The rest of the story

 Ashley, Ryan, and I went to a character breakfast-Scott and Greg were on the deck watching us pull into the port.

 We had 2 waiters that traveled with us to the different restaurants we were assigned to every night for dinner and this breakfast.  Not only were they really friendly, took great care of us, one of them just lives about 20 minutes up the road from us in the Philippines, but they also can make napkin hats!

 The lumberjack show was hilarious and fun to watch.

 More ice cream-there were machines on one of the upper decks that were self serve so ice cream was ALWAYS available!

 This was our last port to visit-Ketchikan.  After the lumberjack show in the morning we rode a floatplane in the afternoon. 

 Greg got to sit up front this time, Ashley and I were in the middle and the boys were in the back

 We didn't see animals but the views were awesome and so beautiful!

 It had rained earlier that morning and again just before our floatplane ride and we got to see an amazing rainbow out the window that went all the way around our plane!  Super cool!

 We landed, got out of the plane, stood on the floats, and even dipped our fingers into the icy water, but amazingly no one fell in! 

 By this point in the week, jet lag and staying up until 10 every night because we didn't start dinner until 8 was catching up to them.  I took these pictures and then kept poking them, saying look out the window-you don't want to miss anything!  You can take a nap later!

 On the way to the floatplane dock, we had passed a street called Elliott street and we stopped there for some pictures on our way back to the cruise ship.  It was funny to me that on the while sign-there is only 1 t but on the green sign there were 2!  In Ketchikan a stairway with more than 150 (I think) stairs counts as a street!

 Greg and the kids walked to the top

 I went one morning to see the ship's Hungarian pastry chef demonstrate how to make apple strudel.  It was really neat.  The food was wonderful on the ship and the kids tried some interesting things-salmon-both cooked and raw, crab legs, we all tried escargot one night but not even Greg or I wanted a second bite of that!

 We had a split bathroom-both rooms had sinks, one had a shower, and the other the toilet

 Here is a picture of our room with the kids beds folded away.

 Ashley made friends with people wherever she went!

 Here are the kids and I in the other pool-we were watching a movie that was playing on the ship's smokestack screen!

 Pulling back into the pier in Vancouver!

 We spent one night at the Fairmont Hotel before flying back through Seattle and then to Atlanta.

 The hotel has 2 beautiful dog mascots that belong to employees,  they come to work 6 days a week, and you can even check one of them out for a walk if you are missing your pet at home!

We went to Capilano Suspension Bridge park outside Vancouver and it was really neat!

 Everyone got their own maps and at every stop thru the park there was a place to stamp your map

 walking across the bridge-you could feel it moving but it felt very sturdy!

 The cables holding up the bridge were nearly as thick as Ashley's hand!

 There were some HUGE trees in the park

 There was a treetop adventure-walking paths actually through the trees with neat collars around the trees but not attached with screws or nails and they are raised as the trees grow.  They also had a scavenger hunt for the kids through here.

 How tall are various types of trees at different ages!

 We had lunch there

 and explored some more!  This part was called the Cliffhanger

 and parts of the walkway were clear glass!

 Beginning to droop on the bus ride back to our hotel

 White Spot is a well known restaurant chain in Vancouver

 Robson street is well known for fancy shopping!

 Supposedly the center of Vancouver is a particular spot in the hotel lobby!

 This is a museum near the hotel.

 Within the last month, American Girl boutiques had opened in some Canadian bookstores and one was very near the hotel, so Ashley and I couldn't pass up going to see it!

 This is an outside view of the hotel

 After we saw the American Girl store, Ashley and I stopped at McDonalds and brought dinner back to the hotel for the whole TIRED crew.  I had to take a picture of this menu item that we don't have in the US or the Philippines at our McDs.  It is called Poutine-thus the slogan, spice up your routine!  They also served Poutine at the suspension bridge restaurant where we had eaten lunch-it is basically french fries with gravy and cheese curds and sometimes meat on top-very popular in Canada, just like the rice balls, spaghetti, and chicken lollipops served at McD in Manila.  It was amazing to see Alaska and Vancouver (or Alaka and Vacover-as Ashley wrote about them before we left Manila) but we are all super excited to be headed to Grammy's house and see everyone there!