparently it's a big deal to a guy to meet that hero.

Anywhoo....as I mentioned, we were in Alaska in August. We took a cruise out of Seattle on the Norwegian Star. Honestly, if you ever get the chance to visit Alaska, by all means, do it. Even though we don't consider ourselves "cruise people", we thought that it would be the best way to see as much as we could. How about we go through the days of the trip with pictures?

DAY 1: SEATTLE

We arrived in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and walked around for a bit. We got to check out the famous fish throwers at Pike Place Market, which was fun. Then that night, we went to the Mariners/Yankees game. Got to see someone run out on the the field.

DAYS 2 and 3: CRUISE BEGINS (AT SEA)

Wow! What an amazing ship. We loved everything about it. Well, except maybe the broom closet/stateroom, but that's the reality of a cruise. We pretty much spent the day and evening exploring the ship and relaxing. And let me tell you, we got to be pretty good at relaxing by the time this trip was over. Unlike most cruises, there is not an option for hanging out at the pool. So we often found ourselves just people watching on the ship.

DAY 4: KETCHIKAN

Holy Downpour!! Stuart laughed at the thought of my Bass Pro Shops full rain suit, but it could not have been more useful. It poured the entire day (but I was able to stay completely dry, TYVM). From the time we docked until the time we left. We still had a good time though. We walked around the dock area in the morning and did a little shopping. Then we took a bus into the Saxman native village where we learned about the art of totem pole making. On the way back, we stopped at Creek Street, which was the site of many famous brothels. And coincidentally, it was also where we saw literally thousands of salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

DAY 5: JUNEAU AND MENDENHALL GLACIER

Apparently, the rains from the day before were of the record-breaking variety. It was beginning to clear up, but it was cold and damp weather. We started the morning with a visit to a salmon hatchery. After our tour there, we traveled to Mendenhall Glacier, which may have been one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen in my life. Some of you may know that one of my life's missions is to see a bear in the wild and I was hopeful that it would happen here. there were "Beware of Bear" signs everywere. Sadly, the closest thing we saw was a hairy dude. Which, come to think of it, would be a great disguise for a bear....

After our tour, we walked around Juneau for a bit before returning to the ship.

DAY 6: SKAGWAY

This was probably my favorite part of the trip. We took a bus waaaaaay into the mountains where we visited a dogsledding camp. Now, you all know my issues with the treatment of animals and breeding and all, but I managed to get over it at least for a while to enjoy this excursion. We rode a wheeled sled that the dogs use for training. Then we sat through a presentation on dogsledding, which was completely fascinating. Afterwards, we got to play with PUPPIES!!

Meet Jericho. How adorable is he? Jericho is a rescue dog who was brought into dogsled camp and is expected to train for the 2010 races. Animal Planet actually did a segment on him.

Iceball is one of Jericho's teammates, and they are actually good buddies! Iceball was a little vocal...

We had some time to explore Skagway, and it was one of our favorite ports. It was clean and just really cool looking.

DAY 7: PRINCE RUPERT, BC

Bwahahahahaaaa!! This place was a trip. PA people....close your eyes and imagine you are on a giant, beautiful, luxury cruise ship and you arrive in port, expecting a nice Canadian town. But you end up in Monongahela. Yep. Seriously. It was one of the most boring places I have ever seen. The only noteworthy thing there was the Safeway. Oh, and we went to the volunteer firefighter museum. On the wall there, they had various patches from fire departments in the US and Canada. Right there on the wall was a patch from Herminie!